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1 Dirham - al-Abbas b. Amir al-Mu'minin

Issuer Arminiya, Emirate of
Year 834
Type Standard circulation coin
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Reverse description Reverse of a hammered silver dirham struck at the Arminiya mint in AH 219 (AD 834). The central field displays a five-line Kufic Arabic inscription reading: 'Muhammad is the Messenger of God / al-Abbas ibn / Amir al-Mu'minin,' identifying the issuing authority as al-Abbas, son of the Commander of the Faithful, within a rectangular linear frame. The surrounding marginal legend carries the Quranic verse (Quran 9:33) in Kufic script: 'He it is who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, to make it prevail over all religions, even if the polytheists abhor it.' The flan is irregular and the strike slightly off-center, consistent with provincial Abbasid hammered coinage of the period.
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Edge Plain.
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Additional information

Arminiya — the Abbasid administrative province encompassing much of the South Caucasus — was governed as a frontier emirate, its governors balancing loyalty to Baghdad against persistent pressure from local Armenian nakharar dynasties and periodic Khurramite unrest. By the 830s, the caliphate's grip on the region was tightening under al-Mu'tasim's military campaigns. A dirham struck in the name of a provincial governor rather than the caliph alone signals where real administrative authority was being exercised at the point of minting.

The A#T225 reference places this within Tübingen's supplement to Album, covering types outside the main sequence — an indicator of relative rarity in the documentary record.

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