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Fals - Anonymous al-Kufa
| Issuer | Umayyad Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 696-750 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 2.47 g |
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| Obverse description | Irregular flan of hammered copper bearing a bold Arabic inscription arranged in three horizontal lines within the central field, without any figural imagery. The legend reads 'amara llah / bil-wafa' / wa l-'adl' ('God commanded / faithfulness / and justice'), rendered in early Kufic script with angular, monumental letterforms characteristic of early Umayyad epigraphy. The field surrounding the inscription is flat and unadorned, with no border or decorative frame. The surface shows natural granularity and patination consistent with an early medieval copper fals. The flan edges are irregular, reflecting the hand-struck production technique typical of provincial Umayyad copper coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Mint | Kufa |
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| Additional information |
The anonymous copper fulus of al-Kufa present a persistent attribution problem: struck without caliph names, they resist precise dating within the Umayyad period. Al-Kufa itself was no peripheral mint — it was the administrative capital of Iraq under early Islamic rule and a site of repeated political turbulence, including the Zanj-era precursors and the Abbasid revolutionary networks that ultimately ended Umayyad power in 750.
Album 168.1 places this among the earliest systematized Islamic copper issues, produced after Abd al-Malik's monetary reforms pushed Byzantine and Sasanian coin types out of circulation. Copper remained a local affair long after gold and silver were centralized.