Ömer Diler (1945,

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

– 18 March 2005, Istanbul) was a Turkish

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed collector of numismatics, numismatics/coins ("of coins"; from Late Latin , genitive of ). Numismatists can include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholar-researchers who use coi ...

specializing in Islamic coins. His posthumous book ''Ilkhans'' is the definitive work on the coinage of the

Ilkhanate The Ilkhanate or Il-khanate was a Mongol khanate founded in the southwestern territories of the Mongol Empire. It was ruled by the Il-Khans or Ilkhanids (), and known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (). The Ilkhanid realm was officially known ...

. Ömer Diler was trained as a

chemical engineer A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...

but became interested in numismatics in 1972 when he received a rare gold coin of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

as a gift. He wrote a number of articles for the Turkish Numismatic Society (''Türk Numismatik Derneği'') and was also a contributing editor of the

American Numismatic Society The American Numismatic Society (ANS) is a New York City-based organization dedicated to the study of coins, money, medals, tokens, and related objects. Founded in 1858, it is the only American museum devoted exclusively to their preservation ...

. In 1981, Diler published a book with Garo Kürkman on the coinage of the

Anatolian beylik Anatolian or anatolica may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the region Anatolia * Ancient Anatolians, Anatolians, ancient Indo-European peoples who spoke the Anatolian languages * Anatolian High School, a type of Turkish educational in ...

of 'Alâiye. His 2001 work ''Şehir Lakapları'' (''Titles and Epithets of Islamic Towns'') represents a major contribution to the knowledge of the orthography and locations of Islamic

mint Mint or The Mint may refer to: Plants * Lamiaceae, the mint family ** ''Mentha'', the genus of plants commonly known as "mint" Coins and collectibles * Mint (facility), a facility for manufacturing coins * Mint condition, a state of like-new ...

towns. This work has become the standard reference on the subject. In 1993 at the suggestion of Cüneyt Ölçer, Diler began work on what would become a comprehensive book on the coinage of the

. With more than 250 confirmed mints and a geographical distribution including

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and large parts of

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

, and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, the project consumed the last twelve years of Diler's life. When he died of lung cancer in 2005, the book remained unfinished. Final editing fell to his wife, Emine Nur, Garö Kürkman, and the Bremen-based numismatist, Johann-Christoph Hinrichs. ''Ilkhans: coinage of the Persian Mongols'' appeared in both Turkish and English versions in 2006. It includes 838 drawing and twelve plates of high quality photographs.

Books

* Garo Kürkman and Ömer Diler, ''Alâiye paraları'' (''Coinage of 'Alâiye''), Yenilik Basımevi, Istanbul 1981 * Omer Diler, ''Şehir Lakapları'' (''Titles and Epithets of Islamic Towns''), Istanbul 2001. * Ömer Diler, ''Ilkhans: Coinage of the Persian Mongols'', Istanbul 2006.

External links

Index to online publications of the Turkish Numismatic Society including twelve short articles by Ömer Diler.
Turkish numismatists Turkish chemical engineers 1945 births 2005 deaths Deaths from lung cancer in Turkey {{coin-stub