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Dirham - Mika'il b. Ja'far Imitating Samanid prototypes - Samarqand mint
| Issuer | Volga Bulgaria |
|---|---|
| Year | 919 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Central field displays the Shahada in multiple lines of bold Kufic Arabic script arranged within a double-line circular border. The inscription, typical of Samanid-style dirhams, reads the Islamic declaration of faith in horizontal registers across the coin's face. A circular marginal legend in Arabic script runs between the inner and outer borders of the flan. The die workmanship imitates Samanid prototype coinage, though the piece is believed to have been struck in the mid-4th century AH rather than at the nominally stated Samarqand mint in 306 AH. The irregular flan edges and slightly uneven strike are characteristic of hammered provincial imitative coinage of this period. |
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| Edge | Rough |
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| Additional information |
Volga Bulgaria's early tenth-century silver production was not indigenous coinage in any orthodox sense — it was a deliberate imitation of Samanid dirhams, the dominant trade currency flowing north along the Volga from Transoxiana. The Samanid prototype being copied here was itself a prestige issue, struck at Samarqand under a polished administrative apparatus that Volga Bulgaria entirely lacked. Attributing these pieces to Mika'il b. Ja'far places them within a ruling stratum that was simultaneously adopting Islam and inserting itself into the silver-driven fur and slave trade networks connecting the steppe to the caliphate.