Farrukhan-e Bozorg, Dabuyid Ispahbad of Tabaristan (try saying that fast three times)

Here's my last ancient coin for 2018:

Dabuyid Ispahbads of Tabaristan. Farrukhan the Great (c.711-731 AD). AR hemidrachm (24 mm, 2.1 g). Obverse: Sasanian-style bust right. Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants. Album 50; Mitchiner WOI 274v. This coin: bought from @John Anthony , ex @arnoldoe collection.

Tabaristan is a region along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran, which is famous to numismatists for the Sasanian-style coinage issued there for over a century after the fall of the Sasanian dynasty. The Dabuyid Ispahbads (Dabuyid is the dynastic name, Ispahbad is derived from the Persian for "army chief") claimed descent from a brother of the Sasanian king Kavad I (488-531 AD). This early history of the dynasty, however, is not well documented; the earliest confirmed ruler is the same one who issued this coin, Farrukhan the Great (or Farrukhan-e Bozorg in Persian). Perhaps not so coincidentally, in addition to being the first well-documented Dabuyid, Farrukhan was also the first to issue coinage. The rest of Persia had been absorbed into the Islamic Caliphate in 651 AD with the death of Yazdegard III, the last Sasanian emperor. The Dabuyids gave nominal allegiance to the Caliphate, but retained effective independence (and their Zoroastrian religion). In 716-17 Farrukhan was able to repel a large invasion by Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, the Umayyad governor of Persia. Farrukhan was succeeded by two more Dabuyids, Datburjmihr and Khurshid. Khurshid tried to break his ties to the Caliphate (perhaps encouraged by the chaos of the Abbasid revolution), but in 759 AD the victorious Abbasids launched another invasion of Tabaristan, and in 761 Khurshid killed himself, ending the dynasty. Abbasid governors continued to strike Sasanian-style hemidrachms until 793 AD, with the design still featuring a very un-Islamic fire altar.

One question that I had for a while: Why was this small region able to retain its independence for so long, when the rest of Persia had fallen to the Islamic armies? Well, as usual the answer comes down to geography. First, look at the map of the Dabuyid lands:

Now, let's look at a topographic map of Iran:

Tabaristan is effectively walled off by a very tall series of mountains, making invasion very difficult. No wonder they could stay independent for so long!

While there are rarities in the series, coins of Tabaristan (both of the Dabuyids and the Abbasid governors) are fairly common and are popular with collectors. The price of $35 I paid for this specimen is a good deal, but not ridiculously low. Share your Tabaristan coins, or related coins. And Happy New Year to everyone!

 

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Cool write up and new coin @Parthicus !

I have one from Tabaristan minted under the Abbasids, mine is pretty rough compared to yours..I think I paid about the same price as you did however...good deal for you!

 

Nice specimen, but are you sure about the attribution ? I think this is Khurshid.

 

On further review, the ruling on the field is changed... Reading the inscription in front of the portrait, I think I can make out K R Sh T, which would make a lot more sense for Khurshid. I apologize for any problems my misattribution may have caused.

 

Yeah, I agree on Khurshid..

I blame Agora Auctions - I stole the attribution from there since they sold a matching coin