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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 8242685, member: 81887&quot;][ATTACH=full]1450994[/ATTACH] </p><p>Abbasid Caliphate.&nbsp; Armenia mint. AR dirham.&nbsp; 145 AH (762/3 AD), time of Caliph al-Mansur (136-158 AH/ 754-775 AD).&nbsp; Anonymous type, inscriptions in Arabic written in Kufic lettering.&nbsp; Obverse: in center first half of Kalima &quot;la ilah illa/ Allah wahdadu/ la shark lahu&quot; (There is no god but God/ He is alone/ no partner to Him), legend around &quot;bismillah zuribu haza ed-dirham bi-Arminiyat fi sanat khans wa arba&#039;in wa miat&quot; (in the name of God was struck this dirham in Armenia in year five and forty and one hundred).&nbsp; Reverse: in center second half of Kalima &quot;Muhammad/ rasul/ Allah&quot; (Muhammad is the messenger of God), legend around from the Quran, Sura 9:33 &quot;Muhammad rasul Allah arsalahu bi-&#039;l-huda wa din el-haqq li-yuzhirahu &#039;ala ed-din kollihi walau kariha el-mushrikun&quot; (Muhammad is the messenger of God, He sent him with the guidance and a religion of the truth in order that he might cause it to be bright over the religion, all of it, although polytheists dislike it).&nbsp; Album 213.1.&nbsp; This coin: Auctions Sale 367 (NBJ Numismatics), lot 305 (2021).</p><p><br /></p><p>Although this coin is anonymous, it was struck during the rule of the second Abbasid caliph, Abu Ja&#039;far Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur (reigned 136-158 AH/ 754-775 AD), usually known as just al-Mansur.&nbsp; His brother as-Saffah founded the Abbasid Caliphate in 132/ 749 after defeating the Umayyad Caliphate.&nbsp; As-Saffah moved his capital from Damascus to Kufa in Iraq, and began policies of including non-Arabs and even non-Muslims in important government positions.&nbsp; However, he died after a short reign, leaving his brother al-Mansur to truly establish the Abbasids.&nbsp; Al-Mansur built a new capital city of Madinat as-Salam (City of Peace), which became Baghdad, and encouraged scholarship, both original works and translations from Persian, Sanskrit, and other languages, including works by Euclid, Galen, and Hippocrates.&nbsp; He reportedly worked constantly and demanded integrity and frugality among his subordinates; upon his death the treasury held 600 million silver dirhams and 14 million gold dinars.&nbsp; He maintained relations with both Tang dynasty China and the Carolingians in Europe.&nbsp; He even seems to have agreed to an alliance with&nbsp; Pippin III against their common enemy, the Emirate of Cordoba in Spain (founded by a surviving Umayyad branch), though nothing concrete happened during his lifetime.&nbsp; Al-Mansur died in 158/ 775, leaving the Abbasid Caliphate to his son Al-Mahdi.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coins of al-Mansur are generally common, though this one, from the mint of Armenia, is a scarcer variety.&nbsp; This was struck in 145 AH, which is one of the last years for fully anonymous Abbasid dirham coinage; later issues usually list the caliph, the caliph&#039;s designated successor, a local official, or some combination.&nbsp;&nbsp; The overall style is pleasant, maintaining the clear, well-formed Kufic lettering that was started by the Umayyads.&nbsp; Please post your coins of al-Mansur, or other Abbasids, or whatever else is related.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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