119 / 166
Tyrants of the Tigris & euphrates
263
‘Abbasid Caliphate
Gold Dinar, AH 333
Al-Muttaqi, ‘Abbasid Caliph, AH 329-333/AD 940-944
Apparently unpublished. Superb Extremely Fine.
Wasit mint. Donative-style dinar. Kalima at center, double obverse marginal legends with Qur’an 30:4
in outer margin, date formula in inner margin; Reverse, continuation of Kalima, citing al-Muttaqi Lillah
below, Qur’an 9:33 in margin. Ex Sunrise Collection. From the auction description “Though ostensibly
struck at different mints (Wasit for this piece, Madinat al-Salam for the others), the Abbasid presentation
coins in the Sunrise Collection display similar careful production technique, style and quality control.
This suggests the coins were produced while the caliph himself was resident in the mint city, perhaps
while on military campaign, and that a specialized team of artisans traveling with him controlled produc-
tion of the coins. This lends credence to the theory that the intended recipients were regional governors
and / or military commanders, whose loyalty was critical to the regime”. The city of Wasit is in Iraq,
south of Baghdad.
264
‘Abbasid Caliphate
Gold Amiri Dinar (1.94g), AH 335
Al-Mustakfi, ‘Abbasid Caliph, AH 333-334/AD 944-946
SICA-10, 270; A 1061. Extremely Fine.
San’a’ mint, Yemeni standard. Kalima, mint and date around. In broad outer band,
duriba
at left, bi-
San’a’
at right. Reverse, continuation of Kalima,
al-Mustakfi Billah
in third line, ornament below.
In broad outer band
amara bihi
at left and
al-amir
at right. Posthumous issue struck in the name of
al-Mustakfi by the Ya’furid amirs of San’a’ who never placed their own names on the coins. Sana is
currently the capital of Yemen. Rare.