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: