ISLAMIC, SELJUKS OF RUM
Ghiyath al-Din Kay Khusraw II
AD 1237-1246
AR Dirham. 2.94g, 22.4mm
MINTED: Siwas mint, circa AD 1240-1244
REF: Album 1218
OBVERSE: Lion advancing right; personification of sun above; around, legend bearing the name of the Abbasid caliph.
REVERSE: Legend bearing the name and title of Kay Khusraw II; in outer margin, mint and AH date.
 
Notes:
Areas of flat striking.  
While this interesting figural type is traditionally understood to show the astrological symbols of the Sun and the constellation Leo, another theory is that it was meant to depict the great love of Kay Khusraw II for his wife, the Georgian princess Tamar, with the Sultan represented as a lion and Tamar as the Sun.  The basis of the latter idea comes from the writings of the 13th century Syrian bishop Bar Hebraeus, who noted that Kay Khusraw was so infatuated with Tamar that he wanted to place her image on his coins.
 
Historical Notes:
Rum was an Islamic Sultanate that ruled over large territories in western and central Anatolia that had been wrested away from the Byzantine Empire between the 11th and 13th centuries.  Kilij Arslan I, the Sultan of Rum from 1092 to 1107, was known as the first Muslim commander to lead an army against the Crusaders.  His son Mesud I (1116-1156) also fought against the Crusaders, destroying the forces of German king Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum (1147) during the Second Crusade (1147–1150).   Before their conquest by the Mongols in 1243, their rulers were in constant conflict with the Byzantines, the Crusaders, the kingdom of Armenia, and other Muslim powers in the region.  Thereafter, they served as vassals of the Mongol Ilkhanate until the death of Mesud II in 1308.