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Dirham of Sasanian Type
Not on view
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.
The caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) instituted significant change in coinage. His early issues struck in gold, silver, and copper replaced the image of the emperor with that of the caliph, removed the Christian cross, and used religious inscriptions, such as the shahada, the profession of faith.
The Byzantine Empire did not issue silver coins. This example, modeled on the Sasanian drachma of Khusrau II, retains the sovereign’s portrait and the Zoroastrian fire altar and adds the shahada in Arabic on the obverse. Unlike ‘Abd al-Malik’s gold and copper coins, this coin bears the mint and year on the reverse.
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