Luke Treadwell*

ʼAbd al-Malik’s Coinage Reforms:

the Role of the Damascus Mint

Résumé – xxx

Summary – A review of the history and historiography of precious metal coins issued by the
caliphal mint of Damascus (72-79 ah) suggests that the caliph’s administrators abandoned figural
coinage in favour of epigraphic coinage at the end of the eighth century as the final stage of a
series of monetary experiments which aimed to create a universal Islamic coinage type, that
would be accepted in all regions of the Umayyad state, including Iran as well as Greater Syria.

Introduction

In 72 ah the forces of the Umayyad caliph ʼAbd al-Malik (65-86/685-705)

defeated Muṣʼab b. al-Zubayr, the Zubayrid governor of the eastern provinces
(the Mashriq), effectively bringing an end to the Civil War which had divided
the Muslim world since his accession. The victory allowed the Marwanid
Umayyads to reclaim a vast stretch of territory and to begin the process of re-
uniting the Muslim state under the leadership of the Marwanid caliphate. In the
very same year that Damascus regained its role as the capital of a huge empire,
the Damascus mint began to strike the first precious metal coinage produced in
Syria under Marwanid rule. These coinage reforms were one of the two most
wide-ranging and radical measures undertaken by the early Marwanid caliphs in
their efforts to create the centralised state which replaced the looser structures
of government favoured by their predecessors. Like the substitution of Arabic
for Greek and Middle Persian (Pahlavi) as the language of administration, the
coinage reforms took several years to implement fully. Nevertheless it is clear

*  University Lecturer in Islamic Numismatics, Oxford University, and Curator of Islamic

Coins, Ashmolean Museum. Address: Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John St, Oxford OX1 2LG.
Email:luke.treadwell@orinst.ox.ac.uk
. An early version of this paper was given in the conference Past presented: uses of the past
in medieval European, Byzantine and Islamic material culture convened by Caroline Goodson in
Birkbeck College in March 2006. I would like to express my gratitude to the organisers for the
invitation to speak and for valuable comments on the paper.
. M. L. Bates, History, geography and numismatics in the first century of Islamic coinage,
RSN 1986, p. 248-249, makes the case for the dating of the ʼām al-jamāʼa (Year of Unity) to 72 ah.

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that from first year in which epigraphic coinage was introduced, the monetary
system of the Umayyad state underwent fundamental change: the precious
metal epigraphic coinage was struck to a new weight standard and circulating
Byzantine coins were rapidly withdrawn from circulation. The new coinage was
intended to circulate by the piece (by tale) rather than by weight, thus facilitating
individual monetary transactions, allowing rapid conversion of sums paid in
dirhams to dinars and vice versa, and permitting a huge increase in the use of
coin both in commercial life and as an instrument of financial control exercised
by the ruler. Although far-reaching changes were made to the network of silver-
producing mints in the final years of ʼAbd al-Malik’s life and in the reign of
his successor Walīd I (86-96/705-715), the format and design of the epigraphic
coinage remained unchanged for centuries to come.
In the 7th century, the Umayyad state had been divided into two separate
currency zones, with Greater Syria adhering to the Byzantine system, and the
Mashriq to the Sasanian system. These zones were fiscally and financially
discrete from one another: gold coinage was confined to the west and silver to
the east. Monies sent to Damascus from the east in silver coin could not enter
the Syrian monetary stock; neither could gold solidi be used to make payments
in the east. The monetary division of the state mirrored what was in effect
a bipartite administrative system, in which the Mashriq was controlled by a
viceroy to whom the caliph delegated power. In the 8th century, by contrast,
the caliph could raise taxes, receive tribute, and make payments throughout
his core territories in a single currency. Once provincial officials had become
proficient in chancery Arabic, orders could be issued from Damascus, received
in provincial capitals and rapidly enacted throughout dependent territories. In
this way, the coinage and language reforms supplied the administrative mecha-
nisms required for the operation of centralised rule – effective communication
across immense distances by means of a monolingual bureaucracy and efficient
distribution of resources from a single imperial centre.

Research to date

Research on early Marwanid monetary history has gathered momentum in

the last twenty years. The sequence and chronology of the principal coinage

. Here as elsewhere in this paper, I refer to precious metal coinage, whose issue was the
caliph’s prerogative, and do not consider copper coinage.
. Silver drachms from the Sasanian period have been found in small quantities in the Near
East, perhaps brought to the region during the period of Sasanian occupation. See S. Sears and
D. Ariel, Finds of late Sasanian and early Muslim drahms in historical Palestine, ‘Atiqot, 40,
2000, p. 139-150. Gold coinage was produced in very small quantities by the Sasanians, and only
for exceptional purposes.
. Readers seeking a good short introduction to early Islamic monetary history (rather than
the weighty monographs and papers listed below), should consult M. Bates, Islamic Coins, New
York, American Numismatic Society, 1982.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 

issues of the mint of Damascus (72-79 ah) have been determined, giving histo-
rians a clear overview of how the caliphal administration attempted to direct the
course of the reforms in the metropolitan province of Greater Syria. A compre-
hensive summary, based on the hoard evidence and the archaeological record,
now exists of the two Late Antique coinage systems (in the Byzantine Near East
and Sasanian Iraq and Iran), which were inherited and adapted by the Muslims.
Two extended studies of important coinage types belonging to the transitional
period (the “Orans” drachm and the so-called “Mihrab and ʼAnaza” drachm)
have attempted to account for developments in their design which had hitherto
been ignored or tackled in a historically decontextualised manner. Much use-
ful work on the complex evolution of early Islamic copper coinages has filled
in the background to the story of the precious metal coinage, which, however,
remains the key to understanding the caliph’s role in monetary history. And
finally, some helpful annotated bibliographies and two sylloge catalogues have
appeared in recent years.10 The field is now in need of a synthetic history of
early Islamic coinage which provides an overview of the subject drawing on all
these various studies.
This paper gives an account of the activities of the caliphal mint of Damascus
during the early years of ʼAbd al-Malik’s reforms which seeks to build on the
earlier work of Bates (1986 and 1989) in the following ways. It offers some
corrections to Bates’ coinage sequence; it proposes changes of terminology; it
attempts to assess the size of the various issues which make up the transitional
coinage and to map their geographical extent; it offers a provisional scheme for
understanding the successive phases of the reforms and assesses the relationship

. See M. L. Bates, op. cit. n. 2, p. 231-263; and M. L. Bates, The coinage of Syria under the
Umayyads, 692-750 A.D., The Fourth International conference on the history of Bilād al-Shām
during the Umayyad period, ed. M.A. Bakhit and R. Schick, Amman, The University of Jordan
Press, 1989, p. 195-228.
. S. Heidemann, The merger of two currency zones in early Islam. The Byzantine and Sasanian
impact on the circulation in former Byzantine Syria and Northern Mesopotamia, Iran, 36, 1998,
p. 95-112.
. See L. Treadwell, The ‘Orans’ drachms of Bishr b. Marwān and the figural coinage of
the early Marwānids, Bayt al-Maqdis: Jerusalem and early Islam, Oxford Studies in Islamic Art
vol. 9/2, ed. Jeremy Johns, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 223-270; and L. Treadwell,
“Mihrab and ʼanaza” or “Sacrum and Spear”? A reconsideration of an early Marwanid silver
drachm, Muqarnas, 22, 2005, p. 1-28.
. See Goodwin in S. Album and T. Goodwin, The pre-reform coinage of the early Islamic
period, Sylloge of Islamic coins in the Ashmolean vol. 1, Oxford, Ashmolean Musem Publications,
2002, p. 74-109, for an excellent summary of the pre-reform copper coinage of Syria.
10. For recent bibliographies see A. Oddy, Whither Arab-Byzantine numismatics? A review of
fifty years’ research, Byzantine and modern Greek Studies, 28, 2004, p. 121-152; and M. Phillips,
Currency in seventh-century Syria as a historical source, Byzantine and modern Greek Studies,
28, 2004, p. 13-31. Two sylloge catalogues which contain material from this early period are
L. Ilisch, Palästina (Bilād aš-Šām I), Sylloge Numorum Arabicorum Tübingen IVa, Tübingen,
Ernst Wasmuth, 1993, and Album and Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9.

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between the transitional period (72-79 ah) and the post-reform period (77-79 ah
onwards). The purpose of the paper is to suggest that the development of Islamic
coinage can only properly be understood by drawing together all aspects of its
study. To date, art historians have tended to look at numismatic iconography
without paying attention to monetary context, while numismatists and monetary
historians have concentrated on taxonomy (sequence of issues and chronology)
and have generally avoided the questions thrown up by the emergence of
figural numismatic art prior to 77 ah. As a consequence two unrelated and at
points contradictory stories have been told about the early coinage. One side
sees the brief flourishing of numismatic imagery and its abrupt termination
as illustrative of Islam’s brief engagement with the figural tradition of Late
Antique, especially of Byzantine, art, and interprets the retreat into writing as a
sign of Islam’s inability to compete with Late Antique tradition.11 This view in
turn has fed into a wider perception of the reasons for the absence of figural
imagery in the early Islamic context. The numismatic approach, by contrast,
has elaborated the coinage sequence and has created a map of monetary circula-
tion on which the coinage issues can be plotted, but has offered no critique of
the first approach. Neither draws substantially on the conclusions of the other,
with the result that each offers only limited scope for integrated analysis of the
issues they address. This paper aims to demonstrate that a more inclusive
treatment of the topic provides new scope for understanding the causes of the
“abandonment” of numismatic imagery and the introduction of the epigraphic
coinage which signalled the beginning of the post-reform period.
In this paper, I have omitted serious consideration of three important aspects
of the Umayyad coinage: numismatic metrology, the development of Umayyad
copper coinage and the role of Byzantium. The metrology of early Islamic coin-
age (particularly the weight systems adopted at various stages of the reform)
might appear to be a simple issue for which data should be relatively easy to
collect and from which important conclusions could be drawn. But while there
is no doubting the significance of coin weights, it is at present impossible to
make very much of the metrological data because it has not been systematically
collected, let alone analysed: see below (Phase One) for a case study that illus-
trates the difficulties of metrological analysis. Second, although brief reference
is made below to the Caliphal Image copper coinage, a thorough study of the
copper coinage of the mint of Damascus does not form part of the paper. Two
reasons preclude its inclusion: first, early Islamic copper coinage was for the
most part a municipal coinage, whose design and manufacture was undertaken
at local level, by the city authorities, rather than by the caliphal administration.
Although a rich and rewarding field of study in its own right, it has less to tell
us about monetary decision-making at the level of the caliph’s court than the

11. O. Grabar,The formation of Islamic art, 2nd ed., Yale, Yale University Press, 1987, p. 93-94.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 

precious metal coinage. Furthermore, while the coppers of Damascus have

come under intense numismatic scrutiny in the past few years, much still remains
uncertain about the organisational structures which produced this coinage. Until
we have an idea of the relation between copper mints and precious metal mints
and a clear understanding of the succession of one copper type by another, it
seems prudent to exclude the coppers from consideration.12
Another tantalising issue is the role of Byzantium in the development of
early Islamic coinage. In 1957 A. Grabar argued that the figural programme
of Marwanid coinage was shaped by a propaganda war conducted between the
Umayyad caliph and the Byzantine emperor in which imagery and inscriptions
(in several different media, including coins) were devised in the course of a
reciprocal exchange of hostile messages between the two rival empires.13 But
his theory was predicated on a reconstruction of the coinage sequence which
has since proven incorrect, while current historiographical method places a
higher value on documentary caution than on reconstructive imagination.
Nevertheless, there is evidence to suggest that, as Grabar argues, the coinage
was used by both sides as a means of conveying messages to the enemy. The
problem is complicated by the existence of two unrelated written accounts
concerning the coinage reforms (Theophanes and Balādhurī) which will require
careful study before the topic of Umayyad-Byzantine interaction can properly
understood. Moreover, as I attempt to demonstrate below, the administrative
factors which drove the evolution of the transitional coinage from within the
Islamic world were sufficiently powerful, for the most part, to explain the observ-
able outcomes.

Review of numismatic terminology

It is often difficult for non-specialists to grasp and retain the details of numis-
matic literature, which typically consists of many tiny pieces of unfamiliar and
outwardly similar data. To add to the problem in this case, the argument presented
below relies heavily on the revision of some of the terms which Bates used to
describe Damascus coin types and the successive phases of production through
which the activities of the mint passed. Table 1 summarises the chronology and
terminology used in this paper, and compares it to Bates’ scheme.

12. For the most recent summary of the complex issues surrounding the copper coinage of
Damascus, see T. Goodwin, The pseudo-Damascus mint: progress report on a die study, Coinage
and history in the Seventh Century Near East, Supplement to the Oriental Numismatic Society
Journal, no. 193, Autumn 2007, p. 12-16.
13. A. Grabar, L’iconoclasme byzantin: dossier archéologique, Paris, Collège de France,
1957.

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Table 1 - Phases of precious metal coin production in the mint of Damascus,

72-79 ah (see Plate 1 for images of coins)

Bates’ (1986) terminology Terminology employed in this paper

Phase name Coin name Phase name Coin name
and dates (ah) and dates of issue (ah) and dates (ah) and dates of issue (ah)
(1) Imperial images Mutilated Cross solidus
— —14
(72-74) (71-72?)
Arab-Sasanian drachm (1) “Shahada” Phase15 Shahada drachm
(72-74) (72-74) (72-74)
Shahada solidus Shahada solidus
(72-74?) (72-74)
(2) Standing caliph Standing caliph solidus (2) Caliphal Image Phase16 Caliphal image solidus
(74-77) (74-77) (74-77) (74-77)
Standing caliph drachm Caliphal image drachm Type A
(75) (75)
Mihrab and Anaza drachm Caliphal image drachm Type B
(76-77?) (76-77)
(3) Epigraphic Epigraphic dinar (3) Epigraphic Phase Epigraphic dinar
(77-) (77-) (77-) (77-)
Epigraphic dirham Epigraphic dirham
(79-) (79-)
14 15 16

It is important to note that the structure of Bates’ chronology is not at issue

here. Instead the debate concerns the appropriate labels to be given to the coins
themselves and to the phases of coinage production, and thus the relationship
between the component parts of the structure. The new terminology proposed here
suggests that the existing model is overly complicated and in need of simplifi-
cation. One reason for this is that early Marwanid coinage is often mistakenly
perceived as a monolithic whole. The coinage of eastern silver mints, like Kufa
and Basra, has traditionally been considered as part of the same process in which
the mint of Damascus was involved. But the reform followed different trajectories
in Syria and the Mashriq because each region was controlled by a different ruler,
the west by the caliph and the east by the de facto independent governor of the
Mashriq. When viewed from a solely Syrian perspective, the typological evolution
of the Damascus mint is easier to understand than prevailing interpretations
would have us believe.

14. Although one must bear in mind that some of the surviving specimens of the Mutilated
Cross solidi may not have been official caliphal issues, Foss’s reassignment of this issue from
ʼAbd al-Malik’s to Muʼāwiya’s reign is convincing: see C. Foss, A Syrian coinage of Muʼawiya?,
RN 2002, p. 353–365. The Mutilated Cross solidus has accordingly been omitted from Table 1.
15. The term “Shahada” (the Islamic profession of faith) is preferred here as the designation
of Phase One because the Shahada is inscribed on the margin of all coins belonging to this phase.
16. The term “Caliphal Image” is proposed in place of the current term “Standing Caliph”
because the caliph is represented in both standing and bust form on the coinage of this phase.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 

Die numbers

The total number of dies which were employed to strike a particular coin
issue can be used to give an approximate impression of the quantity of coins
produced. The die data for the Damascus mint is unfortunately very deficient
because so few coins of this period have come to light, but the published evidence
is presented in Table 2. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Table 2 - Die numbers and die linkages in the coinage of Damascus, 72-79 ah
Coin name No of spec. No of No of References and die links (numbers in bold record the dies used
and date analysed obv dies rev dies - 1/R1 = Obverse die no. 1 and Reverse die no. 1)17
PHASE ONE: SHAHADA PHASE
Miles18 no. 6 (1/R1); no. 7 (2/R2); no. 8 (1/R1); no. 9 (1/R1);
Shahada solidus
9 2 3 no. 10 (1/R1); no. 11 (1/R1); no. 12 (2/R2); Album and Goodwin19
72-74 ah?
no. 607* (1/R1); Spink Zürich Auction 18, no. 87 (2/R3)
Peus Auktion 380, no. 988 (1/R1); Album and Goodwin21 no. 278
Shahada drachm
5 4 4 (2/R2); Miles22 no. 6 (3/R3); Warden collection (unpubl.) (3/R3);
72 ah20
Baldwins Auction 5, London 2002, no. 5 (4/R4)
Gaube23 pl. 2, no. 15 (1/R1); Album and Goodwin24 no. 279 (2/R2);
Shahada drachm
5 4 4 Peus Auktion 378, no. 1203 (2/R2); Peus Auktion 363, no. 5649
73 ah
(3/R3): Baldwins Auction 9, London 2004, no. 3173 (4/R4)
Shahada drachm Balog25 435* (1/R1); Walker26 23, DD.1 (1/R2); Sotheby’s Auction
3 2 3
74 ah 14.10.1999, no. 256 (2/R3)
PHASE TWO: CALIPHAL IMAGE PHASE
Caliphal image solidus
1 1 1 Miles28 no. 14
74 ah27
Caliphal image solidus Miles28 no. 16 (1/R1); no. 17 (1/R1);
3 1 2
76 ah Private collection, London (1/R2)
Caliphal image solidus Miles28 no. 18 (1/R1); no. 19 (1/R2);
3 1 3
77 ah Album and Goodwin,29 no. 705* (1/R3)

17. For illustrations of coins marked with an asterisk in right-hand column of Table 2, see
Plate 1.
18. G. Miles, The earliest Arab gold coinage, ANSMN, 13, 1967.
19. S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9.
20. A unique Shahada drachm is also known from the mint of Ḥimṣ in this year (see Album
and Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9, no. 305).
21. S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9.
22. G. Miles, Some Arab-Sasanian and related coins, ANSMN, 7, 1957, p. 187-209.
23. H. Gaube, Arabosasanidische Numismatik, Braunschweig, Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1973.
24. S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9.
25. P. Balog, An Arab-Sasanian dirhem with Kufic inscriptions, Spink Numismatic Circular,
58, Aug-Sep, 1950, p. 435.
26. J. Walker, A catalogue of the Arab-Sassanian coins (A catalogue of the Muhammadan
coins in the British Museum), London, British Museum Press, 1941.
27. The Caliphal Image solidus (75 ah) published by Miles is widely acknowledged to be
inauthentic and has been omitted from Table 2 (see G. Miles, op. cit. n. 18, p. 205-229).
28. G. Miles, op. cit. n. 18.
29. S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9.

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Caliphal image drachm Treadwell30 25, n. 36 (*Specimen illustrated in Plate 1 is BnF,

3 2 3
(Type A) 75 ah Paris, no. 1967.208)
Caliphal image drachm Treadwell30 10 (*Specimen illustrated in Plate 1 is from Sotheby’s
6 6 5
(Type B) 76-77 ah? auction, 12.7.1993, no. 167)
PHASE THREE: EPIGRAPHIC PHASE
Epigraphic dinar Bernardi31 (*Specimen illustrated in Plate 1 is from the Shamma
15 9 6
77 ah collection)
Epigraphic dirham
? ? ? Klat32 for references to dirhams of this year (not yet die linked)
Damascus 79 ah
30 31 32
(note table 2)
Some suggestive provisional conclusions, particularly with regard to the
difference in the quantities of gold coinage (solidi and dinars) produced in
successive phases, can be derived from Table 2. Overall the number of coins
belonging to the transitional period of 72-77 ah was apparently relatively small.
This certainly seems to be true of the gold coinage, even if the silver coinage
(drachms and dirhams) is more difficult to quantify. The die totals suggest that
Phases 1-2 were trial issues whereas the epigraphic coinage was produced in
much greater quantities and on a far larger scale. We shall examine this state-
ment in more detail as we discuss the three phases in turn.

Phase One: the Shahada Phase

The decision to strike gold and silver coinage in 72 ah, immediately after the
Marwanid reconquest of the Mashriq, resulted, it has been said, from the eco-
nomic necessity to monetise large amounts of bullion that had been seized as
war booty and were urgently needed to fund the administration of the emergent
state.33 While there was undoubtedly an economic impulse behind the opening
of the mint, the quantity of gold coinage struck in 72-74 appears to have been
small, perhaps no more than several thousand pieces per year.34 The quantity of
silver drachms issued is impossible to gauge accurately on the basis of the small
number of surviving pieces, but was probably substantially larger than the gold
output.

30. L. Treadwell, op. cit. n. 8 (2005).

31. G. Bernardi, Il dinar di ʼAbd al-Malik coniato nell’anno 77 H., RSN 2001, p. 131-137.
32. M. Klat, Catalogue of the post-reform dirhams: the Umayyad dynasty, London, Spink,
2002.
33. M. Bates, op. cit. n. 2, p. 252.
34. Table 2 shows that among the nine published specimens of the Shahada solidus only two
obverse and three reverse dies have been identified. For an issue which probably spanned two or
three years, this suggests that no more than a single die pair was employed per year. Even though
many more gold coins could be struck from a pair of dies than silver coins (silver flans, being of
a harder metal, cause the dies to deteriorate more quickly than gold flans) a single pair of dies
employed annually indicates a small total output, particularly when compared to the first year of
epigraphic dinar production which Bernardi’s analysis shows to have been struck from at least
fifteen dies (G. Bernardi, op. cit. n. 31, p. 131-137).

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However, there were undoubtedly additional reasons for the opening of the
Damascus mint. The production of gold coinage was a prerogative of imperial
rulers in the Late Antique world which was jealously protected. By striking his
own solidi, ʼAbd al-Malik was making a declaration to his rival, the Byzantine
Emperor Justinian II, as well as to his own subjects, that he aspired to an imperial
status which had been beyond the reach of his predecessors. The form of the
new solidi, strongly reminiscent of Byzantine coinage in figural design but
unmistakably Islamic by virtue of the inscription of the Shahada which ringed
the reverse, signalled ʼAbd al-Malik’s intention to challenge the status quo.
If we accept Theophanes’ account that in 72 ah ʼAbd al-Malik sent gold coins
“of a new kind that had never been made before”35 to Justinian in payment of
tribute, then it follows that ʼAbd al-Malik used the Shahada solidus (the only
gold type which was available to him in that year) in a highly provocative move
which was calculated to provoke the Byzantine emperor into breaking the exist-
ing peace treaty between the two states.
Another clue to the motives behind the introduction of silver coinage in the
Damascus mint may lie in the metrology of the coins. As already noted, in the
current state of our knowledge the metrological evidence should not be pressed
too hard. Nevertheless the details are worth considering. The average weight
of the nine extant Shahada solidi is 4.38 g, whereas the weight standard of the
silver drachms seems to have been around 3.71 g, though it could have been
considerably higher, perhaps as high as the weight of the heaviest surviving
coin (3.8 g).36 While the weight standard of the Shahada solidi appears to match
that of the Byzantine solidi circulating in Umayyad Syria at this time (4.37 g),37
the silver standard is far lower than that of the contemporary Umayyad (Arab-
Sasanian) drachms which had been struck in Iran since the early 30s ah (4.1 g).
It is not difficult to guess why the Shahada solidus were struck to a standard
that was close to that of the Byzantine solidus. The intention must have been to
allow the two coinages to circulate (at least temporarily) alongside one another.
But why was the Shahada drachm struck to a lower standard than its Iranian
counterpart? The answer is not obvious. Underweight coins have often been

35. C. Mango and R. Scott, trans. and comm., The chronicle of Theophanes Confessor:
Byzantine and Near Eastern history, A.D. 284-813, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997, p. 509.
36. For the weight standard of the Shahada solidi, a calculation was made of the average
weights of the seven specimens listed in G. Miles (op. cit. n. 18, p. 205-209), S. Album and
T. Goodwin (op. cit. n. 2, no. 607), and Spink Zürich Auction 18, no. 87 (see Table 2). As for the
silver drachms, I recently estimated a figure of 3.68 g by averaging the weights of the six undam-
aged surviving specimens (L. Treadwell, op. cit. n. 8 [2005], Table 2). The addition of two new
specimens (1. 72 ah - Peus Auktion 380, no. 988 [3.8 g]; 2. 73 ah - Baldwins auction 9, no. 3173
[3.79 g]) brings the average weight up to 3.71g.
37. G. Bijovsky, A hoard of Byzantine solidi from Bet She’an in the Umayyad period, RN 2002,
p. 178. See also Morrisson’s statement that the weight of the “transitional Islamic gold coinage”
was close to that of the Byzantine solidi circulating in Syria (4.37 g) (C. Morrisson, Le trésor
byzantin de Nikertai, RBN 1972, p. 61).

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 10 Luke Treadwell

struck by unscrupulous rulers with the aim of paying less for the services or
goods they purchase. But the Damascus coins appear to have been struck to a
fixed standard, perhaps a local Syrian standard of which we have no record.
Local regional weight standards for silver coin certainly appear to have existed
in the Islamic world during the Umayyad period.38 It could be that the silver
weight standard bore some relation to that of the circulating gold coinage. But
the estimated ratio of the weights of the gold and silver Shahada types (3.71:4.38)
does not yield a rounded number when represented as a fraction (3.71:4.38
is equivalent to 85:100 or 0.85). This contrasts with the theoretical ratio of gold
to silver weights represented by the later epigraphic dirham and dinar: silver
at 2.97 g and gold at 4.25 g gave the silver dirham a weight of precisely 7/10 of
the gold coin.39 If our estimate of the drachm’s weight standard is too low by a
significant degree (as well it might be given the small number of specimens and
the weight loss caused by wear and tear) it is just possible that it was struck to
9/10 of the solidus’s weight (i.e. 3.94 g). This would suggest, significantly, that
ʼAbd al-Malik was already beginning to experiment with a fixed weight ratio
between gold and silver coins in the first year of his reform. This in turn would
imply that the caliph’s administrators had already started to merge the two
discrete monetary zones of Iran and Byzantium. But we are in no position to
adopt such a conclusion at present, however tempting the prospect. Further
research on this question will depend on fresh data from new coin discoveries.

Why call Phase One the “Shahada” phase?

Whereas the design of the Phase One coins followed that of Late Antique
coinage closely, the Shahada (Islamic profession of faith), inscribed on the
margin of the coins, distinguished these coins clearly from coinage already in
circulation in Syria. The Shahada was applied in its “long” form to the gold
soldius, but in its shortened form to the silver drachms issued in the first year of
the reform, 72 ah. From the following year, all precious metal coinage in Syria
bore the long form of the Shahada.40 A second distinctive feature was intro-
duced onto the Syrian silver coinage in 72 ah: a fourth circle around the outer
margin of the reverse. But, in contrast to the longevity of the numismatic

38. See S. D. Sears, Before caliphal coins: transitional drahms of the Umayyad North, AJN,
2nd ser., 15, 2003, p. 98.
39. There is now considerable evidence to suggest that the epigraphic dirham was not struck
to its “canonical” weight of 2.97g until the late Umayyad period or even the beginning of the
ʼAbbasid era (Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “Wazn”).
40. See L. Treadwell, op. cit. n. 8 (1999), p. 244, Table 3, for details of the numismatic
application of the Shahada in both short (bism allāh muḥammad rasūl allāh) and long (bism allāh
lā illāh illā allāh muḥammad rasūl allāh) forms and for the reference to the earliest use of the
Shahada on a silver drachm, which occurred in the Zubayrid-controlled mint of Bishāpūr (Iran)
in 66 and 67 ah.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 11

Shahada, the circle did not continue as a standard feature of the Syrian transitional
coinage, perhaps because the Shahada itself was soon judged to be sufficiently
distinctive of Marwanid Syrian coinage.41

The design of the Shahada drachm and the Shahada solidus

The imagery of the Shahada drachm is almost identical to that of the standard
Arab-Sasanian drachm which had circulated in Iran since the 30s ah. The only
differences are the presence of the Shahada on the obverse and the substitution
of Arabic for Middle Persian in the mint and date inscriptions on the reverse.
The model for the Shahada solidus was the Three Standing Emperor solidus
of Heraclius’s reign. To explain why this Byzantine solidus was chosen, rather
than any other 7th c. Byzantine prototype, the following reasons may be
adduced. First, it is apparent from the hoard record of the Sufyanid period that
the flow of Byzantine gold into Syria began to fall off considerably from the
mid 630s onwards.42 Thus it was the coinage of Heraclius’ late reign which
formed the last substantial wave of solidi that were imported into Syria. The
Three Standing Emperor type was well represented among these late coins and
would have become a familiar component of the circulating monetary stock.43
Another, perhaps more compelling reason for the choice of prototype lay in the
comparative ease with which three small standing figures lent themselves to
being adapted into a generic symbol of rulership, free of their original imperial
Christian connotations. By contrast, the imperial features of a numismatic bust,
that of Constans II for example, would have been much more resistant to adap-
tation and would have retained the features of the individual emperor even after
removal of the crosses.44 It seems that ʼAbd al-Malik’s advisors astutely chose
a type which was both well known and suited to their purposes.

41. The fourth circle is found on the Ḥimṣ drachm of 72 ah, but on only two of the four
Damascus reverse dies of 72 AH. It reappears on the Caliphal Image silver drachm (Type B).
For a complete list of coins with the fourth circle on the reverse, see L. Treadwell, op. cit. n. 8
(1999), p. 242-243. Although rare in Syria, the fourth circle is found on many Iranian issues of
the transitional period (see, for example, figure 1 below).
42. See S. Heidemann (op. cit. n. 7, p. 95-112) for a summary of the evidence and W. Metcalf
(Three seventh-century Byzantine gold hoards, ANSMN, 25, 1980, p. 87-108) for details of the
main hoards on which the analysis is based. See also figure 11 in Bijovsky (op. cit. n. 37, p. 161-
227), which gives a useful breakdown of coins by reign of Byzantine emperor in all relevant
hoards. Bijovsky’s table shows that the flow of gold coin into Umayyad Syria continued, albeit
in reduced quantities, during the reigns of Heraclius’ successors, Constans II and Constantine IV
(see Beth Shean [tpq 680s AD] and Nikertai [tpq 681 AD] hoards).
43. In the Beth Shean hoard, Three Standing Emperor solidi account for 170 out of a total of
751 coins (22%) and in the Nikertai hoard 118 out of a total of 534 (also 22 %).
44. As Grierson points out, Byzantine numismatic portraiture of the 7th century ad became
increasingly individualised and tended to represent the person of the emperor as well as his regalia:
see P. Grierson, Byzantine coins, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1982, p. 90.

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 12 Luke Treadwell

However, as Bates pointed out, the adapted figures differ from their Byzan-
tine prototypes not only on account of the removal of the crosses from their orbs
and crowns, but also because their clothing is less elaborate than the imperial
regalia of the Heraclean figures. He wonders whether the depiction of their
robes was intended to represent Umayyad caliphal dress.45 It is perhaps more
likely, given the relatively low standard of engraving of the figures on the Mar-
wanid coins, that the differences between prototype and copy arose from poor
attention to detail or a lack of technical ability on the part of the engraver and/or
a deliberate wish to blur distinctive features of discernibly Byzantine character.
For the same reason, it is logical to assume that the reverse image (the so-
called “Pole on Steps”) was adapted from the Cross on Steps of the prototype.
Here the engraver was concerned to dismantle the Christian symbol and to
ensure that no-one who used the Islamic coin could mistake the image for a
cross. The removal of the horizontal bar of the cross achieved a simple and
effective visual transformation from cross to pole. This change disposed of the
structural element of the cross which had borne the weight of Christ as he began
his journey from humanity to divinity and in doing so implicitly attacked the
Christian claim to Christ’s divinity for those who cared to think about the mean-
ing of the transformed image. A similar change had been made to the reverse of
the “Mutilated Cross solidi” struck at the beginning of Muʼāwiya’s reign. How-
ever the engraver of Muʼāwiya’s coin retained the short stem of the trunk of the
Byzantine cross as well as the horizontal “T” bar which crowned its highest
point. By contrast, the engraver of ʼAbd al-Malik’s coin extended the length
of the pole, and placed a round shape at its highest point which intruded into
the circular inscription that now filled the margin. This circle at the top of the
inscription directs the eye to the starting point of the legend and matches the
circular shapes which predominate in the individual letters of the inscription
(see Plate 1).46
The adaptations incorporated in the design of the Shahada solidus neutral-
ised those imperial and religious characteristics of the Byzantine prototype
which would have been unacceptable on a caliphal coin. These changes were
mainly subtractive in that they removed unsuitable features from the prototype,
while allowing enough of the prototype to remain in place for the coin to be
recognisable as a solidus and thus acceptable to the market as a monetary
instrument. The urge to seek out direct references to caliphal clothing and
regalia in the imagery of the Shahada solidus should be resisted.

45. Bates (op. cit. n. 2, p. 243) also raises the possibility that the two flanking figures may
have represented the heirs apparent of the caliph, though he was unable to find any evidence
thatʼAbd al-Malik had more than one heir (his brother ʼAbd al-ʼAzīz) in 77 ah.
46. Bates (op. cit. n. 2, p. 243, n. 16) notes that the “pole” may have been intended to repre-
sent the caliph’s staff of office.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 13

Phase Two: Caliphal Image Coinage

A regalian coinage

The Caliphal Image solidus (currently known as the Standing Caliph solidus)
was struck from 74-77 ah, the year in which it was replaced by the epigraphic
dinar. This solidus is the first and only truly regalian gold coin issued in the
Umayyad period. The obverse is dominated by the full-sized figure of the caliph
ʼAbd al-Malik himself, facing the coin user, dressed in fine robes, bearing a
huge sheathed sword to his left and an undeciphered knotted cord to his right,
his hair (rather than a head-covering) falling to his shoulders. It is a dynamic
image, the hand on the sword-hilt suggesting imminent movement and the
sword conveying a sense of power. It certified to those who knew the caliph’s
appearance better than we do that this was not just an “imperial image” like the
three standing emperors of Phase One, but the caliph in person. In the two years
which had passed since his reoccupation of the Mashriq, ʼAbd al-Malik had
won two significant victories. His forces had defeated Justinian II’s army at the
battle of Sebastopolis (mid-692 AD) and Ḥajjāj had secured Marwanid control
of the Hijaz, recapturing Mecca and killing Ibn al-Zubayr, ʼAbd al-Malik’s
opponent in the Civil War; Marwanid forces were also extending the borders of
the state both eastwards and westwards at this time. The Caliphal Image solidus
was thus a fitting testament both to his new-found personal authority, based in
part on military success, and to the power of the religion on which his status as
caliph rested.
The origins of the Caliphal Image lie within the Byzantine numismatic tradi-
tion, which provides prototypes of the standing imperial figure. Whether it
was modelled on the standing figure of Justinian II that appears on the reverse
of the Christ Pantocrator solidus struck in the last years of Justinian’s first reign
(ended 695 AD) is an interesting but ultimately unanswerable question. If the
Damascus engravers were aware of the Pantocrator issue, it is conceivable that
they may have designed the caliph’s scabbard as a witty riposte to the trailing
end of Justinian’s loros. But there is no reason to doubt that they were fully
capable of inventing the Caliphal Image without recourse to a Byzantine model.47

Size and scope of the issue

Phase Two of the reform was carried out on a much larger scale than Phase
One. The Caliphal Image type was struck in base metal as well as precious and
was placed on the copper coinage of sixteen mints throughout Greater Syria,

47. For the contrary view see P. Grierson, Phocas to Theodosius III, Catalogue of the Byzantine
Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and Whittemore Collection, vol. 2/2, Washington,
Dumbarton Oaks, 1968, p. 570.

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 14 Luke Treadwell

giving it wide exposure throughout the whole region.48 However, the fact that
only a single obverse die survives from each of the three years in which the
solidus was issued suggests that, as in the case of the Shahada solidus,
the Caliphal Image solidi were struck in small numbers and were not intended
to replace the circulating Byzantine solidi.49 The copper issues of this type are
plentiful but of very uneven quality. The largest number of coppers was struck
in the northern junds of Qinnasrīn and Aleppo, a region where in previous years
coppers had been issued in small quantities. Here, in the principal mint of Aleppo,
both well-executed and low quality coppers were produced in large numbers.
The southern mints in Filasṭīn and al-Urdunn, by contrast, struck fewer Caliphal
Image coppers, which differed markedly from the standard type. The biggest
surprise, however, lies in the coppers of the Damascus mint itself, which
include several sub-types, one of which was poorly produced and contained
many mistakes in its inscriptions. It is clear that the production of coppers, in
contrast to the gold, was not closely monitored by the caliph’s administrators.

The problem of the silver drachm

Both the gold and copper coinage of this phase accommodated the new
Caliphal Image design readily enough because its standing form was familiar
from the Byzantine numismatic tradition to which they belonged. But the
Shahada drachm was a different matter. Here the administrators of Phase Two
faced the problem of transferring the Caliphal Image type onto a coin that was
utterly foreign to the Byzantine tradition. The Marwanids made two attempts to
make a drachm which could accommodate the new design. Two very different
coin types were produced, here named Caliphal Image silver Types A and B.
The first attempt employed the simple device of juxtaposition. The Shahan-
shah’s bust was retained on the obverse, while the by now long redundant fire
altar reverse was replaced by a standing figure of the caliph which was a slightly
simplified analogue of the figure on the solidus (see Plate 1). To avoid the
danger of misidentification, the new figure was flanked by the two caliphal
titles which ʼAbd al-Malik bore, amīr al-mu’minīn (Commander of the Faithful)
and khalīfat allāh (Deputy of God). Yet the resulting coin is a strange hybrid
whose dual image of rulership contravenes the Late Antique tradition that
requires precious metal coinage to bear complementary images of rulership and

48. For the most comprehensive account of the copper coinage of Phase Two, see Goodwin
in S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9.
49. See Table 2. The tiny number of surviving undamaged specimens (5 in total) also
precludes any useful inferences being drawn from the intriguing fact that the average weight of
these coins appears to have been more closely controlled and noticeably higher than the gold of
Phase One. The coins in question are: (76 ah) 1. G. Miles, op. cit. n. 18, no. 16 (4.48g); 2. Private
collection, London (4.45 g); (77 ah) 3. G. Miles, op. cit. n. 18, no. 18 (4.45g); 4. Ibid., no. 19
(4.44 g); 5. S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9, no. 705 (4.45 g).

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 15

religion. Moreover, the Shahanshah’s bust, a powerful, confident and familiar

image which had graced millions of silver coins over more than four centuries
of Sasanian rule, overshadows the small stooped figure of the caliph, who
appears cramped within the confinement of the three circles that surround him.
It is no wonder that that this type was probably not struck in quantities and was
soon replaced by a second experimental type.
Type B of the Caliphal Image silver employs a more ambitious approach to
the problem. It conflates the two images of rulership into a single figure based
on the obverse bust of Type A. This was achieved first by subtracting from the
Shahanshah his winged headdress and mural crown, the twin symbols of late
Sasanian rule. Then a small version of the great sheathed sword which hangs
from the standing figure’s waist was placed in his hands. The goal of this bold
exercise was to retain the form of the bust while making enough changes to its
appearance, both subtractive and additive, to ensure its identification as an
image of the caliph.50 In order to guarantee the correct identification of the new
bust, the caliphal titles of Type A were retained on the coin. But for reasons
which are now hard to fathom, the designers retained the Middle Persian
inscriptions of the Sasanian prototype on either side of the bust.51 The caliphal
titles remained on the reverse (as on Type A), instead of being transferred to the
obverse where they would have flanked the object they described.
Once relieved of the standing figure of the caliph, the reverse of Type B
offered both an opportunity and a challenge to the designers. One might ask
why they did not place an image of the mutilated cross here, to bring the reverse
into line with the gold and copper issues of this phase. This is a valid question
which is not easy to answer so long as we continue to think of this coin as an
issue that was intended solely for circulation in Syria. If one assumes, however,
that the Marwanids were by this stage trying to produce a silver coin that would
circulate in Iran, it is easier to understand why they decided to forego the
explicit image of the cross. In Iran the mutilated cross would have made no
sense to a coin-using public that was unfamiliar with Christian symbols. In fact
the spear-in-sacrum which we see on the reverse of Type B was probably adapt-
ed from the cross-within-sacrum, a non-numismatic image that enjoyed wide
circulation in 7th c. Syria.52 But while the spear-in-sacrum image would have

50. For a detailed description of the new caliphal bust, see L. Treadwell, op. cit. n. 8 (2005),
p. 13-15.
51. It is possible that the designers retained the Middle Persian inscriptions along with other
elements of the original design (bunched hair, ribbons, and asterisms) because they feared that by
removing these they ran the risk of obscuring its Sasanian origins and thus its identity as a valid
coin.
52. The upright spear standing within the arch on columns (see Plate 1) was the structure
which Miles identified as the ʼanaza (spear of the Prophet) within the mihrab (see G. Miles,
Miḥrāb and ʼanazah: a study in early Islamic iconography, Archaeologia orientalia in memoriam
Ernst Herzfeld, Locust Valley, NY, J.J. Augustin, 1952, p. 156-171). For the theory that the spear

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 16 Luke Treadwell

resonated particularly strongly with those who were familiar with Christian
imagery, it also delivered a clear message about the triumph of Islam that was
universally comprehensible. The meaning of the image is further enhanced by
the presence of two Arabic words (naṣr / allāh or victory / Allāh) which are
inscribed within the columns supporting the arch.
However, although superior in some respects to the Type A drachm which
it replaced, the Type B drachm still falls short of the purpose for which it was
designed. The caliphal identity of the bust figure is not immediately apparent to
the observer; the coin lacks mint and date information; and it has two sets of
Arabic captions which have not been added to enhance the images, but rather
to ensure that they will not be misunderstood. It is not surprising, then, that at
the same time that both these silver drachms were being produced in Syria, a
different solution was being attempted in Iran under the guidance of ʼAbd al-
Malik’s governor al-Ḥajjāj. From 76-77 ah the mints of Bishāpūr and Ardashīr
Khurra, two of the largest in Iran, produced the so-called radial drachm (see
figure 1).53

Figure 1 - Radial drachm, mint of Bīshāpūr 77 ah54

This coin reduced the area occupied by the bust of the Shahanshah and
increased the size and legibility of the Shahada inscription by arranging small
clusters of letters in a radial pattern around the bust. The radial drachm expands
the inscription at the expense of imagery and thus points the way forward to
Phase Three.

on this coin type lies not within a mihrab, but within a version of the Christian sacrum, the niche
in which the cross was housed, see J. Raby, In vitro veritas. Glass pilgrim vessels from 7th century
Jerusalem, Bayt al-Maqdis: Jerusalem and early Islam, Oxford Studies in Islamic Art, vol. 9/2,
ed. J. Johns, Oxford, Oxford University Press, p. 113-190: for a recent summary of the argument
see L. Treadwell, op. cit. n. 8 (2005), p. 19-21.
53. See Album in S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9, p. 29.
54. S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9, no. 217.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 17

Phase Three: Epigraphic coinage

At some point in the year 77 ah the process of reform took a quantum leap
forward with the introduction of the first imageless precious metal coinage pro-
duced in the world of Late Antiquity. Phase Three was implemented on a scale
that far exceeded the experiments of both earlier phases, in terms of the geo-
graphical extent and the quantities of coinage issued. The decision to strike the
gold coins to a new weight standard (4.25 g for the dinar instead of 4.38 g for
the solidus) and to recall circulating coinage for restriking in the mint was also
unprecedented. While earlier phases can be regarded as trial issues, Phase Three
should be seen as the point at which the reform began in earnest. The decision
to remove all references to the caliph from the coins of this phase also had
important implications for the development of the public image of the caliphal
office. It follows from this that while the caliph’s involvement in the detailed
implementation of earlier phases is open to doubt, the risks taken and the
resources committed to the process from 77 ah were so substantial that we can
reasonably assume that ʼAbd al-Malik took personal responsibility for it.

The inscriptions of Phase Three coins

Although the epigraphic coinage marked a definitive break with the past, the
inscriptions on these coins demonstrate continuity with the preceding Caliphal
Image Phase. In fact it can be argued that the Phase Three inscriptional pro-
gramme not only extended that of Phase Two but also “translated” the visual
image of the mutilated cross into text. This is clearly seen in the words of Sūrat
al-Ikhlāṣ (Quran.112.1-4), which replaced the image of the mutilated cross.
These Quranic verses attack the Christian claim to the divinity of Christ in same
manner as the image of the deformed cross, while reminding the reader that
such a claim strikes at the heart of tawḥīd (the doctrine of the Unicity of God).
They read as follows: allāh aḥad allāh al-ṣamad lam yalid wa lam yūlad wa
lam yakun lahu kafwan aḥad (God is one, God is eternal, he was not born nor
does he give birth, nor is there an equal to him).55 The references to the unicity
of God and the mission of the Prophet which occur in the marginal Shahada of
Phase Two coins are also extended in the epigraphic phase. The phrase lā illāh
illā allāh waḥdahu (there is no god but Allah alone) is completed with the
addition of lā sharīka lahu (He has no partner) and the phrase muḥammad rasūl
allāh (Muhammad is the Prophet of God) by the addition of arsalahu bi al-
hudā wa dīn al-ḥaqq li-yuẓhirahu ʼalā al-dīn kullihi wa law kariha al-mushrikūn
(He sent Him with guidance and the true religion that he might overcome all
religion(s) even though the polytheists hate it) (Q.9.33).56

55. On the reverse field of the dinar the last six words of the Arabic inscription are omitted
for lack of space.
56. On the obverse margin of the dinar the last four words of the Arabic inscription are omitted
for lack of space.

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 18 Luke Treadwell

The continuity between the two phases in terms of the message they each
deliver suggests that it was not the message of the earlier coinage which was
considered to be in need of change, but rather the form in which that message
was delivered. The only features of the Caliphal Image coinage which were not
reproduced in Phase Three were the figure of the caliph and his official titles.

The evolution of the standard form of the epigraphic dirham

As Table Two shows, a large quantity of epigraphic dinars was produced in

the first year of the reform, much of the gold for which was probably supplied
by circulating Byzantine and transitional gold coins that had been recalled to
the mint.57 The pace of change for the silver dirham was somewhat slower than
for the gold dinar. Recently published specimens of the earliest silver dirhams
(dated 78) show that trial issues of these new coins were struck not in Damas-
cus, but in regions in the Mashriq where silver coinage was already in circula-
tion (see Table 3). 58 59 60 61 62

Table 3 - Early dirham issues (78-79 ah) which preceded the introduction
of the standardised epigraphic dirham in 79 AH
No. Mint Date Wt (g) Reference Rings round field / Mintname
annulets in margin placement
1 Irminīya 78 2.70 Private collection, London 1/0 In obverse margin

2 Irminīya 78 3.00 Bates p. 104

58
1/0 In obverse margin
Sotheby’s auction
3 Azarbayjān 78 3.04 1/0 In obverse margin
16-17.11.2000, lot 7
Sotheby’s auction
4 Al-Kūfa 78 2.81 1/0 In obverse margin
27.5.1999, lot 132
5 Azarbayjān 78 2.70 Klat no. 23a
59
3/5 In outer obverse margin

6 Shaqq al-Taymara 78 2.4 ANS 1971.316.1273 60

3/5 In obverse margin

7 Mintless 79 ? Walker61 104 (Kh4) 3/5 No mint given

8 Damascus 79 2.80 Klat62 no. 323a 3/5 In outer obverse margin

57. Bernardi’s analysis (op. cit. n. 31) shows a marked rise in the production of gold coins in
this year compared to earlier years. The total number of gold issues in the five preceding years
(72-77) yields 17 specimens struck from 5 obverse and 9 reverse dies, compared with 15 specimens
from 77 ah alone, struck from 9 obverse and 6 reverse dies.
58. M. Bates, The dirham mint of the northern provinces of the Umayyad caliphate, Armenian
Numismatic Journal, 1st ser., 15, 1989, p. 89-111.
59. M. Klat, op. cit. n. 32.
60. For an image and description of this unique coin, see the American Numismatic Society
(ANS) database at http://www.numismatics.org/search/.
61. J. Walker, op. cit. n. 26.
62. M. Klat, op. cit. n. 32.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 19

Table 3 (see coins 1-4) shows that some of these early issues were struck in
the Caucasian mints of Irminīya (Armenia) and Azarbayjān, which were under
the control of the caliph’s brother, Muḥammad b. Marwān,63 and the mint of
Kufa, which lay within Ḥajjāj’s domains. These dirhams resembled the epigraphic
dinar closely in their format and in the distribution of their legends (see figure 2
for coin no. 4).

         
Figure 2 - Table 3, coins 4 and 5

Also dated to 78 AH are two issues (nos. 5-6), from the mints of Azarbayjān
and Shaqq al-Taymara (Isfahan province), which are quite visually distinct
from coins 1-4, by virtue of the three dotted circles placed around the obverse,
the five annulets in the obverse margin and marginal legends which have been
transposed from one side to the other.64 (See figure 2 for coin no. 5) These new
features, both morphological and inscriptional, may have been introduced in
order to prevent the fraudulent practice of passing off silver coins for the gold
coins they resembled so closely (easily achieved by applying a thin layer of
gold on the surface).65
The format of the Shaqq al-Taymara dirham of 78 ah was adopted in the
following year as the standard for Umayyad dirham production in some 40 mints,
including Damascus (see figure 3).66 The format persisted up to the end of the
Umayyad era.

63. S. Sears, op. cit. n. 38.

64. The mint and date information is on the obverse of coin nos 5 and 6, whereas on coins
1-4 it was placed around the reverse. Note that on coin 5 the mintname is placed outside the
marginal legend, a variation that also occurs on coin no. 8 (Damascus mint, 79 ah).
65. See discussion of these early dirhams in Sotheby’s auction catalogues, 27.5.1999, lot 132
and 16-17.11.2000, lot 7.
66. It is not known why Shaqq al-Taymara was chosen to issue the earliest example of the
standard format. At the beginning of 79 ah, the Damascus mint produced two non-standard issues
(see Table 3, nos. 7-8), presumably before the order was received to adopt the model of the Shaqq
al-Taymara dirham.

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 20 Luke Treadwell

    
Figure 3 - Standard Umayyad reformed dirham: mint of Kufa dated 79 ah
(Spink Zürich, Auction 22, no. 235)

General context of the reform

Phase Three was implemented at considerable speed, given the radical nature
of the reform and the large number of mints involved, but did not achieve a
wholesale transformation of the existing production system for silver coinage,
as it had for gold. To begin with, some Iranian mints continued producing Arab-
Sasanian drachms for several years after 79.67 Even after production of these
Iranian drachms was discontinued, major reorganisations of the silver mint net-
work were undertaken periodically. The first, which took place some years
prior to ʼAbd al-Malik’s death, involved the closure of most of the silver mints
which had opened in 79 ah and the centralisation of the majority of dirham
production in two mints, Damascus and Wāsiṭ. Furthermore, it is clear from the
hoard record that Phase Three did not remove Sasanian-style coinage altogether
from the coin stock. Indeed, Sasanian-style coins continued to circulate through-
out the Umayyad period and even into the early Abbasid period.68

Concluding remarks

Coherence of Phases One and Two

A central theme which emerges from this paper is that Phases One and Two
of precious metal coinage production in Damascus were relatively coherent in
form, content and function. The gold and silver coinage of each phase shared
common characteristics which differentiated one phase from the other, suggesting
that those in charge of the production of coinage were pursuing a considered
strategy. Phase One coins should be characterised as imitations of Late Antique
models which were altered to the minimal extent necessary to allow them to be
struck in a caliphal mint, and “branded” with the Shahada to identify them as
Marwanid issues. In Phase Two the Caliphal Image type dominates all the coinage.

67. Album in S. Album and T. Goodwin, op. cit. n. 9, p. 35-37.

68. S. Heidemann, op. cit. n. 7, p. 105.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 21

In its original form, the caliph is shown standing and bearing a sword sheath
hanging from his waist, whereas on the silver drachm of Type B the caliphal
image is based on the bust of the Shahanshah. These are the first (and only)
precious metal Islamic numismatic images of the early period which portray
the ruler. The reverses of Phase Two coins continue the precedent set by the
mutilated cross of Phase One, either by retaining exactly the same image (in the
case of the gold) or substituting an image (Spear-in-Sacrum) which is derived
from a non-numismatic source, the Cross-in-Sacrum familiar to 7th c. Syrians.
The Spear-in-Sacrum would have been comprehensible as a symbol of Muslim
triumph even to those coin-users who were not familiar Christian symbolism.

In short, far from being a confusing mixture of unrelated experimental types,

the transitional coinage of Damascus shows itself to be the outcome of a series
of logical decisions which were made with the consistent aim of creating a
coinage that was suited to the requirements of the emergent state. The most
intriguing question of the reform process, however, is why the Phase Two
coinage was replaced by the epigraphic issues of 77-79. The large scale of the
enterprise and the deliberate flouting of established monetary convention mark
out the epigraphic coinage as a major watershed.

Why did ʼAbd al-Malik introduce epigraphic coinage in 77-79?

Although many scholars have tackled this question, one common assumption
underlies all interpretations. The introduction of imageless coinage is seen as a
sign that ʼAbd al-Malik’s administrators were unable to devise a numismatic
iconography which was appropriate to the needs of the Marwanid state. This
failure has been accounted for in one of two ways. One explanation is that the
transitional coinage of the Caliphal Image Phase provoked violent opposition
from Muslims who objected to the portrayal of the caliph and thus forced the
Marwanids to abandon figural imagery.69 The other sees the retreat into epi-
graphic coinage as a consequence of their inability to create a visual vocabulary
to match that of their Late Antique predecessors.70
Bates and Blair assume that the Caliphal Image phase was abandoned as a
consequence of the disapproval of the Muslim community. Blair hints at the
reason for this disapproval in the following statement: “Such adaptive icono-
graphy [e.g. the Caliphal Image] must have been found unsuitable on coins, for
it was soon abandoned and the cult of the caliph diminished.”71 This formulation

69. S. Blair, What is the date of the Dome of the Rock?, Bayt al-Maqdis: ʼAbd al-Malik’s
Jerusalem, Oxford Studies in Islamic Art, 9/1, ed. J. Johns and J. Raby, Oxford, Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1992, p. 59-85. See also M. Bates, op. cit. n. 2.
70. O. Grabar, Islamic art and Byzantium, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 18, 1964, p. 67-88.
71. S. Blair, op. cit. n. 69, p. 84.

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 22 Luke Treadwell

of the question implies that the development of the caliphal image was not a
process which was confined to the coinage, but rather formed part of a larger
project to develop an iconography of caliphal power in more than one medium.
Yet there is no evidence that this was the case and some circumstantial evi-
dence to the contrary, at least insofar as the little that is known about Marwanid
ceremonial gives no hint that the Umayyad caliphs developed their regalia or
courtly ritual to the extent that Byzantine and Sasanian rulers did.72 Neither is
there any evidence that Muslims were averse to handling coinage with images
of rulers on them. Such coinage had circulated in the Umayyad world in huge
quantities since the time of the conquests. Furthermore at least one type of tran-
sitional coin struck in Iran (the ‘Orans’ drachms of Bishr b. Marwān, 73-75 ah)
had borne the image of a figure who was identifiable as a Muslim imam. Granted,
there may have been some protests levelled against the numismatic representa-
tion of the caliph by Muslims who saw the Caliphal Image as too “royal” an
image for a caliph who bore the title of Deputy of God. But it is unlikely that
the censure of pious Muslims could have generated a wave of protest powerful
enough to push the caliph into reform on such an enormous scale.
The Marwanids faced the challenge of integrating the two iconographic
traditions of Late Antiquity coinage. As soon as the Caliphal Image had been
introduced on the coinage of Greater Syria, all other forms of Late Antique
numismatic imperial imagery became obsolete. The image of the Shahanshah
could not co-exist with that of the Caliph. But the Caliphal Image and the
accompanying reverse depicting the adapted cross was derived from the Byz-
antine iconographic tradition and was only appropriate for use in regions, like
Syria, where the Byzantine tradition had prevailed before the coming of Islam.
It could not be used on coinage which was intended for circulation in Iran,
because this type of imagery was foreign to Iranian visual culture and would
have been incomprehensible to Iranian Muslims. This was the problem that
confronted Abd al-Malik in 77 ah and forced him to adopt the risky strategy
of rejecting all the iconographical experiments of the past five years in favour
of an imageless coinage.
The hypothesis presented here is based on the evidence of the monetary and
historical contexts in which the coinage reforms were undertaken. To some
extent, it coincides with the conclusion reached by O. Grabar in 1964.73 Grabar
understood that the Marwanids faced two equally problematic options after five
years of numismatic experimentation. On the one hand, they had imitated
traditional Byzantine forms but failed to create a sufficiently clear distinction
between their iconography and that of Byzantium. On the other hand, they

72. See O. Grabar, Notes sur les cérémonies umayyades, Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet,
ed. M. Rosen-Ayalon, Jerusalem, Institute of Asian and African Studies, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, 1977, p. 51-60.
73. See O. Grabar, op. cit. n. 70, p. 81.

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 23

attempted to create novel images (such as the “Mihrab and ʼAnaza” / Caliphal
Image Type B) but did not succeed in creating forms that were easy to comprehend.
Grabar’s insistence on the importance of iconographic innovation is justified,
and his designation of the Type B Caliph Image drachm as an “extraordinary”
coin conveys the awkwardness of the design very appositely. But contrary to his
assumptions, the problem did not lie in an uneven contest between the elaborate
and refined visual repertoire of Byzantium versus the underdeveloped and
untested Umayyad visual tradition. Instead it was the insurmountable challenge
of creating a new numismatic iconography out of both Sasanian and Byzantine
Late Antique traditions which brought the precious metal figural coinage of the
transitional period to a close.74
In the final analysis, it is fair to say that ʼAbd al-Malik made a virtue of ne-
cessity. The epigraphic coinage which he sanctioned had many advantages over
the transitional coinage. Its inscriptions delivered a crystal clear message which
avoided all ambiguity. By giving visible expression to the dominant role of
Arabic in the administration of the state, it promoted the language reform which
the caliph had initiated in his chancery. It established a simple uniform pattern
which was intended to replace the plethora of gubernatorial silver issues (many
of them still bearing the names of Zubayrid governors) that circulated in Iran.
Above all, it removed the caliph himself from the coinage, replacing the regnal
character of the Caliphal Image with a theocratic coinage that was appropriate
for a ruler who defined his role as God’s deputy.

74. It should be noted that these remarks refer exclusively to the precious metal coinage,
which it was the caliph’s prerogative to strike. Umayyad copper coinage continued to employ
figural imagery periodically. The Arab-Sasanian coppers of Iran, which were struck in the post-
reform period, bore images of winged horses and imperial figures, among others: see L. Tread-
well, The copper coinage of Umayyad Iran, NC 2008 (forthcoming).

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 24 Luke Treadwell

Shahada solidus

Shahada drachm (Damascus 74 AH)

Caliphal Image solidus (77 AH)

Plate 1

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 ʼabd al-malik’s coinage reforms: the role of the damascus mint 25

Caliphal Image drachm (Type A)

Caliphal Image drachm (Type B)

Epigraphic dinar (77 AH)

Plate 2

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