1 Drachm - Anonymous Bukhar Khudat, 'Mug' type

The so-called 'Mug' designation derives from the archive of Sogdian documents discovered at Mount Mug in Tajikistan in 1933, a cache that included administrative records from the estate of Dewashtich, the last ruler of Panjikent, killed by Arab forces around 722 AD. Those documents fixed the paleographic and iconographic dating for this coin type. The Bukhar Khudats — hereditary lords of Bukhara — continued striking their own silver through the Umayyad conquest period, a rare instance of a subordinated dynasty maintaining de facto monetary autonomy well into the eighth century.