Rare Islamic Coins

Author
Miles, George Carpenter, 1904-1975
Series
Numismatic Notes and Monographs
Publisher
American Numismatic Society
Place
New York
Date
Source
Donum
Source
Worldcat
Source
Worldcat Works
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HathiTrust

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CC BY-NC

Acknowledgement

Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.

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Table of Contents

FRONT

BODY

I. THE PRE-REFORM COINAGE

A. Arab-Sassanian

Of approximately 150 Arab-Sassanian coins in the collection of the American Numismatic Society, fifty-seven have been published in John Walker’s admirable Catalogue of the Arab-Sassanian Coins (British Museum, London, 1941).2 Except in one or two instances where I have felt that some minor emendation is necessary I have omitted reference to these published specimens in the following pages. They may be easily found in Walker’s catalogue, designated "ETN" or "ANS". The vast majority of Mr. Newell’s collection has been incorporated with that of the Museum to which he devoted so many years of his life. In the present publication I have included specimens from the ANS and other collections unknown to Walker. For the most part they are minor varieties of published pieces, but a few are unique or quite unusual. With some exceptions I make no mention of specimens identical with those appearing in the BM catalogue.

ANONYMOUS, WITH THE NAME OF KHUSRAU II

1. Year 30. Dārābjird.

A clipped specimen similar to BM No. 15 (p. 10), except that the obverse marginal legend, although obscure due to wear, appears not to be defective. Walker reads the mint signature image as DR.3 I would suggest the more apparent reading DP, a quite logical abbreviation, especially in view of the existing variant DAP.4

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27mm., 2.72grm.

Plate I

2. Year 30. Nihāwand.

Similar to BM No. RB. 2 (p. 10), with the following exceptions: the mint signature is image (BM signature No. 43a), and the star and crescent on the rev. are reversed, i.e., star l. and crescent r. of flame.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 30mm., 3.69grm.

Plate I

3. Year 41. Dārābjird.

Cf. BM No. I. 9 (p. 17), probably identical, but it is not illustrated and the obv. margin is not described. The present specimen has: crescent over l. shoulder, breast-ornament ∴, and margin, ∵ image imageبسم اللهimage

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 29mm., 3.30grm.

Plate I

4. Year 45. Sīstān.

Identical with BM No. Th. 2 (p. 18). I reproduce this specimen because it confirms Walker’s reading of the date, which in the Thorburn Collection is "faint, but almost certainly" 45.

image. GCM (Bombay, 1946). 32mm., 4.08grm.

Plate I

5. Year 43(?). Sīstān.

Similar to the above except in the following particulars: no breast-ornament; legend in first quarter image; date image. The date is to me a puzzle. With great hesitation I suggest JHLSIH.

image. GCM (Bombay, 1946). 32mm., 4.01grm.

Plate I

6. Year 44(?). Sīstān.

Similar to No. 5 above, except in the following particulars: breast- ornament ••; date image. This date also is very curious and I submit JHLJR with much reserve.

image. GCM (Bombay, 1946). 32mm., 3.91grm.

Plate I

The legend image in the first quarter of the margin of these coins5 appears to me to be MZD, Pahlevi mizd, "Lohn"=Persian مزد, mizd, muzd, "reward, premium, salary, wages, hire," probably in the sense of "valid currency."6 On Nos. 5 and 6 the final letter is more clearly written than on No. 4 and the Thorburn specimen of the year 45.

7. Year 48. Bishāpūr.

Similar to BM No. 25 (p. 19), but no countermark, obverse margin correctly written, and slight variation in the epigraphy of the date.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.), 32mm., 3.47grm.

Plate I

8. Year 48. Bishāpūr.

Similar to above, but countermark image (similar to BM countermark No. 11?) in second quarter of obverse over beginning of Arabic legend.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 33mm., 3.93grm.

Plate I

9. Year 50. Bishāpūr.

Three specimens similar to BM No. 33 (p. 21), but with minor variations in the epigraphy of the date and mint.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 33, 31, 30mm. 3.89, 3.26, 3.38grm.

10. Year 50(?). Bishāpūr.

Similar to the above except in the following particulars: ear- ornament image, obverse margin image ربى image الله بسم image (pellet, if any, under star and crescent at bottom, clipped); date somewhat obscure.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 28mm., 2.75grm.

Plate I

End Notes
2
Referred to in this section of the present volume simply as BM. In the sections dealing with the post-reform Umayyad coinage and the ‘Abbāsid coinage, the abbreviation BM refers to the pertinent volume of Lane-Poole’s Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum. Walker’s catalogue is definitive, or as nearly so as one can wish, and is a delight to use. Among many other virtues, his exhaustive handling of all previously published Arab-Sassanian coins spares the student the laborious searching, to which I have referred in the foreword, usually incident to publishing "rare and inedited" coins. In consequence I have by and large been content to refer only to this work; all other pertinent references can be found there.
3
BM, pp. ciii and cxvi.
4
F. D. J. Paruck ("Mint-marks on Sāsānian and Arab-Sāsānian Coins," in JNSI, VI, 1944, p. 105) read DP and made the vague suggestion that the mint might be "located in the vicinity of the district of Dārābgard." I agree with Walker in assigning BM mintmarks Nos. 17-22 to Dārābjird, and in general with his consolidation of variants. The number of separate mints hypothecated by such writers as Paruck and de Morgan is fantastic.
5
In the BM catalogue the only occurrence of this legend is on the Thorburn specimen.
6
Cf. H. S. Nyberg, Hilfsbuch des Pehlevi, I (Uppsala, 1928), p. 53, II (Uppsala, 1931), p. 152; Steingass, s.v.

Governors
'Abdullāh b. Zubayr

11. Dārābjird. Year 53 = 65 A.H.=684/5 A.D.

Similar to BM Nos. ANS 7 and 8 (p. 33), except: breast-ornament clearly image; star 1., nothing r. of crown; minor difference in epigraphy of date; and in fourth quarter of reverse image.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 31mm., 3.81grm.

Plate II

12. Kirmān. Year 67 A.H. = 686/7 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 48 (p. 35). On the present specimen as well as on that in the BM the third letter of the Pahlevi legend in the obverse margin appears to me to be (with the letter following) image, not as transcribed in the description of BM No. 48. The same observation applies to BM No. 206 (p. 103).

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 31mm., 4.02grm.

Plate II

Ziyād b. abi-Sufyān

13. Bishāpūr. Year 52 A.H.=672 A.D.

Similar to BM No. ANS 9 (p. 38), but with a minor difference in the epigraphy of the date, and no countermark.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 33mm., 3.74grm.

Plate II

'Abdullāh b. 'Āmir

14. Bishāpūr. Year 44 A.H. = 664/5 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 68 (p. 47), but the breast-ornament is clearly ••, and there is no additional pellet on the neck.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 28mm., 2.76grm.

Plate II

'Ubaydullāh b. Ziyād

15. Baṣrah. Year 58 A.H. = 677/8 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 80 (p. 58) (not illustrated), that is if the epigraphy of the date is the same.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 28mm., 3.36grm.

Plate II

16. Baṣrah. Year 60 A.H.=679/80 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 83 (p. 58), but date written image.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 32mm., 4.28grm.

Walker (BM, pp. 184-185) has made brief mention of two specimens of Baṣrah, year 61 (similar to BM No. 85), and one of Baṣrah, year 62 (similar to BM No. 87), two of them from the Newell Collection, the other from the Wood Collection. Similarly he has mentioned (p. 186) one of Rayy, year 60 (similar to BM No. 99 except that the earring is ∴), published in my NHR, No. 7B (ex Newell Coll.). A specimen of Rayy, year 62 (ex Newell Coll.), similar to BM No. 104, was listed in NHR No. 9B.

Salm b. Ziyād

17. Marv. Year 63 A.H. = 682/3 A.D.

Similar to BM Nos. 124ff. (p. 78), except that there is no crescent over the 1. shoulder, and there is only one countermark image, in the first quarter of the obverse. Date poorly preserved and badly written.

image. ANS (ex Brand Coll.). 33mm., 3.43grm.

Plate II

'Abdullāh b. Khāzim

18. Balkh.7 Year 67 A.H.=686/7 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 158 (p. 88), but no crescent over the 1. shoulder, and countermark image over image of obverse margin.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 33mm., 3.97grm.

19. Marv. Year 66 A.H. = 685/6 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 172 (p. 91), but countermark image only, in second quarter of obverse margin, between the Arabic legend and the edge of the flan.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 34mm., 4.06grm.

Plate II

20. Marv. Year 69 A.H. = 688/9 A.D.

Identical with BM No. 182 (p. 93). I mention it only because it has the same countermark in almost the same position, just above image

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 34mm., 4.02grm.

21. Marv. Year 69 A.H.= 688/9 A.D.

Similar to BM Nos. 175ff. (pp. 92-3), but countermark image only, in third quarter.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 33mm., 3.68grm.

22. Marv. Year 70 A.H. = 689/90 A.D.

Three specimens, similar to BM No. 185 (p. 94), but with different countermarks, to wit: (a) image in first quarter.

(b) image (twice?) in first quarter.

(c) image over image and image in third quarter.

There are minor differences in the epigraphy of the date. One of the specimens received mention by Walker, p. 191.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 34, 34, 34mm., 4.06, 4.02, 3.96grm.

'Umar b. 'Ubaydullāh

23. Ardashīr-Khurrah. Year 70 A.H. = 689/90 A.D.

Similar to BM No. Cam. 9 (p. 99), except in these particulars: pellet over 1. shoulder; obv. margin image image image image الحمد لله image; no countermark; pellet l. and r. of mint signature; no pellet r. of date.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 28mm., 2.93grm.

Plate II

24. Bishāpūr. Year 67 A.H.=686/7 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 194 (p. 99), except in the following particulars: earring image; points in obverse margin uncertain due to clipping; no countermarks. Mentioned but not described by Walker, p. 193.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 2.57grm.

25. Bishāpūr. Year 68 A.H. = 687/8 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 195 (p. 99), but ear-crescent doubtful, and countermarks image and image in fourth quarter.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 33mm., 4.04grm.

Plate II

26. Bishāpūr. Year 69 A.H. = 688/9 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 197 (p. 100). This specimen received mention by Walker (p. 193), but it is illustrated here because it shows the pellet on the reverse margin, cut off in the BM specimen.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 32mm., 4.02grm.

Plate II

'Ubaydullāh b. abi-Bakrah

27. Sīstān. Year 79 A.H.=698/9 A.D.

Three specimens, of which one is similar to BM No. Th. 14 (p. 110). The other two: (a) breast-ornament ••; date obscure;

nothing l. and r. of flame; (b) breast-ornament ••(?); pellet under beginning of الله بسم; pellet and obscure stroke l. and r. of flame.

image. GCM (Bombay, 1946). 33, 32mm., 4.07, 3.98grm.

Plate II (No. 27b)

'Aṭīyah b. al-Aswad

28. Kirmān. Year 72 A.H. = 691/2 A.D.

This specimen is mentioned by Walker (p. 196). Although the date is obscure it is legible, and as the specimen differs in some particulars I describe it here: no Pahlevi inscription after image in obverse margin; and the mint signature contains additional, but obliterated, letters at the end.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 31mm., 3.91grm.

Plate II

29. Kirmān. Year 74 A.H. = 693/4 A.D.

Similar to BM No. Th. 15 (p. III). I publish it here, as the Thorburn specimen has not been illustrated.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 28mm., 2.92grm.

Plate III

Al-Muhallab b. abi-Ṣufrah

30. Bishāpūr. Year 75 A.H. = 694/5 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 222 (p. 114). There is a pellet after the date (also on the BM specimen, although not described).

image. ANS. 32mm., 3.56grm.

Plate III

Al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf

31. Bishāpūr. Year 76 A.H.=695/6 A.D.

Identical with BM No. 230 (p. 118), but I reproduce it here in view of its remarkable interest and its relatively good preservation.

image. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.,), 32mm., 3.82grm.

Plate III

End Notes
7
I am inclined to accept Walker's interpretation of the mint signature usually read as BBA (see BM, pp. cxii-cxiii), in spite of the epigraphical difficulty inherent in this reading. I cannot agree with the bulk of Paruck's counter-arguments (op. cit., pp. 99-100), although I am not equipped to dispute his statement with regard to the Parsik form of the name Balkh.

Barbarous Imitations

32. Zaranj (?). Date uncertain.

Two specimens similar to BM No. 245 (p. 126). In both cases only part of the marginal Arabic legend is preserved, and the name of the mint is completely effaced. The epigraphy of the name in Pahlevi at the r. of the bust differs somewhat from the BM specimen, but HUSRUI is undoubtedly the correct reading. On the specimen illustrated I can make nothing of the mint signature (if any); on the other specimen it is defaced by a crack in the coin. The dates (?) are: image and image.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 33, 32mm., 3.07, 3.00grm.

Plate III (No. 32a)

'Abbāsid Coins of Bukhārā

In the ANS collection there are three specimens of the Bukhārā intermediate imitations (BM Nos. b.5-b.6, p. 163); one of the type with محمد (BM No. 317, p. 164); nine of the المهدي type (BM, variant (i), Nos. 319ff., pp. 164-166), and three other specimens, described below.

33. Bilingual, with legend "Al-Mahdi al-Faḍl li'llāh."

One other example of this very rare issue has been published (W. Tiesenhausen, Notice sur une collection de monnaies orientales de M. le Comte S. Stroganoff (St. Petersburg, 1880) p. 11, Pl. I, No. 5 = BM No. Ties. 5 (p. 167). The obverse of the present piece is identical with the above. The reverse, which has never been illustrated, bears, as Walker assumed, the usual debased representation of a fire altar and attendants, with a grotesque head of Hormuzd on the altar surmounted by flames. Nothing can be made of the inscriptions (?).

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 2.93grm.

Plate III

34. Arabic legend, 'Ali Sulaymān.

Two specimens similar to BM Nos. 344-350 (pp. 168-9), bearing the obverse legend: بسم الله محمد رسول الله محمدية مما امر به الامين على سليمن لله

They are of different dies, but essentially similar to the published specimens. I illustrate one of them, only because it appears to bear a letter or letters after the critical word على,—the point of greatest difficulty in the interpretation of the legend which Walker has so thoroughly and competently discussed (BM, pp. xciv-xcvi). I accept Walker's reading and argument for al-Amīn, but I must confess to considerable scepticism about the suggestion that the names of two governors are present. Unfortunately the present specimen fails to clinch an argument in favor of a concealed بن or of يدي على, because the letters(?) after على are not clear; but I believe that it does somewhat support one of these two logical possibilities; i.e., an omitted word which would make the legend read either "'Ali b. Sulaymān" or "at the hands of Sulaymān."

image. ANS. 25, 25mm., 2.51, 2.43grm.

Plate III (No. 34a)

Arab-Ephthalite

The two rare Arab-Ephthalite coins in the ANS, one of Rabī' b. Ziyād (?), and the other of 'Abdullāh b. Khāzim (?), have been published by Walker, BM Nos. ANS 17 and ETN 20, pp. 127-8.

Khwārizm

35. Al-Faḍl b. Yaḥyā (?). Ca. 179 A.H.=ca. 795 A.D.

Beardless head of king, r., wearing crested helmet (?), surrounded by turban with flaps behind; necklace of two strands. Debased Aramaic legend at r.

Horseman, riding prancing horse with trappings r., holding whip (?) upraised with left hand, and reins with right; wears crested helmet (?), with flaps; quiver suspended diagonally behind rider's legs; above croup, in finely engraved Kufic characters, الفضل; around, legend in Khwārizmian characters.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 1.91grm.

Plate III

Coins of this and allied types were first discussed by W. Tiesenhausen and E. Thomas in 1870,8 and subsequently by Cunningham, Rapson, Drouin, Markov and others.9 Their identification long remained uncertain, but since the publication of S. P. Tolstov in 193810 there can no longer be any doubt about the correct attribution of the present type to the late eighth century Khwārizmian kings of the Aphrigid dynasty. As a result of excavations conducted by the Soviet Institute for the History of Material Culture in 1937-1938, Tolstov has been able to establish the provenance of this type and its antecedents of the third to eighth centuries, and to suggest the identification of certain of the issuing rulers with the names of kings given in al-Birūni's list of the pre-Islamic Khwārizmian dynasty.11

The particular type represented here, bearing the name al-Faḍl, is in all probability an issue of the Arab viceroy of Khurāsān, the Barmecide al-Faḍl b. Yaḥyā, who governed in the East from 177 to 179 or 180 A.H.=793-797 A.D.12 Other coins of similar type bear the name Ja'far, identified with Ja'far b. Muḥammad, governor of Khurāsān in 171-173 A.H. =787-789 A.D.13 On both of these types Tolstov tentatively reads the Khwārizmian legend as 'Abdullāh Shāh, the Muslim name of the probable Aphrigid ruler of the period.14

The weights of Tolstov's specimens with Arabic legends are: 2.05, 1.92, 1.44 and 1.32 grms.

End Notes
8
E. Thomas, "Indo-Parthian Coins," NC, 1870 pp. 142ff.= JRAS, 1870, pp. 153ff.
9
E. J. Rapson, "On the Attribution of certain Silver Coins of Sassanian Fabric," NC, 1896, pp. 246ff.; Ed. Drouin, "Observations sur les Monnaies à légendes en Pehlevi et Pehlevi-Arabe," RA, 1886, p. 66; A. K. Markov, "Neizdannye arsakidskie monety," in ZVORAO, VI, pp. 265-304.
10
Monety Shakhov Drevnego Khorezma i Drevnekhorezmiīskiī Alfavit, in Vestnik Drevneī Istorii, No. 4, 1938, pp. 120-145. It is unfortunate that the illustrations accompanying this article are so poor. The following notes were written before the publication of Richard N. Frye's "Notes on the Early Coinage of Transoxiana" (Numismatic Notes and Monographs, No. 113, N.Y., 1949), in which (pp. 19ff.) the present type is discussed and this particular piece is illustrated.
11
The results of these excavations are summarized in an article by Henry Field and Eugene Prostov, "Excavations at Khwarazm, 1937-1938," in Ars Islamica, Vol. VI, Pt. 2, 1939, PP. 158-166. The coins are briefly discussed on pp. 164-5.

'Abbāsid Governors of Ṭabaristān

'Umar b. al-' Alā

Name in Pahlevi

36. Year 122 = 157 A.H. = 773/4 A.D.

This coin is unique. Similar to BM No. 262 (p. 134), except in the following particulars: star and pellet 1., pellet (and star?) r., of crown; star 1. and crescent r. of flame; date image (the first letter is missing because the coin has been pierced at this point); pellet over S of mint name.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 24mm., 1.91grm.

Plate III

Name in Pahlevi and Arabic

37. Year 125 = 160 A.H. = 776/7 A.D.

Identical with BM No. B. 40 (p. 136). I reproduce it because of its excellent preservation.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 1.92grm.

Plate III

End Notes
12
Ṭabari III, pp. 629, 631, 637, 645. There is some question about the period of al-Faḍl's governorship of Khurāsān: cf. the discussion in my NHR, pp. 67-8. Tolstov (op. cit., p. 131) gives 787-795 A.D. and makes reference to other reports of the dates of al-Faḍl's viceroyship. Barthold (Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion, E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series, N.S., V, London, 1928, pp. 202, 464) gives 794-795. It is, of course, not to be excluded that the Faḍl mentioned on the coins is al-Faḍl b. Sulaymān (783-787 A.D) (cf. Tolstov, loc. cit.).
13
Tolstov, op. cit., p. 131; Ṭabari III, p. 609.
14
ibid., p. 135.

Name in Arabic

38. Year 127=162 A.H.=778/9 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 268 (p. 138), but no pellet over S of mint name.15

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 24mm., 1.87grm.

Plate III

Sulaymān

39. Year 137=172 A.H.=788/9 A.D.

Six specimens similar to BM Nos. 285-288 (pp. 144-5), but with various differences in the neck-ornamentation, and none with the faulty obverse marginal inscription. I reproduce two specimens only.

(a) image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 2.10grm.

(b) image. GCM (Istanbul, 1942). 23mm., 1.76grm.

Plate III (No. 39a)

Plate IV (No. 39b)

40. Year 138=173 A.H.=789/90 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 288 (p. 145), but with different neck-ornamentation. This issue is rare (cf. BM p. 209); Unvala lists none.

image. GCM (Istanbul, 1942). 23mm., 1.71grm.

Plate IV

Jarīr

41. Year 135=170 A.H.=786/7 A.D.

Similar to BM No. Z. 5 (p. 145), but breast-ornament ∵, and pellet (not star) l. and r. of flame.

image. ANS. 25mm.,1.92grm.

42. Year 136=171 A.H.=787/8 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 289 (p. 145), but breast-ornament ∵, and star l. and r. of flame.

image. ANS (ex J. F. Jones Coll.). 24mm., 1.65grm.

Hāni

43. Year 137=172 A.H.=788/9 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 291 (p. 147), but breast-ornament ∵, and (apparently) crescent 1. and pellet r. of flame.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 1.94grm.

44. Year 138=173 A.H.=789/90 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 293 (p. 147), but breast-ornament ∵; 1. and r. of flames obscure.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 2.17grm.

Muqātil

45. Year 139=174 A.H.=790/1 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 296 (p. 149), but crescent 1. and star r. of flame.16

image. F. H. Armstrong (Toronto). 23mm., 1.87grm.

'Abdullāh

46. Year 139=174 A.H.=790/1 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 1.55 (p. 150), but the date on this specimen is distinct

image. GCM (Teheran, 1936). 23mm., 2.07grm.

Plate IV

There are in the ANS two specimens of Abdullāh's issue of the year 140. The obverse of one and the reverse of the other is illustrated in the BM catalogue as No. ANS 21 (p. 151), Pl XXVI, No. 5.

"Afzut" Coins

47. Year 133=168 A.H.=784/5 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 305, except in the following particulars: the breast-ornament appears to be a star; tiny pellet 1. and r. of the flame.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 24mm., 1.82 grm.

48. Year 134=169 A.H.=785/6 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 306 (p. 155), but star, not pellet, 1. and r. of flame.

image. R. D. Kenney (N.Y.). 25mm., 2.11grm.

49. Year 136=171 A.H.=787/8 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 312 (p. 157), but breast-ornament ∵, and pellets (?) 1. and r. of flame.

image. GCM. 24mm., 1.61grm.

50. Year 137=172 A.H.=788/9 A.D.

Similar to BM No. ETN 23 (p. 158), but the BM description implies a star 1. and r. of flame, whereas both the ETN specimen and the present one have pellets, not stars.

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 24mm., 2.04grm.

51. Year 137=172 A.H.=788/9 A.D.

Similar to BM No. ETN 23 (p. 158), but breast-ornament ∵, and star 1. and r. of flame.

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 23mm., 1.80grm.

Plate IV

52. Year 141=176 A.H.=792/3 A.D.

Similar to BM No. 313 (p. 159), but breast-ornament ∵, and pellet 1. and star r. of flame.

image. ANS. 24mm., 2.16grm.

Plate IV

53. Year 143=178 A.H.=794/5 A.D.

Similar to BM Nos. 314ff. (p. 160), but breast-ornament uncertain, and pellet 1. and r. of flame.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 1.78grm.

End Notes
15
J.-M. Unvala, Numismatique du Ṭabaristān (Paris, 1938), pl. XXII, lists some specimens that may be identical to this. This work cannot, unfortunately, be relied upon as it abounds in errors and contains no legible reproductions. I have not attempted to collate his references to specimens in the ANS.
16
Unvala does not list this variety.

B. Earliest African and Spanish Issues

Gold

54. Africa. Type I.

Similar to BM ix,17 Nos. 74-75 (p. 21), Codera,18 pp. 39-42. The present piece presents nothing unusual, but good specimens of these issues are of sufficient rarity to deserve reproduction.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.).10mm., 2.01grm.

Plate IV

55. Africa. Type I.

Similar to BM ix, No. 73 (p. 21), but inscriptions imperfectly preserved.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 10mm., 1.36grm.

Plate IV

56. Spain. Type III. Year 93.

Similar to BM ix, No. 92 (p. 24), Codera, pp. 46-51. Obverse inscriptions completely preserved: ININƧL∂FRTINƧPNANNXCIII and image

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell, ex Campaner Coll.). 12.5mm., 4.26grm.

Plate IV

End Notes
17
BM references henceforth are to Stanley Lane-Poole's Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum (London, 1875-90).
18
Don Francisco Codera y Zaidin, Tratado de Numismática Arábigo-Española (Madrid, 1879).

Copper

57. Mūsā b. Nuṣayr.

Same type as Paris, i, Nos. 120-124, but the variant inscriptions are worth recording:

Obv.: reading from top clockwise (upside down) ∆ NI

(right side up) XVX.

Rev.: reading from top counter-clockwise NIIVSIimageMVS ..... MIR(?)....

Æ. ANS 15mm., 2.90grm.

Plate IV

C. Byzantine-Arab

Copper

Among the approximately fifty Byzantine-Arab coppers in the collection of ANS there are several varieties of types commonly described. These may be of use to the scholar who undertakes a complete publication of this series, but the varieties do not seem to me to be worth reproducing here. The few quite unusual pieces are described below.

58. Ḥarrān.

Caliph standing. At 1.: محمد

At r.: حران

Beaded border.

Cf. Ties., No. 52 (Adler).

image

At 1.: image At r.: محمد

Beneath: obscure, IS (?)

Beaded border.

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 19mm., 2.93grm.

Plate IV

59. Qinnasrīn.

A very rare coin similar to that in the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris, described by R. Cottevieille-Giraudet, RN, 1935, pp. 227-8.

Bearded head of Caliph (?), facing.

ضرب

[ين]قنسر

From the eyebrows downward the face is better preserved than on the Paris specimen, but not unfortunately the upper part of the head, on which Cottevieille-Giraudet in part bases his argument in reply to Walker's suggestion19 that the "Caliph" on Byzantine-Arab coins should not be described as bare-headed. This coin is so curious that I reproduce it in spite of its poor preservation.

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 16mm., 2.12grm.

Plate IV

60. Uncertain Mint.

Figure of Heraclius I, standing, as BM ix, Nos. 2ff. (pp. 4-6).

Letters at r. obscure.

Beaded border.

In center: image

Beneath: الوفا لله

Beaded border.

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 20mm., 4.01grm.

Plate IV

61. Uncertain Mint.

Caliph standing. Traces of legend at 1., upwards, ... و ... مير (⸮)

Beaded border.

In center: image

Around: beginning at top, upside down, رسول الله ... لا اله الا الله

Beaded border.

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 18mm., 3.62grm.

Plate IV

End Notes
19
J. Walker, NC, 1935, p. 125.

II. THE POST-REFORM UMAYYAD COINAGE

A. Gold

Of the thirty-three Umayyad dinars in the ANS collection the following seven merit publication.19a

62. Year 91 A.H.=709/10 A.D. One-third dinar.

Within circle: لا اله ا
لا الله

Margin: Qur'ān, IX, 33, to الحق

Within circle: بسم الله
الرحمن
الرحيم

Margin: ضرب هذا الثلث سنة احدي و تسعين

Ꜹ. ANS (Greenwood). 14mm., 1.42grm.

Plate IV

63. Year 94 A.H.= 712/3 A.D. One-quarter dinar.

Similar to BM i, No. 17, but تسع ين (sic), and the weight is that of a quarter dinar, although the legend appears to read الثلث.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll:). 12mm., 1.07grm.

Plate IV

64. Year 96 A.H.=714/5 A.D. One-half dinar.

Similar to BM i, No. 20, but both size and weight conform to the standard of a half dinar, although the legend reads الثلث.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 16.5mm., 2.11grm.

Plate IV

65. Al-Andalus. Year 102 A.H.=720/1 A.D. One-third dinar.

As no. 62 above, but rev. margin: ضرب هذا الثلث بالاندلس سنة ثنتين و مئة

A similar specimen was published by Longpérier (Ties., No. 497).

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell, ex Campaner Coll.). 15mm., 1.43grm.

Plate IV

66. Ma'din Amīr al-Mu'minīn bi'l-Ḥijāz.

Year 105 A.H.=723/4 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Margin: Qur'ān, IX, 33, to كله

الله احد الله

الصمد لم يلد

ولم يولد معدن

امير المؤمنين

بالحجاز

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الدينر سنة خمس و مئة

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 20mm., 4.16grm.

Plate IV

This extraordinary issue, of which there were four specimens (from two sets of dies) in the Princesse Ismaïl Collection, was partially described and discussed by P. Casanova as early as 1896.20 It may be that the present coin is one of the duplicates in Casanova's inventory, which later perhaps found its way into the market and eventually into the hands of Mr. E. T. Newell, who presented it in 1929 to the ANS. At all events the extreme rarity of the coin and the uniqueness of the mint, "The mine of the Commander of the Believers in the Ḥijāz," contribute to the singular interest of this issue. After writing the brief note cited above Casanova proceeded, over a period of years, to collect material relating to the problem of identifying this mine. In an article21 in which he made use of all the available Arabic historical and geographical sources, of the accounts of modern travellers and explorers, and of all the existing maps, he arrived at the undoubtedly correct conclusion that the "mine of the Commander of the Believers in the Ḥijāz" is to be identified with Ma'din (later Ḥarrah) Bani Sulaim, southeast of Medina and north-west of Mecca, on the route between Baghdad and Mecca, at approximately 41° 20′ E., 23° 30′ N.22 The Arab historians record that the Umayyad Caliph 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Azīz (99-101 A.H.) bought a piece of land, on which there was at least one mine, from the son of a certain Bilāl b. al-Ḥārith, to whom the property had been given in fief by the Prophet; and Casanova has amply demonstrated that this mine was the source of the gold as well as the mint of our coin. While this dinar was struck five years after the death of the Caliph whose personal property the mine was, it is not surprising to find the name of the mint still in use.

There seems to me little doubt that the Ma'din Bani Sulaim is further to be identified with "Mahad Dahab" (ذهب مهد), the site of the gold mine now being worked by the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate Ltd., under the management of the American Smelting and Refining Company.23 I owe to Mr. K. S. Twitchell the knowledge of many interesting facts in connection with this mine, located at 40° 52′ 45″ E., 23° 29′ 52″ N. In 1941 Mr. Twitchell was kind enough to place at my disposition a photograph of an extremely interesting Kufic inscription found in the old tailings of the mine, and I hope soon to be able to publish this inscription together with a further discussion of the probable identity of "Mahad Dahab" and the "Mine of the Commander of the Believers in the Ḥijāz." The inscription, dated 304 A.H.=916/7 A.D., records the building of a great highway for the pilgrimage to Mecca.24

67. Year 107 A.H.=725/6 A.D.

Similar to Khedivial Library, No. 41, except that the points under يولد are lacking.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 20mm., 4.19grm.

Plate IV

68. Year 110 A.H.=728/9 A.D.

Similar to BM ix, No. 32a (p. 28), except that ten is written عشرة, instead of عشر. In size, weight, fabric and style this dinar is a typical. It is possibly a contemporary forgery but more probably the issue of some temporary mint.25

Ꜹ. ANS 24mm., 4.08grm.

Plate IV

B. Silver

There are more than 230 Umayyad dirhams of the reformed type in the ANS. Of these the following are worthy of notice:

69. Armīnīyah. Year 100 A.H.=718/9 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 48, except that there is no point in the rev. area.

image. ANS. 28mm., 2.87grm.

Plate V

70. Ifrīqīyah. Year 98 A.H.=716/7 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 54, but date سنة ثمان و تسعين. Pellet under ر of ضرب and under ت of وتسعين. This is the earliest date of this mint known to me.

image. ANS (ex Nies Coll.). 27mm., 2.46grm. (ringed) Plate V

71. Ifrīqīyah. Year 102 A.H.=720/1 A.D.

Similar to BM ix, No. 53y (p. 30), but كله not omitted.

image. ANS. 29mm., 2.82grm.

Plate V

72. Ifrīqīyah. Year 116 A.H.=734/5 A.D.

Two specimens similar to BM i, No. 56, but date: سنة ست عشرة و مئة

(a) image. ANS 28mm., 2.91grm.

(b) image. GCM. 23mm., 2.25grm. (clipped) Plate V

73. Ifrīqīyah. Year 124 A.H.=741/2 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 58, but date: سنة اربع و عشرين و مئة

image. ANS. 27mm., 2.87grm.

Plate V

74. Bihqubādh al-Awsaṭ. Year 90 A.H.=708/9 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 43, but mint and date: ببهقباذ الاوسط فى سنة تسعين

image. ANS. 26.5mm., 2.75grm. (formerly ringed) Plate V

Of the three Bihqubādh's (al-'Alā, "Upper," al-Awsaṭ, "Middle," and al-Asfal, "Lower"), four specimens are known (all of the year 90 ) of al-Asfal26; two specimens of al-Awsaṭ, of which the present is one27; and none of al-'Alā.

75. Al-Taymarrah. Year 98 A.H.=716/7 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 69, but date: فى سنة ثمان و تسعين

image. ANS. 27mm., 2.72grm.

Plate V

76. Al-Janzah(?). Year 94 A.H.=712/3 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 43, but mint and date: سنة اربع وتسعين [⸮]بالجنزة

Points: • under ب of ضرب which is curiously written; ∵ under ه of هذا; • under ج of الجنزة; ∵ under ار of اربع.

image. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 28mm., 2.72grm.

Plate V

This unique coin, if the mint name is properly read, is of very considerable interest. The writing of the mint name is curiously bungled, probably by uneven striking, with the result that the definite article has scarcely any relief (it is clear to the eye on the coin itself, but not in the reproduction of the cast), and there appears to be a stroke between the ج and the ن. However, I believe that the reading can be taken to be correct. Janzah 28 is the early Arabic orthography of Γάνξαχα, Ganjah, or Kanja (Elizabetpol), an important city of Arrān between Bardā' and Tiflis, in what is now Karabagh. The existence of this mint-name on an issue of the reformed coinage is important collaborative evidence of the probable validity of Mordtmann's and Walker's attribution of an Arab-Sassanian dirham to KNǰA (Kanja).29

In Markov's inventory of the Ermitage Collection a dirham of "Djanze," also of the year 94, is listed (p. 4, No. 106); it is probably identical with the present specimen, although I do not know what to make of the parenthetical description, "polovinka." Is only half of the coin preserved, or is it a half-dirham?

77. Jundi Sābūr. Year 90 A.H.=708/9 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 74, but date: فى سنة تسعين

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 2.48grm. (frag. lacking) Plate V

77a. Dabīl. Year 85 A.H.=704 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 43, but mint and date: بدبيل سنة خمس و ثمنين

image. W. L. Clark (New York City). 25mm., 2.65grm.

Plate V

Dabīl, not to be confused with Ardabīl,30 is an exceedingly rare mint. I know only of issues of the years 84, 85, and 86 A.H., and to my knowledge only one other specimen of the year 85 has been recorded (Markov, p. 961, No. 25a).

78. Dasht-Maysān. Year 80 A.H.=699/700 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 43, but mint and date: بدشت ميسان فى سنة ثمنين

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.69grm.

Plate V

This coin is unique, and is, so far as I am aware, the only appear- ance of this mint in the reformed coinage. Maysān and Dasht-Maysān (Dasht-i Maysān) were districts in 'Irāq.31

79. Dimishq. Year 118 A.H.=736 A.D.

Similar to BM i. No. 113, but unlike the BM specimen, the weight is up to standard.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26.5mm., 2.89grm.

80. Al-Sāmīyah. Year 131 A.H.=748/9 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 141.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24.5mm., 2.86grm.

This mint was originally read al-Shāmīyah by Lane-Poole, and later (BM ii, p. 221) corrected to read al-Sāmīyah. The full and cogent argument for identifying al-Sāmīyah with "Baesamsa" or "Besamia" of Characene, near the capital Spasinu-Charax, is set forth by Otto Blau in an article entitled "Mesenisches" in NZ, IX, 1877, pp. 270-273.32

81. Sarakhs. Year 90 A.H.=708/9 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 132, but date: فى سنة تسعين

image. ANS. 27mm., 2.75grm. (pierced) Plate V

This is the earliest issue of this mint known to me.

82. Surraq. Year 92 A.H.=710/11 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 133, but date: فى سنة ثنتان و تسعين

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27.5mm., 2.91grm.

Plate V

83. Al-Kūfah. Year 108 A.H.=726/7 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 148, but date: سنة ثمان و مئة The coin is clipped and the annulets are therefore off the flan.

image. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 23.5mm., 1.93grm.

Plate V

84. Al-Kūfah. Year 127 A.H.=744/5 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 141, but mint and date: بالكوفة سنة سبع و عشرين و مئة

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 2.77grm.

Plate V

There is, so far as I know from published notices, no other example of a Kūfah issue of this date. That this specimen may be of the year 129 (of which there are a number of published specimens) rather than 127, is not entirely out of the question, as there is no clear separation between any of the first four strokes of the digit. While the first stroke may be a little higher than the others, there appears to be slightly more space between the third and fourth strokes than between any of the others. In view of the revolutionary issues of the year 128, there would seem to me to be a likelihood—which of course cannot be supported without a view of the examples—that there were no regular issues of al-Kūfah after 128 (see No. 85 below), and that the published specimens attributed to the year 129 should read 127.

85. Al-Kūfah. Year 128 A.H.=745/6 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 141, but mint and date: بالكوفة سنة ثمان و عشرين و مئة An identical piece was published by E. von Zambaur, "Nouvelles Contributions à la Numismatique Orientale," in NZ, 1914, p. 116, no. 401.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 2.90grm.

Plate V

This is a regular Umayyad issue. All other specimens of this mint and date (e.g., BM ix, No. 150bb, p. 35), with the exception of Zambaur's piece, are of the revolutionary type of abu-Muslim, with لا حكم الا لله.

86. Manādhir. Year 80 A.H.=699/700 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 162, but date: فى سنة ثمنين

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.58grm.

Plate V

This is the earliest issue of this mint known to me.

87. Maysān. Year 79 A.H.=698/9 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 43, but mint and date: بميسان فى سنة تسع و سبعين

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.53grm.

Plate V

88. Hamadhān. Year 91 A.H.=709/10 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 170, but date: فى سنة احدي و تسعين. The mint name is, as usual, defectively written همذن.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 29mm., 2.89grm.

Plate V

89. Hamadhān. Year 96 AH.=714/5 A.D.

Similar to BM i, No. 170, but date: فى سنة ست و تسعين. The annulets are clipped off the flan.

image. ANS. 25mm., 2.31grm.

C. Copper

The ANS collection contains over 300 Umayyad fulūs of various reformed types. These may be classified roughly in five categories: those with (a) the simplest religious legends, (b) less common religious inscriptions, (c) animals and birds and other adjuncts, (d) dates but no mint names, and (e) mint names, with or without dates, sometimes with governors' names. At present I do not propose to describe any of the pieces in the first category. So few of these types with more or less identical legends have been accurately reproduced that it is impossible to tell whether a given type has been published or not. Certainly the classification of these early anonymous coppers is something that should be undertaken, but this is a task not appropriate to the present publication. The student who undertakes such a study should have access to all the larger collections, and in attempting to determine the provenance should travel throughout the former Umayyad lands, gathering the evi- dence on the spot, for copper seldom travels far. Above all, he should make full use of the mass of excavation specimens, the vast majority of them unpublished but doubtless stored in the basements and closets of many museums in Europe and America.

Of the remaining four categories I describe a few here which appear to me, without exhaustive search for similar published types, to be worthy of notice.33

90. No mint (?), or date.

Within square: لا اله ا
لا الله
وحده

Marginal legend?

Within square: Fish to l.

At top: محمد

At l.: رسول

At bottom: الله

Annulet (or inscription?) at r.

Æ. ANS.15mm., 3.19grm.

Plate VI

91. No mint (?), or date.

Within beaded circle: duck to r.

Traces of marginal legend?

Within beaded circle: لله

Margin: ..... محمد

Æ. ANS (ex Newell, ex Torrey Coll.). 15mm., 2.52grm.

92. No mint or date.

[ا] لا اله
لا الله

Scroll

Æ. ANS. 16mm., 5.07grm.

Plate VI

93. No mint or date.

Lion crouching to l.

Around: لا اله الا الله وحده

Within beaded circle:
محمد
رسول
الله

Margin within beaded circle: οοοοοο

Æ. ANS. 15mm., 2.63grm.

Plate VI

94. No mint. Year 107 A.H.=725/6 A.D.

Double struck and obscure.

Area illegible

Margin: هذا الفلس سنة سبع و مئة ...

Within beaded circle: محمد
رسول
الله

Æ. ANS(ex Newell Coll.). 16mm., 3.38grm.

Plate VI

95. No mint. Year 109 A.H.=727/8 A.D.

Within beaded circle: [ا] لا اله

[حد] لا الله و

••••••••

[يك]ه لا شر •

له

Within beaded circle: ........

(⸮) ... ل image سو
سنة تسع
و مئة

Æ. ANS(ex Newell Coll.). 19mm., 5.92grm.

96. No mint. Year 116 A.H.=734/5 A.D.

Within circle: لا اله الا
الله وحده

... لا شريك

Within circle: الله احد ا
لله الصمد
لم يلد و

Margin: (sic) ـدى ودين ا ... محمد رسـ

Margin: (sic) سنة ست عشر ... بسم الله ضر

Æ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 21mm., 4.59grm.

97. Adharbayjān. No date.

Within beaded circle: لا اله
الا الله
وحده

Within beaded circle: محمد ر
سول الله ا
ذربيجان

The two letters before the J of the mint name are obscure, but I believe there can be little doubt about the reading.

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 18mm., 1.92grm.

Plate VI

98. Mint? No date.

Within triple beaded circle: لا اله

الا الله

وحده

Within beaded circle: محمد

رسول

الله

Margin: imageبسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 3.60grm.

Plate VI

The mint name is puzzling. It might be باندلس, assuming the D to be defectively written. But the omission of the definite article would be irregular, and the fabric is not Andalusian.

99. Ba'alabak. No date.

Within beaded circle: لا اله

(sic) لا الله

وحده

In center, star within circle Margin: (sic) بعبلك (⸮)فى ضرب

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 15mm., 2.66grm.

Plate VI

100. Dimishq. No date.

Within circle:

لا اله

الا الله

وحده

Outside circle, at top:

بدمشق ضرب

Within partly beaded circle:

محمد

رسول

الله

Outside circle, at top:

ضرب بدمشق

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 23mm., 2.92grm.

Plate VI

101. SR (?). No date.

Within triple beaded circle:

لا اله

الا الله

وحده

Within beaded circle:

محمد

رسول

الله

Margin: ضرب هذا الفلس بسر ... ?

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 22mm., 3.42grm.

Plate VI

There is a space between the end and the beginning of the marginal legend. Is Q perhaps omitted: Surraq, a known mint at which Umayyad dirhams were struck? Neither Surr, nor Sirr, seems likely.34

102. Ṭabarīyah (?). Year 110(?) A.H.=728/9 (?) A.D.

لا اله

الا الله

وحده

Margin: منين بالوفا [ؤ]المـ ...

Lion crouching to 1.

At bottom, downwards:

الله | رسول | محمد

Margin: سنة عشر و مئة (⸮)ـطبرية ...

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 17mm., 4.47grm.

Plate VI

Both the mint and the date are very doubtful. The obverse margin must have read in part: امر امير المؤمنين بالوفا: "the Commander of the Believers ordered honesty."

103. Atrīb; Miṣr. No date [132 A.H.=750 A.D.].

In center, within beaded circle: مصر

Margin: عبد الله مرون امير المؤمنين

In center, within beaded circle: اتريب

Margin: عبد الملك بن مرون [يدي] على

Æ. ANS. 18.5mm., 4.89grm.

Plate VI

I am aware of only one other specimen of this humble but remarkable fals.34a In almost all respects, other than the critical reverse area, it is identical with several known copper issues of the last Umayyad Finance Director of Egypt, 'Adb al-Malik b. Marwān b. Mūsā, struck at Fusṭāṭ, Fayyūm and, perhaps, Iskandarīyah.35 These all bear Miṣr (Egypt) on the obverse, and the name of the specific mint on the reverse. Although the final letter of the word in the reverse area of the present piece looks more like J, H, KH, I believe B is intended and that the reading ATRĪB is almost certainly correct.

Atrīb, sometimes more correctly rendered Athrīb, is the Arabic form of 'Aθpιβís, capital of the voμòς 'Aθριβíτης, in Lower Egypt, an important town in early Arab, Byzantine and ancient times, situated north of Cairo near modern Benha, in the delta.36 The Arabs, in their best etymological tradition, ascribed the name to an eponymous Atrīb, son of Miṣr, son of Bayṣar, son of Ḥām, son of Nūḥ (Noah); Atrīb's brothers, among whom the rest of Egypt was divided, were Qubṭ (Copt), Ashmūn and Ṣā.37 This is, to say the least, an over-simplification: we cannot fail to reckon with ancient Egyptian Ḥat-te-ḥer-êbe (or Ha-to-heri-ab), and Assyrian Ḥatẖariba.38

Atrīb had a pre-Arab numismatic history: we know, for example, of bronze issues of Trajan and Hadrian for the nome AΘPIBITHC,39 and of leaden tokens of the third century, inscribed AΘϤIBIC.40. It is, I think, of more than passing interest and perhaps suggestive of further profitable study to Byzantinist and Arabist alike, that Atrīb and Fayyūm (Arsinoe), which along with Fusṭāṭ (old Cairo) and Alexandria (?) appear as the earliest specific Arab mints in Egypt, were two of four towns (Memphis and Oxyrhynchus being the others) whose names occur on the leaden tokens.41

104. Al-Mawṣil. No date.

Within partly beaded circle: الله

احد الله

الصمد

Margin, within partly beaded circle: بسم الله لا اله الا الله وحده لا شريك له

Within beaded circle: محمد

رسول

الله

Margin, within beaded circle: امر الضحاك بضرب هذا الفلس بالموصل

Two specimens, from different dies, the marginal legends beginning at quite different points on each specimen. The governor's name, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, is imperfectly preserved on the specimen illustrated; it is quite clear on the other, but unfortunately the latter is too smooth to permit of satisfactory reproduction.

Æ. GCM (Damascus, 1935). 22, 19.5mm., 3.84, 5.22grm.

Plate VI (No. 104a)

An imperfect specimen of this coin was published by Soret.42

105. Wāsiṭ. Year 108 A.H.=726/7 A.D.

Within double circle: لا اله الا

الله وحده لا

شريك له

Annulets: image

Within circle: محمد

رسول

الله

Margin, within circle: الفلس بواسط ... بسم الله ضرب

سنة ثمان ومئة

Æ. ANS (ex Nies Coll.). 21mm., 2.47grm.

There is no published Wāsiṭ fals of this year in any of the large collections.

Finally I include six obscure cast coins, probably Umayyad but possibly early 'Abbāsid, and probably from northern Syria. I do not attempt to identify them further, but the reproductions may be of use to someone who, it is to be hoped, will one day attempt the classification of these crude cast coins. A large number of cast coins of similar fabric and style was found in the Princeton excavations at Antioch: some of these are described in my report on the Islamic coins of Antioch.42a

106.

Cross surrounded by four large pellets.

Obscure inscriptions.

Two specimens, of different dies.

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 18, 17mm., 2.25, 2.05grm.

Plate VI (No. 106a)

107.

لا اله

الله

محمد

رسول

الله

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 17mm., 1.79grm.

Plate VI

108.

Obscure three-line inscription (⸮)الاسلر

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 16mm., 2.17grm.

Plate VI

109.

الامير
(⸮)منصور

على يدي
(⸮)الصلح

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 16mm., 1.87grm.

Plate VI

110.

Within circle: لا اله

(sic) الا

Annulets, within outer circle:

◦◦◦◦

Within circle:

لامر
image

Annulets, within outer circle:

◦◦◦◦

Æ. ANS. 21mm., 2.18grm.

Plate VI

End Notes

19a
Listed in The American Numismatic Society Museum Notes, III (1948), Nos. 43, 53, 57, 75, 84, 87 and 92.
34a
In the Odessa Museum, first published by Otto Blau in NZ, VI-VII (1874-1875), under the title "Nachlese orientalischer Münzen," pp. 9-10, and subsequently in Die orientalischen Münzen des Museums der Kaiserlichen Historisch-Archäologischen Gesellschaft zu Odessa, 1876, No. 35. A drawing of this imperfectly preserved specimen appears on the title-page of the latter work. Due to its poor preservation Blau had difficulty with the reverse marginal legend and consequently ventured certain ingenious but certainly erroneous philological observations. His identification of the reverse area inscription, however, is identical with mine. I think it may be assumed that the Odessa specimen and the present one are of the same issue.
42a
In Antioch-on-the-Orontes, IV, Part One (Princeton, 1948), Nos. 148-153, pp. 118-19.
20
Casanova, Nos. 162-3, 3976-7, and pp. IV-VI.
21
Casanova presented the substance of his study at the geographical section of the "Congrès des sociétés savantes de Strasbourg," and published the full monograph under the title, Une Mine d'or au Hidjáz, in "Bulletin de la Section de Géographie" (Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques), Vol. XXXV, Year 1920 (Paris, 1921), pp. 69-125.
22
These coordinates, through no fault of M. Casanova's, cannot be trusted. The chaotic state of the cartography of Arabia until the most recent times is notorious.
23
Cf. K. S. Twitchell, Saudi Arabia, with an Account of the Development of its Natural Resources (Princeton, N.J., 1947), p. 146.
24
I presented the substance of this inscription in a short paper entitled "Two Epigraphical Documents from Mahad Dhahab in the Ḥidjāz," before the American Oriental Society at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in April, 1947.
25
Lacking access to Tiesenhausen's reference under his No. 543, I cannot tell whether the dinar of 110 described there is of this peculiar fabric and style.
26
One in the E. T. Rogers Collection (NC, 1874), one in the Bibliothèque Nationale, one in the Khedivial Collection, and one in my own. Cf. Walker (Arab-Sassanians), p. cix, note 2.
27
The other, also of the year 90, only recently came to my attention: Ulla S. Linder-Welin, "Ein grosser Fund Arabischer Münzen aus Stora Velinge, Gotland" in NNÅ, 1941, p. 94.
28
Cf. Yãqūt, II, p. 132; and Le Strange, Lands, p. 178.
29
A. D. Mordtmann, "Zur Pehlevi Münzkunde" in ZDMG, 1879, p. 131, No. 95; Walker, op.cit., pp. cxx, cxxxv, and cxli.
30
Yāqūt, II, pp. 548-9; cf. Le Strange, Lands, p. 182.
31
Cf. Le Strange, Lands, pp. 42, 80; and Walker, BM (Arab-Sassanians), pp. cxvii-cxviii, cxl, where mention is made of the existence of this dirham.
32
Cf. N. G. Nassar, Quarterly, Dept. of Antiquities in Palestine, XIII, Nos. 3-4, p. 121.
33
To my knowledge only three of the Umayyad coppers in the ANS have been published: Al-Rayy, years 101, 116 and 120 A.H. (NHR, Nos. 26, 30, and 31B).
34
Yāqūt, III, p. 76.
35
See Paris i, Nos. 1494-5, Berlin i, Nos. 2028a, b (p. 376), Ties., No. 655, Khedivial Library, Nos. 843-4; Paris i, No. 1496; Khedivial Library, No. 845. Cf. my AGW, pp. 95-6.
36
For the Arabic name, cf. Yāqūt, I, pp. 111-12, and III, pp. 762-3, where Atrīb is described as the district (kūrah) of which the chief town was 'Ayn Shams (Heliopolis), in his day in ruins, nothing remaining but "ancient monuments." The pre-Arab literature is given in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, ii, s.v. Athribis, p. 2070. Atrīb (Athrīb) figures frequently in the history of the Persian and Arab campaigns in Egypt: cf. Alfred J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of the Roman Dominion (Oxford, 1902), passim.
37
Cf. Mas'ūdi, Murūj, ii, pp. 394-6; also Yāqūt, loc. cit.
38
Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, loc. cit., and Jacques de Rougé, "Monnaies des Nomes de l'Égypte" in RN, n.s. Vol. XV, pp. 49-50.
39
Cf. Head, Historia Numorum, p. 864, and G. Dattari, Numi Augg. Alexandrini (Cairo, 1901), Nos. 6213-6216.
40
Dattari, op. cit., No. 6415, and J. G. Milne, "Egyptian Leaden Tokens" in NC, 1930, pp. 307-9.
41
Cf. Milne, op. cit., p. 307.
42
"Lettre à ... Fraehn," Mém. Soc. Imp. d'archéologie, St. Petersburg, 1851, No. 28=Ties., No. 2635.

III. THE 'ABBĀSID COINAGE

In the description of 'Abbāsid coins the following space-saving conventions have been observed. Unless otherwise noted the obverse area is understood to read: لا اله الا
الله وحده
لا شريك له

and the reverse area: محمد
رسول
الله

Supplementary words or symbols in the obverse and reverse areas are given above and beneath a horizontal line, indicating their position relative to the conventional inscription. In the gold described here the Qur'ānic verses XXX, 3-4, لله الامر من قبل و من بعد و يومئذ يفرح المؤمنين بنصر الله are present in the outer obverse margin; the presence of these verses in the silver is noted on each occurrence. In both the gold and the silver the Qur'ānic verse IX, 33,[محمد رسول الله] ارسله بالهدي و دين الحق ليظهره على الدين كله و لو كره المشركون more or less complete, is always present in the reverse margin. The first part of the mint-date formula preceding the name of the mint (obverse inner margin in the gold, obverse margin or inner margin in the silver) is understood. Reverse central pellets are not noted; it is difficult to determine when these are simply centering points and when they are in the nature of ornament, the distinction perhaps depending on the size.

A. Gold 43

111-137. Twenty-five "mintless" dinars, differing from those heretofore described, of the years 138, 142, 147, 149, 153, 160 167, 168, 170, 171, 177, 178, 184, 187, 196, 199, 201, 202, 203 and 205, and two dinars of Miṣr, dated 203 and 216 A.H., published in Some Early Arab Dinars. 44 Of these seventeen are in the UM Collection and ten in the ANS.

138. Miṣr. Year 222 A.H.=836/7 A.D.

بمصر سنة اثنتين وعشرين ومائتين

المعتصم بالله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 20.5mm., 4.05grm. (pierced)

139. Ṣan'ā. Year 224 A.H.=838/9 A.D.

بصنعا سنة اربع و عشرين و مائتين

As above. Ꜹ. ANS. 18.5mm., 3.34grm.

There is a specimen of this issue in the Ermitage (Markov, p. 44, No. 781, not described). Only two earlier gold coins of Ṣan'ā are known, of the years 221 and 223, both in the Bibliothèque Nationale.

140. Surra man-ra'a. Year 226 A.H.=840/1 A.D.

بسر من راي سنة ست و عشرين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 21mm., 4.13grm.

Plate VII

To my knowledge this is, by five years, the earliest recorded dinar of Samarra, and only two years later than the earliest dirham.45 Samarra became the temporary 'Abbāsid capital in 221 A.H.45a

141. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 227 A.H.=841/2 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة سبع و عشرين ومائتين

الواثق بالله/لله

Ꜹ. ANS. 21mm., 4.08grm.

There is a dinar of the same mint and year in the Ermitage (Markov, p. 44, No. 788=Ties., No. 2855, not described).

142. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 228 A.H.=842/3 A.D. بمدينة السلام سنة ثمان و عشرين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 22mm., 4.04grm. (pierced)

143. Ṣan'ā. Year 229 A.H.=843/4 A.D.

بصنعا سنة تسع و عشرين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. ANS. 20.5mm., 3.48grm.

144. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 231 A.H.=845/6 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة احدي و ثلثين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 22mm., 4.05grm.

145. Al-Muḥammadīyah. Year 245 A.H.=859/60 A.D.

Described in NHR, No. 130 B.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 19mm., 4.25grm.

146. Miṣr. Year 247 A.H.=861/2 A.D.

بمصر سنة سبع و اربعين و مائتين

/المعتز بالله

المتوكل على الله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 18mm., 4.10grm.

One similar specimen is known: Constantinople II, No. 597.

147. Surra man-ra'a. Date illegible=Dec. 861-June 862 A.D.

... بسر من راي سنة

The mint-date formula is abbreviated and illegible, but the mint is almost certain.

المنتصر بالله/لله

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 19mm., 3.26grm.

Plate VII

There is, so far as I know, only one other published dinar of the ephemeral Caliph al-Muntaṣir, also struck at Samarra and with the date 248 preserved. It is in the British Museum.46

148. Marw. Year 249 A.H.=863/4 A.D.

بمرو سنة تسع و اربعين و مائتين

/العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

المستعين بالله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 22mm., 4.11grm. (pierced) Plate VII

149. Marw. Year 250 A.H.=864/5 A.D.

بمرو سنة خمسين و مائتين

As above. As above.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 22mm., 4.20grm.

150. Miṣr. Year 255 A.H.=869 A.D.

بمصر سنة خمس و خمسين و مائتين

4th line effaced.

5th line: امير المؤمنين

image

لله/

4th line effaced.

5th line: امير المؤمنين

Ꜹ. UM. 23.5mm., 4.22grm.

Plate VII

This is a most interesting coin. It was undoubtedly issued by the Caliph al-Muhtadi in the early months, probably at the very beginning, of his brief reign. The names on the fourth lines of the obverse and reverse areas are not simply effaced on the coin, they were actually obliterated by gouging out the lines on the dies. There can be no doubt that the mint-master, on being informed of the investiture of al-Muhtadi and before new dies bearing his name had been cut, used old dies of the year 255 of the preceding Caliph al-Mu'tazz, removing—but not so completely that the traces are not still visible— the names of the latter's son 'Abdullāh, the heir apparent, on the obverse, and of al-Mu'tazz himself on the reverse. The effaced inscriptions are preserved on dinars of al-Mu'tazz issued at Miṣr in 254 and in 255. 47

151. Ṣan'ā. Year 257 A.H.=870/1 A.D. بصنعا سنة سبع و خمسين و مائتين

المعتمد على الله/لله
امير المؤمنين

Ꜹ. ANS. 20mm., 2.91grm.

There appears to be only one other specimen of this issue (NC, 1919, p. 196, not described).

152. Miṣr. Year 257 A.H.=870/1 A.D.

و مائتين (sic) بمصر سنة سبع و خمسين

/جعفر

المعتمد على الله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 21.5mm., 4.18grm.

153. Miṣr. Year 257 A.H.=870/1 A.D.

As above, but date correctly written.

As above, but image beneath.

Ꜹ. ANS. 22.5mm., 4.13grm.

Plate VII

154-155. Miṣr. Year 258 A.H.=871/2 A.D.

بمصر سنة ثمان و خمسين و مائتين

/جعفر

المعتمد على الله/لله
image (or) image

2 specimens: Ꜹ. UM. 21mm., 4.12, 4.14grm.

Plate VII (No. 155)

This issue is known,48 but I publish this specimen here in order to raise again the question of the reading of the enigmatic word beneath the Caliph's name on the reverse. Rogers was unable, as I am, to read it. Lavoix read "Najrān," which it might be, but who was he (it could not be the place name)? Lane-Poole read "Baḥrayn" on a dinar of 261 A.H., with mint effaced, bearing a similar legend.49 The clear presence of the mint name Miṣr, on the present and Paris specimens, would seem definitely to negate this reading. In a sense this issue is Ṭūlūnid, and dinars of the same year struck at Miṣr without the word in question have been so classified by a number of writers,50 for Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn had already in 254 become the de facto ruler of Egypt. It would not be surprising if we had here the name of some Turkish official, but I can make no specific suggestion.

156. Al-Ahwāz. Year 259 A.H.=872/3 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة تسع و خمسين و مائتين

As above.

المعتمد على الله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 20.5mm., 4.23grm.

157. Ṣan'ā. Year 259 A.H.=872/3 A.D.

بصنعا سنة تسع و خمسين و مائتين

لله

محمد

رسول الله

المعتمد على الله

امير المؤمنين

Margin ends with كله.

Ꜹ. UM. 20mm., 2.90grm. (pierced) Plate VII

158. Surra man-ra'a. Year 263 A.H.=876/7 A.D.

بسر من راي سنة ثلث و ستين و مائتين

/المفوض الى الله

المعتمد على الله/لله

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 22.5mm., 3.32grm.

159. Qumm. Year 282 A.H.=895/6 A.D.

بقم سنة اثنتين و ثمنين و مائتين

المعتضد بالله/لله

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 19.5mm., 4.16grm. (pierced)

This is apparently the earliest known dinar of Qumm, a rare 'Abbāsid mint. The earliest heretofore known is one in the Ermitage dated 284 (Markov, p. 916, No. 885a).

160. Ḥarrān. Year 284 A.H.=897 A.D.

نحران سنة اربع و ثمنين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 23.5mm., 3.97grm.

Plate VII

This is, so far as I am aware, the earliest known 'Abbāsid coin of Ḥarrān.

161. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 284 A.H.=897 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة اربع و ثمنين و مائتين

Outer margin ends with image

As above.

Ꜹ. ANS. 22mm., 3.88grm.

162. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 288 A.H.= 900/1 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة ثمان و ثمنين و مائتين

Outer margin ends with image

As above.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Nies Coll.). 24mm., 4.14grm.

163. Filasṭīn. Year 291 A.H.=904 A.D. بفلسطين سنة احدي و تسعين و مائتين

/ولى الدولة

المكتفى بالله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 23mm., 3.44grm.

Plate VII

One other specimen of this interesting issue is known.51 The absence of the Ṭūlūnid ruler's name proclaims the reconquest of Filasṭīn (al-Ramlah) by the 'Abbāsid forces. A Ṭūlūnid dinar struck by Hārūn b. Khumārawaih at Filasṭīn earlier in the same year has been published.52 The present coin must have been struck sometime after May in the year 904, for it was in Rajab, 291 (May/June, 904) that the general Muḥammad b. Sulaymān was sent by the Caliph to recover Syria for the 'Abbāsids. Just when al-Ramlah was captured I have not been able to determine, but at all events the coin establishes the fact that it was during the course of the year 291 (after Rajab) and before the first month of 292 (Nov., 904), when Muḥammad b. Sulaymān started from Syria "toward the border of Egypt to combat Hārūn b. Khumārawaih." By Rabī' I, 292 (Jan., 905), Fusṭāṭ in Egypt had been retaken by the 'Abbāsids.53

Wali al-Dawlah (beneath the obverse area) was the title of the Vizier abū'l-Ḥusayn al-Qāsim b. 'Ubaydullāh.54

164. Niṣībīn. Year 292 A.H.=904/5 A.D.

بنصيبين سنة اثنتين و تسعين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 23mm., 4.30grm.

165. Iṣbahān. Year 293 A.H.=905/6 A.D.

باصبهان سنة ثلث و تسعين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex. Nies Coll.). 22mm., 4.17grm.

166. Iṣbahān. Year 293 A.H.= 905/6 A.D.

Similar to No. 55, but • beneath obverse area.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 22mm., 4.24grm.

Plate VII

These two dinars of Iṣbahān are exceptionally rare. To my knowledge only one other 'Abbāsid dinar of the famous Persian city has been published: 300 A.H., Markov, p. 978, No. 934(a).

167. Filasṭīn. Year 293 A.H.=905/6 A.D.

بفلسطين سنة ثلث و تسعين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 23mm., 377grm.

One specimen of this issue has been published but not fully described.55

168. Al-Mawṣil Year 293 A.H.=905/6 A.D.

بموصل سنة ثلث و تسعين و مائتين/•

As above.

Ꜹ. ANS. (ex Newell Coll.). 22.5 mm. 4.13grm.

Plate VII

Mosul is also a very rare 'Abbāsid dinar mint. I am aware of only two other issues: 263 A.H. (Constantinople II, No. 938) and 278 A.H. (BM, i, No. 366).

169. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 294 A.H.= 906/7 A.D.

بالرافقة سنة اربع و تسعين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 24mm., 3.14grm.

170. Filasṭīn. Year 294 A.H.= 906/7 A.D.

بفلسطين سنة اربع و تسعين و مائتين

image As above.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 3.66grm. (pierced) Plate VII

One specimen of this issue has been published but not described (Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197).

171. Dimishq. Year 295 A.H.= 907/8 A.D.

بدمشق سنة خمس و تسعين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Nies Coll.). 21.5mm., 4.10grm.

172. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 295 A.H.= 907/8 A.D.

سنة خمس و تسعين و مائتين (sic) بالرفقة

/•• As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 25.5mm., 2.98grm.

173. Al-Karaj. Year 295 A.H.=907/8 A.D.

بالكرج سنة خمس و تسعين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 23mm., 4.00grm.

Plate VII

Al-Karaj (usually read al-Karkh) is an exceptionally rare mint, and this dinar is by thirteen years the earliest known.56 Lavoix, Markov, Codrington and Allan read the name as al-Karkh, and in this form it appears in Codrington's Manual, identified as "part of Baghdad." I cannot believe that this is an acceptable identification: Karkh was a suburb of Baghdad and the presence of a mint there, so close to the capital, would be very unlikely.57 I submit, without proof to be sure, that the mint is Karaj, that is the Karaj "of abi-Dulaf" between Hamadhān and Iṣbahān.58 The few Arabic lead seals that have been published establish the fact that Karaj, the capital of the petty dynasty of the Dulafids, was an administrative and fiscal center during the second half of the third century of the Hijrah.59 We have, unfortunately, no Dulafid coins of Karaj to support the argument, but it would certainly not be surprising if one should turn up, for the Dulafid generals did issue coins at Iṣbahān, Fārs, Māh al-Kūfah, Hamadhān, and (?) Muḥammadīyah,60 and the presence of a mint at the seat of their principality is to be expected. Ten years before the present issue the 'Abbīsid government reassumed control over the territory administered for more than half a century by the Dulafids, and if my supposition be correct, we have in this coin evidence of the continuation of Karaj as an administrative center after it had been "put on the map," so to speak, by the Dulafids. By the time of the author of the Ḥudūd al-'Ālam (372 A.H.=982 A.D.), the Karaj of abi-Dulaf was mostly in ruins.61

174. Dimishq. Year 297 A.H.=909/10 A.D.

بدمشق سنة سبع و تسعين و مائتين

المقتدر بالله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 25mm., 4.12grm.

Plate VII

175. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 297 A.H.=909/10 A.D.

بالرافقة سنة سبع و تسعين و مائتين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 25mm., 3.52grm. (pierced)

176. Dimishq. Year 298 A.H.=910/1 AD.

بدمشق سنة ثمان و تسعين و مائتين

/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 24mm., 3.67grm. (pierced)

177. Ṣan'ā. Year 299 A.H.=911/2 A.D.

(sic) بصنعا سنة تسع و تسعـ

As above.

Margin ends with كله.

Ꜹ. ANS 20mm., 2.82grm.

178. Miṣr. Year 299 A.H.=911/2 A.D.

بمصر سنة تسع و تسعين و مائتين

ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

المقتدر بالله/لله •

Very lightly struck.

Ꜹ. UM. 25.5mm., 4.18grm.

There is a specimen of the same mint and date in the British Museum (Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197, not described).

179. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 301 A.H.=913/4 A.D.

بالرافقة سنة احدي و ثلثمائة

/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

المقتدر بالله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 27.5mm., 4.23grm. (part of edge broken or clipped) Plate VII

Although there are dirhams of later date this appears to be the last known dinar of al-Rāfiqah.

180. Miṣr. Year 303 A.H.=915/6 A.D.

بمصر سنة ثلث و ثلثمائة

As above.

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 25mm., 4.04grm.

181. Dimishq. Year 306 A.H.=918/9 A.D.

بدمشق سنة ست و ثلثمائة

As above.

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 24mm., 3.78grm. (pierced)

182. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 307 A.H.= 919/20 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة سبع و ثلثمائة

As above.

المقتدر بالله/لله

image

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 24mm., 3.88grm.

Plate VII

The two published specimens of this issue have not been fully described (Markov, p. 51, No. 956; Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197).

183. Sūq al-Ahwāz. Year 308 A.H.=920/1 A.D.

بسوق الاهواز سنة ثمان و ثلثمائة

As above.

المقتدر باله/لله

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Nies Coll.). 25.5mm., 6.37grm.

Plate VII

This is, I believe, the earliest known dinar of Sūq al-Ahwāz. The weight is exceptional.

184. Tustar min-al-Ahwāz. Year 309 A.H.=921/2 A.D.

بتستر من الاهواز سنة تسع و ثلثمائة

As above. As above.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 3.77grm.

Two specimens of this issue are known, but neither is fully described (Lane-Poole, "Fasti Arabici: Mr. Calvert's Collection," NC, 1885, No. 9; Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197).

185. Sūq al-Ahwāz. Year 309 A.H.=921/2 A.D.

بسوق الاهواز سنة تسع و ثلثمائة

As above.

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 25mm., 4.19grm.

186. Al-Ahwāz. Year 312 A.H.= 924/5 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة اثنتى عشرة و ثلثمائة

As above.

As above.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 4.42grm.

According to Tiesenhausen (No. 2305), Fraehn listed, but did not describe, a dinar of this mint and date "in the British Museum," but this appears to have been an error, probably for Sūq al-Ahwāz.

187. Miṣr. Year 313 A.H.=925/6 A.D.

بمصر سنة ثلث عشرة و ثلثمائة

image

المقتدر بالله/لله •

Ꜹ. UM. 25mm., 4.02grm.

Specimens of other dies of this issue, with different arrangements of the pellets, have been published.

188. Hamadhān. Year 313 A.H.=925/6 A.D.

بهمذان سنة ثلث عشرة و ثلثمائة

/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

المقتدر بالله/لله

image

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 3.96grm.

Plate VIII

Tiesenhausen (No. 2311) lists an undescribed dinar of this mint and date.

189. Miṣr. Year 314 A.H.=926/7 A.D.

بمصر سنة اربع عشرة و ثلثمائة

As above.

المقتدر بالله/لله •

Ꜹ. UM. 24.5mm., 4.27grm.

A specimen in Berlin (No. 1657) apparently has three pellets beneath the reverse; another in the British Museum (Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197) is not described in full.

190. Ardabīl. Year 318 A.H.=930 A.D.

باردبيل ثمان سنة عشرة و ثلث مائة

image

لله

محمد

▬ • ▬

رسول

الله

المقتدر بالله

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 22mm., 3.64grm.

Plate VIII

A specimen in the British Museum (Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197) is not fully described.

From the historical point of view this is an interesting and valuable coin, for it records the restoration of purely 'Abbāsid control in Azerbaijan during the complicated marches and counter-marches involving the Sājid princes and several 'Abbāsid governors. Vasmer has traced in minute detail the developments of this involved period.62

191. Bardha'ah. Year 318 A.H.=930 A.D.

ببرذعة سنة ثمان عشرة و ثلث مائة

▬ ▬/•

ابو العباس بن

امير المؤمنين

لله

محمد

رسول

الله

المقتدر بالله

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 22mm., 4.16grm.

Plate VIII

This is, I believe, the unique purely 'Abbāsid dinar of Bardha'ah, the capital of Arrān, north of Azerbaijan. It reflects the same political situation as that recorded in No. 190 above. A number of Sājid dinars of Bardha'ah are known, and there are of course 'Abbāsid dirhams of the same mint, but this would appear to be the only Bardha'ah dinar not struck by the petty dynasts, and not bearing the name of one of the Caliph's mawlas, Waṣīf or Mufliḥ al-Yūsufi.63 This specimen, I think, should establish the fact that Mufliḥ's governorship began during the course of the year 320, and before the 27th of Shawwāl in that year, for there are dinars and dirhams of Ardabīl of 320 A.H.64 bearing his name and that of the Caliph al-Muqtadir who was killed on the day mentioned.

192. Tustar min-al-Ahwāz. Year 318 A.H.=930 A.D.

بتستر من الاهواز سنة ثمان عشرة و ثلثمائة

•/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

المقتدر بالله/لله

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 4.26grm.

One specimen of this issue has been published but not fully described.65

193. Filasṭīn. Year 319 A.H.=931 A.D.

بفلسطين سنة تسع عشرة و ثلثمائة

/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

As above.

Ꜹ. UM. 24mm., 4.06grm.

A specimen of this issue has been published but not fully described.66

194. Miṣr. Year 319 A.H.=931 A.D.

بمصر سنة تسع عشرة و ثلثمائة

As above.

المقتدر بالله/لله •

Ꜹ. UM. 24.5mm., 4.02grm.

This specimen differs from published examples in the presence of the pellet beneath the reverse.67

195. Miṣr. Year 319 A.H.=931 A.D.

Margin as above.

/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

المقتدر بالله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 24mm., 3.85grm.

196-198. Al-Ahwāz. Year 320 A.H.=932 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة عشرين و ثلثمائة

/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

لله/
المقتدر بالله
عميد الدولة

3 specimens: Ꜹ. ANS (2 ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 25mm., 25mm.; 4.30grm., 3.39grm., 5.17grm.

Plate VIII (No. 198)

A similar (?) specimen in the Ermitage68 is not described. 'Amīd al-Dawlah was the title of the Vizier abu-'Ali al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim.69

199. No mint. No date (Al-Muqtadir, 295-320 A.H.=908-932 A.D.).

Nandi, sacred bull of ḳiva, reclining left; above, بالله المقتدر.

Horseman, in coat of mail(?), helmeted, riding horse to left; above, جعفر لله.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 19mm., 3.60grm. (about ¼ fragment lacking) Plate VIII

This is, to my knowledge, the only gold specimen of these extraordinary issues of the Kabul "bull and horseman" type. The silver dirhams of the same type have most recently been discussed by John Walker, who tends toward the view that these coins were "propaganda pieces purposely struck by the Caliph's moneyers in Iraq, in order to win the approval of the Hindu tribes of the Kabul Valley."70 The present unique dinar is not from the same dies as the silver specimens in the ANS (see below, Nos. 348-9), but is otherwise of identical design.

200. Tustar min-al-Ahwāz. Year 321 A.H.=933 A.D.

بتستر من الاهواز سنة احدي و عشرين و ثلثمائة

•/ابو القاسم بن
امير المؤمنين

القاهر بالله/لله

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 23.5mm., 4.85grm.

Zambaur published but did not describe fully a specimen of this mint and date.71

201. Miṣr. Year 322 A.H.=934 A.D.

بمصر سنة اثنتين و عشرين و ثلثمائة

•/

الراضى بالله/لله

Ꜹ. UM. 23mm., 3.86grm.

There are two published specimens of this issue, but one lacks the pellet and the other is not fully described.72

202. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 329 A.H.=940 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة تسع و عشرين و ثلثمائة

/ابو الفضل بن
امير المؤمنين

الراضى بالله/لله

image

Ꜹ. UM. 22mm., 4.14grm.

203. Mint? Year 336 A.H.=947/8 A.D.

بسر سنة ست و ثلثين و ثلثمائة

لله

محمد

رسول الله

المطيع لله

Margin undeciphered, possibly meaningless.

Ꜹ. UM. 22.5mm., 2.76grm.

Plate VIII

This is a very strange coin, exceptionally thin and underweight, and engraved with bold and clumsy characters. I have had to abandon the attempt to read the name of the mint in spite of the fact that it is quite clearly written. It consists of five "teeth" and a final letter with a tail which is probably a ra, za, or nun. Allowing one tooth for the preposition we are confronted with four "teeth" and a final letter: even if we take three of the "teeth" to be a sin or shin, we still have a bewildering number of possibilities. In Yāqūt I find many names whose letters would conform to these possibilities, but none of them seems a likely site for a mint. As a last resort one might argue that the die-engraver inadvertently omitted one tooth in writing Tustar. As for the reverse margin I can make nothing of it: it does not appear to be a conventionalization of the "Prophetic Mission."

The coins of al-Muṭī', other than those of other dynasties on which he is recognized as Caliph, are excessively rare.73

There follows a group of late 'Abbāsid dinars, most of them similar to published specimens but differing in a lesser or greater degree from them in respect to their weights. For the study of the metrology of the late 'Abbāsid period the following list should be of some use. As the legends differ in no way from the known dinars of al-Nāṣir, al-Mustanṣir and al-Musta'ṣim, epigraphical description is omitted.

204. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 611 A.H.=1214/5 A.D.

Ꜹ. ANS-MMA (ex Durkee Coll.). 31mm., 7.19grm.

205. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 612 A.H.=1215/6 A.D.

Ꜹ. UM. 29.5mm., 6.84grm.

206-207. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 613 A.H.=1216/7 A.D.

Ꜹ. UM. 30.5mm., 12.39grm.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 30mm., 11.56grm.

208. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 615 A.H.=1218/9 A.D.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 24.5mm., 4.69grm. (pierced)

209. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 620 A.H.=1223 A.D.

Ꜹ. UM. 30mm., 7.60grm.

210. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 622 A.H.=1225 A.D. Al-Nāṣir.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27mm., 3.78grm.

211. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 638 A.H.=1240/1 A.D.

Ꜹ. ANS-MMA (ex Durkee Coll.). 24.5mm., 7.81grm.

This year appears to be unpublished.

212. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 641 A.H.=1243/4 A.D.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 28mm., 8.73grm.

213-214. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 642 A.H.=1244/5 A.D.

Ꜹ. ANS-MMA (ex Durkee Coll.). 29mm., 11.17grm.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 28mm., 4.68grm. (ringed)

215. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 643 A.H.=1245/6 A.D.

Ꜹ. UM. 28.5mm., 11.98grm.

216. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 645 A.H.=1247/8 A.D.

Ꜹ. ANS-MMA (ex Durkee Coll.). 27mm., 9.34grm.

217. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 648 A.H.=1250/1 A.D.

Ꜹ. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 27.5mm., 5.32grm. (ringed)

218. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 654 A.H.=1256 A.D.

Ꜹ. ANS-MMA (ex Durkee Coll.). 26.5mm., 13.07grm.

219. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 656 A.H.=1258 A.D.

Ꜹ. UM. 26.5mm., 8.90grm.

I am aware of only one other specimen74 of this the last of 'Abbāsid coins. It must have been struck in the first six weeks of the year, for al-Musta'ṣim was put to death and the 'Abbāsid empire brought to an end by the Mongol Hūlāgū on the 14th of Ṣafar, 656.

End Notes

45a
E. of I., s.v. Sāmarrā.
43
At the date of writing there are 120 'Abbāsid dinars in the Museum of the American Numismatic Society; the University Museum Collection contains 206. Of these the specimens described in the following pages are worthy of notice; the rest are well-known, or relatively well-known, issues.
44
The American Numismatic Society. Museum Notes III (1948), Nos. 9, 14, 21, 23, 32, 43, 57, 60, 61, 68, 69, 83, 84, 85, 96, 104, 121, 126, 131, 136, 138, 141, 143, 144, 147, 148 and 160.
45
Dinar, 231, A.H., Berlin , No. 1449; dirham, 224 A.H., Ties., No. 1860.
46
J. Allan, "Unpublished Coins of the Caliphate," NC, 1919, p. 196.
47
Berlin , No. 1512; Harvey Porter, "Unpublished Coins of the Caliphate," NC, 1921, p. 322, lacking the ornament or letter beneath the obverse area. Since the above was written, M. Marcel Jungfleisch has made mention of a similar dinar of Miṣr, 225 A.H., with inscriptions effaced on the dies ("Un poids et une estampille sur verre datant d'Ahmed ibn Touloun," Bulletin de l'Institut d'Égypte, XXX (1948), p. 5, footnote (2), of the reprint). There and in recent correspondence with me, M. Jungfleisch has suggested that the explanation of the mutilation may not be as simple as the one I have advanced. Deleting the lines on the old dies would have been almost as much trouble as engraving entirely new ones. The true explanation may lie in political complexities which cannot be discussed here.
48
E. T. Rogers, "Notice on the Dinars of the Abbaside Dynasty," JRAS, 1875, p. 22 of reprint; Paris, No. 1020, where Lavoix refers to the specimen described by Rogers but says that the word beneath the reverse is different from that on the specimen in the Bibliothèque Nationale. I believe it is the same.
49
Khedivial Library, No. 619.
50
E.g., E. T. Rogers, The Coins of the Ṭúlúni Dynasty (London, 1877), p. 17.
51
Markov, p. 49, No. 904, not described.
52
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 324; cf. E. Zambaur, "Neue Khalifenmünzen," NZ (Wien), 1922, p. 9.
53
Ṭabari III, pp. 2248, 2251-2; cf. Ibn-Khaldūn, IV, p. 310; also H. A. R. Gibb, s.v. Ṭūlūnids, in the E. of I., and E. T. Rogers, The Coins of the Ṭúlúni Dynasty, p. 13.
54
For this identification and a discussion of the title, see Fraehn, apud Ties., No. 2175, and the sources quoted there.
55
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 324; cf. Zambaur, NZ, 1922, p. 9.
56
308 A.H. ( Paris , No. 1130; Markov, p. 52, No. 965); 315 A.H. ( Paris , No. 1131); 318 A.H. (O. Codrington, "Some Rare Oriental Coins," NC, 1902, p. 272); 321 A.H. (Markov, p. 54, No. 1025); date effaced (al-Qāhir), 320-322 A.H. (Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197).
57
Yāqūt, IV, p. 254; cf. Le Strange, Lands, p. 31. Zambaur (NZ, 1922, pp. 10-11) also accepts the reading al-Karkh and the identification as a "Quartier der Hauptstadt." There is, as a matter of fact, no reason to assume that Karkh, reading the name so, is the Karkh of Baghdad: Yāqūt lists half a dozen Karkhs, including those of Baṣrah, Sāmarrā, Maysān, etc.
58
Yāqūt, IV, p. 251; cf. Le Strange, op. cit., pp. 197-8. This Karaj is to be distinguished from that in the Rūdhrāwar district, between Hamadhān and Nihāwand: see G. C. Miles, "The Coinage of the Kākwayhid Dynasty," Iraq, V, pt. 2 (1938), p. 104.
59
Khalīl Edhem, Qūrshūn mühür qatāloǧi (Constantinople, 1321), pp. 20ff.
60
Cf. Markov, and R. R. Vasmer, Dva klada kuficheskikh monet (Leningrad, 1927), p. 46. My doubts about the Dulafid issues of al-Muḥammadīyah have been expressed in NHR, p. 128.
61
Ḥudūd al-'Ālam, transl. V. Minorsky (E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series, N.S. XI (1937), p. 132.
62
R. R. Vasmer, "O monetakh Sadjidov," in lzvestia obschestva obssledavannya i izuchennya Azerbaidjana, No. 5, pp. 22-51; see especially p. 44, where the BM specimen is taken into account. Cf. also NHR, pp. 142ff.
63
Cf. a dinar of Bardha'ah, dated 323, struck by the latter, cited by Vasmer, op. cit., p. 44, No. 27.
64
Ibid.
65
Lane-Poole, NC, 1885 (op. cit.), No. 9a.
66
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 325; cf. Zambaur, NZ, 1922, p. 10.
67
Paris, No. 1145; Khedivial Library, Nos. 668, 668A.
68
Markov, p. 54, No. 1019.
69
Cf. Ties., No. 2357.
70
"Islamic Coins with Hindu Types," NC, 1946, pp. 121-128. The full bibliography of previously published dirhams of this type is given in the course of this article. Cf. A. S. Altekar, "A Bull and Horseman Type of Coin of the Abbasid Caliph al Muqtadir Biliah [sic!] Ja'afar," in JNSI, VIII, pt. I, pp. 75-78.
71
E. von Zambaur, "Nouvelles Contributions à la Numismatique Orientale," NZ, 1914, p. 120, No. 420.
72
Khedivial Library, No. 693; Ties., No. 2929(a).
73
Cf. BM, i, No. 478; Paris , Nos. 1268-9.

B. Silver 75

220. Anṭākiyah. Year 138 (?) A.H.=755/6 (?) A.D.

بانطاكية سنة ثمان وثلثين و مئة

Annulets: ○◦◦◦○◦◦◦○◦◦

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 3.98grm.

Plate VIII

An almost certainly identical coin was published by Fraehn,76 who read the date as 188 or 168, and the mint بالدليكة, which he suggested might be for الدليكان, but he left the problem unsolved. The date is admittedly equivocal: the second stroke of the decade is not as high as it should be for lam, but no other reading than thirty is possible, unless it be eighty, but in that case one would have to assume that the mim had been written as a simple stroke. I have little doubt that 138 is correct, for the style of the coin and the epigraphy is definitely of that period. As for the mint I must confess that I spent many hours hunting for some likely interpretation of what appears to be image or image or image. The mystery was tantalizing particularly in view of the fact that one would not be likely to encounter a completely unknown town as a mint early in the 'Abbāsid period. It finally dawned on me that the mint, like the date, is somewhat clumsily written, and that the second letter, being slightly more elongated than it should be, is a nun, and not the expected lam of the definite article. Likewise, the kaf is faultily engraved at the right, giving the impression that there is a "tooth" before it; and finally the ya is almost imperceptible. Admittedly these adjustments are numerous, but I am quite confident that Anṭākiyah is intended.

If this reading be correct, the issue is the sole evidence of the existence of a Muslim mint at Antioch before the beginning of the fourth century of the Hijrah.77 The establishment of a mint in this important city in early 'Abbāsid days might well be expected, but the reason for its abandonment for nearly two centuries must be a matter for speculation.

221. Iṣṭakhr. Year 139 A.H.=756/7 A.D.

باصطخر سنة تسع و ثلثين و مئة

Annulets: ◦○◦ ◦◦ ◦○◦ ◦◦ ◦○◦ ◦◦

image. ANS. 25mm., 2.85grm.

Plate VIII

To my knowledge the only other 'Abbāsid dirham of Iṣṭakhr is one dated 140 A.H.78

222. Al-Kūfah. Year 141 A.H.=758/9 A.D.

بالكوفة سنة احدي و اربعين و مئة

Annulets: ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦ ○◦◦

image. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 26.5mm., 2.61grm. All published specimens that I have met with have ∴.

223. Arrān. Year 146 A.H.=763/4 A.D.

باران سنة ست و اربعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦

image. ANS. 27mm., 2.89grm.

This is the second known 'Abbāsid issue of Arrān. A specimen was listed by Bartholomae in 1862.79

224. Arrān. Year 149 A.H.=766/7 A.D.

باران سنة تسع و اربعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦

image. ANS. 26.5mm., 2.86grm.

225. Al-Muḥammadīyah. Year 149 A.H.=766/7 A.D.

Described in NHR, No. 51 C. The letter beneath the reverse area differs in shape from the usual variety.

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 26mm., 2.81grm.

226. Al-Muḥammadīyah. Year 157 A.H.=773/4 A.D.

بالمحمدية سنة سبع و خمسين و مئة

مما امر به

المهدي محمد

بن امير المؤمنين

عـ

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦

image. UM. 27mm., 2.71grm.

Mint and date are very badly written, but I am quite confident that they have been read correctly. This coin fills in a blank in the Rayy series. In NHR (p. 37) I rejected an unpublished dirham of this year which I had seen in the Istanbul Museum, but I believe it may now be accepted. Furthermore Tornberg's dirham of 159 is probably a specimen of the year 157.80

227. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 162 A.H.=778/9 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة اثنتين و ستين و مئة

Annulets: ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦


محمد رسول

الله صلى الله

عليه و سلم

الخليفة المهدي

••

image. ANS. 24mm, 2.87grm.

This variety, with this particular arrangement of pellets, appears to be unpublished.

228. Al-' Abbāsīyah. Year 168 A.H.=784/5 A.D.

بالعباسية سنة ثمان و ستين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦◦

يزيد/خلف

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 2.50grm.

On an apparently similar specimen, Fraehn read حلعـ/يزيد.81

229. Al-Muḥammadīyah. Year 168 A.H.=784/5 A.D.

سنة ثمان و ستين و مئة (sic) لمحمدرسة

Annulets: ○◦◦○◦◦○◦◦

image. ANS (ex Nies Coll.). 26mm., 2.66grm.

This curious coin has been described and illustrated in NHR, No. 68C.

230. No mint. No date.

Obverse area enclosed by chain border. No marginal legend.

image

محمد رسول

الله مما امر به

الامير يحيى

بن الربيع

بخ

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦?

No marginal legend.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 12mm., 0.50grm.

Plate VIII

I have not been able to identify the governor, Yaḥyā b. al-Rabī'; his name does not appear in the early chronicles.82 Fractional dirhams are rare, and the absence of mint and date is quite extraordinary. I have placed this coin here because of its similarity in style to the coins issued during al-Mahdi's rule. It must, at all events, be datable in the second half of the second century of the Hijrah.

231-232. Al-Yamāmah. Year 170 A.H.=786/7 A.D.

باليمامة سنة سبعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦ ◦◦◦ ◦ ◦◦◦ ◦ ◦◦◦

محمد رسول الله

صلى الله عليه

و سلم الخليفة موسى

بخ بخ

2 specimens: image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 26mm., 25mm.; 2.94grm., 2.82grm. This appears to be an unpublished issue and the latest striking of this short-lived mint.

233. Al-Hārūnīyah. Year 170 A.H.=786/7 A.D.

بالهرونيةسنة سبعين و مئة

Annulets: ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦

جرير

محمد رسول الله

الخليفة المرضى

(⸮) مما امر به هرون

امير المؤمنين

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 25mm., 2.70grm.

Plate VIII

There is a bewildering number of issues at this mint during the three years (169-171 A.H.) of its existence. Of the year 170 alone I reckon at least seven distinct issues.83 The present one appears to be the same as Berlin, No. 1240 (= Ties., No. 1118?), and I publish it here only because it may assist in untangling the whole series. The name at the top is doubtful; and هرون in the fourth line of the reverse is equally so.

234. Ifrīqīyah. Year 173 A.H.=789/90 A.D.

بافريقية سنة ثلث وسبعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦

Above and in annulet border: يزيد

عـ

محمد رسول

الله

الخليفة هرون

روح

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 2.78grm.

This specimen differs from the published varieties.84

235. Al-Mubārakah. Year 174 A.H.=790/1 A.D.

بالمباركة اربع و سبعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ (apparently)

نصر/ع

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 25.5mm., 2.55grm.

Note the omission of the word sanah.

236. Al-Muḥammadīyah. Year 174 A.H.=790/1 A.D.

بالمحمدية سنة اربع و سبعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦

image. ANS (ex W◦◦d Coll.). 25.5mm., 2.90grm.

This coin has been described in NHR, No. 74B.

237. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 176 A.H.=792/3 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة ست و سبعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦

/ـه

image. GCM (Istanbul, 1933). 22mm., 1.67grm.

Plate VIII

This is an extremely rare year in the otherwise plentiful series of Baghdad. I am aware of only one other specimen, a fragment found in a hoard in East Prussia in 1866.85

238. Al-Muḥammadīyah. Year 178 A.H.=794/5 A.D.

بالمحمدية سنة ثمان و سبعين و مئة

Annulets: ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦

image. ANS. 25mm., 2.84grm.

This coin has been described in NHR, No. 79A.

239. Al-Kūfah. Year 180 A.H.=796/7 A.D.

بالكوفة سنة ثمنين و مئة

Annulets: image

محمد رسول الله

مما امر به الامير الامين

محمد بن امير المؤمنين

جعفر

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 2.84grm.

I am aware of only one other specimen of this issue.86

240. Ṣan'ā. Year 185 A.H.=801 A.D.

بصنعا سنة خمس و ثمنين و مئة

/∴

Annulets: ◦◦◦ (rest effaced)

حماد/ minute groups of letters

image. ANS. 18.5mm., 1.28grm.

Plate VIII

One specimen of this fractional dirham has been published.87 Ḥammād (al-Barbari) was governor of Mecca and the Yaman in 184 A H., and this coin establishes the fact that he was also in office in 185.88

241. Al-Muḥammadīyah. Year 186 A.H.=802 A.D.

بالمحمدية سنة ست وثمنين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦◦

image. ANS. 24mm., 2.90grm.

This coin is described in NHR, No. 87F.

242. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 186 A.H.=802 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة ست و ثمنين و مئة

Annulets: ◦ ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦

محمد رسول الله

مما امر به الامير الامين

محمد بن امير المؤمنين

جعفر

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 2.93grm.

This specimen is unique unless Tornberg's و above the reverse area89 is in fact ه as here.

243. Madīnat Balkh. Year 193 A.H.=809 A.D.

بمدينة بلخ سنة ثلث و تسعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦ (rest effaced)

هرثمة

محمد رسول الله

صلى الله عليه و سلم

الخليفة الرشيد

الحكم

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 2.56grm. (frag. lacking)

The reverse area legends are similar to those on an issue of Zaranj of the year 19290; and the full names of Harthamah b. Ā'yan and al-Ḥakam b. Sinān are present on a coin of the same mint struck in the following year.91

244. Madīnat Nīsābūr. Year 193 A.H.=809 A.D.

بمدينة نيسابور سنة ثلث و تسعين و مئة

Point under ba of ḍuriba.

Annulets: image

لله

محمد رسول الله

مما امر به الامير المأمون

ولى عهد المسلمين

عبد الله بن امير المؤمنين

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 21.5mm., 3.95grm.

This specimen differs from BM, i, No. 245, in that it lacks the name 'Uthmān beneath the reverse area; and from Ties., No. 1560, in the presence of the point under the ba of ḍuriba. Another specimen lacking the name 'Uthmān was found in the Stora Velinge hoard.92

245. Ma'din Bājunais. Year 194 A.H.=809/10 A.D.

بمعدن باجنيس سنة اربع و تسعين و مئة

Annulets: ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦ ○ ◦◦

محمد رسول الله

مما امر به الخليفة

محمد امير المؤمنين

عبيد

image. ANS. 23.5mm., 3.09grm.

Similar to Ties., No. 2820.

246. Madīnat Samarqand. Year 195 A.H.=810/1 A.D.

بمدينة سمرقند سنة خمس و تسعين و مئة

ح/image

Annulets: image

لله

عـ

محمد رسول الله

مما امر به الامام

المأمون امير المؤمنين

الفضل

image

image. ANS. 24mm., 2.51grm.

This coin differs in several respects from all published specimens of this year and mint.

247. Ma'din Bājunais. Year 195 AH.=810/1 A.D.

بمعدن باجنيس سنة خمس و تسعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦ ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦

داود

محمد رسول الله

مما امر به الخليفة

محمد امير المؤمنين

صرد

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 2.68grm.

Similar to Ties., No, 1604.

248. Madīnat Harāt. Year 195 A.H.=810/1 A.D.

بمدينة هرات سنة خمس و تسعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦

لله

محمد رسول

الله مما امر به

الامام المأمون

الفضل

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 23.5mm., 2.82grm.

This specimen differs in minor detail from one in the British Museum.93

249. Madīnat Balkh. Year 196 A.H.=811/2 A.D.

بمدينة بلخ سنة ست و تسعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦◦

As above, but large pellet beneath al-Faḍl (none above), and point over of al-Faḍl.

image. ANS (ex Nies Coll.). 24mm., 2.84grm.

This specimen differs in detail from published varieties.

250. Madīnat Samarqand. Year 196 A.H.=811/2 A.D.

بمدينة سمرقند سنة ست و تسعين و مئة

ح/image

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦◦ ◦◦ ◦◦◦

لله

محمد رسول الله

مما امر به الامام

المأمون امير المؤمنين

الفضل

image

image. ANS (W◦◦d Coll.). 25mm., 2.80grm.

There are several published varieties of this mint and date, but none like this in detail.

251. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 197 A.H.=812/3 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة سبع و تسعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦

ربى الله

محمد

رسول الله

الخليفة الامين

◦◦◦

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 2.90grm.

As in the year 176 (see No. 237 above) specimens of the Baghdad mint for 197 are excessively and curiously rare. The only other published coin that has come to my attention94 appears to bear the name of al-Ma'mūn as Caliph, but I find this description difficult to credit. The present coin, at all events, would appear to be the last issue of al-Amīn at the capital.

252. Dimishq. Year 198 A.H.=813/4 A.D.

بدمشق سنة ثمان و تسعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦

Blurred word in third quarter of annulet border.

محمد

محمد رسول الله

الامام المأمون

عبد الله امير المؤمنين

بن بيهس

image. ANS. 25mm., 2.83grm.

Plate VIII

'Abbāsid coins of Damascus are remarkably rare. Not only is this coin apparently unpublished but of proximate years I have noted only one specimen of the year 194 and two of the year 200.95 The present issue is the first of a series of dirhams issued by an individual named Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ b. Bayhas al-Kilābi, who calls himself simply Muḥammad b. Bayhas on the coins. The numismatic record is not only satisfactory confirmation, but in some respects valuable elaboration, of the somewhat vague accounts in the chronicles of developments in and about Damascus at the turn of the century.

The coin evidence begins with the present dirham, dated 198 A.H. There follow issues of the years 200, 204, 205, 208 and 209, all bearing the name of Muḥammad b. Bayhas.96 The next known issue, of the year 211, bears no name.97 According to the historical account, Ibn-Bayhas, as he is usually called,98 first appears on the scene toward the end of the year 195 A.H. as the leader of the 'Abbāsid forces opposing the Umayyad pretender 'Ali b. 'Abdullāh al-Sufyāni, who in his attempt to seize the Caliphate and aided by the Kalbite faction, t◦◦k possession of the principal cities of northern Syria. The issue became one of Kalbite-Kaisite rivalry, and we next learn that Ibn-Bayhas besieged Damascus whose Kaisite inhabitants surrendered the city to him, while al-Sufyāni escaped in women's clothes. This event t◦◦k place in Muḥarram of the year 198. Ibn-Bayhas became the "Lord of Damascus" (witness the coins), and "remained there until 'Abdullāh b. Ṭāhir came to Damascus."99

Now I have failed to find exact mention of the date when the famous Ṭāhirid general and statesman "came to Damascus," but it seems fairly well established that al-Ma'mūn appointed him governor of all the territory lying between Raqqah and Egypt in 206 A.H.100 The chronicles then say, apropos of Ibn-Bayhas, that 'Abdullāh b. Ṭāhir thereupon went to Egypt, returned to Damascus and t◦◦k Ibn-Bayhas with him to 'Irāq, "where he died."101

'Abdullāh b. Ṭāhir's return from Egypt and march to 'Irāq appears to have been toward the end of the year 211.102 The only discordant factor in this chronology is a report to the effect that Ibn-Bayhas died in 210,103 but I think we must assume that this is in error. Otherwise, with one exception which I come to below, the coins and the chronicles complement each other admirably; as I have noted above, the one known Damascus issue of the year 211 omits the name of Ibn-Bayhas.

The exception is a dirham of the year 203, listed by Porter among the coins in the University of Beirut Collection,104 the reverse of which bears inscriptions similar to the present coin with one important difference: محمد above, and بن هرون beneath. This would be Muḥammad, the son of Hārūn al-Rashīd, later the Caliph al-Mu'taṣim. Zambaur105 attempts to reconcile this issue with Muḥammad's (al-Mu'taṣim's) honorary governorship of Syria and Egypt ("allerdings etwas später"). But this was very considerably later—in 212.106 Is it not possible that Porter misread the words beneath the reverse? Otherwise this apparent interruption in Ibn-Bayhas' rule over Damascus is difficult to explain.

The blurred word in the obverse border is probably the same as that which appears on the specimens of the year 200 and that of the year 204, No. 257 infra, i.e., image. I do not know what it signifies. Can it be تبوك, Tabūk? Fraehn (Ties., No. 1705), reading it so, admitted that any connection with the famous place by that name was improbable, and suggested the possibility of a moneyer's name. Tabūk lay on the frontier between Arab and Byzantine lands in the early days of Islam, far to the south of Damascus; it was the farthest point to which Muḥammad advanced in the campaign of the year 9 A.H., and it was there that the Prophet won a bl◦◦dless victory and arrived at a treaty with the Christians and Jews, setting a precedent of far-reaching significance with respect to the payment of the jizyah.107 I can discover no other possible reading of the legend on the coin and can only suggest that we have here some obscure reference to the surrender of Damascus to Ibn-Bayhas, perhaps because his victory t◦◦ was bl◦◦dless (?).

253. Al-Kūfah. Year 199 A.H.=815 A.D.

بالكوفة سنة تسع و تسعين و مئة

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦◦

الاصفر/فاطمى

Margin: ان الله يحبّ الذّين يقتلون
فى سبيله صفّا كأنهم بنيا مرصوص

(Qur'ān, LXI, 4)

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 23.5mm., 2.85 grm.

Plate VIII

This remarkable issue has been described more than once,108 but in view of its curiosity and relative rarity this almost perfectly preserved specimen deserves publication here. Al-Aṣfar (beneath the reverse area) was the fictitious name of al-Sari b. Manṣūr (or Abu’l-Sarāyā), the famous ‘Alid brigand whose revolt of ten months disturbed the southern provinces of the empire in the early days of al-Ma’mūn’s reign. He called himself Fāṭimi because of his claimed ‘Alid descent. Of special interest in connection with this issue is the statement in the chronicles that Abu’l-Sarāyā struck dirhams at al-Kūfah.109 The Qur’ānic quotation reads: "Verily Allāh loves those who fight in his path, ranged in battle-ranks like a compact building."

254. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 200 A.H.=815/6 A.D.

بالرافقة سنة مئتين

•/

/طاهر

Annulets: ◦◦◦ ○ ◦◦◦ ○ ◦◦◦ ○

image. ANS. 25.5mm., 2.90grm.

Al-Rāfiqah is by no means a common dirham mint, except in the year 190 and later in the third century of the Hijrah; I find no published specimens with exact date preserved between the year 193 and the present one; then one in 208;110 and none again until the year 259. "Ṭāhir" must refer to Ṭāhir b. al-Ḥusayn (Dhū’l-Yamīnayn), at this time governor of al-Jazīrah and commander-in-chief in Syria.

255. Al-Kūfah. Year 201 A.H.=816/7 A.D.

بالكوفة سنة احدي و مائتين

Annulets: image◦◦◦image◦◦◦image◦◦◦

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 2.89grm.

The specimen of this year and mint described by Fraehn,111 differs from the present. Another piece listed by Casanova is not described.112

256. Samarqand. Year 202 A.H.=817/8 A.D.

بسمرقند سنة اثنى و مائتين

There are several errors or conventionalizations in the inner margin and the last line of the area.

Outer margin: Qur’ān, XXX, 3-4.

لله

محمد رسول الله

المأمون خليفة الله

مما امر به الامير الرضا

ولى عهد المسلمين على بن

موسى بن على بن ابى طالب

image. ANS (ex Starosselsky Coll.). 22mm., 2.04grm.

Plate VIII

The present specimen differs in the arrangement of the lines and in the absence of "al-Mashriq" and of "Dhū’l-Rī’āsatayn" from those cited by Tiesenhausen and that described by Lane-Poole.113 These remarkable issues of the Eighth Imām ‘Ali al-Riḍā as heir apparent of the Arab Empire are well known.114 Aside from its general historical interest the present coin is an epigraphical document of some importance, for we have here one of the earliest, if not the earliest, instance of the use of Naskhi characters on an Islamic coin. It will be noted that the digit "two" and the genealogy of al-Riḍā from the word ‘Ali in the fifth line of the reverse on to the end are engraved in cursive characters, an expedient caused by the reduced size of the coin and the consequent crowding of the long inscription. I do not believe the coin is a counterfeit—at least, if it is a counterfeit, it is a contemporary one, for the obverse outer margin, the reverse margin and the first part of the reverse area are in well-understood and clearly executed Kufic.

257. Dimishq. Year 204 A.H.=819/20 A.D.

بدمشق سنة اربع و مئتين

Annulets: ◦ ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦ ◦........

At top, in annulet border: image

محمد

محمد رسول الله

الامام المأمون

عبد الله امير المؤمنين

بن بيهس

Point under ba of bin and under ba of Bayhas.

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 24.5mm., 2.69grm.

Plate IX

This unique coin has been mentioned in the discussion of No. 252 above. The reader is referred to that discussion for the historical context of the present piece.

258. Al-Baṣrah. Year 205 A.H.=820/1 A.D.

بالبصرة سنة خمس و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān, XXX, 3-4, ending with annulet.

لله/

Five equidistant small pellets on thin circle enclosing marginal legend.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 2.93grm.

There is, I believe, only one other coin known of Baṣrah struck between the years 204 and 235.115

259. Madīnat Zaranj. Year 205 A.H. = 820/1 A.D.

بمدينة زرنج سنة خمس و مائتين

Annulets: image

اعين بن هرثمة/لله غسان

Annulets on double beaded circle between area and margin: image

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.87grm.

Plate IX

This dirham appears to be not only unique, but it is, with the exception of an isolated issue of nearly a century later,116 the last of the ‘Abbāsid Zaranj series of which there are a considerable number between 160 and 204 A.H. The person named above the reverse area is Ghassān b. ‘Abbād b. abi’l-Faraj, who, the chronicles record, was lieutenant-governor of Khurāsān under al-Ḥasan b. Sahl in this year. Later, from 213-216, he was governor of Sind.117 To judge by a dirham of Zaranj of the year 204,118 where I believe Ḥassān has been read for Ghassān, he was already installed in Khurāsān in that year. As for Ā’yan b. Harthamah, the name beneath the reverse area, I do not find him in the Arabic sources. He must have been a son of Harthamah b. Ā’yan, a career governor who served in Egypt, Africa, Mosul and Nīsābūr at various times between 178 and 198 A.H.,119 and whose name appears on coins of Zaranj in 193.120

260. Madīnat Iṣbahān. Year 209 A.H. = 824/5 A.D.

بمدينة اصبهان سنة تسع و مئتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

لله/•

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 25mm., 2.81grm.

Zambaur published a specimen of this year and mint but described it only as "type normal,"121 and a specimen in the British Museum also is not fully described.122

261. Fārs. Year 209 A.H.=824/5 A.D.

بفارس سنة تسع و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4, ending with annulet.

لله image/

image. GCM (Teheran). 26mm., 2.96grm.

Plate IX

‘Abbāsid coins of Fārs (Fāris) are very scarce. I know of only one issue antedating this, of the year 203 A.H. (several specimens). The symbol on the reverse under li’llāhi is puzzling. It appears to start out as a word with the letter ‘ayn, but the rest is unintelligible and seems more to resemble a countermark, although it is engraved on the die.

262. Miṣr. Year 210 A.H.=825/6 A.D.

بمصر سنة عشر و مئتين

Between the 2nd and 3rd lines of the area: عبيد الله بن السري

Beneath: المغرب

Annulets: ........•• •• •• ••

للخليفة/المأمون

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 22.5mm., 2.76grm.

‘Ubaydullāh b. al-Sari is the well-known governor of Egypt, 206-211 A.H.

263. Madīnat Arrān. Year 211 A.H.=826/7 A.D.

بمدينة اران سنة احدي عشرة و مئتين

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦◦ عبد الاعلى بن احمد

محمد رسول الله

مما امر به عبد الله عبد الله

الامام المأمون امير المؤمنين

عبيد الله بن يحيى

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.96grm.

The legends on the reverse are the same as those on the dirhams of Arrān dated 210.123 There appears to be a dirham of the year 211 similar to the present one in the Ermitage.124

264. Armīnīyah. Year 218 A.H.=833 A.D.

بارمينية سنة ثمنية عشرة و مائتين

No annulets.

امير المؤمنين/العباس بن

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24.5mm., 2.87grm.

This coin is of interest because it differs from the only known Armīnīyah dirham of 218.125 Al-’Abbās b. Amīr al-Mu’minīn (very clumsily written) was the son of al-Ma’mūn, who from the year 213 until his father’s death was governor of ‘Irāq and the northwest frontier lands, and who later rose as pretender against the Caliph al-Mu’taṣim.126 His name appears on coins of Arrān in 217 and 218, and also, apparently, on an issue of Armīnīyah in 217.127 The present issue probably antedates the other dirham of Armīnīyah of 218 referred to above, which has the name of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Khāqān, a completely unknown person who was doubtless lieutenant-governor under al-’Abbās or else took over the administration upon al-Ma’mūn’s death.128

265. Ṣan’ā. Date effaced.

بصنعا سنـ

Annulets: .....◦◦.....

ثلث/لله

Margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

image. GCM. 13.5mm., 0.75grm.

Plate IX

This exceptional one-third dirham (with the fraction indicated on the reverse) must have been struck toward the end of the second or the beginning of the third century of the Hijrah. The epigraphy is suggestive of the middle second century, but the use of Qur’ān XXX, 3-4, as a marginal legend was not introduced until about the time of al-Ma’mūn.)128a

An observation of the author of the Ḥudūd al-’Ālam (372 A.H.)129 may have some bearing on this fractional dirham: speaking of Zabīd, (the second largest town in the Yaman at that time), he wrote "their 12 dirhams weigh only 1 dirham’s weight." The present piece weighs 0.75 grams; twelve of them would have weighed 9.00 grams (probably more, because this specimen is worn), a figure which bears no apparent relation to the standard weight of a dirham. However, the remark may have some obscure reference to these thirds.

266. Miṣr. Year 223 A.H. = 837/8 A.D.

بمصر سنة ثلث و عشرين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

المعتصم بالله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27.5mm., 2.97grm.

Tiesenhausen, No. 1856 of the same mint and date is not described.

267. Dimishq. Year 225 A.H.=839/40 A.D.

بدمشق سنة خمس و عشرين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25.5mm., 3.02grm.

There is one specimen of this issue in the collection of the American University of Beirut, and another apparently (unpublished) in the Istanbul Museum.130

268. Counterfeit. No mint. No date.

لله

محمد

مسول

مللله

image

لله (retrograde)

محمد

مسول

الله

image

Obverse and reverse margins appear both to be imitations of Qur’ān IX, 33.

image. ANS. 28mm., 3.92grm.

Plate IX

I place this curious contemporary (?) forgery or imitation here because the legend beneath one area is obviously a copy of الرياستين, and that beneath the other appears to be an attempt to reproduce the name of al-Mu’taṣim.

269. Dimishq. Year 228 A.H.=842/3 A.D.

بدمشق سنة ثمان و عشرين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

(⸮)د/

الواثق بالله

image. GCM (Istanbul, 1942). 25mm., 3.02grm.

The one published specimen of this issue is not fully described.131

270. Dimishq. Year 230 A.H.=844/5 A.D.

بدمشق سنة ثلثين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

Apparently nothing above. Beneath, effaced.

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.90grm.

A specimen of this year also was published by Porter, but not described; Zambaur apparently had one in his collection.132

271. Al-Shāsh. Year 232 A.H.=846/7 A.D.

بالشاش سنة اثنتين و ثلثين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

الواثق بالله/لله

image. ANS (ex Longworth Dames Coll.). 28.5mm., 3.15grm. (twice pierced) I have not searched for this issue among the so-called Ṭāhirid coins, among which it may well have been published.

272. Surra man-ra’a. Year 235 A.H.=849/50 A.D.

بسر من راي سنة خمس وثلثين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

المتوكل على الله/لله

image. UM. 16mm., 2.92grm.

Plate IX

There are published specimens of this mint and date, but none, so far as I know, of this small size and engraved in such advanced ornamental Kufic characters.

273. Surra man-ra’a. Year 236 A.H.=850/1 A.D.

بسر من راي سنة ست و ثلثين و مائتين

As above.

/ابو عبد الله

Outer margin: Qur’ān, XXX, 3-4, ending with image

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 25mm., 2.93grm. (pierced)

274. Iṣbahān. Year 237 A.H.=851/2 A.D.

باصبهان سنة سبع و ثلثين و مائتين

As above.

As above.

image. ANS. 27mm., 2.71grm.

275. Dimishq. Year 240 A.H.=854/5 A.D.

شق سنة اربعين و مائتين ...

Area as above.

As above.

Outer margin: Qur’ān, XXX, 3-4, traces.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 2.89grm. (frag. lacking)

276. Surra man-ra’a. Year 243 A.H.=857/8 A.D. بسر من راي سنة ثلث و اربعين و مائتين

/المعتز بالله

As above.

Outer margin: Qur’ān, XXX, 3-4, partly effaced.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 19mm., 2.92grm. (pierced)

The one published specimen of this mint and date is not described.133 Like No. 272 above, this coin is of reduced size, but the legends are in the usual unadorned Kufic.

277-278. Miṣr. Year 243 A.H.=857/8 A.D.

بمصر سنة ثلث و اربعين و مائتين

Area as above.

As above.

Outer margin: Qur’ān, XXX, 3-4, ending with image

2 specimens: image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 26mm.; 2.43grm., 3.04grm. (both specimens are fragmentary and one is broken)

These and the succeeding specimens of Miṣr are corroded and oxidized, and appear to have come from a hoard, probably acquired by Mr. Newell during a visit to Egypt.

279. Miṣr. Year 244 A.H.=858/9 A.D.

بمصر سنة اربع و اربعين و مائتين

Area as above.

As above.

Outer margin: Qur’ān, XXX, 3-4, partly effaced.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25.5mm., 3.03grm.

280. Miṣr. Year 247 A.H.=861 A.D.

بمصر سنة سبع و اربعين و مائتين

Area as above.

As above.

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 22mm., 2.90grm.

281-282. Miṣr. Year 249 A.H. =863/4 A.D.

بمصر سنة سبع و اربعين و مائتين

/العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

المستعين بالله/لله

Outer margin as above.

2 specimens: image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27mm., 27mm.; 2.88grm., 2.96grm.

Casanova lists but does not describe a dirham of Miṣr of this date.134

283-284. Miṣr. Year 250 A.H.=864/5 A.D.

بمصر سنة خمسين و مائتين

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

2 specimens: image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 29mm., 28mm.; 2.87grm., 2.83grm. (frag. of one specimen lacking)

285. Madīnat Māh al-Kūfah. Year 251 A.H.=865 A.D.

الكوفة سنة احدي و خمسين و مائتين (sic) بمدينة ما

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

المعتز بالله امير المؤمنين/لله

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 21.5mm., 2.88grm.

A published specimen of this mint and date appears to lack the word madīnat and the word Māh is, evidently, written correctly.135 At this time and in the region of Māh al-Kūfah the abu-Dulafids were issuing coins in their own names, but this appears to be a straight ‘Abbāsid issue.136

286. Miṣr. Year 252 A.H.=866 A.D.

بمصر سنة... تين و خمسين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 22.5mm., 2.89grm.

Casanova lists, but does not describe, a dirham of Miṣr of this date.137

287. Makkah. Year 253 A.H.=867 A.D.

بمكة سنة ثلث و خمسين و مائتين

Outer margin off the flan, or lacking.

المستعين بالله/لله

image (billon?). ANS (ex Longworth Dames Coll.). 18.5mm., 3.77grm. The coin is of unusual fabric and is worn quite smooth. The reproduction in the plate is from a photograph.

Plate IX

This is a remarkable coin. Aside from the exceeding rarity of coins struck at Mecca,138 the date (253), which is unquestionable, in con- junction with the name of the Caliph al-Musta’īn, poses a problem. Al-Musta’īn was deposed in 251 and was murdered on the 6th of Shawwāl, 252. Two possible explanations of the anomaly readily suggest themselves: either an old reverse die was used, or else the mention of al-Musta’īn’s name is intentional and reflects an issue of partisanship. The former alternative, especially in view of al-Musta’īn’s brief rule and of the rare mint, is not very likely. As for the latter I believe that the events of history provide us with the very facts we need to support, if not to prove, the correctness of the suggested explanation.

In the year 251, in consequence of disturbances at Samarra, al-Musta’īn had found it necessary to leave that city and to establish himself at Baghdad where, in the last month of the year, he was forced by his cousin al-Mu’tazz to abdicate. According to the terms agreed upon by the two parties, al-Musta’īn was guaranteed personal safety and the safety of his family, and he was to remove himself to Mecca, where he was to reside. Actually, according to the chronicles, he never reached Mecca, for he was prevented from going there, and, after a short visit at Wāsiṭ, he was assassinated near Samarra late in 252, as stated above. Now it is not at all improbable that, in conformance with the abdication terms, al-Musta’īn’s partisans struck coins at Mecca in his name after his abdication, which incidentally he did not announce on his own account until 3 Muḥarram, 252. We may imagine that to them, and probably to al-Musta’īn himself, Mecca was not simply a place of exile but a temporary capital. Such an argument would certainly be pertinent in explanation of a coin struck in al-Musta’īn’s name in 252. But how to explain this posthumous issue of 253 ? Unless one is prepared to believe—which I am not—that it took more than two months for the news of the murder to reach Mecca, one is still at a loss to solve the riddle. Can it be that we have here a posthumous recognition of al-Musta’īn’s rights by his supPorters; or, alternatively, was this issue struck late in 252 in anticipation of the deposed Caliph’s arrival at Mecca early in 253 ?139

288. Surra man-ra’a. Year 255 A.H.=868/9 A.D.

بسر من راي سنة خمس و خمسين و مائتين

امير المؤمنين/عبد الله بن

image

المعتز بالله/لله
امير المؤمنين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 2.88grm.

Tiesenhausen No. 1972, of the same mint and date, is an issue of the succeeding Caliph al-Muhtadi.

289. Surra man-ra’a. Year 258 A.H.=871/2 A.D.

/جعفر

المعتمد على الله/لله
مر

Outer margin as above.

image. ANS. 21.5mm., 2.81grm.

This dirham differs in size (and apparently in the letters beneath the reverse) from two other published specimens.140

290. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 259 A.H.=872/3 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة تسع و خمسين و مائتين

Area and outer margin as above.

المعتمد على الله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24.5mm., 3.09grm. The only other specimen I have noted is not described.141

291. Miṣr. Year 265 A.H.=878/9 A.D.

بمصر سنة خمس و ستين و مائتين

/المفوض الى الله

Outer margin as above.

المعتمد على الله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25.5mm., 2.82grm.

292. Al-Baṣrah. Year 271 A.H.=884/5 A.D.

بالبصرة سنة احدي و سبعين و مئتين

/الناصر لدين الله
الموفق بالله

Outer margin as above.

المعتمد على الله/لله
ذو الوزارتين

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.95grm.

Plate IX

Al-Muwaffaq is abu-Aḥmad Ṭalḥah, son of al-Mutawakkil and virtual ruler during the Caliphate of his brother al-Mu’tamid. His honorific, "al-Nāṣir li-dīn Allāh," was given him after his victory over the rebellious Zanj, whose leader was killed on 2 Ṣafar, 270.142 As for the title "He of the Two Vizierates," beneath the name of the Caliph on the reverse, the reference is to Ṣā’id b. Makhlad, Vizier of al-Mu’tamid.143 A complete list of published coins bearing his title may be found in an article by Richard Vasmer;144 it does not include this Baṣrah issue of the year 271.

293. Fārs (?). Year 273 A.H.= 886/7 A.D.

سنة ثلث و سبعين و مئتين (⸮)بفارس

/(⸮)المفوض الى الله

المعتمد على الله/لله
احمد بن الموفق بالله

Outer margin: traces of Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

image. GCM. 21mm., 2.86grm.

Blurred letters make the reading of the mint and of the name beneath the obverse somewhat problematical. Aḥmad b. al-Muwaffaq (on the reverse) is, of course, the heir apparent, later the Caliph al-Mu’taḍid. If the mint is, as I believe, Fārs, the coin is an interesting document, for there is another issue of the same year and mint, bearing the names of the Ṣaffārids, ‘Amru b. al-Layth and Muḥammad b. ‘Amru.145

These coins, and others of proximate dates and the same area, are a reflection of the political situation in central and southern Persia at the time. It was in Shawwāl of the year 271 that the Caliph al-Mu’tamid announced the deposition of ‘Amru b. al-Layth as governor of Khurāsān,146 an official pronouncement which, however, called for energetic and prolonged action before it took effect, since ‘Amru was well entrenched.147 The confused circumstances, with particular reference to the coins, has been examined in minute detail by Vasmer in his article on the Ṣaffārid coinage cited under No. 292 above.148 Ṭabari’s and Ibn-al-Athīr’s accounts of ‘Amru’s defeat at the hands of the abu-Dulafid Aḥmad b. ‘Abd. al-’Azīz differ, the former placing the event on the 16th of Rabī’ I, 273, and the latter on the 10th of Rabī’ I, 271. At all events there is an ‘Abbāsid coin of the Fārs mint—that is, lacking’ ‘Amru’s name—dated 272,149 although another coin of the same mint and date, as well as Shīrāz issues of 272, are Ṣaffārid.150 The present coin (if, as I say, the mint is Fārs) is another illustration of the same "in-and-out" situation which quite understandably confused the historians. A further example is No. 295 below.

294. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 274 A.H.= 887/8 A.D.

ـين و مائتين ... بالرافقة سنة اربع و

/المفوض الى الله

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

المعتمد على الله/لله
احمد بن الموفق imageبالله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 4.98grm.

I have not met with a published dirham of al-Rāfiqah of this date; there are, however, a number of dinars, both ‘Abbāsid and Ṭūlūnid.151 This issue is clearly ‘Abbāsid.

295. Fārs. Year 274 A.H.=887/8 A.D.

بفارس سنة اربع و سبعين و مائتين

/الناصر لدين الله الموفق بالله

Outer margin as above.

المعتمد على الله احمد بن الموفق بالله/لله

image. ANS. 25mm., 3.30grm.

Here is another ‘Abbāsid dirham of Fārs, reflecting the vicissitudes of the Ṣaffārid’s career (cf. No. 293 above). It was in 274 A.H. (18th of Rabī’ I) that al-Muwaffaq himself led the army against ‘Amru b. al-Layth and drove him out of Fārs and on to Kirmān and beyond to Sijistān.152 Other specimens of this issue are known.153

296. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 274 A.H. = 887/8 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة اربع و سبعين و مائتين

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 25.5mm., 4.42grm.

This specimen differs from one published by Tornberg,154 in that it lacks the words at the sides of the obverse and reverse areas.

297. Al-Shāsh. Year 276 A.H. = 889/90 A.D.

بالشاش سنة ست و سبعين و مائتين

/الموفق بالله

Outer margin: traces of Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

المعتضد بالله/لله

Word or letters at bottom effaced.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 26mm., 2.84grm.

Plate IX

This is a very curious coin, differing in a remarkable manner from the known issue of al-Shāsh of the same year.155 It is dated 276 and yet it bears the name of al-Mu’taḍid who did not succeed to the Caliphate until 279 A.H. Another dirham of al-Shāsh, of the year 269, presents’ this same anomaly.156 Either the coin is a hybrid, that is an old obverse die was used with a reverse of al-Mu’taḍid’s during his Caliphate (279-289 A.H.), or else abu’l-’Abbās Aḥmad (son of al-Muwaffaq, whose name appears on the obverse) received the title of al-Mu’taḍid before his succession. The first alternative is certainly un- likely. The second seems the more plausible, although I fail to find the historical evidence to support it. However, the explanation must lie somewhere in the abnormal state of affairs during al-Mu’tamid’s reign: al-Muwaffaq, as noted under No. 292 above, was in effect the ruler, but in the last two years of al-Muwaffaq’s life (he died 27 Ṣafar, 278), al-Mu’taḍid became the virtual sovereigṇ.157 On the present issue, as well as on the one of 269 mentioned above, one might say that this reality is officially recognized, at least in Shāsh, for al-Mu’taḍid’s name appears in the position usually reserved for the Caliph. It might be argued that it was during the course of this year that the change of allegiance in the East was made, the present issue presumably being a later striking than that with al-Mu’tamid’s name. But what of the more serious anomaly of Tornberg’s coin of the year 269 ?

298. Al-Ahwāz. Year 287 A.H.=900 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة سبع و ثمنين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

المعتضد بالله/لله

Large central pellet.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 3.47grm.

299. Mint effaced. Year 287? A.H.=900 A.D.

(⸮) سنة سبع و ثمنين وما ...

/ابو جعفر

No outer margin?

المعتضد بالله ابو ابرهيم/لله

image. ANS (ex Longworth Dames Coll.). 24mm., 3.00grm.

Plate IX

This is a very crudely executed coin with coarse and semi-literate characters. The date, aside from being badly worn, is curiously writ- ten; and the dal of the Caliph’s name is turned backward somewhat like a cursive kaf, but I believe that it can only be al-Mu’taḍid. Abu-Ja’far and abu-Ibrāhīm, whose names appear on the obverse and reverse respectively, are unidentified. The coin must be an unauthorized issue, but the solution of its political context must await the publication of a specimen with mint preserved.

300. Al-Ahwāz. Year 289 A.H.= 901/2 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة تسع و ثمنين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3 -4.

المعتضد بالله/لله

image. ANS. 25mm., 4.75grm.

This dirham must have been struck during the first four months of the year, for al-Muktafi’s succession to the Caliphate occurred on 22 Rabī’ II, 289.158

301. Iṣbahān. Year 289 A.H.=902 A.D.

باصبهان سنة تسع و ثمنين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

المكتفى بالله/لله

image. ANS. 25mm., 2.32grm.

A specimen of this year and mint in the Leggett Collection has been published but not fully described.159

302. Wāsiṭ. Year 289 A.H.=902 A.D.

بواسط سنة تسع و ثمنين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 25mm., 2.97grm.

All the published specimens of this date and mint which I have noticed are issues of al-Mu’taḍid.

303. Al-Ahwāz. Year 290 A.H.=902/3 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة تسعين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 3.07grm.

There is a specimen, probably similar, in the British Museum.160

304. Al-Baṣrah. Year 290 A.H.=902/3 A.D.

بالبصرة سنة تسعين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.96grm.

A specimen in the Leggett Collection has been published but not fully described, and there is another in the British Museum.161

305. Dimishq. Year 292 A.H.=904/5 A.D.

بدمشق سنة اثنين و تسعين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

As above.

The qaf of the word Dimishq terminates with a floral flourish, thus image; and the fa-ya of al-Muktafi’s name thus: image.

image. ANS. 25mm., 3.03grm.

Plate IX

There is a dirham of Dimishq of this year in the Berlin Collection,162 but Nützel did not make note of the ornamental letters, if indeed they are present on that coin.

306. Armīnīyah. Year 293 A.H.=905/6 A.D.

بارمينية سنة ثلث و تسعين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25.5mm., 3.88grm.

The date of the one published specimen of this issue which I have noticed is written differently.163

307. Sūq al-Ahwāz. Year 294 A.H.=906/7 A.D.

بسوق الاهواز سنة اربع و تسعين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 24mm., 3.49grm.

There was a specimen in the Leggett Collection, not fully described.164

308. Al-Ahwāz. Year 295 A.H.=907/8 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة خمس و تسعين و مائتين

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 26.5mm., 2.98grm. (formerly ringed).

There is a specimen in the Beirut Collection, not fully described.165

309. No Mint. No date (late 3rd c. Hijrah?).

One marginal legend only:

Qur’ān XXX, 3-4, as far as المؤ.

Margin: Qur’ān IX, 33, apparently as far as على الدين.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 12mm., 0.87grm. (formerly ringed).

Plate IX

I place this minute fractional dirham at the end of the third century of the Hijrah because of the style of epigraphy. It might date anywhere from the middle third to the early fourth century.

310. Dimishq. Year 296 A.H.=908/9 A.D.

بدمشق سنة ست و تسعين و مائتين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

المقتدر بالله/لله

image. ANS. 27mm., 2.86grm.

311. Dimishq. Year 297 A.H.=909/10 A.D.

ـشق سنة سبع و تسعين و مائتين ...

Outer margin as above.

As above.

Large central pellet.

image. ANS. 24mm., 3.04grm.

312. Wāsiṭ. Year 297 A.H.=909/10 A.D.

بواسط سنة سبع و تسعين و مائتين

ابو العباس بن/
امير المؤمنين

Outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 28.5mm., 3.21grm.

A specimen published by Lane-Poole is not described.166

313. Al-Kūfah. Year 298 A.H.=910/1 A.D.

بالكوفة سنة ثمان و تسعين و مائتين

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 27mm., 2.33grm.

A specimen published by Lane-Poole is not described.167

314. Jannābā. Year 299 A.H.=911/2 A.D.

ـن و مائتين ... بجنابا سنة تسع

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 2.89grm.

Plate IX

This is, I believe, the earliest known ‘Abbāsid issue of the very rare mint of Jannābā, the important port in Fārs on the Persian Gulf.168 Earlier Ṣaffārid issues are known, but so far as I am aware the only recorded ‘Abbāsid specimens are dirhams of the years 304, 306 and 314.169

315. Sinjār. Year 299 A.H. = 911/2 A.D.

ـجار سنة تسع و تسعين و مائتين ... !

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 26mm., 2.56grm. (frag. lacking)

Plate IX

Sinjār also is a very rare ‘Abbāsid mint, and this is, I believe, the earliest known year. A specimen of the year 300 was published by Lane-Poole in 1892, and another by Allan.170

316-317. Al-Baṣrah. Year 300 A.H. = 912/3 A.D.

بالبصرة سنة ثلث مائة

Area and margin as above.

As above.

2 specimens: image. ANS. 26.5mm., 2.90grm.; GCM (Teheran, 1936). 26mm., 2.70grm.

A specimen of the same mint and date is in the Beirut Collection.171

318. Shīrāz. Year 300 A.H. = 912/3 A.D.

بشيراز سنة ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 26mm., 2.90grm.

A specimen, not fully described, was published by Lane-Poole.172

319. Wāsiṭ. Year 301 A.H. = 913/4 A.D.

بواسط سنة احدي و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 27mm., 3.67grm.

Specimens in the Ermitage and the Beirut Collections are not fully described.173

320. Al-Ahwāz. Year 302 A.H.=914/5 A.D.

... بالاهواز سنة اثنتين و ثلثـ

Area and outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله •

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25.5mm., 3.05grm.

321. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 303 A.H.=915/6 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة ثلث و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 27mm., 2.91grm.

This specimen differs from published varieties in its lack of pellets.174

322. Al-Ahwāz. Year 304 A.H.=916/7 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة اربع و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

Pellet (?) beneath ba of arb’.

As above.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1936). 28mm., 1.80grm.

This specimen is probably similar to one in the Beirut Collection, which, however, is not fully described.175

323. Wāsiṭ. Year 304 A.H.=916/7 A.D.

بواسط سنة اربع و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 29mm., 2.84grm. 324-326.

324-326. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 305 A.H.=917/8 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة خمس و ثلثمائة

Three specimens with the usual areas and outer margin, and differing only in the following ornaments:

324. image/• /image

325. •/•

326. image/• /•

image. ANS. 26mm., 25mm., 25mm.; 2.98grm., 3.24grm., 3.13grm.

These dirhams appear to differ in ornamental detail from published varieties.176

327. Iṣbahān. Year 306 A.H.=918/9 A.D.

باصبهان سنة ست و ثلثمائة

/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

المقتدر بالله/لله

image. GCM (Teheran, 1936). 28mm., 2.73grm. (frag. lacking)

328-329. Ḥarrān. Year 306 A.H.=918/9 A.D.

بحران سنة ست و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

2 specimens: image. ANS (ex Newell and Wood Coll.). 27mm., 24mm.; 2.88grm., 4.03grm.

A specimen apparently similar to these is listed by Zambaur.177

330. Shīrāz. Year 306 A.H.=918/9 A.D.

بشيراز سنة ست و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS. 26mm., 3.12grm.

There is a specimen of this issue in the British Museum.178

331. Al-Kūfah. Year 306 A.H.=918/9 A.D.

بالكوفة سنة ست و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image W. L. Clark (New York City). 26mm., 2.91grm.

332. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 306 A.H.=918/9 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة ست و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله
ح

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 3.56grm.

In all probability this specimen is identical with one published by Bartholomaei, where the symbol beneath the reverse is differently interpreted.179

333. Anṭākiyah. Year 308 A.H.=920/1 A.D.

بانطاكية سنة ثمان و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 3.60grm. A specimen of this mint and date is mentioned by Bartholomaei,180 but it is not described.

334. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 308 A.H.=920/1 A.D.

بالرافقة سنة ثمان و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26mm., 2.76grm.

335. Surra man-ra’a. Year 309 A.H.=921/2 A.D.

بسر من راي سنة تسع و ثلثمائة

• / Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 25mm., 2.83grm.

A specimen is listed but not described by Casanova.181

336. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 310 A.H.=922/3 A.D.

... بالرافقة سنة عشر

As above.

/ابو العباس بن
امير المؤمنين

Outer margin as above.

image. UM. 26.5mm., 3.81grm. (pierced)

A specimen apparently similar to this is listed by Zambaur.182

337. Filasṭin. Year 311 A.H.=923/4 A.D.

لمسطين سنة احدي عشرة و ثلثمائة ...

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 2.68grm.

Plate IX

Filasṭīn is an excessively rare ‘Abbāsid dirham mint; before the recent publication by N. G. Nassar of specimens of the years 264, 277, 293 and 323(?), I was aware of specimens of only three other years, 317, 320 and 322 A.H.183

338. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 311 A.H.=923/4 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة احدي عشرة و ثلثمائة

• / Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Greenwood Coll.). 26mm., 2.33grm.

None of the published varieties appears to have the pellet.184

339. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 313 A.H.=925/6 A.D.

بالرافقة سنة ثلث عشرة و ثلثمائة

/ابو العباس بن امير المؤمنين

المقتدر بالله/لله image

Outer margin as above.

image. ANS. 25mm., 2.28grm.

There are two other specimens of this issue, but one lacks the pellets on the reverse, and the other is not described.185

340. Madīnat at-Salām. Year 313 A.H.=925/6 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة ثلث عشرة و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27mm., 2.82grm.

The reverse of this specimen differs from the known varieties.186

341. Sūq al-Ahwāz. Year 314 A.H.=926/7 A.D.

بسوق الاهواز سنة اربع عشرة و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله •

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24.5mm., 3.17grm.

342. Wāsiṭ. Year 314 A.H.=926/7 A.D.

بواسط سنة اربع عشرة و ثلثمائة

Area as above, but pellet above ha of ilaha.

Outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله

image. ANS. 25mm., 2.84grm. (ringed)

This specimen differs from published varieties in respect of the obverse pellet.187

343-344. Shīrāz. Year 317 A.H. =929/30 A.D.

بشيراز سنة سبع عشرة و ثلثمائة

ابو العباس بن/
امير المؤمنين

As above.

Outer margin as above.

2 specimens: image. ANS. 26mm., 25mm.; 4.00grm., 2.66grm.

These are doubtless similar to that mentioned by Tiesenhausen in the Murom find.188

345. Hamadhān. Year 315 A.H.=927/8 A.D.

بهمذان سنة خمس عشرة و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 27mm., 2.30grm.

‘Abbāsid dirhams of Hamadan are very rare. I know of only one other date in the fourth century of the Hijrah, 307.189

346. Anṭākiyah. Year 318 A.H. = 930 A.D.

بانطاكية سنة ثمان عشرة و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 28mm., 3.48grm.

Plate X

A specimen published by Bartholomaei is not completely described.190

347. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 318 A.H.=930 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة ثمان عشرة و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

المقتدر بالله/لله •

image. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 26mm., 4.18grm.

With the exception of one specimen in Berlin, the published varieties of this year lack the pellet on the reverse; and the Berlin specimen has a pellet on the obverse as well.191

348-349. No mint. No date (Al-Muqtadir, 295-320 A.H. = 908-932 A.D.).

Nandi, sacred bull of Śiva, reclining left; above, المقتدر بالله .

Horseman, in coat of mail (?), helmeted, riding horse to left; above, جعفر لله.

2 specimens: image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 19mm., 19mm.; 4.05grm. (fitted for ring), 3.42grm.

This remarkable type has been discussed under No. 199, above, a dinar of the same design. The present specimens, both from the same set of dies, appear to be from the identical dies used in striking the specimen in the National Museum in Damascus.192

350. Al-Baṣrah. Year 321 A.H.=933 A.D.

بالبصرة سنة احدي وعشرين و ثلثمائة

/ابو القاسم بن
امير المؤمنين

Outer margin: Qur’ān XXX, 3-4.

القاهر بالله/لله

image. ANS. 27mm., 2.74grm.

A single specimen, published by Fraehn, is fragmentary.193

351. Al-Ahwāz. Year 322 A.H.=933/4 A.D.

بالاهواز سنة اثنتين و عشرين و ثلثمائة

Area and outer margin as above.

لله

محمد رسول الله

لله القاهر بالله

المنتقم من اعداء

الله لدين الله

image. ANS. 24mm., 3.10grm.

Plate X

A similar specimen was published by Soret,194 but with an incomplete description. The bibliography of comment on the extraordinary reverse legend, which occurs on some other coins of al-Qāhir’s as well, may be found in Tiesenhausen.195 The title refers to the execution of the famous general Mu’nis in the year 321; in recognition of the deed the Caliph called himself "He who avenges the religion of Allāh upon the enemies of Allāh." The historians word it somewhat differently, but they correctly record that al-Qāhir placed the honorific upon his coins.196

352. Al-Rāfiqah. Year 323 A.H.=934/5 A.D.

مائة ... بالرافقة سنة ثلث و عشـ

Outer margin as above.

الراضى بالله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 28mm., 3.39grm.

This specimen differs from two published ones in that it lacks the ornament in the obverse area.197

353. Ṭarsūs. Year 323 A.H.=934/5 A.D.

بطرسوس سنة ثلث و عشرين و ثلثمائة

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24mm., 3.01grm.

Plate X

This coin is unique. Ṭarsūs is an exceedingly rare mint. I know of only four other dirhams,198 two dinars,199 and a few fulūs.

354. Ḥalab (?). Year 32x A.H.=934-940 A.D.

ِـشرين و ثلثمائة ... سنة (⸮)بحلب

Outer margin as above.

As above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27.5mm., 3.35grm.

Ḥalab also is a very rare ‘Abbāsid mint, although under later rulers it is of course among the commonest. The epigraphy of the mint name is somewhat obscure on this specimen. The fact that this coin is ‘Abbāsid, rather than Ikhshidid, would indicate that it was struck between 322 and 324 or between 327 and 329, for there were Ikhshidid governors at Ḥalab during the other years of al-Rāḍi’s reign.200 I am not aware of any Ikhshidid coins of Aleppo, although there were issues struck by the Ikhshidids at Damascus and Ṭabarīyah.

355. Niṣībīn. Year 32x A.H.=934-940 A.D.

و عشرين و ثلثمائة ... بنصيبين سنة

As above.

ابو الفضل بن
امير المؤمنين

Outer margin as above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 25mm., 3.96grm.

This dirham is unusual in that apparently all other Niṣībīn issues of al-Rāḍi lack the name of abu’l-Faḍl.

356. Al-Baṣrah. Year 32(9) A.H.=940/1 A.D.

ـشرين و ثلثمائة ... بالبصر

ابو المنصور بن
امير المؤمنين

Outer margin as above.

المتقى لله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 24.5mm., 3.92grm.

Tiesenhausen no. 2440, originally wrongly attributed to al-Rāḍi, is apparently similar to this specimen. The missing digit must be 9, because that year is the only year of the third decade in which al-Muttaqi ruled.

357. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 330 A.H.=941/2 A.D.

بمدينة السلام سنة ثلثين و ثلثمائة

Outer margin as above.

الراضى بالله/لله

image. ANS. 29.5mm., 2.93grm.

Plate X

The anomaly of al-Rāḍi’s name on a coin of the year 330 must be explained as an instance of the use of an old reverse die in striking a coin of al-Muttaqi’s.

358. Al-Raḥbah. Year 323(sic)=333(?) A.H.=944 A.D.

بالرحبة سنة ثلث و عشرين و ثلثمائة

Outer margin as above.

المتقى لله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27mm., 2.52grm.

Plate X

This is a remarkable coin in several respects. In the first place the date is clearly written 323, but al-Muttaqi’s rule did not begin until Rabī’ I, 329 A.H. Two explanations are possible: either an old obverse die was used with a reverse of al-Muttaqi’s, or else the die-engraver made a mistake in writing the decade. The latter alternative seems the more likely.201

Another remarkable feature of the coin is the mint, al-Raḥbah, which is exceedingly rare. I know only of the specimen referred to in the foot-note above, one of the year 322, in Beirut,202 and one dated 350.203 Al-Raḥbah is probably the well-known place by that name, usually called Raḥbat al-Shām or Raḥbat Mālik b. Ṭawq, situated on the right bank of the Euphrates not far from Qarqīsiya and to be identified with the town of al-Miyādīn of today. The sudden, and brief, appearance of al-Raḥbah as a mint is probably connected with the ‘Abbāsid reconquest of the town in 330 from the Qarmaṭids, who had taken possession of it in 316 A.H.204

359. Anṭākiyah. Year 337 A.H.=948/9 A.D.

بانطاكية سنة سبع و ثلثين و ثلثمائة

Outer margin as above.

(⸮)المطيع لله/لله

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27mm., 4.42grm.

This dirham is poorly struck. The decade is a little doubtful but is probably correctly read. This and the coin described immediately below are the last known ‘Abbāsid issues of the very rare mint of Antioch.

360. Anṭākiyah. Year 339(?) A.H.= 950/1 A.D.

و ثلثمائة (⸮)و ثلثين (⸮)بانطاكية سنة تسعين

/لمبين[ا] الحق

المطيع لله/لله

Outer margin as above.

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 27mm., 4.46grm.

Plate X

This is a very crudely executed coin with respect to both die-engraving and striking. The date is enigmatically written, the digit appearing to read "ninety" and the decade obscure. The legend beneath the obverse, "the Evident Truth," is unusual, and I can offer no explanation of its significance. The phrase occurs in the Qur’ān,205 but I do not know of its occurrence on coins except on some of much later date.206 Might it have some reference to the Shi’ite controversy which was particularly bitter during al-Muṭī’s reign ?

361. No mint. No date. Al-Nāṣir, 575-622 A.H.=1180-1225 A.D.

Within double square, outer beaded:

الامام النا

صر لدين

الله

As obverse:

الامام النا

ضر لدين

الله

In segments: ... | لله و | الا ا | لا اله

In segments: وحده | لله | ... | ...

image. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 15.5mm., 1.24grm.

A somewhat similar fractional dirham with a different reverse is in the British Museum.207 The style of the coin is distinctly Ayyūbid.

362. Madīnat al-Salām. Year 640 A.H.=1242 A.D.

Within square:

لا اله الا

الله محمد

رسول الله

In segments: و ستمائة | اربعين | السلام سنة | ضرب بمدينة

Within square:

الامام

المستنصر

بالله امير

المؤمنين

In segments: قريب | و فتح | الله | نصر من

image. ANS. 15mm., 0.75grm.

Plate X

This fractional dirham appears to be unique, although larger dirhams of the same general style are known.

End Notes

128a
Maqrīzi relates that al-Ma’mūn ordered the striking of rubā’yāt ("quarters"): ed. Anastase-Marie de St-Elie (Cairo, 1939), p. 48; cf. Sauvaire, Matériaux, I, p. 157.
74
Allan, NC, 1919, p. 198.
75
The 'Abbāsid silver coins in the Museum of the American Numismatic Society number 821; in the University Museum Collection there are eighty-two. Noteworthy specimens among these, together with a few from other sources, are described in the following pages.
76
Recensio, p. 30,* No. 222=Ties. No. 1443.
77
The earliest known dirham of Anṭākiyah appears to be 307 (Ties., No. 2276); and the only dinar which I have noted is dated 306 (Porter, NC, 1921, p. 325; cf. Zambaur, NZ, 1922, p. 10).
78
Paris, No. 1685.
79
RNB, 1862, p. 104=Ties., No. 754 (where the reference is to the reprint pagination of Bartholomae's third letter to Soret).
80
Tornberg, No. 66 (p. 23)=NHR, No. 59.
81
Recensio, p. 6,* No. 111=Ties., No. 1044.
82
The Kufic seal of a man named Ahmad b. Yaḥyā b. Rabī' is illustrated in Adler's Collectio Nova Numorum Cuficorum ... e Museis Borgiano et Adleriano (Copenhagen, 1792), p. 40 (cf. p. 181). It is permissible, but perhaps fanciful, to conjecture that this person was the son of the unidentified governor.
83
1. Ties., No. 1099=BM, i, No. 139= Paris, No. 743; 2. BM, i, No. 140; 3. Paris, No. 744; 4. Ties., No. 1117=BM, i, No. 230=Berlin, No. 1241; 5. Ties., No. 1118=Berlin, No. 1240(?); 6. Ties., No. 1119-Berlin, No. 1242(?); 7. Khedivial Library, No. 397.
84
Ties., No. 1178 (p. 303) is most nearly like it, but lacks the name in the obverse margin. Cf. also Ties., Nos. 1177-8, Berlin , Nos. 966-8.
85
G. H. F. Nesselmann, in ZDMG, 1866, p. 610=Ties., No. 2787.
86
Ties., No. 2794 (not described in detail).
87
Recensio, p. 25,* No. 199=Ties., No. 1387. The word beneath the reverse area was, as here, illegible.
88
Ṭabari, III, pp. 649, 740; cf. Zambaur, Manuel, p. 113. He was still active (as governor?) in 191 and 192 A.H. (Ṭabari, III, pp. 712, 730).
89
Ties., No. 2807.
90
Ties., No. 1520.
91
Ties., No. 1542; BM, i, No. 180.
92
Ulla S. Linder-Welin, NNÅ, 1941, No. 558, p. 99.
93
BM, ix, p. 58, No. 300x.
94
Ties., No. 1650.
95
Berlin , No. 1262; Ties., No. 1705; Paris , No. 907.
96
200 A.H.: Ties., No. 1705, Paris , No. 907; 204 A.H.: ANS, No. 257 below; 205 A.H.: Paris , No. 908, and one, unpublished, in the Princeton University Collection; 208 A.H.: Ties., No. 1796; 209 A.H.: Ties., No. 1801.
97
Ties., No. 1809.
98
His full name is given at its first occurrence in Ibn-al-Athīr (VI, p. 172). He is mentioned by Yāqūt as an authority on the residents of Qarāḥtā', a village belonging to Damascus (Yāqūt, IV, p. 53; cf. Le Strange, Palestine, p. 479). He is not to be confused with abu-Bayhas al-Haysam b. Jābir, the Khāriiite, founder of the Bayhasīyah branch of the sect, who was executed in the year 94 A.H. after fleeing to Medina from al-Ḥajjāj's persecution (cf. Mas'ūdi, Murūj, V, p. 230; E. of I., s.v. Abū Baihas). For the name, Bayhas ("lion"), see Ibn-Dorayd (ed. Wüstenfeld, Göttingen, 1854), p. 227.
99
Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, pp. 172-3; Ibn-Khaldūn, III, p. 235; cf. Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, II, pp. 187-8; Fraehn, apud Tiesenhausen, No. 1705, quoting Ibn-'Asākir.
100
Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, p. 257; Ibn-Khaldūn, III, p. 252 (206 A.H., "and some say 205 and some say 207″); cf. E. of I., s.v. 'Abd Allāh b. Ṭāhir; Zambaur, Manuel, p. 28 (who gives 205 as the date of the commencement of 'Abdullāh's government of Damascus).
101
Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, p. 173; Ibn-Khaldūn, III, p. 235.
102
Ṭabari, III, p. 1098; Ibn-Khallikān, ed. de Slane, I, p. 396=transl., II, p. 52 (end of 211 or in Rajab, 212, according to another account); cf. E. of I., s.v. 'Abd Allāh b. Ṭāhir.
103
Ibn-Taghri-Birdi (ed. Juynboll & Matthes), I, p. 606; cf. Yāqūt, index, p. 667, where Wüstenfeld's reference to Aghāni, XV, p. 88, mistakenly interchanged with the Ibn-Taghri-Birdi reference, applies to another Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ, al-'Alawi. Ibn-Bayhas (Ibn-Bahīs in Ibn-Khaldūn) is reported to have taken part in the revolt of abu-Ḥarb al-Mubarqa' ("the Veiled") in 227 A.H., and to have been captured and put in jail. Thus he was still active in al-Wāthiq's time; or else the chroniclers have confused the dramatis personae of the two rather similar uprisings (Ṭabari, III, pp. 1320, 1322; Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, pp. 372, 376; Ibn-Khaldūn, III, p. 270; cf. E. of I., s.v. al-Wāthiḳ; Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, II, p. 332). Incidentally, Ibn-Taghri-Birdi calls Ibn-Bayhas amīr al-gharb, the exact significance of which in this context escapes me: certainly there can be no connection with northern Morocco, the usual meaning. Probably the term applied to western Syria. Cf. E. of I., s.v. Gharb.
104
NC, 1921, p. 320.
105
NZ, 1922, p. 7.
106
Ibn-Khaldūn, III, p. 255. Zambaur (Manuel, p. 28) has al-Mu'taṣim as honorary governor of Damascus in 213, and (p. 27) of Egypt in the same year. There is, incidentally, a dinar of Miṣr of the year 214 (Berlin, No. 1316), bearing al-Mu'taṣim's name in the form of abu-Isḥāq, his kunyah.
107
Yāqūt, I, pp. 824-5; E. of I., s.v. Tabūk; cf. Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, p. 119.
108
C.-J. Tornberg, ZDMG, XXII, pp. 706-7, XXIII, p. 313; RNB, 1870, p. 244; E. von Zambaur, NZ, 1905, p. 51, No. 15. Another specimen is listed but not described in Markov, p. 66.
109
Accounts of the revolt may be read in Ṭabari, III, pp. 976ff.; Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, pp. 212ff., 217ff.; Mas’ūdi, Murūj, VII, pp. 55ff.; Ibn-Khaldūn, III, pp. 242ff. (especially p. 243, line 7, where the fact of the rebel’s striking of dirhams is reported); E. of I., s.v. al-Sarī b. Manṣūr; cf. A. Müller, Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, I, pp. 502-3.
110
Ulla S. Linder-Welin, NNÅ, 1941, Nos. 681-2, p. 102.
111
Ties., No. 1718.
112
Casanova, No. 545.
113
Ties., No. 1730; BM, i, No. 289.
114
For an account of the circumstances see my NHR, pp. 103-4.
115
Ties., Nos. 1764-5, 1889. The other known specimen is of the year 220 (Allan, NC, 1919, p. 196).
116
Berlin, No. 1687, year 301.
117
Ṭabari, III, pp. 1042-3, 1100, 1105; Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, p. 256; cf. Zambaur (Manuel, pp. 48 and 2032) who names him as sub-prefect in Nīsābūr in 202 and as governor (of Khurāsān?) in 204.
118
Tornberg, p. 79, No. 311 =Ties., No. 1763.
119
Zambaur, Manuel, pp. 26, 36, 48, 63.
120
Ties., No. 1542; BM, i, No. 180.
121
NZ, 1914, p. 119, No. 409.
122
Allan, NC, 1919, p. 195.
123
Ties., No. 1805; BM, i, No. 272.
124
R. Vasmer, "Chronologie der Statthalter von Armenien ...", in Monumenta Armenologica, 1927, p. 134, where reference is made to a coin numbered 763A, an accession to the Ermitage since Markov’s Inventory. The career of ‘Abd al-Ā’la b. Aḥmad with reference to the coin and to Ya’qūbi’s account is analyzed in this article.
125
Allan, NC, 1919, p. 195.
126
E. of I., s.v. al-’Abbās b. al-Ma’mūn, and the authorities cited there.
127
The Arrān coins cited by Vasmer (op. cit. under No. 263 above), p. 136; Armīnīyah, 217(?): Markov, p. 877, No. 774a, and Armīnīyah, 217 or 227: Linder-Welin, NNÅ, 1941, p. 100, No. 607.
128
Cf. Vasmer, loc. cit.: "eine gänzlich unbekannte Persönlichkeit, welche nirgends erwähnt wird und über die, so viel ich weiss, überhaupt nichts bekannt ist."
129
Op. cit. under No. 173 above, p. 147.
130
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 322; Zambaur, NZ, 1922, p. 8.
131
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 322.
132
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 322; Zambaur, NZ, 1922, p. 8.
133
Ties., No. 1916.
134
No. 601.
135
Dorn, Nova Supplementa, p. 231, No. 312a=Ties., No. 1952.
136
Cf. Markov, p. 103; Vasmer, Dva Klada kuficheskikh Monet, pp. 46ff.
137
No. 608.
138
The top of the letter kaf is off the flan, but I believe there can be little doubt about the reading of the mint. I know of only three other ‘Abbāsid coins of Mecca: a dinar dated 25X (al-Mu’tazz) in the Ermitage (Markov, p. 47, No. 847); a dirham of the year 289 ( Berlin , No. 1638; cf. Adolf Erman in Z. für N., 1881, p. 242); and a dinar of the year 325 (O. Codrington, NC, 1902, p. 273, where the Berlin specimen of 289 is wrongly described as a dinar).
139
The story of al-Musta’īn’s deposition and death is recounted at some length by Mas’ūdi (Murūj, VII, pp. 363-371; see especially p. 367 for the terms of abdication). The official date of the end of al-Musta’īn’s rule and of the commencement of that of al-Mu’tazz has been a matter of dispute among the Arab historians themselves (cf. Mas’ūdi, VII, p. 368). The usually accepted date for the beginning of al-Mu’tazz’s reign is 4 Muḥarram, 252; but there are coins struck by him in 251: e.g., Paris , nos. 984-5; Berlin , Nos. 1517-8. For other accounts of the events in question see: Ṭabari, III, pp. 1645ff.; Ibn-al-Athīr, VII, pp. 76-7; Ibn-Khaldūn, III, pp. 287-290; Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, II, pp. 396ff.; E. of I., s.v. al-Musta’īn and the sources cited there.
140
C. J. Tornberg, "Die jüngsten Ausgrabungen Arabischen Geldes in Schweden," ZDMG, XXII, p. 288, No. 32=Ties., No. 1994 (p. 306); Paris , No. 1029.
141
Ties., No. 1999.
142
Cf. Ties., No. 2062; Ṭabari, III, pp. 2098, 2118; Mas’ūdi, Murūj, VIII, p. 108; E. of I, s.v. al-Mu’tamid.
143
Cf. Ties., No. 2060; Ṭabari, index; Mas’ūdi, Murūj, VIII, pp. 39, 61-3. Zambaur (Manuel, Table G, note 87) is in error in attributing this title to al-Muwaffaq. Also he omits Ṣā’id from his list of Viziers (p. 7).
144
"Über die Münzen der Ṣaffāriden und ihrer Gegner in Fārs und Ḫurāsān," NZ, 1930, pp. 141-2, note 2.
145
Constantinople , II, No. 608; Tornberg, p. 149, No. 14; Markov, p. 105, No. 9, and another (No. 9a); Østrup, No. 759a.
146
Ṭabari, III, p. 2106; Ibn-Khallikān, transl. de Slane, IV, p. 324.
147
Cf. Theodor Nöldeke, Sketches from Eastern History (1892), pp. 198-9.
148
NZ, 1930, pp. 141ff. To bring Vasmer’s corpus of pertinent coins up to date, consult Ulla S. Linder-Welin, NNÅ, 1941, p. 114, containing the only important additions to Vasmer’s exhaustive compendium.
149
Tornberg, ZDMG, XXII, p. 288, No. 39.
150
Cf. Vasmer, op. cit., p. 142, Nos. 30-32.
151
E.g., Paris, Khedivial Library (cf. E. T. Rogers, The Coins of the Ṭúlúni Dynasty, p. 18, No. 38), University Museum Collection (all ‘Abbāsid); Paris, publ. by R. Cottevieille-Giraudet, RN, 1935, p. 35, No. 2 (Ṭūlūnid).
152
Ṭabari III, p. 2113, Ibn-al-Athīr, VII, p. 298; cf. Vasmer, op. cit., p. 143.
153
Markov, p. 48, No. 871; one uncatalogued in Berlin; Linder-Welin, NNÅ, 1941, p. 106, Nos. 1161-2; cf. Vasmer, op. cit., p. 143, No. 34.
154
P. 100, No. 422 = Ties., No. 2082.
155
Tornberg, p. 102, No. 429, with the name of al-Mu’tamid=Ties., No. 2093.
156
Tornberg, Symbolae, IV, No. 21=Ties., No. 2115.
157
E. of I., s.v. al-Mu’taḍid, and the sources cited there; Mas’ūdi, Murūj, VIII, p. 108.
158
There are dirhams of al-Muktafi’s struck at al-Ahwāz in the same year, e.g., Ties., No. 2169.
159
Lane-Poole, Fasti Arabici IV, NC, 1886, p. 229.
160
Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197.
161
Lane-Poole, Fasti Arabici IV, NC, 1886, p. 229; Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197.
162
No. 1620.
163
Fraehn, Recensio, p. 19,** No. 316=Ties., No. 2193.
164
Lane-Poole, Fasti Arabici IV, NC, 1886, p. 229.
165
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 324.
166
Fasti Arabici VII, "Mr. J. M. C. Johnston’s Cabinet," NC, 1892, p. 162.
167
Fasti Arabici IV, NC, 1886, p. 229.
168
Yāqūt, II, p. 122, spelled Jannabah. Cf. Le Strange, Lands, pp. 273-4. A specimen was listed by Allan in NC, 1919, p. 197.
169
Paris, No. 1153; Zambaur, NZ, 1905, p. 54, No. 22; Berlin, No. 1679. Zambaur’s good summary of reasons for the identification of the mint, together with a list of the Ṣaffārid and Būyid issues of Jannābā, is to be found in NZ, 1906, pp. 192-4.
170
Lane-Poole, Fasti Arabici VII, NC, 1892, p. 162; Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197.
171
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 325.
172
Fasti Arabici VII, NC, 1892, p. 162.
173
Markov, p. 51, No. 939; Porter, NC, 1921, p. 326.
174
Ties., Nos. 2246-7; Khedivial Library, No. 678; Porter, NC, 1921, p. 326; Casanova, No. 759 (not described).
175
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 325.
176
Ties, Nos. 2258-9 (also p. 307); Paris , No. 1191; Berlin , Nos. 1729-30; Constantinople , No. 652; Casanova, Nos. 761-2 (not described).
177
NZ, 1914, p. 120, No. 415.
178
Allan, NC, 1919, p. 197.
179
Ties., No. 2268.
180
"Quatrième lettre ... à M. F. Soret," RNB, 1864, p. 331, footnote=Ties., No. 2904. "Amir ed-dauleh" in Bartholomaei’s note must be ‘Amīd al-Dawlah.
181
No. 745.
182
NZ, 1914, p. 120, No. 416.
183
BM, ix, p. 79, No. 436m, Berlin , Nos. 1709, 1822-3; Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine, XIII, Nos. 3-4 (1948), pp. 124-5.
184
Ties., No. 2300 (and p. 307); Paris , No. 1197; Berlin , Nos. 1736-7; Constantinople , No. 658; Lane-Poole, Fasti Arabici VI, NC, 1887, p. 333; Casanova, No. 769 (not described).
185
Berlin , No. 1686; Porter, NC, 1921, p. 325.
186
Ties., Nos. 2312-13 (also p. 307); Berlin , Nos. 1739-40; Constantinople , No. 661; Lane-Poole, Fasti Arabici VI, NC, 1887, p. 333; Casanova, Nos. 770-1 (not described).
187
Ties., No. 2327; Berlin , No. 1771 (?); Zambaur, NZ, 1905, p. 61, No. 36; Casanova, No. 787(?) (not described).
188
NZ, 1871, p. 177, No. 14=Ties., No. 2918.
189
Berlin , No. 1772.
190
Ties., No. 2350.
191
Ties., No. 2345; BM, ix, p. 79, No. 446a; Berlin, Nos. 1748-9; Paris, No. 1204; Constantinople , No. 669; Casanova, No. 774 (not described).
192
Émir Djafar Abdel-Kader, in Mélanges Syriens offerts à Monsieur René Dussaud, I (Paris, 1939), pl. I (opp. p. 400), No. 16.
193
Ties., No. 2368.
194
"Lettre à Fraehn," Mém. Soc. Imp. d’Archéologie, St. Petersbourg, 1851, No. 27=Ties., No. 2380.
195
No. 2374.
196
E.g., Abu’l-Maḥāsin Ibn-Taghri-Birdi (ed. Juynboll & Matthes), II, p. 254: و عظم فى القلوب وزيد فى القابه المنتقم من اعداء دين الله و نقش ذلك على
197
Ties., No. 2930, BM, i, No. 464. السكة
198
302(?) A.H.: Porter, NC, 1921, p. 326; 312 A.H.: Berlin , No. 1707: 3IX A.H.: Berlin , No. 1708; 333 A.H.: Lane-Poole, NC, 1887, p. 333. I suspect that the present coin is the same piece as that listed in Schulman’s auction catalogue of March 30, 1914 (no. 1808), purchased by Mr. Newell.
199
308 A.H.: Johnston, NC, 1899, p. 266; 313 A.H.: Berlin , No. 1646.
200
Cf. Zambaur, Manuel, p. 32.
201
Another specimen of this year and mint, but with the name of al-Rāḍi, has been published: Tornberg, Symbolae IV, No. 45 = Ties., No. 2410.
202
Porter, NC, 1921, p. 326.
203
Zambaur, NZ, 1922, p. 12. The location of this specimen is not indicated.
204
Ibn-al-Athīr, VIII, p. 132. A full description of this locality, together with an extensive bibliography, is given by E. Honigmann in E. of I., s.v. al-Raḥba.
205
XXIV, 25; XXVII, 81.
206
Sharīfs of Morocco, e.g., BM, v, Nos. 265ff. Since this was written, another contemporary numismatic use of the phrase has come to my attention: on a Fāṭimid dinar of al-Manṣrūrīyah, 342 A.H. (J. Farrugia de Candia, "Monnaies Fātimites du Musée du Bardo (Premier Supplément)," Revue Tunisienne, 1948, no. 15). The implication of a Fāṭimid influence at Antioch suggests an interesting field of inquiry.
207
BM, ix, p. 84, No. 495p.

C. Copper 207a

With Names of Mints

Adhanah

363. Adhanah. Year 19x A.H.=806-815 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله عمل

ادنة

Margin: و تسعين و مئة ... ـفلس سنة ... بسم الله

بخ

محمد رسول

الله مما امر به

احمد بن هرون

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 26mm., 5.80grm.

Plate X

Adhanah is a "new" mint. It is the Arab Adhanah on the Sayḥān, the important Turkish city of Adana of today, the ancient Cilician τὰ. Aδava on the River Saros, the Seleucid mint of Antiocheia ad Sarum.208 In fabric and style the coin resembles published coppers from neighbouring al-Maṣṣīṣah208a and unpublished ones from the excavations at Tarsus.

Several specimens of similar fulūs, probably from different dies, have been published,209 but initial errors by Soret have thrown later scholars off the scent of the correct attribution. In the first place Soret thought he could read the date 333, and developed quite an erroneous argument in support of the reading. Then he saw a highly imagina- tive عمل الفدا كله on the obverse. Tiesenhausen and Lavoix copied Soret’s errors, the latter adding to the confusion by reading the name of the governor as Aḥmad b. Marwān instead of Aḥmad b. Hārūn, which is perfectly clear on Soret’s and the present specimens. Unfortunately I have not been able to identify Aḥmad b. Hārūnn in the Arabic chronicles.

‘Amal, an unusual numismatic formula, must be the substantive form, for there is no bi before the mint name.

Arrān

364. Arrān(?). Year 184 A.H.=800 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

image

Annulets: ◦◦◦ [◦◦]

احمد

محمد

رسول

الله

بن محمد

Margin: (⸮)بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس باران
سنة اربع و ثمنين و مئة

Æ. GCM. 19.5mm., 3.20grm.

The mint is obscure. The date, while somewhat obscure, is almost certainly correctly read, and the fals is therefore probably similar to one in Berlin where only the last two letters of the mint name are preserved.210 I have not been able to identify the governor or prefect, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. Possibly he was that Aḥmad b. Muḥammad العمري, who was relieved as governor of the Yaman in the year 212.211

365. Arrān. Year 193 A.H.=808/9 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

عدل

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦ [◦]

العباس

محمد

رسول

الله

بن زفر

Margin: الفلس باران سنة ثلث ...
و تسعين و مئة

Æ. GCM. 20mm., 2.89grm.

There are dirhams of the same mint and year bearing the name of the governor, al-’Abbās b. Zufar (al-Hilāli).212

Bukhārā

366. Bukhārā. Year 160 A.H.=776/7 A.D.

بركه لموسى

ولى عهد

المسلمين

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس
(sic) ب هذا الفلس ستين و مئة

image

محمد

رسول

الله

image

Margin: image مما امر به عبدة بن
عامل الامير عبد الملك بن يزيد

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 21mm., 1.48grm.

This fals, without the double striking which produced the curiously garbled obverse marginal legend on the present specimen, is well known.213 My only reason for publishing the specimen here is to raise the question of the identity of the prefect, whose name Fraehn, Tiesenhausen and Nützel left undeciphered. It seems to me that the name must be read ‘Abadah b. Qudayd (or Qadīd, or pos- sibly Fudayk), but I have been unable to trace any such individual in the chronicles.214 The governor (abu-’Awn) ‘Abd al-Malik b. Yazīd, is of course a well-known figure, adequately documented in written history and by his coins and glass weights.215

Bardha’ah

367. Bardha’ah. Year 163 A.H.= 779/80 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس
ببرذعة سنة ثلث و ستين و مئة

محمد

رسول

الله

image

Margin: مما امر به الامير يزيد
بن اسيد اعز الله نصره

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 23mm., 2.84grm.

Similar to Ties., no. 2769 (cf. Ties., No. 726), where the crescent under the reverse area is not described.

Tustar

368. Tustar. Year 165 A.H.=781/2 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده لا

شريك له

•••

Annulets: (apparently) ◦◦◦ ◦◦◦ ◦◦◦

محمد

رسول

الله

◦◦◦

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس بتستر سنة خمس و ستين و مئة

Æ. GCM (Teheran, 1936). 19mm., 3.16grm.

This and the following coin are, so far as I know, the only fulūs of Tustar to be published. On the silver and the gold the name of the mint is given in full, Tustar min-al-Ahwāz.

369. Tustar. Year 166 A.H. = 782/3 A.D.

Similar in every respect to No. 368 above, except for the date ست ستين و مئة

Æ. GCM (Teheran, 1936). 21mm., 3.08grm.

Jayy

370. Madīnat Jayy. Year 158 A.H. = 774/5 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس بمدينة
جي سنة ثمان و خمسين و مئة

محمد

رسول

الله

Margin: مما امر به المهدي محمد بن امير
المؤمنين على يدي عامله د...ـه
(⸮)بن سنان

Æ. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 20mm., 5.10grm.

One other example of this fals is known,216 but the name of the prefect is there even less clear than it is here. I publish this piece only in the hope that it may elicit the publication of another specimen with the prefect’s name more perfectly preserved. The only really uncertain letter in the father’s name on the present example is the next to the last; I feel fairly confident that the other letters are either as I have transcribed them or the other Kufic possibilities.

Ḥalab

371. Ḥalab. Year 138 A.H. = 755/6 A.D.

لا اله

الا الله

وحده

image

Margin: بحلب سنة ثمان و ثلثين و مئة ... بسـ

محمد

رسول الله

image

Margin: Part of Qur’ān IX, 33

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 21mm., 3.67grm.

A similar fals, with mint effaced, is in the British Museum.217

372. Khaznat Ḥalab. Year 146 A.H.=763/4 A.D.

Similar to the published specimens,218 but with image above the obverse.

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 20mm., 2.82grm.

Dimishq

373. Dimishq. Year 172 A.H.=788/9 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

• •

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦

محمد

رسول

الله

• •

و

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس
بدمشق سنة اثنتين و سبعين و مئة

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 20.5mm., 2.92grm.

The date has been read 192 mistakenly (I believe) on three published specimens of this coin219; another specimen220 is read 172 but not completely described.

Al-Ramlah

374-375. Al-Ramlah. Year 218 A.H.=833 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Chain border.

محمد

رسول

الله

بخ

Margin: ضرب هذا الفلس بالرملة
سنة ثمان عشرة و مائتين

2 specimens: Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 20mm., 21mm.; 2.30grm., 3.10grm.

Plate X (No. 374)

There are similar issues of al-Ramlah dated 217.221

Al-Rayy

376. Al-Rayy. Year 129 A.H.=746/7 A.D.

This variety of the issues of the ‘Abbāsid partisan ‘Abdullāh b. Mu’āwiyah has been published.222

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 25mm., 4.44grm.

377. Al-Rayy. Year 129 A.H.=746/7 A.D.

بسم الله ضر

بهذا الفلس

(sic)بالري سنة تسع ا

و مئة ـشرين ...

(sic) image

مما امر به الا

مير عبد الله

بن معوية

Double struck.

Margin: traces.

Annulets:?

The garbled date and inverse line are due to double-striking.

Æ. ANS (K. Minassian). 21mm., 2.80grm.

This is a new variety.223

Sūq al-Ahwāz

378. Sūq al-Ahwāz. Year 16(?)I A.H.=777/8(?) A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

الامير

Border of continuous (?) annulets outside double circle.

محمد

محمد

رسول

الله

(⸮)بن الحسين

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس
بسوق الاهواز سنة احدي و ستين( ؟)و مئة

Æ. ANS(ex Newell Coll.). 22mm., 5.06grm.

379. Sūq al-Ahwāz. Year 16(?)8 A.H.=784/5(?) A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس
بسوق الاهواز سنة ثمان و ستين و مئة

محمد

رسول

الله

... ور

Margin: Traces, including name of prefect, al-’Abbās (?)b. .....

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 21mm., 2.58grm.

380. Sūq al-Ahwāz. Year 210 A.H.=825/6 A.D.

Area as above.

Margin: image ... بسم الله ضرب
بسوق الاهواز سنة عشر و مائتين

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦

محمد

رسول

الله

Ornaments above and below, if any, obliterated.

Traces of margin, including name:

... [⸮مو [لى(⸮)ـدة ... مير ...

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 23mm., 3.81grm.

381. Sūq al-Ahwāz. Year 210 A.H.=825/6 A.D.

Area as above.

Margin: ـسوق الاهواز سنة ...
... عشر ومـ

محمد

رسول

الله

image

Margin obliterated.

Outer border clipped.

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 15mm., 1.70grm.

382. Ṭabaristān. Year 150 A.H.=767 A.D.

Area as above.

Margin: فى (⸮)على يدي عامله بن محمد
(⸮)بن بلـ ...image (⸮)ولية

مما امر به ا

لمهدي محمد

بن امير المؤمنين

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس
بطبرستان سنة خمسين و مئة

Æ. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 21mm., 5.06grm.

I am not familiar with any other copper coins of this mint. The style is very similar to that of coins struck at Rayy at about this time; the two provinces were closely allied in administration. Khālid b. Muḥammad, the prefect, is unknown. As for the latter part of the obverse marginal legend, the phrase "fi-wilayat," although obscure, can be read and is not an unusual conventional inscription at this time; but the words that follow, although they should be easily decipherable, escape me.

Al-’Abbāsīyah

383. Al-’Abbāsīyah. Year 173 A.H.=789/90 A.D.

Area as above.

Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس بالعباسية
سنة ثلثة و سبعين و مئة

بخ

محمد

رسول

الله

روح

Margin: traces only.

Æ. ANS (ex Torrey Coll.). 21mm., 3.85grm.

Coppers of al-’Abbāsīyah of the year 172 are common,224 but this issue appears to be unique.

Ghazzah

384-385. Ghazzah. Year 217 A.H.=832 A.D.

Area as above.

Chain border.

محمد

رسول

الله

بخ

Margin: ضرب هذا الفلس بغزة سنة سبع عشرة و مائتين

2 specimens: Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 21mm., 19mm.; 2.82grm., 2.67grm.

Plate X (No. 384)

This issue has been published,225 but I believe that it has never been remarked that these coins were cast, not struck from dies. The straight edges where the coins were cut apart after removal from the mould are very apparent. The casting of copper coins in Syria and, apparently, Palestine, in the third century of the Hijrah appears to have been a common practice. A very large number of cast coppers were found in the excavations at Antioch.226

386. Ghazzah. Year 217 A.H.=832 A.D.

Similar to the above, but with image beneath the obverse area and annulets (apparently five) in the border outside the chain margin. Cast, like the above.

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 21mm., 2.64grm.

387. Al-Kūfah. Year 163 A.H.=779/80 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

••

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦

image

محمد

رسول

الله

بركة

Margin: ... مما امر به المهدي محمد
(sic) كوفة سنة ثلث و ستين

Æ. ANS (ex Torrey Coll.). 20mm., 2.68grm.

Fulūs of the year 163 at al-Kūfah are known,227 but not lacking the "hundred" as here.

388. Al-Kūfah. Year 165 A.H.=781/2 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Annulets: ◦◦◦◦◦◦

محمد

رسول

الله

اسحق

Margin: مما امر به المهدي محمد امير المؤمنين بالكوفة سنة خمس و ستين و مئة

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 20mm., 2.34grm.

Isḥāq (b. al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindi), governor of al-Kūfah,228 is known on fulūs of the year 163,229 but this is the first specimen of the year 165 bearing his name that I have met with.

389. Al-Kūfah. Year 195 A.H.=810/1 A.D.

Area as above.

Chain border interrupted by image

image

محمد

رسول

الله

image

Margin: مما امر به محمد امير المؤمنين بالكوفة سنة خمس و تسعين و مئة

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 19mm., 2.75grm.

This specimen differs, with respect to the ornaments above and beneath the reverse, from that in the Istanbul Museum.230

Māh al-Kūfah

390. Māh al-Kūfah. Date effaced. 2nd c. H.=8th c. A.D.

Area as above.

Margin: ... [ـر]بسم الله مما امـ

محمد

رسول

الله

(⸮)بخ

Margin: ... لفلس بماه الكوفة ...

Æ. ANS (ex Torrey Coll.). 20mm., 3.09grm. I know of no other coppers of this mint.

Al-Muḥammadīyah

391. Al-Muḥammadīyah. Year 185 A.H.=801 A.D.

This particular variety, with al-Ḥarib or al-Ḥarith, has been published in my NHR.231

Æ. GCM (Teheran, 1935). 23mm., 2.97grm.

Miṣr

392-393. Miṣr. Year 25[9?] =87[2/3?] A.D.

Ornament?

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

• •

لله

محمد

رسول

••

الله

·IOM·

Chain border.

Margin: بمصر سنة ... ضرب هذا ا ...
و خمسين و مائتين (⸮) تسع

2 specimens (I largely effaced): Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 19mm., 20mm.; 2.24grm., 1.87grm.

The curious symbols at the bottom of the reverse area are similar to, if not identical with, the symbols on certain coppers of Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn which have been discussed at some length by a number of scholars in the past. Zambaur argued that they were Arabic figures and on one specimen published by him he undertook to read the date 262.232 If any further evidence were needed to dismiss this argument it is here, for the date, unfortunately not clear in its entirety but almost certainly 259, is written out in conventional fashion in the margin. As for the significance of the symbols I can add nothing to Nützel’s statement (or is it Zambaur’s acceptance of Nützel’s refutation?): "aussi longtemps qu’on ne nous fournira pas une meilleure explication, il faut voir dans ces signes un simple ornement."233

It is of interest to note that the present coins, Ṭūlūnid by date(?) and mint, do not bear the name of Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn as do the related coins referred to above.

Al-Mawṣil

394. Al-Mawṣil. No date (ca. 145 A.H.=762/3 A.D.).

Within square:

لا اله الا

الله

وحده

Around: ○ بالموصل ○ بن معوية ○ الهيثم ○ على يدي

Within square:

محمد

رسول

الله

Around: المؤمنين ○ [بن امير ○ جعـ [ـفر ○ الامير ○ مما امر به

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 22mm., 3.44grm.

A number of Mosul fulūs of this general type have been published,234 but I find none exactly similar to this. I suspect that the prefect’s name on some specimens has been misread, as for example al-Walīd b. Mu'āwiyah on the specimens cited. Lavoix assigns the coins to the Umayyad period on the basis of two alternative identifications of al-Walīd b. Mu'āwiyah. Al-Haytham b. Mu‘āwiyah, which is sufficiently clear on the present coin, is undoubtedly the person by that name who was governor of Ṭā’if and Mecca from 141 to 143 A.H.,235 and who later turns up as governor of Baṣrah in 155 and 156.236 As for the name of the governor, to judge by the style, the Ja‘far in question is undoubtedly the Caliph al-Manṣūr’s son Ja‘far, governor of Mosul in 145-146 A.H.237 Hence I believe this fals is to be dated approximately 145.

395. Al-Mawṣil. Year 157 A.H.=773/4 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Margin: الله ضرب هذا الفلس ...
... بالموصل سنة سبع و خمسـ

اسحق

محمد

رسول

الله

Margin: [⸮ جعفر] مما امر به الامير
بن امير المؤمنين اصلحه الله

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 28mm., 10.63grm.

This fals is perhaps similar to one with date obscure (15X) in the Bibliothèque Nationale.238

Nihāwand

396. Nihāwand. Year 154 A.H.=770/1 A.D.

image

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

image image

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦◦

مما امر به

المهدي محمد

بن امير المؤمنين

على يدي سليمن

◦◦◦

Margin: imageبسم الله ضرب هذا الفلس بنهاوند سنة اربع و خمسين و مئة

Æ. ANS (ex Wood Coll.). 21mm., 2.38grm.

This issue has been published,239 with the curious word at the end of the reverse margin read as image. The letters before the final alif are clearly ḥā (jīm, etc.), and either qāf (or ) or mīm; perhaps the word is حقًا,240 "truly, verily," a pious expression used by the die-engraver to fill up the excess space in the margin.

397-400. Madīnat Nihāwand. Year 186 A.H.=802 A.D.

Similar to Berlin , Nos. 2191-2.

4 specimens: ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 26-27mm.; 8.20, 5.97, 6.92, 7.00grm.

Plate X (No. 397)

I publish these only to confirm the reading in the Berlin catalogue and to point out Lavoix’s erroneous reading "Amid" for "Nihāwand."241 The waw, nun and dal in the name of the mint are crowded but, I believe, indisputable.

Hamadhān

401. Hamadhān. Year 171 A.H.=787/8 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

image

Annulets: ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦ ◦ ◦◦ ◦

الخليفة

[ـرون]الرشيد هـ

امير المؤمنين

image

Margin: هذا الفلس بهمذان سنة احدي و سبعين و مئة ... بسم الله

Æ. UM. 21mm., 8.32grm.

The British Museum has two specimens of this coin,242 but Lane-Poole did not attempt to interpret the word beneath the reverse area. The letters of this word are distinct and well-preserved, but there are (theoretically) exactly thirty possible readings of the combination of Kufic letters, depending upon the reading of the last three letters of the word (there being ten acceptable interpretations of these letters). Among these theoretical possibiliTies there are, I believe, only three that are at all likely—al-abrad, al-abrak, and al-abradh (for the Persian title abrāz). This does not bring us much closer to the solution, for I find no one suitable by such names in the chronicles. Al-Abrad is probably the most likely.

402. [Madīnat Hamadhān]. Year 200 A.H.=815/6 A.D.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Margin: بسم الله ضرب... سنة مائتين

على يدي

محمد رسول الله

... مما امر به الامير الحـ

بن عمر الرستمى مولى

امير المؤمنين

[......]

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 19mm., 4.36grm.

Plate X

The obliterated mint on this fals can easily be reconstructed from two published specimens of the same coin.243 I publish the present specimen only to discuss the identity of the governor and prefect. The missing prefect’s name (if such be the word at the bottom of the reverse) has been variously read as كفور, طيفور, etc.244 As for the governor, I think there can be little doubt but that the first name (for which the die-engraver did not leave sufficient room) is al-Ḥusayn, and that the individual in question is al-Ḥusayn b. ‘Umar al-Rustami, an influential soldier in al-Jibāl during the struggle between al-Amīn and al-Ma’mūn in the years 194-196 A.H.244a The coin now demonstrates that as a mawla of al-Ma’mūn he was rewarded for his services by being appointed governor of Hamadhān.

Al-Yaman

403. Al-Yaman. Year 157 A.H. = 773/4 A.D.

The inscriptions roughly in the center of obverse and reverse are obliterated by a hole bored through the coin.

لا اله الا

الله وحده

لا شريك له

Margin: لمس باليمن سنة ... ...
سبع خمسـ

Annulets: ◦◦ only preserved.

Margin: Traces of Qur’ān, IX, 33.

Æ. ANS. 22mm., 2.12grm.

Two other ‘Abbāsid coppers of al-Yaman are known to me,245 both dated in the following year, 158. The piercing is curious. It does not seem likely that this humble copper coin was pierced for wearing as an ornament as silver and gold coins so frequently are. It is of in- terest to note that one of the British Museum specimens is twice-pierced, not in the center but near the periphery.

End Notes
207a
There are approximately 260 copper coins of the ‘Abbāsids in the Museum of the American Numismatic Society, and an insignificant few in the University Museum collection. Notable unpublished or rare pieces among these, together with a few from my own small collection, are described in the following pages. Some apparently unique but only partially preserved specimens in the ANS have been omitted. The arrangement in this section is alphabetical, by mints. Common ornaments such as stars are conventionalized; only unusual ornaments are accurately reproduced.
208a
Cf. George C. Miles, "Islamic Coins," in Antioch-on-the-Orontes, IV, Part One (Princeton, 1948), Nos. 150-151, pp. III, 119. My statement on p. 119 with regard to Soret’s reading should be corrected in the light of the present positive identification. It is interesting that Aḥmad b. Hārūn struck at al-Maṣṣīṣah (apparently), as well as at Adhanah.
244a
Ṭabari, III, pp. 778, 800 (where the name is misspelled, but corrected in the addenda), 852-3. Cf. Ibn-Khaldūn, III, p. 237.
208
Yāqūt, I, p. 179 (cf. Le Strange, Lands, p. 131); Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie, I, p. 344; Head, Historia Numorum, pp. 715-6.
209
Soret à Dorn (1856), p. 21, No. 29=Ties., No. 2463; Paris, Nos. 1643-4.
210
Berlin , No. 2203.
211
Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, p. 287.
212
Ties., No. 1549. Cf. R. Vasmer, "Chronologie der Statthalter von Armenien ...", in Monumenta Armenologica, 1927, p. 131; Zambaur, Manuel, p. 178. For a fals of the year 197, see Zambaur, NZ, 1905, No. 64.
213
Ties., No. 906; Berlin, No. 2132a.
214
There is an unidentified governor of Ṭabaristān with a name similar to the present father’s name: J.-M. Unvala, Numismatique du Ṭabaristān, p. 13 and No. 1657=Walker (BM Cat. of the Arab-Sassanian Coins), p. lxxx and p. 152.
215
Cf. AGW, pp. 105-6, for a summary of his career and a list of his glass and copper issues.
216
Berlin, No. 2137.
217
BM, i, p. 200, No. 99.
218
E.g., BM, ix, p. 94, No. 90k.
219
BM, ix, p. 97, No. 127t,u; Constantinople , No. 771.
220
Castiglioni, Monete Cufiche, p. 21, No. XXV=Ties., No. 1165.
221
E.g., Berlin , Nos. 2211-12.
222
NHR, No. 36C.
223
Cf. NHR, Nos. 36B-D.
224
E.g., BM, i, p. 210, No. 129.
225
Karabacek, "Zur orientalischen Mūnzkunde," in Wiener Numismatische Monatshefte, III (1867), p. 37, No. 3=Ties., No. 2849; cf. Berlin , No. 2220 ("unbestimmter Prägeort").
226
For a discussion of these cast coppers, see my "Islamic Coins," in Antioch-on-the-Orontes, IV, Part One (Princeton, 1948), Nos. 148-153, pp. 118-9.
227
E.g., BM, i, p. 205, No. 113.
228
Cf. Zambaur, Manuel, p. 43.
229
E.g., Ties., No. 947.
230
Constantinople , No. 779.
231
No. 86E.
232
NZ, 1905, pp. 74-77, No. 70. The other significant references are to be found there. Cf. Zambaur, NZ, 1906, p. 194, No. 70, where he publishes Karabacek’s cogent refutation.
233
NZ, 1906, p. 195.
234
Cf. Ties., Nos. 2641-2, Paris, No. 1513, etc.
235
Ibn-al-Athīr, V, pp. 387, 389; cf. Zambaur, Manuel, p. 20.
236
Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, pp. 2, 4 and 6; cf. Zambaur, Manuel, p. 40. Al-Haytham is mentioned by Yāqūt, II, p. 167.
237
Cf. Zambaur, Manuel, p. 36 and table G.
238
Paris, No. 1632. The word "al-amīr" is omitted, perhaps inadvertently, in the transcription.
239
Ties., No. 835.
240
Cf. Ties., No. 1742, a Baghdad dirham of later date.
241
Paris , No. 1553.
242
BM, i, p. 213, No. 136 (imperfectly preserved), and BM, ix, p. 98, No. 133p.
243
Ties., No. 1712; BM, ix, p. 99, No. 143d, e; cf. also Berlin , No. 2219, another specimen with mint effaced.
244
There was a Ṭayfūr, client of al-Hādi, governor of Iṣbahān in 169 A.H. (Ibn-al-Athīr, VI, p. 64). Cf. Ṭayfūr, client of al-Manṣūr, who died in 186 (Ties., No. 812, with reference to Ibn-Taghri-Birdi [ed. Juynboll & Matthes], I, p. 523).
245
BM, ix, p. 95, Nos. 98x, y.

Mint Names Lacking or Effaced

404. No mint. No date.

image

الامير

محمود

image

Margin: ... به الامير ...

• بخ •

على يدي

صلح

Margin: سول الله ... لا اله الا

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 19mm., 3.30grm.

Plate X

This is apparently a variant of published specimens.246 The style, with its large heavy characters in the areas, seems to me Egyptian, but if this is so, I am still at a loss to identify the officials. One might hazard the guess that Ṣāliḥ is Ṣāliḥ b. ‘Ali,247 but we have no record of him as a prefect under an unknown Maḥmūd, which the phrase ‘ala yaday indicates that he was. The officials in question are almost certainly the same ones as those whose names appear on Nos. 405-6 below.

405-406. No mint. No date.

بخ
بخ

image

image image

In center: image

Around, in form of square: محمود ... بسم الله مما امر

Margin: محمد رسول الله على يدي صلح

2 specimens: Æ. ANS (ex Brand Coll.). 15mm., 13.5mm.; 1.65grm., 1.61grm.

Plate X (No. 405)

The officials Maḥmūd and Ṣāliḥ are unidentified. See No. 404 above. These specimens are surely of the same issue as that published by Soret,248 and attributed to abu-Ja‘far Ashinās. I think there is little doubt but that Soret’s reading "Achnas" is a misreading of "bis-mi’llah."249

407. No mint [Miṣr]. No date. (ca. 157-159 A.H.=773-776 A.D.).

Margin: ـده لاشر[الله وحـ] لا اله الا

Margin: ـطر مولى امير[ـلس على يدي مـ]ضرب هذا الفـ

Center (continuing the margin): يك له

image

Center (continuing the margin): المؤ

منين اكر

مه الله

Æ. ANS (ex Newell Coll.). 20mm. (thickness 3.5mm.), 8.26grm.

Plate X

VarieTies of this issue are known,250 attributed to Qinnasrīn, but I doubt that the mint name has been read correctly. No mint name is present here, nor is Qinnasrīn legible on the Paris specimen, which is illustrated. Lavoix must simply have followed Tiesenhausen’s sources, some of whom must have read Qinnasrīn in error, others making no mention of the mint. The coin is typically Egyptian in style and fabric (it is exceptionally thick), and Maṭar served in Egypt.

408. Mint effaced. Year 151 A.H.=768 A.D.

Outer margin within outer linear circle and circle of pellets, interrupted by annulets, ◦◦: سنة احدي و خمسين و مئة ... ضرب هذا الفلس

Outer margin within linear circle: ـمه الله ... مما امر به المهدي محمد بن امير المؤمنين

Inner margin within border XIXIXIXI: (⸮)الصمد ... الله (⸮)بسم

Inner margin: الله ... لا اله الا الله

Center obliterated by roughly square hole.

Center obliterated by hole.

Æ. ANS (ex Valentine Coll.). 25mm., 4.96grm.

Plate X

Unfortunately the mint name of this very curious piece is worn quite smooth. It is just barely possible that it might be al-Sughd, but given the condition of the legend at this point any reading must be highly problematical. The flan shows the characteristics of casting, that is there are straight edges at opposite sides of the periphery where the piece was cut off. The arrangement of the legends is unconventional, and the borders, especially the reverse inner border, are atypical. I believe everything points toward a Central Asiatic mint.251 Such a provenance would help explain the later piercing of the coin with a square hole: it was probably used in subsequent times as a Chinese "cash." The cast flan might also indicate a Central Asiatic origin, although this is not a firm argument for there are cast flans in Syria and Palestine in the ‘Abbāsid period.252

End Notes
246
Ties., Nos. 2545-6; Paris , No. 1671.
247
Cf. AGW, pp. 102-3, where his Egyptian career is summarized.
248
Soret à Dorn (1856), p. 26, No. 37=Ties., No. 2568.
249
I would therefore delete my reference to these coins in AGW, p. 135.
250
Ties., No. 2626, Paris , No. 1601. Cf. my AGW, pp. 118, 124, for Maṭar’s glass weights.
251
Compare the unconventionalities of the Bukhāran coinage and of the issues of the Ilek-Khāns.
252
Cf. Nos. 384-5 above.

BACK

INDEX OF ARABIC NAMES AND TITLES

88 ابو ابرهيم

88 ابو جعفر

46-52, 92-100 ابو العباس بن امير المؤمنين

78-9 ابو عبد الله

53, 103 ابو الفصل بن امير المؤمنين

53, 101 ابو القاسم بن امير المؤمنين

103 ابو المنصور بن امير المؤمنين

108 احمد بن محمد

85-7 احمد بن الموفق بالله

107 احمد بن هرون

117, 120 اسحق

69 الاصفر

73 اعين بن هرثمة

64-6, 72, 74, 106 الامام

59, 62-4, 71, 109-10, 113, 120, 122, 124 الامير

38-9, 41, 60, 64, 74, 81, 83, 106, 118, 122 امير المؤمنين

62-3, 66 الامين

10 الامين على سليمن

62-3 الامين محمد بن امير المؤمنين

122 image

60 جرير

39-40, 52, 62-3, 83, 100 جعفر

120 جعفر بن امير المؤمنين

63 الحكم

62 حماد

122 بن عمر الرستمى مولى امير المؤمنين ... الحـ

115 خلد بن محمد

59 خلف

71 خليفة الله

66 الخليفة الامين

63 الخليفة الرشيد

122 الخليفة الرشيد هرون امير المؤمنين

64-5 الخليفة محمد امير المؤمنين

60 الخليفة المرضى

60 الخليفة موسى

58 الخليفة المهدي

61 الخليفة الهرون

65 داود

111 ـه بن سنان ... د

77 ذو الرياستين

84 ذو الوزارتين

53, 102-3 الراضى بالله

122 الرشيد

71 الرضا ولى عهد المسلمين على بن موسى بن على بن ابى طالب

61, 115 روح

121 سليمن

65 صرد

34 الصلح

124 صلح

33 الضحاك

70 طاهر

123 طيفور

38, 75, 80 العباس بن امير المؤمنين

109 العباس بن زفر

74 عبد الاعلى بن احمد

66, 72 عبد الله امير المؤمنين

83 عبد الله بن امير المؤمنين

74 عبد الله عبد الله الامام المأمون امير المؤمنين

113 عبد الله بن معوية

31 عبد الله مرون

31 عبد الملك بن مرون

109 عبد الملك بن يزيد

109 imageعبدة بن

64 عبيد

74 عبيد الله بن السري

74 عبيد الله بن يحيى

71 على بن موسى بن على بن ابى طالب

52 عميد الدولة

73 غسان

69 فاطمى

11, 64-6 الفضل

53, 101 القاهر بالله

123 كفور

74 للخليفة المأمون

64-6, 74 المأمون امير المؤمنين

71 المأمون خليفة الله

66, 72 المأمون عبد الله امير المؤمنين

64 المأمون ولى عهد المسلمين عبد الله بن امير المؤمنين

103-4 المتقى

37, 78-80 المتوكل على الله

9 محمد

118 محمد امير المؤمنين

58, 11, 115, 121, 125 محمد بن امير المؤمنين

66, 72 محمد بن بيهس

113 محمد بن الحسين

68 محمد بن هرون

124 محمود

60 المرضى

38, 80-1 المستعين بالله

106 المستنصر بالله امير المؤمنين

125 مطر مولى امير المؤمنين

54, 105 المطيع لله

37, 79-80 المعتز بالله

81, 83 المعتز بالله امير المؤمنين

36, 76-7 المعتصم بالله

41-2, 87-9 المعتضد بالله

39-41, 83-7 المعتمد على الله

41, 84-6 المفوض الى الله

46-52, 91-100 المقتدر بالله

42-4, 89-91 المكتفى بالله

37 المنتصر بالله

101 المنتقم من اعداء الله لدين الله

34 منصور

9 المهدي

117 المهدي محمد

117 المهدي محمد امير المؤمنين

58, 111, 115, 121, 125 المهدي محمد بن امير المؤمنين

60 موسى

109 موسى ولى عهد المسلمين

84, 86-7 الموفق بالله

114 مولى

122, 125 مولى امير المؤمنين

84, 86-7, 106 الناصر لدين الله

61 نصر

63 هرثمة

122 هرون

60 هرون امير المؤمنين

120 الهيثم بن معوية

36-7, 77-8 الواثق بالله

42 ولى الدولة

64, 109 ولى عهد المسلمين

59 يحيى بن الربيع

59, 61 يزيد

110 يزيد بن اسيد

40 image


INDEX OF MINTS

  • al-’Abbāsīyah العباسية 59, 115
  • Adhanah اذنه 107
  • Adharbayjān اذربيجان 29
  • Africa, 15-6
  • al-Ahwāz الاهواز 40, 48, 52, 88-91, 94, 101
  • al-Andalus الاندلس 19
  • Anṭākiyah انطاكية 56-7, 96, 100, 105
  • Ardabīl اردبيل 49
  • Ardashīr-Khurrah اردشير خرة 7
  • Armīnīyah ارمينية 22, 75, 90
  • Arrān اران 57-8, 74, 108-9
  • Atrīb اتريب 31-2
  • —— image 30
  • Ba’alabak بعلبك 30
  • Balkh بلخ 5, 63, 65
  • Bardha’ah برذعة 50, 110
  • al-Baṣrah (Basrah) البصرة 5, 72, 84, 90, 93, 101, 103
  • Bihqubādh al-Awsaṭ بهقباذ الاوسط 23
  • Bishāpūr, 3-4, 7-8
  • Bukhārā بخارا 9, 109
  • Dabīl دبيل 24
  • Dārābjird, 1-2, 4
  • Dasht Maysān دشت ميسان 24
  • Dimishq دمشق 25, 30, 44, 46-7, 66, 72, 77-9, 90-2, 112
  • Fārs (Fāris) فارس 74, 85-6
  • Filasṭīn فلسطين 42-4, 51, 97
  • Ghazzah غزة 116
  • Ḥalab حلب 102, 111
  • Hamadhān همذان 27, 49, 99, 122
  • Harāt هرات 65
  • Ḥarrān حران 17, 41, 95
  • al-Hārūnīyah الهرونية 60
  • Ifrīqīyah افريقية 22, 61
  • Iṣbahān اصبهان 43, 73, 79, 89, 95
  • Iṣṭakhr اصطخر 57
  • Jannābā جنابا 92
  • al-Janzah الجنزة 23
  • Jayy جى 111
  • Jundi Sābūr جندي سابور24
  • al-Karaj الكرج 44-5
  • Khaznat Ḥalab خزنة حلب 112
  • Khwārizm, 10-12
  • Kirmān كرمان 4, 8
  • al-Kūfah الكوفة 25-6, 57, 62, 69-71, 92, 96, 117-8
  • Ma’din Amīr al-Mu’minīn معدن امير المؤمنين 20
  • Ma’din Bājunais معدن باجنيس 64-5
  • Madīnat al-Salām مدينة السلام 36-7, 42, 47; 53, 55, 58, 61, 63, 66, 84,87, 94-6, 98, 100, 103, 106
  • Māh al-Kūfah ماه الكوفة 81, 118
  • Makkah مكة 81-2
  • Manādhir مناذر 26
  • Marw (Marv) مرو 5-6, 38
  • al-Mawṣil الموصل 33, 43-4, 120
  • Maysān ميسان 27
  • Miṣr مصر 31, 36-40, 46-9, 51-3, 74, 76, 79-81, 84, 119
  • al-Mubārakah المباركة 61
  • al-Muḥammadīyah المحمدية 37, 58-9, 61-3, 118
  • Nihāwand نهاوند 2, 121
  • Nīsābūr نيسابور 64
  • Niṣībīn نصيبين 43, 103
  • Qinnasrīn قنسرين 17
  • Qumm image 41
  • al-Rāfiqah الرافقة 44, 46-7, 70, 86, 97-8, 102
  • al-Raḥbah الرحبة 104
  • al-Ramlah الرملة 112
  • al-Rayy الري 5, 113
  • Samarqand سمرقند 64, 66, 71
  • al-Sāmīyah السامية 25
  • Ṣan’ā صنعا 36-7, 39, 41, 46, 62, 76
  • Sarakhs سرخس 25
  • al-Shāsh الشاش 78, 87-8
  • Shīrāz شيراز 93, 96, 99
  • Sinjār سنجار 93
  • Sīstān, 2, 7
  • Spain, 16
  • SR سر 30
  • Sūq al-Ahwāz سوق الاهواز 47-8, 91, 99, 113-4
  • Surra man-ra’a سر من راي 36-7, 41, 78-9, 83, 97
  • Surraq سرق 25, 31
  • Ṭabaristān طبرستان 12-5, 115
  • Ṭabarīyah طبرية 31
  • Ṭarsūs طرسوس 102
  • Taymarrah تيمرة 23
  • Tustar تستر 54, 110-1
  • Tustar min-al-Ahwāz تستر من الاهواز 48, 51, 53
  • Wāsiṭ واسط 33, 89, 92-4, 99
  • al-Yamāmah اليمامة 60
  • al-Yaman اليمن 123
  • Zaranj زرنج 9, 63, 73
  • No mint, 19, 21, 28-9, 34-5, 52, 59, 77, 91, 100, 106, 124-5
  • Uncertain mint, 17-8, 30, 54, 88, 125

INDEX OF PERSONS

(mentioned in historical commentary)

  • ‘Abadah b. Qudayd (or Qadīd, or Fudayk), 109-10
  • abu’l-’Abbās Aḥmad, 87
  • al-’Abbās b. Amīr al-Mu’minīn, 75
  • al-’Abbās b. al-Ma’mūn, 75
  • al-’Abbās b. Zufar (al-Hilāli), 109
  • ‘Abd al-Ā’la b. Aḥmad, 75
  • ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwān b. Mūsa, 31
  • ‘Abd al-Malik b. Yazīd, 110
  • ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Khāqān, 75
  • ‘Abdullāh, 14
  • ‘Abdullāh b. ‘Āmir, 4
  • ‘Abdullāh b. Khāzim, 5-6, 10
  • ‘Abdullāh b. Mu’āwiyah, 113
  • ‘Abdullāh b. al-Mu’tazz, 39
  • ‘Abdullāh Shāh, 12
  • ‘Abdullāh b. Ṭāhir, 67-8
  • ‘Abdullāh b. Zubayr, 4
  • al-Abrad, 122
  • Aḥmad b. ‘Abd al-’Azīz, 86
  • Aḥmad b. Hārūn, 107-8
  • Aḥmad b. Marwān, 108
  • Aḥmad b. Muḥammad, 108
  • Aḥmad b. al-Muwaffaq, 85, 87
  • abu-Aḥmad Ṭalḥah, 84
  • Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn, 40, 119
  • Aḥmad b. Yaḥya b. Rabī’, 60
  • ‘Ali b. ‘Abdullāh al-Sufyāni, 67
  • abu-’Ali al-Ḥusayn b. al-Qāsim, 52
  • ‘Ali al-Riḍā, 71
  • ‘Ali Sulaymān, 10
  • ‘Ali b. Sulaymān, 10
  • ‘Amīd al-Dawlah, 52, 96
  • al-Amīn, 10, 123
  • ‘Amru b. al-Layth, 85-7
  • al-Aṣfar, 70
  • ‘Aṭīyaḥ b. al-Aswad, 8
  • Atrīb b.Miṣr b. Bayṣar b. Ḥām b. Nūḥ, 32
  • abu-’Awn, 110
  • Ā’yan b. Harthamah, 73
  • abu-Bayhas al-Hayṣam b. Jābir, 67
  • Bilāl b. al-Ḥārith, 21
  • Būyids, 93
  • al-Ḍaḥḥāk, 33
  • Dhū’l-Rī’āsatayn, 71
  • Dhū’l-Yamīnayn, 70
  • abu-Dulafids, 45, 86
  • al-Faḍl, 11
  • abu’l-Faḍl, 103
  • al-Faḍl b. Sulaymān, 12
  • al-Faḍl b. Yaḥya, 10-12
  • Fāṭimids, 105
  • Ghassān b. ‘Abbād b. abi’l-Faraj, 73
  • al-Hādi, 123
  • Hadrian, 32
  • al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf, 8, 67
  • al-Ḥakam b. Sinān, 63
  • Ḥammād (al-Barbari), 62
  • Hāni, 14
  • abu-Ḥarb al-Mubarqa’, 68
  • al-Ḥarib, 118
  • al-Ḥarith, 118
  • Harthamah b. Ā’yan, 63, 73
  • Hārūn b. Khumārawaih, 42
  • al-Ḥasan b. Sahl, 73
  • al-Haytham b. Mu’āwiyah, 120
  • Heraclius I, 17
  • Hūlāgū, 56
  • al-Ḥusayn b. ‘Umar al-Rustami, 123
  • abu’l-Ḥusayn al-Qāsim b. ‘Ubaydullāh, 43
  • Ibn-Bayhas, 67-9, 72
  • abu-Ibrāhīm, 89
  • Ikhshidids, 102-3
  • Ilek-Khāns, 126
  • Isḥaq b. al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindi, 117
  • Ja’far, 12
  • abu-Ja’far, 89
  • abu-Ja’far Ashinās, 125
  • Ja’far b. al-Manṣūr, 120
  • Ja’far b. Muḥammad, 12
  • Jarīr, 13
  • Khālid b. Muḥammad, 115
  • Khusrau II, 1-3
  • al-Mahdi, 60
  • al-Mahdi al-Faḍl li’llāh, 9
  • Maḥmūd, 124
  • al-Ma’mūn, 68, 70, 75, 123
  • Maṭar, 125
  • Mufliḥ al-Yūsufi, 50
  • al-Muhallab b. abi-Ṣufrah, 8
  • Muḥammad b. ‘Amru, 85
  • Muḥammad b. Bayhas, 67-9, 72
  • Muḥammad b. Hārūn al-Rashīd, 68
  • Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ al-’Alawi, 68
  • Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ b. Bayhas al-Kilābi, 67-9, 72
  • Muḥammad b. Sulaymān, 42
  • al-Muhtadi, 38, 83
  • al-Muktafi, 89
  • Mu’nis, 101
  • al-Muntaṣir, 38
  • Muqātil, 14
  • al-Muqtadir, 50, 52, 100
  • Mūsā b. Nuṣayr, 16
  • abu-Muslim, 26
  • al-Musta’īn, 82-3
  • al-Mustanṣir, 54
  • al-Musta’ṣim, 54, 56
  • al-Mu’taḍid, 85, 87-9
  • al-Mu’tamid, 84-5, 87-8
  • al-Mu’taṣim, 68-9, 75, 77
  • al-Mutawakkil, 84
  • al-Mu’tazz, 38-9, 82-3
  • al-Muṭī’, 54, 105
  • al-Mutaqqi, 103-4
  • al-Muwaffaq, 84-5, 87-8
  • al-Nāṣir, 54, 106
  • al-Nāṣir li-dīn Allāh, 84
  • al-Qāhir, 101-2
  • Qarmaṭids, 104
  • Rabī’ b. Ziyād, 10
  • al-Rāḍi, 103-4
  • al-Riḍā, 71
  • Ṣaffārids, 85-7, 92-3
  • Ṣā’id b. Makhlad, 84-5
  • Sājids, 50
  • Ṣāliḥ b. ‘Ali, 124
  • Salm b. Ziyād, 5
  • abu’l-Sarāyā, 70
  • al-Sari b. Manṣūr (abu’l-Sarāyā), 70
  • Sulaymān, 13
  • Ṭāhir b. al-Ḥusayn, 70
  • Ṭayfūr, 123
  • Trajan, 32
  • Ṭūlūnids, 40, 42, 86, 119
  • ‘Ubaydullāh b. abi-Bakrah, 7
  • ‘Ubaydullāh b. al-Sari, 74
  • ‘Ubaydullāh b. Ziyād, 5
  • ‘Umar b. al-’Alā, 12-3
  • ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-’Azīz, 21
  • ‘Umar b. ‘Ubaydullāh, 7
  • ‘Uthmān, 64
  • Wali al-Dawlah, 43
  • al-Walīd b. Mu’āwiyah, 120
  • Waṣīf, 50
  • al-Wāthiq, 68
  • Yaḥya b. al-Rabī’, 59
  • Zanj, 84
  • Ziyād b. abi-Sufyān, 4

PLATES

RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE I ARAB-SASSANIAN

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE II ARAB-SASSANIAN

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE III ARAB-SASSANIAN: 29-32a. BUKHĀRĀ IMITATIONS: 33-34a. KHWĀRIZM: 35. TABARISTĀN: 36-39a.

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE IV ṬABARISTĀN: 39b–52. EARLY AFRICAṆ AND SPANISH: 54–57. BYZANTINE-ARAB: 58–61. POST-REFORM UMAYYAD GOLD: 62–68.

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE V POST-REFORM UMAYYAD SILVER

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE VI POST-REFORM UMAYYAD COPPER

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE VII ‘ABBĀSID GOLD

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE VIII ‘ABBĀSID GOLD: 188-203. ‘ABBĀSID SILVER: 220-256.

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE IX ‘ABBĀSID SILVER

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RARE ISLAMIC COINS

PLATE X ‘ABBĀSID SILVER: 346-362. 'ABBĀSID COPPER: 363-408.

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PUBLICATIONS OF
THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

Broadway at 156th Street, New York City 32, N.Y.

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NUMISMATICS

1866-1924

Vols. 1-3: Monthly, May, 1866-April, 1870.

Vols. 4-46: Quarterly, July, 1870-October, 1912.

Vols. 47-53: Annually, 1913-1924.

With many plates, illustrations, maps and tables. The numbers necessary to complete broken sets may, in most cases, be obtained. An index to the first fifty volumes has been issued as part of Volume LI. It may be purchased separately for $3.00.

NUMISMATIC NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS

The Numismatic Notes and Monographs is a series devoted to essays and treatises on subjects relating to coins, paper money, medals and decorations. Nos. 1-109 inclusive are approximately 4 1/2 × 6 5/8 inches in size. Beginning with No. 110 the size is 6 1/8 × 9 inches.

  • Sydney P. Noe. Coin Hoards. 1921. 47 pp. 6 pls. 50ȼ.
  • Edward T. Newell. Octobols of Histiaea. 1921. 25 pp. 2 pls. Out of print.
  • Edward T. Newell. Alexander Hoards—Introduction and Kyparissia Hoard. 1921. 21 pp. 2 pls. Out of print.
  • Howland Wood. The Mexican Revolutionary Coinage, 1913-1916. 1921. 44 pp. 26 pls. Out of print.
  • Leonidas Westervelt. The Jenny Lind Medals and Tokens. 1921. 25 pp. 9 pls. Out of print.
  • Anges Balwdin. Five Roman Gold Medallions. 1921. 103 pp. 8 pls. $1.50.
  • Sydney P. Noe. Medallic Work of A. A. Weinman. 1921. 31 pp. 17 pls. Out of print.
  • Gilbert S. Perez. The Mint of the Philippine Islands. 1921. 8 pp. 4 pls. Out of print.
  • David Eugene Smith, Computing Jetons. 1921. 70 pp. 25 pls. $1.50.
  • Edward T. Newell. The First Seleucid Coinage of Tyre. 1921. 40 pp. 8 pls. Out of print.
  • Harrold E. Gillingham. French Orders and Decorations. 1922. 110 pp. 35 pls. Out of print.
  • Howland Wood. Gold Dollars of 1858. 1922. 7 pp. 2 pls. Out of print.
  • R.B. Whitehead. Pre-Mohammedan Coinage of N.W. India. 1922. 56 pp. 15 pls. Out of print.
  • George F. Hill, Attambelos I of Characene. 1922. 12 pp. 3 pls. Out of print.
  • M. P. Vlasto. Taras Oikistes (A Contribution to Tarentine Numismatics). 1922. 234 pp. 13 pls $3.50.
  • Commemorative Coinage of the United States. 1922. 63 pp. 7 pls. Out of print.
  • Anges Balwdin, Six Roman Bronze Medallions. 1923. 39 pp. 6 pls. $1.50.
  • Tegucigalpa Coinage of 1823. 1923. 16 pp. 2 pls. 50ȼ.
  • Edward T. Newell. Alexander Hoards—II. Demanhur Hoard. 1923. 162 pp. 8 pls. $2.50.
  • Harrold E. Gillingham. Italian Orders of Chivalry and Medals of Honor. 1923. 146 pp. 34 pls. Out of print.
  • Edward T. Newell. Alexander Hoards—III. Andritsaena. 1924. 39 pp. 6 pls. $1.00.
  • C. T. Seltman. A Hoard from Side. 1924. 20 pp. 3 pls. Out of print.
  • R. B. Seager. A Cretan Coin Hoard. 1924. 55 pp. 12 pls. $2.00.
  • Samuel R. Milbank. The Coinage of Aegina. 1925. 66 pp. 5 pls. $2.00.
  • Sydney P. Noe. A Bibliography of Greek. Coin Hoards. 1925. 275 pp. $2.50.
  • Edward T. Newell. Mithradates of Parthia and Hyspaosines of Characene. 1925. 18 pp.2 pls. 50ȼ.
  • Sydney P. Noe. The Mende (Kaliandra) Hoard. 1926. 73 pp. 10 pls. $2.00.
  • Anges Balwdin. Four Medallions from the Arras Hoard. 1926. 36 pp. 4 pls. $1.50.
  • H. Alexander Parsons. The Earliest Coins of Norway. 1926. 41 pp. 1 pl. 50ȼ.
  • Edward T. Newell. Some Unpublished Coins of Eastern Dynasts. 1926. 21 pp. 2 pls. 50ȼ.
  • Harrold E. Gillingham. Spanish Orders of Chivalry and Decorations of Honor. 1926. 165 pp. 40 pls. $3.00.
  • Sydney P. Noe. The Coinage of Metapontum. (Part I). 1927. 134 pp. 23 pls. $3.00.
  • Edward T. Newell. Two Recent Egyptian Hoards—Delta and Keneh. 1927. 34 pp. 3 pls. $1.00.
  • Edward Rogers. The Second and Third Seleucid Coinage of Tyre. 1927. 33 pp. 4 pls. $1.50.
  • Alfred R. Bellinger. The Anonymous Byzantine Bronze Coinage. 1928. 27 pp. 4 pls. $1.50.
  • Harrold E. Gillingham. Notes on the Decorations and Medals of the French Colonies and Protectorates. 1928. 62 pp. 31 pls. $2.00.
  • Oscar Ravel. The "Colts" of Ambracia. 1928. 180 pp. 19 pls. $3.00.
  • The Coinage of the Mexican Revolutionists. 1928. 53 pp. 15 pls. $2.50.
  • Edward T. Newell. Alexander Hoards—IV. Olympia. 1929. 31 pp. 9 pls. $1.50.
  • Allen B. West. Fifth and Fourth Century Gold Coins from the Thracian Coast. 1929. 183 pp. 16 pls. $3.00.
  • Gilbert S. Perez. The Leper Colony Currency of Culion. 1929. 10 pp. 3 pls. 50ȼ.
  • Alfred R. Bellinger. Two Hoards of Attic Bronze Coins. 1930. 14 pp. 4 pls. 50ȼ.
  • D. H. Cox. The Caparelli Hoard. 1930. 14 pp. 2 pls. 50ȼ.
  • Geo. F. Hill. On the Coins of Narbonensis with Iberian Inscriptions. 1930. 39 pp. 6 pls. $1.00.
  • Bauman L. Belden. A Mint in New York City. 1930. 40 pp. 4 pls. 50ȼ.
  • Edward T. Newell. The Küchük Köhne Hoard. 1931. 33 pp. 4 pls. $1.00.
  • Sydney P. Noe. The Coinage of Metapontum. Part II. 1931. 134 pp. 43 pls. $3.00.
  • D. W. Valentine. The United States Half Dimes. 1931. 79 pp. 47 pls. $5.00.
  • Alfred R. Bellinger. Two Roman Hoards from Dura-Europos. 1931. 66 pp. 17 pls. $1.50.
  • Geo. F. Hill. Notes on the Ancient Coinage of Hispania Citerior. 1931. 196 pp. 36 double pls. $4.00.
  • Alan W. Hazelton. The Russian Imperial Orders. 1932. 102 pp. 20 pls. $3.00.
  • O. Ravel. Corinthian Hoards (Corinth and Arta). 1932. 27 pp. 4 pls. $1.00.
  • Jean B. Cammann. The Symbols on Staters of Corinthian Type (A Catalogue). 1932. 130 pp. 14 double pls. $3.00.
  • Shirley H. Weber. An Egyptian Hoard of the Second Century A.D. 1932. 41 pp. 5 pls. $1.50.
  • Alfred R. Bellinger. The Third and Fourth Dura Hoards. 1932. 85 pp. 20 pls. $1.50.
  • Harrold E. Gillingham. South American Decorations and War Medals. 1932. 178 pp. 35 pls. $3.00.
  • Wm. Campbell. Greek and Roman Plated Coins. 1933. 226 pp. 190+ pls. $3.50.
  • E. T. Newell. The Fifth Dura Hoard. 1933. 14 pp. 2 pls. $1.00.
  • D. H. Cox. The Tripolis Hoard. 1933. 61 pp. 8 pls. 2 maps. $1.50.
  • Edgar Erskine Hume. The Medals of the United States Army Medical Department and Medals Honoring Army Medical Officers. 1942. 146 pp. 23 pls. $3.00.
  • Phraes O. Sigler. Sycee Silver. 1943. 37 pp. 6 pls. $1.00.
  • Sydney P. Noe. The Castine Deposit: An American Hoard. 1942. 37 pp. 4 pls. $1.00.
  • H. F. Bowker. A Numismatic Bibliography of the Far East. 1943. 144 pp. $1.50.
  • Sydney P. Noe. The New England and Willow Tree Coinages of Massachusetts. 1943. 56 pp. 16 pls. $3.00.
  • Nai Chi Chang. An Inscribed Chinese Ingot of the XII Century A.D. 1944. 9 pp. 2 pls. 50ȼ.
  • George L. McKay. Early American Currency. 1944. 85 pp. 27 pls. Out of print.
  • Edward T. Newell. The Byzantine Hoard of Lagbe. 1945. 22 pp. 8 pls. $1.00.
  • James C. Risk. British Orders and Decorations. 1945. 124 pp. 76 pls. $4.00.
  • Bluma L. Trell. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesos. 1945. 71 pp. 28 pls. $2.00.
  • Karel O. Castelin. The Coinage of Rhesaena in Mesopotamia. 1946. 111 pp. 17 pls $2.00.
  • Aline A. Boyce. Coins of Tingi with Latin Legends. 1947. 27 pp. 5 pls. $1.00.
  • Sydney P. Noe. The Oak Tree Coinage of Massachusetts. 1947. 23 pp. 10 pls. $1.50.
  • George C. Miles. Early Arabic Glass Weights and Stamps. 1948. 168 pp. 14 pls. Out of print.
  • Philip V. Hill. "Barbarous Radiates": Imitations of Third-Century Roman Coins. 1949. 44 pp. 4 pls. $2.00.
  • Richard N. Frye. Notes on the Early Coinage of Transoxiana. 1949. 50 pp. frontispiece. $2.00.
  • William H. Dilliston. Bank Note RePorters and Counterfeit Detectors, 1826-1866. 1949. 175 pp. 19 pls. $3.50.
  • O. P. Eklund and Sydney P. Noe, Hacienda Tokens of Mexico. 1949. 46 pp. 22 pls. $2.50.

MUSEUM NOTES

The American Numismatic Society Museum Notes is a publication consisting principally of brief notes and papers on items in the Society’s collections.

I—1946. 106 pp. 23 pls. II—1947. 118 pp. 19 pls. $1.50 each III—1948. 154 pp. 26 pls. $5.00.

NUMISMATIC STUDIES

This series accommodates works of full book length, 7¾ x 10¾ inches in size.

  • Edward T. Newell. The Coinage of the Eastern Seleucid Mints from Seleucus I to Antiochus III. 1938. 307 pp. 56 pls. $6.00.
  • George C. Miles. The Numismatic History of Rayy. 1938. 240 pp. 6 pls. $4.00.
  • Alfred R. Bellinger. The Syrian Tetradrachms of Caracalla and Macrinus. 1940. 116 pp. 26 pls. $5.00.
  • Edward T. Newell. The Coinage of the Western Seleucid Mints from Seleucus I to Antiochus III. 1941. 450 pp. 86 pls. $10.00.
  • Jocelyn M. C. Toynbee. Roman Medallions. 1944. 268 pp. 49 pls. Out of print.

NUMISMATIC LITERATURE

A quarterly listing of current numismatic publications with abstracts of their content. Subscription price to non-members is $2.00 per year postpaid. Single current issues, $.50 each.

George H. Clapp and Howard R. Newcomb. The United States Cents of the Years 1795, 1796, 1797 and 1800. 1947. 74 pp. 4 photographic pls. Bound in cloth. $10.00.

Edward T. Newell. The Coinages of Demetrius Poliorcetes. London. Oxford University Press. 1927. 174 pp. 18 pls. $5.00.

  • E. T. Newell. Two Hoards from Minturno. 1933. 38 pp. 5 pls. $1.00.
  • The Gampola Larin Hoard. 1934. 84 pp. 10 double pls. $3.00.
  • J. G. Milne. The Melos Hoard of 1907. 1934. 19 pp. 1 pl. $1.00.
  • A. F. Pradeau. The Mexican Mints of Alamos and Hermosillo. 1934. 73 pp. illus. 3 pls. $1.50.
  • E. T. Newell. A Hoard from Siphnos. 1934. 17 pp. 1 pl. 50ȼ.
  • C. H. V. Sutherland. Romano-British Imitations of Bronze Coins of Claudius 1. 1935. 35 pp. 8 double pls. $2.00.
  • Harrold E. Gillingham. Ephemeral Decorations. 1935. 40 pp. 11 pls. $2.00.
  • Sawyer McA. Mosser. A Bibliography of Byzantine Coin Hoards. 1935. 116 pp. $1.50.
  • Edward T. Newell. Five Greek Bronze Coin Hoards. 1935. 67 pp. 9 double pls. $2.00.
  • Alfred R. Bellinger. The Sixth, Seventh and Tenth Dura Hoards. 1935. 75 pp. 5 pls. $1.00.
  • Frederick O. Waage. Greek Bronze Coins from a Well at Megara. 1935. 42 pp. 3 pls. $1.00.
  • Sydney P. Noe. The Thurian Di-Staters. 1935. 68 pp. 11 double pls. $2.00.
  • John Walker. The Coinage of the Second Saffarid Dynasty in Sistan. 1936. 46 pp. 4 double pls. $1.00.
  • Edward T. Newell. The Seleucid Coinage of Tyre. 1936. 34 pp. 5 pls. $1.00.
  • Margaret Crosby and Emily Grace. An Achaean League Hoard. 1936. 44 pp. 4 pls. $1.50.
  • Agnes Baldwin Brett. Victory Issues of Syracuse after 413 B.C. 1936. 6 pp. 2 pls. 50ȼ.
  • Edward T. Newell. The Pergamene Mint under Philetaerus. 1936. 34 pp. 10 pls. $2.50.
  • Charles C. Torrey. Aramaic Graffiti on Coins of Demanhur. 1937. 13 pp. 2 pls. $1.00.
  • Sydney P. Noe. A Bibliography of Greek Coin Hoards. (Second Edition.) 1937. 362 pp. $4.00.
  • Naphtali Lewis. A Hoard of Folles from Seltz (Alsace). 1937. 81 pp. 5 pls. $2.00.
  • Harold Mattingly and W. P. D. Stebbing. The Richborough Hoard of 'Radiates.’ 1931. 1938. 118 pp. 15 pls. $2.50.
  • Alfred R. Bellinger. Coins from Jerash. 1928-1934. 1938. 141 pp. 9 pls. $2.50.
  • Edward T. Newell. Miscellanea Numismatica: Cyrene to India. 1938. 101 pp. 6 pls. $2.00.
  • David M. Bullowa. The Commemorative Coinage of the United States 1892-1938. 1938. 192 pp. 10 pls. $2.50.
  • Edward T. Newell. Late Seleucid Mints in Ake-Ptolemais and Damascus. 1939. 107 pp. 17 pls. $2.00.
  • Alfred R. Bellinger. The Eighth and Ninth Dura Hoards. 1939. 92 pp. 13 pls. $2.00.
  • Harrold E. Gillingham. Counterfeiting in Colonial Pennsylvania. 1939. 52 pp. 2 pls. $1.00.
  • George C. Miles. A Byzantine Weight Validated by al-Walid. 1939. 11 pp. 1 pl. 50ȼ.
  • Jaime Gonzalez. A Puerto Rican Counterstamp. 1940. 21 pp. 2 pls. $1.00.
  • Harrold E. Gillingham. Mexican Decorations of Honour. 1940. 53 pp. 17 pls. $2.00.
  • Donald F. Brown. Temples of Rome as Coin Types. 1940. 51 pp. 9 pls. $1.50.
  • Eunice Work. The Early Staters of Heraclea Lucaniae. 1940. 40 pp. 8 pls. $2.00.
  • D. H. Cox. A Tarsus Coin Collection in the Adana Museum. 1941. 67 pp. 12 pls. $2.00.
  • Herbert E. Ives. Foreign Imitations of the English Noble. 1941. 36 pp. 5 pls. $1.50.
  • Louis C. West. Gold and Silver Coin Standards in the Roman Empire. 1941. 199 pp. $1.50.
  • Arthur D. McIlvaine. The Silver Dollars of the United States of America. 1941. 36 pp. i folded pl. $1.00.
  • J. G. Milne. Kolophon and its Coinage. A Study. 1941. 113 pp. 19 double pls. $2.50.
  • Sawyer McA. Mosser. The Endicott Gift of Greek and Roman Coins. 1941. 65 pp. 9 pls. $1.50.