117 / 166
Tyrants of the Tigris & euphrates
259
‘Abbasid Caliphate
Gold Dinar, AH 314
al-Muqtadir, ‘Abbasid Caliph, AH 295-320/AD 908-932
Bernardi 242Jh; A 245.2. Extremely Fine.
Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad) mint. Kalima at center, Abu’l-’Abbas named as heir below, double obverse
marginal legends with Qur’an 30:4 in outer margin, date formula in inner margin; Reverse, continuation
of Kalima, “lillah” above, al-Muqtadir Billah cited below, Qur’an 9:33 in margin.
Al-Muqtadir (AH 295-320/ AD 908-932) was the eighteenth caliph of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate. A rela-
tively long period of stability was shattered by various uprisings, the greatest of which was that of the
Qaramitas, also written as Qarmatians. The Qaramitas were a branch of Shia Islam that incorporated
certain beliefs of Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion. The Qaramita movement eroded the le-
gitimacy of the ‘Abbasids substantially. Historians believe that Farabi, the great Persian philosopher
and polymath wrote his influential “Book of Music”, which dealt with metaphysical qualities of music,
during the reign of al-Muqtadir .
260
‘Abbasid Caliphate
Gold Dinar, AH 322
Al-Qahir, ‘Abbasid Caliph, AH 320-322/AD 932-934
Bernardi 278Nf; A 252. Extremely Fine.
Ahwaz mint. Kalima at center, the heir Abu’l-’Abbas named below, double obverse marginal legends
with Qur’an 30:4 in outer margin, date formula in inner margin; Reverse, continuation of Kalima fol-
lowed by
al-muntaqim min a’da’Allah li-din Allah
, “lillah” above, Qur’an 9:33 in margin. The reverse
inscription translates as “The avenger of Allah’s enemies for the sake of Allah’s religion”. This type is
popularly called the ‘avenger dinar’. Ahwaz is the capital of Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran.
Rare.
The reigns of Al-Qahir (AD 932-934), al-Radi (AD 934-940) and al-Muttaqi (AD 940-944) were further
indications that ‘Abbasid prestige and power were in sharp decline. The Persian Samanid Dynasty estab-
lished independent rule in Eastern Persia, Tabaristan, and Transoxiana. The Samanids revived Persian
language and literature, incorporating it successfully into the Islamic world as one of the three major
spoken languages. It is at the time of the Samanids that the great Persian polymath Ibn Sina, (aka “Avi-
cenna” in western literature) wrote his book “Canons of Medicine” which was translated into Latin and
taught in Europe well into the 18th century.