An unpublished silver Drachm of the beginning of Islamic coinage.
The Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Abd al-Malik b. Marwan AH 65-86 (685-705 CE) in the name of al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf (Viceroy of the East) AH 75-95 (694-713 CE). AR Drachm AH 81, BYŠ (Bishapur). Sasanian bust to right with name al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf in Arabic, margin: bism Allah rabi‘ in Kufic script and Sa’id in Pahlawi / Fire altar flanked by two armed attendants, to left downards date 81 in Pahlawi, to right downwards abbreviated mint name BYŠ in Pahlawi. 3,46g. Album - (cf. 35.3); SICA 1, Ashmolean Museum Oxford, - (cf. 229).
Good very fine and very rare.
From the auction NGSA 8 (24-25 November 2014), 223.
An extremely rare drachm, issued by the governor al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf. Between AH 80 and 84, the rebel governor 'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad had coins struck in the region. Album states that no coins were struck by al-Hajjaj after AH 81, but Shams Eshragh has published a drachm dated AH 83. This coin, dated AH 82, shows that al-Hajjaj did retain some hold over Bishapur. This is even more remarkable given that al-Hajjaj had supported the monetary reforms of the caliph Abd al-Malik and the introduction of Islamic-inspired dirhams. The name "Saeed" in the border is also interesting. It could refer to one of al-Hajjaj's lieutenants, who was responsible for this issue.