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1 Drachm - al-Khalifa Harun & Ja`far Arab-Bukharan

Issuer Abbasid Governors of Bukhara (Abbasid Governorates)
Year 793-803
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Weight 2.04 g
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Obverse script Sogdian/Arabic
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Mintage ND (793-803)
Additional information

Arab-Bukharan coinage occupied a peculiar administrative niche — nominally Abbasid in authority but deeply Sogdian in execution, produced to satisfy a local economy that had used its own coin fabric for centuries before the Islamic conquest. The pairing of al-Khalifa Harun (al-Rashid, the famous caliph of the Arabian Nights tradition) with Ja`far almost certainly refers to Ja`far ibn Yahya of the Barmakid family, the powerful vizier who effectively co-administered the eastern provinces during this decade before his abrupt execution in 803 on Harun's personal order.

The billon fabric itself reflects chronic silver shortages in Transoxiana during this period — a diluted alloy that local mints had already normalized before the Abbasids arrived.