Catalog
Drachm - Khalid b. 'Abd Allah Arab-Sasanian
| Issuer | Umayyad Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 692-694 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 3.92 g |
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| Obverse description | Sasanian-style bust of the ruler facing right in the central field, rendered in the late Sasanian artistic tradition with characteristic crown and regalia. The bust is flanked by attendant figures. The obverse margin contains the Islamic declaration in Arabic script reading 'bism Allah / muhammad rasul Allah'. The date appears in the right margin rendered with the '3' as a Pahlavi numeral, consistent with the Arab-Sasanian transitional coinage style. The overall design reflects the Umayyad practice of adapting existing Sasanian coin imagery while introducing Islamic epigraphic elements. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Fire altar with two attendant figures flanking the altar, rendered in the traditional Sasanian style. The altar is depicted with flames rising from the top, centrally placed between the two standing attendants. Pahlavi inscriptions appear in the margin and field identifying the mint and regnal information, consistent with standard Arab-Sasanian drachm reverse types derived from late Sasanian prototypes. The overall composition closely follows the Sasanian fire-altar coinage convention. |
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| Additional information |
Khalid b. 'Abd Allah served as governor of a eastern mint region during the early Umayyad consolidation, a period when Arab administrators were still striking coins that borrowed heavily from Sasanian prototypes rather than asserting a distinctly Islamic visual vocabulary. That shift came decisively with 'Abd al-Malik's currency reform of 696–698, which abolished figural types entirely. This piece predates that reform by just a few years, placing it in the narrow transitional window before Islamic coinage assumed its purely epigraphic form — a transformation that was as much a theological statement as an administrative one.