The Silver Coinage of Iran under its Early Muslim Governors, 651-705—Michael Bates

Join ANS Fellow and Curator Emeritus Michael Bates for the final Money Talks of 2020. The coinage of Iran in the long second half of the seventh century, as currently presented, has all the structure of a swarm of bees. But by focusing on regular issues, with anomalous coins put aside, in the context of geography, of the Arab administrative hierarchy, of the sequence of governors and of the general history of the caliphate, it is easy to recognize twelve successive chronological phases. In each of these, the geographical distribution of mints and the names of officials on the coins illuminate, supplement, and correct the literary histories of later composition.