Drachm - al-Muhallab b. Abi Sufra Umayyad Governors of Khurasan - Arab-Sasanian

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.