Tarì and mancusi in South Italy during the long tenth century

The classification of the earliest South Italian imitation gold tarì has depended overwhelmingly on the interpretation of the documentary record for South Italy, especially the comparatively rich sources for Campania, and on the more modest numismatic record for coin hoards and single finds. Scholars have devoted less attention to the vicissitudes of the model Fatimid ruba’i or quarter-dinar, both in South Italy and within the Fatimid caliphate, and their implications for the chronology of the earliest imitation tarì. This paper broaches the argument while also taking into consideration the circumstances that underlay, first, the evidently large-scale importation of Aghlabid and Fatimid quarter-dinar in the ninth and tenth centuries, and second, the manufacture of the earliest continental imitations from the second half of the tenth century onwards. The wide variety in the style, module and metrology of the earliest imitations also offer abundant scope for further study.