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TYRANT COLLECTION
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249
‘Abbasid Caliphate
Gold Dinar, AH 220
al-Mu’tasim, ‘Abbasid Caliph, AH 218-227/AD 833-842
Bernardi 151Jh; Album 225. Superb Extremely Fine.
Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad) mint. Kalima at center, double obverse marginal legends with Qur’an 30:4
in outer margin, date formula in inner margin; Reverse, continuation of Kalima, “lillah” above, al-
Mu’tasim Billah below, Qur’an 9:33 in margin. This is the earliest post-reform Islamic coin in the Tyrant
Collection to bear a mint signature and also the earliest post-reform coin to cite the caliph by name.
Al-Mu’tasim (AH 218-227/ AD 833-842) was the younger son of Harun Al-Rashid and the brother of
Ma’mun. He was instrumental in creating a mercenary army composed mainly of Turkish soldiers who
were who were paid directly by his government, thus reducing the threat of counter insurgency from
Arab or Persian factions within army. One of the more important events of his reign was the “Khur-
ramite” uprising in western Iran, led by Babak-e Khurramdin, a pseudonym inspired from Papak (Bab-
ak) who was an ancestor of the former Sasanian monarchs. The Khurramites practiced a form of Islam
infused with elements of Zoroastrianism. The doctrine of the Khurramites carried political undertones
and is credited by some as inspiring the Qizilbash of the 16th century, a political and religious movement
in Azerbaijan which helped establish the Safavid dynasty.
250
‘Abbasid Caliphate
Gold Dinar, AH 231
Al-Wathiq, ‘Abbasid Caliph, AH 227-232/AD 842-847
SICA-4, 885; Bernardi 152Jh; Album 227. Fine.
Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad) mint. Kalima at center, double obverse marginal legends with Qur’an 30:4
in outer margin, date formula in inner margin; Reverse, continuation of Kalima, “lillah” above, al-
Wathiq Billah below, Qur’an 9:33 in margin. Quite a rare date for this otherwise common mint. The Ash-
molean has one and Miles thought the specimen in the University of Pennsylvania collection remarkable
enough to include in his seminal 1950 work Rare Islamic Coins.