Anonymous Aniconic Dinar
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.The Byzantine Empire issued the gold solidus, or nomisma, used primarily for large transactions such as tax payments, and several denominations of copper coins, the money of daily business transactions. Mints in Antioch and Alexandria supplied the majority of the coinage circulated in the southern provinces. The newly established Arab government inherited an efficient monetary system and made few changes during its first decades. The caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) introduced several issues of distinctively Islamic coinage.
In 696/97 ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) began issuing a series of coins bearing only religious inscriptions in Arabic. Such epigraphic coins are one of the many reforms introduced during his caliphate that laid the foundations for the imagery of the Islamic state.
The design of ‘Abd al-Malik’s gold and silver coins—several lines of horizontal inscription enclosed by a circular marginal inscription—became the standard for precious-metal coinage for centuries. This example combines the shahada with two verses from the Qur’an.
In 696/97 ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) began issuing a series of coins bearing only religious inscriptions in Arabic. Such epigraphic coins are one of the many reforms introduced during his caliphate that laid the foundations for the imagery of the Islamic state.
The design of ‘Abd al-Malik’s gold and silver coins—several lines of horizontal inscription enclosed by a circular marginal inscription—became the standard for precious-metal coinage for centuries. This example combines the shahada with two verses from the Qur’an.
Artwork Details
- Title: Anonymous Aniconic Dinar
- Date: 698/699
- Geography: Made in Probably Damascus
- Medium: Gold
- Dimensions: Diam: 13/16 in. (2 cm); wt: 4.3 g
- Classification: Coins
- Credit Line: Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. (BZC.2001.29)
- Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters