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Dinar - al-Muhtadi
| Issuer | Abbasid Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 869-870 |
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| Currency | Dinar (750-1517) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central field features multiple horizontal lines of Arabic Kufic script arranged in concentric registers, conveying the Islamic profession of faith (shahada) and the name of the Abbasid caliph al-Muhtadi. The inscriptions are bold and angular in the characteristic early Abbasid epigraphic style. A marginal circular legend in Arabic script encircles the central inscription panel, separated by a plain inner border. The flan is irregular in shape, typical of hammered gold coinage of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central field displays four to five horizontal lines of Kufic Arabic script within a plain circular border, bearing the mint name, regnal year in Hijri dating, and Quranic verse (Surah 9:33) affirming the supremacy of Islam. The marginal legend in Arabic script runs continuously around the circumference, separated from the central field by a linear border. The coin surface shows typical hammered texture with slight flan irregularity consistent with 9th-century Abbasid gold coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Al-Muhtadi ruled for less than a year — from 869 to 870 — before being beaten to death by Turkish soldiers who had effectively controlled Abbasid succession for decades. His reign was a deliberate attempt to reassert caliphal authority and moral reform, modeled self-consciously on the austerity of Umar II, going so far as to ban wine and music at court. The Turks found his independence intolerable.
Dinars from his brief reign are among the scarcer single-reign Abbasid gold issues, produced within a minting apparatus already under heavy pressure from factional instability centered at Samarra.