Before the reforms of ʿAbd al-Malik, the Muslims used the existing monetary systems of their Sassanian and the Byzantine predecessors. There is a debate concerning the earliest coinage and their dating. Some argue that Muslims started striking coinage almost immediately as they did in the former Sassanian domain. Other argue that the Muslims did not strike coins in the former Byzantine realms until the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik. However, the middle ground appears to be more appropriate as the the coinage of the era before the advent of ʿAbd al-Malik was very complex. At some point in time, both in the east and in the west, the Islamic empire started to make its presence known via the coins that circulated in their domains. Initially, the changes were very minor with the addition of short phrases in Arabic and/or the addition of hijra dates. These lasted until a complete reform of the administrative system by ʿAbd al-Malik who united it in Arabic and changed the coinage drastically to what we essentially call as Islamic coins. The reformed coinage of ʿAbd al-Malik was different from its earlier predecessors in epigraphy as well as religious content. The new coins asserted the oneness of Allah and Muḥammad as His last Messenger.
Our aims here are quite modest. We would like to display the unique Islamic coins between 1-100 AH / 622-719 CE. These coins are unique in the sense of epigraphy as well as the religious content and not unique with respect to where they were minted.
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Coin weights were made to correspond to the weights of particular coin denominations, and the denomination in question was usually indicated in the design. Measuring the weight of a coin is an objective measurement. It can be repeated and it will come out the same time and time again and by different people. The purpose of the coins weights was to check the weight of coin in circulation and ensure that coin received was of good quality. Normally they would correspond to the lowest weight at which the coin remained legal tender. They could be used to guard against clipped, worn or counterfeit coin and to check the standards of foreign coin permitted in currency.Arab-Sassanian Coins, Various Mints In Iran, From Year 20 (Assume Yazdgird Era, So 31 AH / 652 CE) Onwards.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh ("In the name of God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: lillāh ("Unto God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse field has Maawia amir i-wruishnikan ("Muʿāwiya, commander of the faithful") written in the Middle Persian. Obverse margin: bism Allāh ("In the name of God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh al-malik ("In the name of God, the King").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh rabbī ("In the name of God, my Lord").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. It comes with a hephtalite countermark and testmark. Obverse margin:bism Allāh rabb al-ḥukm ("In the name of God, the Lord of judgement").
Typical Arab-Sassanian bust, i.e., standing profile potrait of Khusraw II. The reverse field has a unique Middle Persian legend that says:ŠNT ’YWK Y YZYT ("Year one of Yazīd"). The dating "Year one of Yazīd" belongs to Sassanian system; the "Year one" being the first year of the current reign. There is no indication of the "Islamic" character of this coin.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: Ṭalha lillāh ("Ṭalha, unto God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. It comes with a hephtalite countermark and testmark. Obverse margin:bism Allāh al-ʿazīz ("In the name of God, the Great").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh / Muḥammad rasūl / Allāh ("In the name of God, Muḥammad is the messenger of God"). This is the earliest occurance of the name "Muḥammad" in a dated Muslim text.
Two standing figures, facing, wearing long robes and Arab head-dress adorned with six-pointed stars. Their right hand is on their swords. Between them, on three steps, a pointed staff with globe. Obverse margin: bism Allāh ʿAbd Allāh ʿAbd al-Malik Amīr al-Muʾminīn("In the name of God. The slave of God ʿAbd al-Malik, Commander of the Faithful"). Although the coins bears no mintmark, the kuficinscription leaves no doubt that it was an official issue of the Umayyad caliph. Clive Floss is of the opinion that this type apparently represents the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik and his brother ʿAbd al-Azīz, who were jointly proclaimed as successors to their father Marwan in 684/85 CE.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust with Pahlavi afzut before bust. Obverse margin: bism Allāh ("In the name of God") in the second quadrant of obverse margin. Reverse field: Fire altar between mint (Dārābjird) and date, in margin afzut (Pahlavi) and baraka ("blessing").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: lillāh al-ḥamd ("Unto God be praise").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh ("In the name of God") BPRWY (in Middle Persian) with a countermark lillāh ("Unto God") in the fourth quadrant.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh / bakr bihi ("In the name of God. This was initiated by").
These Arab-Byzantine gold solidi imitations including the one which has "three standing imperial figures" bear no Kufic legends to identify themselves as Arab issues. They are recognized as such only by the defacement or elimination of the crosses. Another noticeable feature of these imitation coins is the clumsy arrangement of the legend on the margins of both obverse and reverse sides, with little attention paid to positioning of the letters. G. C. Miles is of the opinion that these coins are roughly contemporary to each other.
This is the Umayyad imitation of the Byzantine prototype - both of them consist of three standing imperial figures on the obverse side.Reverse field: Staff ending in globe in steps. Reverse margin: bism Allāh lā-ilaha il-Allāh waḥdahu Muḥammad rasūl Allāh ("In the name of God. There is no god but God alone. Muḥammad is the messenger of God"). This full shahada is perhaps the earliest surviving physical record of it.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Written in Arabic to downwards to the right of the bust: Muḥammad rasūl Allāh ("Muḥammad is the messenger of God"). The conventional Pahlavi benediction formula khurra afzut is behind the bust. Obverse margin: bism Allāh ("In the name of God"). This is an extremely rare coin and marks the initial steps of ʿAbd al-Malik's monetary reforms in Damascus.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh walī al-Amr ("In the name of God, the Master of affairs"). This is a lesser known slogan of the Kharijites.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh / lā-ilaha il-Allāh wa / ḥdahu Muḥammad ra / sūl Allāh ("In the name of God. There is no god but God alone. Muḥammad is the messenger of God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust. In the place of the usual Sassanian fire-altar and two attendants, three bearded figures standing, the central one facing with hands raised on either side of his head, in an attitude of prayer, with smaller figures left and right, respectively, having their heads turned toward him. Obverse margin: bism Allāh / lā-ilaha il-Allāh / waḥdahu Muḥammad / rasūl Allāh ("In the name of God. There is no god but God alone. Muḥammad is the messenger of God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust. In the place of the usual Sassanian fire-altar and two attendants, three bearded figures standing, the central one facing with hands raised on either side of his head, in an attitude of prayer, with smaller figures left and right, respectively, having their heads turned toward him. Obverse margin: bism Allāh Muḥammad / rasūl Allāh ("In the name of God. Muḥammad is the messenger of God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: lā ḥukm illā lillāh ("Judgement belongs to God alone"), the typical Kharijite slogan.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust. In the place of the usual fire-altar and the two attendants, a standing figure of the caliph, bearded and with his right hand resting on his sword-hilt in the attitude of the imām delivering a khutba. Kufic legends on sides running downwardskhalfat (sic) Allāh / amīr al-mu'minīn ("khalifa of God, Commander of the Faithful"). Obverse margin: bism Allāh / lā-ilaha il-Allāh / waḥdahu Muḥammad ra / sūl Allāh ("In the name of God. There is no god but God alone. Muḥammad is the messenger of God").
Obverse field has an image of the caliph standing in the centre, bearing a sword in a scabbard. Obverse margin: bism Allāh lā-ilaha il-Allāh wa / ḥdahu Muḥammad rasūl Allāh ("In the name of God. There is no god but God alone. Muḥammad is the messenger of God"). Reverse field shows a mutiliated cross on steps along with the date. The "standing-caliph" coin was only minted for three years (74-77 AH / 693-697 CE) before giving way to a wholly aniconic form, that is, engraved only with words and no images at all.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust with the name "al-Ḥajjāj bin Yūsuf" written in Arabic on the right hand side of the bust. Obverse margin:bism Allāh / lā-ilaha il- / Allāh waḥdahu Muḥammad / rasūl Allāh ("In the name of God. There is no god but God alone. Muḥammad is the Messenger of God"). This is a very unique coin. The shahadah is arranged in striking fashion radially in the obverse margin. As far as we are aware, no other coin from 1st century of hijra which shows this feature. The Arab-Sassanian and Arab-Byzantine coins which show either full or partial shahadah, show its arrangement running along the obverse margin.
The aniconic reformed silver coinage of ʿAbd al-Malik was different from its earlier predecessors in epigraphy as well as religious content.
The differences between the reformed Umayyad gold and silver coins are quite subtle. The obverse margin in gold became the reverse margin in silver. The reverse margin in gold became obverse margin in silver. The silver also adds wa-lam yakun lahu kufūwan aḥad("And there is none like unto Him") which is absent in the gold.
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: quwwat Yazīd billāh ("Strength of Yazīd is from God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: lā-ilaha il-Allāh wahdahu Muḥammad rasūl Allāh("There is no god but God alone, Muḥammad is the messenger of God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh / rabb ḥarasahu ("In the name of God. May God protect him").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh / baraka ("In the name of God. Blessing").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust, but with a new type of head-dress with a top like weather-vane. On the reverse side, in place of the usual Sassanian fire-altar and two attendents, a standing figure, facing, in armour, wearing helmet with "weather-vane" like that on the obverse side and holding in his left hand a spear, while grasping with his right hand a sword in its scabbard. Obverse margin: bism Allāh / al-ʿAẓīm ("In the name of God, the Mighty").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: bism Allāh / ʿAmr lillāh ("In the name of God. ʿAmr, unto God").
Typical late Arab-Sassanian bust and fire-altar with attendants. Obverse margin: MY (Pahlavi) / bism Allāh / al-ʿizza lillāh ("In the name of God. Unto God belongs the honour").
This is a unique coin weight in bronze was issued by the authority of the Umayyad governor al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf. Walker identified it as a weight of six mithqāls (= six dīnārs, in modern terms 25.5 gms). It weighs 25.14 gms, very close to Walker's suggested six mithqāls.
The weight of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān's (r. 65-86 AH / 685-705 CE) glass piece, 4.29 gms, shows that it must be dated to the latter part of his governorship in Egypt, for it is clearly on the standard introduced for the dīnār in ʿAbd al-Malik's coinage reform, which came into effect, for the gold coinage, in 77 AH / 696-697 CE. The standard is normally calculated at 4.25 gms. Other than the coins themselves it is one of the earliest, perhaps the earliest, of the documents we possess for the standard of the reform dīnār.
This disc type weight is well known to have been used under Byzantine rule in the sixth century. Only one half of the weight survives.
Albeit not an Islamic coin, this unique dīnār or the gold coin of King Offa of Mercia is generally considered as one of the rarest and most remarkable coins in the world. This piece is considered to be a copy of an Arab dīnār of the year 157 AH issued by caliph al-Mansūr, and was issued in, or more probably, subsequently to the year 774 CE.
The corpus of dated Muslim texts until 72 AH / 691 CE for the study of early Islam.
The corpus of dated texts containing the Qur'an from 1-100 AH / 622-719 CE proving the early codification of the Qur'an in Arabic.
The corpus of dated non-scriptural Muslim and non-Muslim texts mentioning Prophet Muhammad from the first Islamic century.
Islamic History
Examining The Bible
The New Testament Manuscripts
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