Samanid Coinage

[Furryfrog02]

Hello All,

I purchased my first Samanid coin a few weeks ago and just got around to photographing it. It isn't as impressive as the multiple dirhams like the example on augustuscoins.com but I still like it. And for the price, it was worth adding to the collection.
 

If the ID was correct, it is a coin of Nur III bin Mansur I and was minted in Bukhara in AH 376 (986 AD for those non-Islamic calendar users). I honestly have no idea haha. This is my study/learning piece. 

These aren't the most aesthetically pleasing coins but they are still cool. 

 

If you have any Samanid coins you'd like to share, please do!

[velarfricative]

Not Samanid, but from their neighbors, the Tahirids. Album H1395, an issue of Abdallah b. Tahir; from the mint in Khwarizm in AH224.

[Severus Alexander]

A fascinating dynasty, historically speaking!  Persians claiming to descend from the famous Sassanid Bahram Chobin, they considered themselves the heirs to the Sassanid empire.  Bukhara and Samarkand became great cultural centres under the Samanids.  I have three coins to summarize the dynasty.

First is a dirham of Isma'il ibn Ahmad (892-907), dated 280 AH; Samarkand mint (the first capital).  He was the first to fully assert their power independent of the Abbasids (they had previously been Abbasid governors):

Here's his stunning tomb in Bukhara:

Photo attribution: Ljuba brank from sl, GFDL <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>, via Wikimedia Commons

Next, here's a fals of Nasr II (914-943), 315 AH, Bukhara mint.  He ruled at the height of the dynasty's power, when Bukhara became a centre for learning and culture:

(Lots of these falus have the file marks, presumably from some sort of flan preparation process.)

And the bookend, a fals of the same ruler as the very nice OP dirham, Nuh III (976-997), dated 378 AH, also Bukhara mint.  Nuh III was the philosopher Avicenna's first patron, continuing the cultural life at court.  Unfortunately he also had to deal with the aggressive Buyids, Turkish rebellions, and finally the Qarakhanids who defeated him. Chaos ensued after his death and the dynasty fell in 999.

Incidentally here's the dude who conquered Bukhara in 999, Nasr ibn Ali, a fals minted in Ferghana:

[Pellinore]

Seeing this topic... the Samanids! a modest dynasty whose rulers did not present themselves as sultans or kings, but as simple emirs (lords) in Central Asia, who worshipped their caliphs far, far away to the west. Behind the horizon.

The Samanid coins are, in a word, harmonic - at least those from their heyday, which is around c. 880-960. The time they traded with China as well as with the Vikings. Rich and pious! Tons of Samanid silver dirhams were found in Scandinavia - many thousands of 'em.

Never tried very much, but the coppers, silvers and even one gold coin quietly rolled in somehow, when my attention was elsewhere. And whenever I looked into my Samanid files, I always was very content. 

 

AE fals Samanids, Ismail b. Ahmad (892-907), Samarqand, 280H = 893 AD. No scratching! Outstanding condition. 25 mm, 4.51 gr. Album 1444. Catalogue Arts from the Land of Timur, An Exhibition from a Scottish Private Collection (2012) picture 595 (this coin). Zeno 266708 (this coin).

 

 

AR dirham Samanids, Ismail b. Ahmad (892-907), dated 291 AH = 904. Mint Balkh. 27 mm, 2.85 gr. Splendid style. Album 1443. Zeno 47057 (this coin). A plate coin of a very interesting book by Luke Treadwell, The Die-Engraver of Balkh (290/902–302/914). This book shows the admirable sophistication of the engravers of these early medieval coins. 

[Sulla80]

Great coins and photo's from all on this thread!  This 9g 40mm multiple dirham is interesting for being struck with two different reverses

Samanid, Mansur I bin Nuh II (AD 961-976/AH 350-365) AR multiple dirham, Ma'din mint. Undated issue, Double reverse issue. it appears to be a muling of two reverses citing the ruler on both sides, late type, probably struck after Mansur's death in 365 and likely after about 370  : one side citing Mansur bin Nuh, the other side with just Mansur.

Ref: mule of Album 1465+1465A see Zeno 308820

Edited May 21, 2023 by Sulla80

[JeandAcre]

Thanks, @Pellinore, for noting the Viking connection with these, along with the Chinese one. 

From this forum, I'm beginning to appreciate the historical centrality of, um, Central Asia more all the time.  Especially for how trade facilitated these cool cultural interactions, often leap-frogging political and military dynamics.  I'm reminded of how many people around the world have gone online, preempting computers by way of smartphones. 

Back to Vikings, for a minute, @Sulla80's very cool multiple dirham has to raise questions.  According to all the common academic wisdom, the Viking trade with the Samanids, via Kievan Rus --but dominating the broader Scandinavian economy over the first half of the 10th century CE-- began to dry up in the second half of the century, thanks to failing silver mines.  (...RIght, which is why, from that point, the Vikings went right back to raiding western Europe, after a half-century's hiatus.  You had your vacation; time's up.)  Except, Yes, the multiple dirhams --conspicuous for their absence in Russian and Scandinavian hoards-- run to being from this same interval.  I have to wonder whether some other factor than the mere supply (vaguely political --?) was involved.

...Right, so here's my 'hacksilver' half dirham, from Russia via Stephen Album.

And, maybe more fun, a detector find, from Worcester, too far east (edit: west) to have been settled by Danes in any numbers before the reign of Cnut (1016-1035).  This may be a contemporary forgery, but the level of  wear suggests that it could have been in more or less continual circulation from a century before.  Yeah, Samanid dirhams (in whole and in part) show up in major English hoards as of the earlier 10th century, along with isolated finds as far afield as (Norse) Dublin.

Edited May 22, 2023 by JeandAcre

[quant.geek]

10 hours ago, Sulla80 said:

Great coins and photo's from all on this thread!  This 9g 40mm multiple dirham is interesting for being struck with two different reverses

Samanid, Mansur I bin Nuh II (AD 961-976/AH 350-365) AR multiple dirham, Ma'din mint. Undated issue, Double reverse issue. it appears to be a muling of two reverses citing the ruler on both sides, late type, probably struck after Mansur's death in 365 and likely after about 370  : one side citing Mansur bin Nuh, the other side with just Mansur.

Ref: mule of Album 1465+1465A see Zeno 308820

I got one of those and its one of the strongest strikes of these multi-dirhams I have seen...

Edited May 22, 2023 by quant.geek