The anonymous dirhams struck at Abarqubadh belong to the transitional period following Abd al-Malik's sweeping monetary reform of 696–698 AD, which abolished figural imagery and Sasanian-derived designs in favor of purely epigraphic coinage. Abarqubadh, a mint in the Jibal region of western Iran, was one of dozens of provincial mints absorbed into this reformed system. The absence of a caliph's name on this type is not an anomaly — early Umayyad epigraphic coinage frequently omitted personal attribution, placing Quranic authority above dynastic identification.
The weight of 2.60 g sits below the reformed dirham standard of approximately 2.97 g, consistent with known weight drift at provincial mints during the Marwanid period.
The anonymous dirhams struck at Abarqubadh belong to the transitional period following Abd al-Malik's sweeping monetary reform of 696–698 AD, which abolished figural imagery and Sasanian-derived designs in favor of purely epigraphic coinage. Abarqubadh, a mint in the Jibal region of western Iran, was one of dozens of provincial mints absorbed into this reformed system. The absence of a caliph's name on this type is not an anomaly — early Umayyad epigraphic coinage frequently omitted personal attribution, placing Quranic authority above dynastic identification.
The weight of 2.60 g sits below the reformed dirham standard of approximately 2.97 g, consistent with known weight drift at provincial mints during the Marwanid period.