Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Drachm - al-Muhallab b. Abi Sufra Umayyad Governors of Khurasan - Arab-Sasanian
| Issuer | Umayyad Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 683-702 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm (661-750) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Draped bust of al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra facing right in the Sasanian royal tradition, wearing an elaborate winged crown surmounted by a crescent and a bird of prey, with pendant ear ornaments and a beaded necklace. The effigy is enclosed within a double beaded border, with crescent and pellet devices at the cardinal points in the outer margin. Pahlavi legends appear to the left and right of the bust identifying the governor, while a two-line Arabic inscription in the second and third quadrants of the marginal field reads bismi Allah (In the name of God). The overall style closely imitates late Sasanian coinage, adapted for Arab-Sasanian gubernatorial use. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Pahlavi/Arabic |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra governed Khurasan during one of the most turbulent stretches of early Umayyad rule — his tenure coincided almost exactly with the second fitna, the civil war that saw Ibn al-Zubayr control much of the caliphate from Mecca while the Umayyads fought for survival. These Arab-Sasanian issues from Khurasan maintained the inherited Sasanian monetary format precisely because local trade networks demanded a recognizable silver coinage, not out of administrative inertia but commercial necessity.
Al-Muhallab himself was primarily a military commander, famed for his prolonged campaigns against the Azariqa Kharijites in Khuzestan before his eastern appointment.