The assay and refining of gold in the post-medieval Islamic world: Potential and reality
Abstract
This paper describes the analysis of the Moroccan gold coins, jewellery and ingots from the 17th-century Salcombe Bay Treasure. Their trace element content gives information on the likely provenance of the gold and their fineness gives information on both quality control and refining methods. These can be compared to the methods described in the contemporary Al-asdāf al-munfadda can ahkām cilm sancat addīnār wal-fidda, an important Moroccan treatise on gold assay and refining, complied by al-Djaznā’ī. The treatise is both technical and practical and relates specifically to gold coins, jewellery and ingots. The methods outlined in the treatise are compared with other contemporary descriptions from Europe and India.
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References
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Baron S, Souhassou M and Fauvelle F-X 2020, 'Medieval silver production around Sijilmâsa, Morocco', Archaeometry 62(3), 593-611. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12546
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Nixon S, Rehren T and Guerra M F 2011, 'New light on early Islamic West African gold trade', Antiquity 85, 1353-1368. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00062104
Oddy W A and Blackshaw S 1974, 'The accuracy of the specific gravity method for the analysis of gold alloys', Archaeometry 16, 81-90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1974.tb01094.x
Percy J 1880, Metallurgy: Silver and gold (London).
Phillipson D W 2017, 'Trans-Saharan gold trade and Byzantine coinage', Antiquaries Journal 97, 145-169. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581517000336
Phillott D C (ed) 1927, The Ā-īn-I Akbārī of Abū 'L-Fazl Allami Vol 1, trans H Blochmann 1873 (Calcutta).
Porter V and Morison P 1998, 'The Salcombe Bay Treasure', British Museum Magazine 30, 16-17.
Porter V 2000, 'Coins of the Saʻdian Sharifs of Morocco off the coast of Devon. Preliminary report', in B Kluge and B Weisser (eds), XII Internationaler Numismatischer Kongress, Berlin 1997, Proceedings II (Berlin), 1288-1294.
Ramage A and Craddock P T 2000, King Croesus' gold (London).
Rây P 1956, History of chemistry in ancient and medieval India (Calcutta).
Ridgway R H 1929, Summarized data of gold production (Washington, DC: United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Mines Economic Paper 6).
Roux C and Guerra M F 2000, 'La monnaie almoravide : de l'Afrique à l'Espagne', Revue d'Archéométrie 24, 39-52. https://doi.org/10.3406/arsci.2000.987
Sisco A G and Smith C S (trans & eds) 1951, Lazarus Ercker's treatise on ores and assaying (Chicago).
Wise E M (ed) 1964, Gold: Recovery, properties, and applications (Princeton, NJ).
Antweiller J C and Sutton A L 1970, Spectrochemical analyses of native gold samples (Washington, DC: US Geological Survey Report USGS-GD-70-003).
Baron S, Souhassou M and Fauvelle F-X 2020, 'Medieval silver production around Sijilmâsa, Morocco', Archaeometry 62(3), 593-611. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12546
Ben Romdhane K 1988a, 'Traité inédit de technique monétaire', Revue Numismatique 30, 207-26. https://doi.org/10.3406/numi.1988.1928
Ben Romdhane K 1988b, 'Traité marocain de technique monétaire (XVIIe s.). Al-aṣdāf al-munfaḍḍa', in Abdeljehil Temimi (ed), Mélanges Professeur Robert Mantran, CEROMDI, Centre d'études et de recherches ottomanes, morisques, de documentation et d'information, (Zaghouan, Tunisia), 29-72.
Blanchard I 1989, Russia's 'Age of Silver' (London).
Bowell R J 1992, 'Supergene gold mineralogy at Ashanti, Ghana: Implications for the supergene behaviour of gold', Mineralogical Magazine 56(4), 545-560. https://doi.org/10.1180/minmag.1992.056.385.10
Clark D 1909, Gold Refining (London).
Cowell M R 1992, 'An analytical survey of British Celtic gold coinage', in M Mays (ed), Celtic Coinage: Britain and Beyond (Oxford: BAR BS 222), 207-33.
Cowell M 1998, 'Coin analysis by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry', in A Oddy and M Cowell (eds), Metallurgy in numismatics 4 (London), 448-60.
Eissler M 1888, The metallurgy of gold (London).
Garrard T F 1982, 'Myth and metrology: The early trans-Saharan gold trade', Journal of African History 23(4), 443-461. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700021290
Gondonneau A 2001, Développement et application des techniques ICP-MS et LA-ICP-MS à la caractérisation de l'or : circulation monétaire entre Orient et Occident dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen-Age. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Orleans.
Gondonneau A, Guerra M F and Cowell M R 2001, 'Searching for the provenance of gold. The methodology of gold analysis by ICP-MS: first developments', in Proceedings of 32nd International Symposium on Archaeometry CD-ROM (Mexico City). Copy uploaded to www.researchgate.net.
Gondonneau A and Guerra M F 2002, 'The circulation of precious metals in the Arabic Empire: the case of the Near and the Middle East', Archaeometry 44(4), 573-599. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4754.00087
Guerra M F 2004, 'The circulation of South American precious metals in Brazil at the end of the 17th century', Journal of Archaeological Science 31, 1225-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2004.03.018
Guerra M F and Magro F A 2000, 'O ouro da India colonial: uma primeira tentativa de caracterização', in F A Magro (ed), Actas do V Congresso Português de Numismática (Lisbon), 89-108.
Guisti L 1986, 'The morphology, mineralogy and behaviour of "fine-grained" gold from placer deposits of Alberta: sampling and implications for mineral exploration', Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 23, 1662-72. https://doi.org/10.1139/e86-154
Insoll T and Shaw T 1997, 'Gao and Igbo-Ukwu: Beads, interregional trade, and beyond', African Archaeological Review 14(1), 9-23. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02968364
Levey M 1971, Chemical aspects of medieval Arabic minting in a treatise by Mansur ibn Barca (Tokyo: Japanese Studies in the History of Science: Suppl. 1).
Magalhães Godinho, V 1991, Os descobrimentos e a economia mundial I, Editora Arcádia (Lisbon).
Messier R A 1974, 'The Almoravids: West African gold and the gold currency of the Mediterranean basin', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17(1), 31-47. https://doi.org/10.2307/3596249
Morrisson Ch, Barrandon J-N and Morrisson C 1999, Or du Brésil, monnaie et croissance en France au XVIIIe siècle (Paris : Cahiers Ernest-Babelon 7).
Mu'nis H (ed) 1959, Al-Hakīm: Al-Dawha al-mushtabika fī dawābit dār al-sikka (Madrid).
Nixon S, Rehren T and Guerra M F 2011, 'New light on early Islamic West African gold trade', Antiquity 85, 1353-1368. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00062104
Oddy W A and Blackshaw S 1974, 'The accuracy of the specific gravity method for the analysis of gold alloys', Archaeometry 16, 81-90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1974.tb01094.x
Percy J 1880, Metallurgy: Silver and gold (London).
Phillipson D W 2017, 'Trans-Saharan gold trade and Byzantine coinage', Antiquaries Journal 97, 145-169. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581517000336
Phillott D C (ed) 1927, The Ā-īn-I Akbārī of Abū 'L-Fazl Allami Vol 1, trans H Blochmann 1873 (Calcutta).
Porter V and Morison P 1998, 'The Salcombe Bay Treasure', British Museum Magazine 30, 16-17.
Porter V 2000, 'Coins of the Saʻdian Sharifs of Morocco off the coast of Devon. Preliminary report', in B Kluge and B Weisser (eds), XII Internationaler Numismatischer Kongress, Berlin 1997, Proceedings II (Berlin), 1288-1294.
Ramage A and Craddock P T 2000, King Croesus' gold (London).
Rây P 1956, History of chemistry in ancient and medieval India (Calcutta).
Ridgway R H 1929, Summarized data of gold production (Washington, DC: United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Mines Economic Paper 6).
Roux C and Guerra M F 2000, 'La monnaie almoravide : de l'Afrique à l'Espagne', Revue d'Archéométrie 24, 39-52. https://doi.org/10.3406/arsci.2000.987
Sisco A G and Smith C S (trans & eds) 1951, Lazarus Ercker's treatise on ores and assaying (Chicago).
Wise E M (ed) 1964, Gold: Recovery, properties, and applications (Princeton, NJ).
How to Cite
The assay and refining of gold in the post-medieval Islamic world: Potential and reality. (2023). Historical Metallurgy, 54(1), 9-20. https://doi.org/10.54841/hm.661
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How to Cite
The assay and refining of gold in the post-medieval Islamic world: Potential and reality. (2023). Historical Metallurgy, 54(1), 9-20. https://doi.org/10.54841/hm.661