Hi! I just bought an abbasid dirham at a coin show recently and I am wondering what the kufic arabic script means. I also recently got an arab copper coin from the same show with arabic script.
I suggest you download Lavoix for proper identification which can be downloaded from http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k399054g which is in a better condition that what is available on Google. Here is an example of the lettering on these coins, for the exact mint and date, you might want to check Lavoix. Unforunately, I can't read nor write in Arabic Abbasid Caliphate: al-Hadi (169-170AH / 785-786CE) AR dirham, al-Muhammadiya (Album-217.2; Lowick-1666; NHR-70A) Obverse Field: لا اله الا الله وحده لا شرك له There is no deity except (the one) God alone. He has no equal Obverse Margin: بسم الله ضرب هذا الدرهم بالمحمدية سنة سبعين و مئة In the name of God. This dirham was struck in Muhammadiya in the year seventy and one hundred Reverse Field: محمد رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم الخليفة الهادى Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, peace be upon him. Caliph al-Hadi بر below Reverse Margin: محمد رسول الله ارسله بالهدى و دين الحق ليظهره على الدين كله ولو كره المشركون He sent him with guidance and the true religion to reveal it to all religions even if the polytheists abhor it.
Well, I think I can help you with the first coin, your Abbasid dinar. You can find the data you need on the obverse of your coin, which is your second picture. In the centre is the Kalima, no information there. It's all in the obverse margin. I cropped your coin with Irfanview: Think of the circle as a clock and start at the little marginal circlet of 1 o'clock. Arabic is written from right to left. The first part is always the same, until about 8 o'clock: 'Bismillah zuriba haza ed-dirhem bi' = 'In the name of God this dirham was struck in' Then comes the name of the mint. You will need a list of the usual mints, and you may find it in Richard Plant, An Introduction to Arabic Coins and How to Read Them, a cheap book (many identical reprints) that you can buy new, secondhand (good website: used.addall.com) or as an ebook. This is a long mintname ending with a large X (just after 6 o'clock) followed by a circlet. That X is 'al' and the circlet is 'm'. Of the mint names in Plant (page 38-39) the only one that ends like that is Medinat el-Salam, meaning Gate of Peace and designing Baghdad. After that comes a word starting with three short upright lines, a sure sign of an s. The word is 'sanat' meaning 'in the year'. Arabic years are organized from ones through tens to hundreds. This is the chart I'm using for reading Arabic years. I found it on a useful Russian website, rasmircoins.ucoz.ru. But it's an adaption of page 34 in the abovementioned book by Richard Plant, to which is added a detail of the year of an Abbasid example coin. The first number is eight, then a little comma meaning 'and', then eighty, another 'and' and hundred - a very loooong drawn out hundred as was the style of the period. So your coin was struck in Baghdad, 188. I'm using this website as a useful Anno Domini - Hijra converter: info.charm.ru/library/AHxAD%20Converter.doc 188 AH = 804 AD. Ergo, your coin was issued by the famous caliph Harun ar-Rashid. Paul
With Paul's excellent analysis, here is the additional attribution Abbasid Caliphate, temp. Harun al-Rashid, AH 170-193/ AD 786-809, anonymous AR dirham, Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad), dated AH 188. SICA-3, 1696; BMC I, p. 82, 222; Album 219.2
Great response, and thanks a lot. I do marginally collect Islamic material but sometimes loose what I have learned as it is not my front line collection. Plant's book is essential; if you can find it. What you have added is really excellent to show the starting point using the clock. Very helpful. These are very challenging for us who sometimes wander in the desert so to speak as far a collecting Arabic material. Gets even crazier with Mogul and Persian material because the script is the same, but a different language. The coin below is a bit scarce; not struck, but cast. Thanks for taking the time to help all of us.
If you are wandering in that desert, there’s an oasis near: zeno.ru. A bit slow, but you can find a fals like that with search terms ‘abbasid fals cilicia’ or ‘cast’ or ‘tarsus’.
That particular coin is over classified as Album 300. There are several different versions of Album 300. I use Stern's outstanding paper for the classification which can be viewed here http://www.jstor.org/stable/596170 including the translation of the legends: Yours is in a really nice state of preservation and it is also one of the coins I am still looking for . Here is another version of "album 300": Abbasid Governors, Cilicia: Thamal al-Dulafi (ca. 923-933) Æ Fals, ND, Tarsus (Album-300; Stern-2) Obv: Within circle, الامير ثمل (al-amir Thamal) Rev: Within circle, large annulet in plain field References: Stern, S. M., The Coins of Thamal and of Other Governors of Tarsus, Journal of the American Oriental Society (1960): 217-25
That's a mighty interesting and beautiful coin, with the little circle in the big circle, reminding one of the Fatimid dinars - like this one from Caliph Al-Mu'izz, 956 AD, from CoinArchives (not mine). The Arabic numismatical developments in the 10th century I find often amazing.
That is another coin that I have yet to finish attributing. I tend not to post my coins until I get a full attribution which includes transcribing the legends. As you can guess, it takes a long time...
