TheNewYorkSaleauctionXL

IRELAND

1410

Hiberno Norse. Silver Penny, phase III (1035-1060). Silver Penny, undated, Long Cross and Hand type.

Large crude head left, no hand. Rev. Voided cross, two crude hands in first and third quarters, large pellet

in second quarter, blundered legends (S 6132/6132A).

Rare.

NGC graded MS-65.

$ 3,400

ex V M Brand Collection.

ISLAMIC

1411

Abbasid. Abu-Ja’far’ Abdallah al-Mansur (754-775). Gold Dinar. 4.25 g. (137h, A212). Test marks and filing

on edge. Extremely fine.

$ 300

Very Rare Gold Dinar

1412

Abbasid. al-Mu’tazz (251-255h). Gold Dinar, 252h (Makka), 4.11g. (Bernardi 162 Ef, two refs).

Very rare.

Very fine.

$ 85,000

In 160h / 777 CE the Makam Ibrahim, the stone behind which the Prophet Muhammad prayed when he performed the

circumnambulation of the Holy Ka’ba, and which bears the footprints of the Prophet Ibrahim impressed into its surface at the

time that he was building the Holy House, was brought to the abode of al-Mahdi in Makka when he performed the pilgrimage. In

the next year, when the makam was raised carelessly by one of its keepers, it fell down and cracked; it was repaired on the order of

al-Mahdi and its upper and lower parts were braced with gold. Al-Mutawakkil in 241h / 655-656 CE improved the pedestal of the

makam, embellished the makam itself with gold and ordered the building of a cupola over the makam (cf al-Sinjari, Mana’ih al-

karam bi-akhbar Makka wa’l Haram, ms. Leiden fol. 120b). In 252h / 866 CE the makam was stripped of its gold by the Governor

of Makka Ja’far bin al-Fadl; the gold was then melted down for minting Dinars, which he spent in the struggle against the rebel

Isma’il bin Yusuf bin Ibrahim (see al-Sinjari op.cit. fols. 120a ult. - 120b; for Isma’il bin Yusuf see al-Fasi, al-’Ikd al-thamin, ed.

Fu’ad Sayyid, Cairo 1383/1963, iii, 311, no 383). A thorough restoration of the Makam was carried out in 256h / 870 CE by the

Governor ‘Ali bin al-Hasan al-Hashimi (see al-Fasi op. cit. vi, 151, no. 2050).

The gold for the famous Dinar of the caliph al-Mu’tazz dated 252h, which so eloquently symbolises the importance of this sacred

spot, came from the covering of the Makam Ibrahim.

(The information for this note is based on the Encylopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition).