Unknown Æ - Ahurpat Kesh, within triangle

Kesh was a small Sogdian principality in the Kashkadarya region of modern Uzbekistan, issuing its own coinage during the turbulent decades when Arab forces were consolidating control over Transoxiana. The period 720–737 corresponds almost exactly to the Arab governor Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri's campaigns in the region, during which local rulers maneuvered carefully between submission and resistance. That these bronzes continued to be struck at all suggests a degree of administrative autonomy persisting even under increasing Umayyad pressure.