Dirham - Anonymous al-Basra

The anonymous Basra dirhams occupy a transitional moment in Islamic monetary history. Abd al-Malik's currency reform of 698 CE deliberately purged all figurative imagery and Byzantine or Sasanian references from coinage, replacing them with Quranic inscriptions — a politically charged break that reshaped the visual grammar of money across the caliphate. Basra, as a major garrison city and commercial hub on the lower Euphrates, was one of the earliest mints activated under the reformed system.

The 2g weight on this example falls below the reformed dirham standard of roughly 2.97g, worth noting when authentication is considered.