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Qanhari Dirham 'Damma' - Al-Mu'tazz
| Issuer | Sind |
|---|---|
| Year | 1040-1059 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dirham (854-1011) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Heavily stylised and degenerate field displaying abstract geometric linear patterns derived from earlier Arabic epigraphic prototypes, rendered in low relief on an irregularly shaped flan. The design elements, characteristic of late Qanhari coinage, have been reduced to a series of intersecting diagonal strokes and angular forms no longer legible as coherent script. The surfaces show the typical hammered texture of hand-struck minor coinage from Sind, with the flan exhibiting jagged, uneven edges produced during striking. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
The Qanhari dirham series from Sind represents one of the smallest silver denominations struck in the medieval Islamic west of the subcontinent, produced under local amirs who maintained nominal Abbasid caliphal acknowledgment while operating with considerable autonomy. Al-Mu'tazz as a citing authority places this piece within a politically fractured Sind, where the damma — a fractional unit derived from the Arabic term for a small weight — circulated in a regional economy largely disconnected from the great silver flows of the central Abbasid and later Samanid monetary networks.