Sacred cubes within sacred spheres: the numismatic symbilic system that traveled to the East.

Abstract

The Almohad design of coins, combining squares and circles, spread from the Western part of the Islamic realm into the Eastern one, where it lasted for centuries. But why did the Almohads strike square coins or coins with squares inscribed in circles? After a critical state of the question and an exam of the explanations provided so far, attention is paid to the idea that Almohad square coins could have been regarded as protective objects. The quest leads then to the consideration that the model of the Quran, whose copies were square-shaped in Almohad and post-Almohad period, might point to the cubical shape of the Kaʻba, providing us with an answer to the initial question consisting in the sacred value granted to a system of geometrical symbols. This model of coins, plenty of sacred references, allusions and implications, is to be understood in reference to their own historical circumstances, but, paradoxically, was adopted in different historical contexts since it was imitated by Eastern Islamic dynasties.