Dirham - al-Amin & al-Ma'mun

This dirham dates to the civil war between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, sons of Harun al-Rashid, whose competing claims to the caliphate fractured the Abbasid state between 809 and 813. Coins naming both men reflect the brief transitional moment before the conflict hardened — al-Rashid had attempted to divide authority between his sons through the Meccan Document of 802, a formal succession arrangement publicly displayed at the Kaaba. That settlement collapsed almost immediately after his death in 809.

Al-Ma'mun's forces eventually besieged Baghdad; al-Amin was killed in 813. Dirhams acknowledging both claimants are chronologically tight issues, minted within a narrow window that closed violently.