Fals - al-Walid b. Talid al-Mawsil

Al-Walid ibn Talid governed Mosul during a period when the Umayyad provincial administration was still working out the logistics of copper coinage in the Jazira region. Fals issues from named governors are considerably less common than their silver dirham counterparts — the attribution to a specific amir gives this piece an administrative precision rare in Umayyad copper, where anonymous or poorly documented issues dominate. Mosul itself was then a relatively young garrison city, formally established under the early caliphate as a military bridgehead between the upper Tigris and the northern frontier.