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Drachm - Samura b. Jundab Arab-Sasanian
| Issuer | Umayyad Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 666-674 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 4.09 g |
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| Obverse description | Sasanian-style bust of the Yazdigerd III type facing right, wearing a distinctive mural crown surmounted by a crescent and globe, with elaborate hair curls flanking the face and neck. The portrait is rendered in the late Sasanian artistic tradition, with beaded borders framing the central field. Pahlavi and Arabic legends appear in the surrounding field and margin, identifying the Arab governor Samura b. Jundab as issuing authority. Crescents with pellets ornament the outer field at the three and nine o'clock positions. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Pahlavi/Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Arab-Sasanian coinage of this period represents the Umayyad administration's pragmatic decision to keep Sasanian monetary forms alive rather than impose a new coinage on a population still adjusting to conquest. Samura b. Jundab served as governor of Basra under Muawiya I, a tenure marked by extraordinary brutality even by the standards of the era — early Islamic historians record his governorship as a byword for arbitrary execution.
The Val Sn#5 reference places this among the earliest attributable Arab-Sasanian issues with a named governor, before the Marwanid reforms of the 690s rendered the entire type obsolete.