Featured Selection of Arabic Dirhams from an unpublished Northern Sumatra hoard of Jago-Jago

Hello everyone! I wanted to share a small selection of coins pulled from a much larger hoard of Arabic silver dirhams that was discovered in an ancient coastal port region in present-day Indonesia. The hoard has not been published or documented before this, and this sample of it was graciously shared with me for research purposes by the Sumatran Numismatic Museum, or Museum Uang Sumatera, located in Medan, North Sumatra.

The hoard was discovered the in village of Jago-Jago by numismatists and was composed of a little over one hundred silver dirham coins. The photo above shows around forty coins from the find. The collection is an interesting time capsule and evidence of the strong influx of trade and influences from the Middle East, particular the Arabic Muslim merchants who dominated much of the Indian Ocean trade during the later portion of the first millennium which coincided with the general growth and expansion of Islam and it's kingdoms and caliphates. While Jago-Jago is not known to have been an ancient center, there are nearby rivers that are locally known for their gold production and it's likely that the gold industry in the area goes back to at least the 8th or 9th century, when these coins are thought to have been deposited.

At the time, Sumatra was largely ruled by the Srivijaya Empire which was centered around Palembang, in South Sumatra. The Srivijaya had vassal states and kingdoms throughout Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and it's quite likely that, despite no known archaeological finds, the region around Jago-Jago was under some level of control by the Srivijaya. It is believed that the port of Barus, about 70 kilometres north along the coast, was under control of the Srivijaya and was a major source of the gold ore that was used to mint the Sumatran Gold Sandalwood coins. Perhaps the rivers near Jago-Jago were also known for their gold capabilities, and thus invited commerce into the area. That's a topic for another day, though.

Another discovery from Jago-Jago came in 2001 when a statue of the Hindu deity Ganesha was discovered. While photos of the Ganesha statue found in Jago-Jago were not readily available, I found a statue of Ganesha that is probably quite similar hosted here on Google Arts and Culture, provided by Museum Nasional Indonesia in Jakarta, Java.

The coins have remained generally unattributed beyond a general 8th and 9th century time frame but could provide a general look at the types of Arabic dirhams that were being used in the Maritime Silk Road trade through Sumatra.

The following eleven coins' photos were provided by the museum for posting, so here they are. Arabic coins are far from my specialty but I think that most, if not all of them, are issues of the Abbasid Caliphate.




This last coin is believed to be an AR drachme issued under Khosrow II of the Sassanian Empire, who ruled from 590-628 CE; quite a bit earlier than the rest of the hoard's coins.



Hope everyone enjoyed looking at the world premier of the Jago-Jago Silver Dirham Hoard of North Sumatra, and if anyone has any similar coins, questions, comments, etc please feel free to share them. Thank you for reading this, and again, thanks to the Museum Uang Sumatera for providing the images and much of the information regarding it's discovery.

 

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Interesting find to see these ending up in Indonesia! As example, coin nr 1 is an Umayyad dirham which was minted in Damascus in 110AH/729AD.

 

I'll add it to the main post! Thank you for the ID. The Srivijayan kingdom of Sumatra was pretty well known to the Arab merchants as Zabaj and it was the largest commercial state in the region for a period. Interestingly enough, I got to talking with my friend about this hoard after sharing with him these tin imitation coins that have been recovered from the Musi River in Palembang, the capital city of Srivijaya in South Sumatra. They are crude pseudo-Arabic coins that imitate the silver dirham coins that were flowing into the Sumatran markets through the Arab merchants participating in the Indian Ocean trade. There was one small group of five coins discovered in the Musi River; four tin imitations and one authentic silver Abbasid dirham dated to 801 CE. The existence of a local coinage series indicates to me that the silver dirham coins from the Arabic caliphates were quite familiar and common in the markets of Palembang. Of course, it's possible that the tin imitation coins were more jewelry or amulet type pieces made for religious or traditional ritual type purposes. One reputable friend of mine has suggested that as a possible explanation for these coins. Regardless, this hoard is a really piece showing the interesting connections and influences flowing through the Southeast Asian maritime kingdoms during the Abbasid / Srivijaya / Tang period.

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The tin imitations are very neat! And you're lucky to get to work with the hoard. Steve Album could probably ID them all in a few minutes, and he's quite generous with his time.

#6 is also Umayyad, dated 127 AH, mint: Wasit. The Umayyad empire was ravaged by revolts at the time of issue.

The rest of them are indeed Abbasid as you suspected.

Here's an AH 99 from Wasit:

 

Again, very nice and important find. At your photos are 2 Umayyad dirhams (#1 and # 6), the rest are Abbasid (Sasanian drachm of Khusro II is separate. It seems to be his second reign, 27 RY~618/619 CE, mint WH =Weh-Andiyok-Shapur, province of Khuzistan). The small correction for THCoins reading - the#1, Dimashq (Damascus ) is dated 120 AH, not 110 AH.
Here are the other:
1. Umayyad, Dimashq, 120 AH, temp. caliph Hisham
2. Abbasid, Muhammadiya, 181 AH, temp. caliph ar-Rashid, citing his son al-Amin and vizier Ja'far (b.Yahya al-Barmaki)
3.Abbasid, Madinat Herat, 193 AH, temp. caliph al-Amin, struck under his brother and the heir apparent al-Ma'mun
4. Abbasid, Kufa, 146 AH, temp. caliph al-Mansur
5.Abbasid, Madinat as-Salam, 159 AH, caliph al-Mahdi
6.Umayyad, Wasit, 127 AH, temp. caliph Ibrahim
7. Abbasid, Madinat as-Salam, 192 AH, temp. caliph ar-Rashid
8. Abbasid, Muhammadiya, 152 AH, temp. caliph al-Mansure, struck under his son al-Mahdi
9. Abbasid, Madinat as-Salam, 182 AH, temp. caliph ar-Rashid, citing his son al-Amin and vizier Ja'far
10.!!! Is the photo of both sides correct? Is there a chance that somebody put in the one file photos of the obverse/reverse from the different coins? If the phot is correct, this coin is a so called 'mule' of Abbasid: obverse, Madinat as-Salam, 183 AH, temp. of caliph ar-Rashid /reverse from the time of caliph al-Mansur, from the Muhammadiya mint (around ~ 150 AH).

 

Very interesting. I love a good, detailed hoard story.

 

Thank you all for the amazing ID work with this! The museum owner has seen all of the feedback and interest in the hoard and is willing to help share more details so there is more to come either as a proper published article or a follow up to this thread.

 

Fantastic work, and thanks for sharing! Maybe we need to create a crowd-sourced project where we help museums ID and catalogue their unpublished hoards. Out of curiosity, how'd you get involved with this hoard?

 

I think that'd be a great idea! I got involved with it when I was talking to my friend who is with the museum about the tin dirham imitation coins that had been discovered in Palembang. We were talking about the Arab merchants in Sumatra and other finds, etc when he just sent me a few photos of the hoard and explained a bit about it. I was instantly curious and had to know more about it.