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Dirham - al-Radi
| Issuer | Abbasid Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 934-940 |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Obverse description | Hammered silver dirham struck in the name of the Abbasid Caliph al-Radi Billah. The obverse field is dominated by a multi-line Arabic Kufic inscription arranged in horizontal registers within a central rectangular text panel. The shahada and the caliph's laqab 'Abu al-Fadl Amir al-Mu'minin' (Father of al-Fadl, Commander of the Faithful) are inscribed in the field. A marginal circular legend in Kufic script runs around the central panel, enclosed by single linear borders, characteristic of late Abbasid dirham design. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Al-Radi bi-llah was the last Abbasid caliph to exercise any genuine political authority — composing poetry, engaging scholars, and personally directing state affairs — before the buyid commanders reduced his successors to ceremonial figureheads. His reign coincided with the near-total collapse of central Abbasid fiscal control, with provincial governors remitting little to Baghdad and the caliphal treasury chronically depleted. Dirhams of this period were struck across a shrinking network of mints as monetary fragmentation accelerated.
The A#255.2 variety attribution places this piece within a specific die grouping documented by Album's corpus of Abbasid silver.