'Abd Allah ibn Tahir governed the eastern provinces as a capable administrator under Abbasid authority, and the Tahirid mint at Samarqand consistently produced dirhams to the reformed weight standard established by the caliphate in the late 8th century. The dynasty's loyalty to Baghdad was never in serious doubt, which is precisely why their coins carry orthodox Abbasid religious formulae without deviation — there is no heterodox experimentation here, unlike issues from more independent eastern governors of the same period.
Samarqand was among the most active mints in Transoxiana, and attributing individual dies to specific administrative appointments remains an active area of Islamic numismatic research.
'Abd Allah ibn Tahir governed the eastern provinces as a capable administrator under Abbasid authority, and the Tahirid mint at Samarqand consistently produced dirhams to the reformed weight standard established by the caliphate in the late 8th century. The dynasty's loyalty to Baghdad was never in serious doubt, which is precisely why their coins carry orthodox Abbasid religious formulae without deviation — there is no heterodox experimentation here, unlike issues from more independent eastern governors of the same period.
Samarqand was among the most active mints in Transoxiana, and attributing individual dies to specific administrative appointments remains an active area of Islamic numismatic research.