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Drachm - 'Abd al-Malik b. Abi Shaykh Arab-Sasanian
| Issuer | Umayyad Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 692 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Drachm (1) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central fire altar with two attendants standing on either side, each facing the altar in the traditional Zoroastrian Sasanian composition, directly derived from the Khusro II drachm prototype. The altar is depicted in stylized form with stepped base and flame rising from the top, flanked by the attendant figures holding their hands in a gesture of reverence. A crescent and star device appears in the upper field above the altar, as is typical of Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian issues. Arabic religious or administrative legends occupy the outer margin, consistent with the transitional Arab-Sasanian coinage of the Umayyad period. The overall design retains strong Sasanian iconographic tradition while incorporating Islamic epigraphic additions characteristic of issues attributed to 'Abd al-Malik b. Abi Shaykh. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
This coin falls within the transitional Arab-Sasanian series — issues that retained Sasanian imagery and administrative conventions while Arab governors substituted their own names for those of the Zoroastrian fire-keepers they had displaced. 'Abd al-Malik b. Abi Shaykh served as governor in the former Sasanian east, and coins bearing his name are among the less frequently encountered in the broader series. The year 692 places this squarely in the decade before the Umayyad monetary reform of 696–698, when the caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan abolished figural coinage entirely and introduced the purely epigraphic dirham that would define Islamic currency for centuries.