Abbasid Dinars

[Cordoba]

won two dinars from a recent stephen album auction. pretty happy with them, my first gold purchase. currently want an umayyad dinar but found those to be more pricey

left dinar: al-Mutawakkil, 847-861, AV dinar (3.98g), Misr, AH238, A-229.2, Bernardi-157De

right dinar: ABBASID OF YEMEN: al-Mu'tadid, 892-902, AV dinar al-mutawwak (2.95g), San'a, AH283, A-1056, Bernardi-211El

[Bailathacl]

Beautiful pieces.  Such an underappreciated collecting area (understandably so).

[Cordoba]

56 minutes ago, Bailathacl said:

Beautiful pieces.  Such an underappreciated collecting area (understandably so).

yea, agreed. i'm not really good at reading arabic, so i dont understand that much. i do wish there were more iconography on islamic coins. i know early umayyad, ayyubid, artuqid, and seljuk coins have icons on them but it's not that common. this coin i got a while back is an umayyad pre reform coin, imitating the byzantine nummus

Time of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan AD 685-705. AH 65-86. Hims, Fals Æ 21 mm., 3,66 g.

Edited June 3, 2022 by Cordoba

[JeandAcre]

@Cordoba, those are two magnificent dinars. 

And for illiteracy in Arabic, I'll bet I have you beat!  I mainly collect Islamic coins for the indispensible context they provide to European medieval ones.  But even as their more immediate history is richly compelling in its own right, the more I find out about it, so are the esthetic qualities of the legends, independently of my inability to read them.  ...Even in this medium, I find it hard to use the phrase, 'Arabic lettering;' I always have to stop myself from saying, 'Arabic calligraphy.'

Edited June 3, 2022 by JeandAcre

[Alegandron]

7 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

@Cordoba, those are two magnificent dinars. 

And for illiteracy in Arabic, I'll bet I have you beat!  I mainly collect Islamic coins for the indispensible context they provide to European medieval ones.  But even as their more immediate history is richly compelling in its own right, the more I find out about it, so are the esthetic qualities of the legends, independently of my inability to read them.  ...Even in this medium, I find it hard to use the phrase, 'Arabic lettering;' I always have to stop myself from saying, 'Arabic calligraphy.'

I just cannot read any Arabic. A Lebanese buddy of mine tried teaching me several times, writing many things out for me (including my name.) nope. I think cuz it all looks cursive for me, and I really do not write in cursive now.

They fall into my mental reading classification as “Squiggle Letters”.

I akin that classification to Einsteins calling the Quantum Mechanics Theory as “Spooky Action at a Distance”.

😄 

[JeandAcre]

3 hours ago, Alegandron said:

I just cannot read any Arabic. A Lebanese buddy of mine tried teaching me several times, writing many things out for me (including my name.) nope. I think cuz it all looks cursive for me, and I really do not write in cursive now.

They fall into my mental reading classification as “Squiggle Letters”.

I akin that classification to Einsteins calling the Quantum Mechanics Theory as “Spooky Action at a Distance”.

😄 

@Alegandron, it's really not schadenfreude; I'm just So on your page!

Edited June 3, 2022 by JeandAcre

[Hrefn]

Here are two Abbasid coins, one from the reign of Harun al-Rashid, 786-809 AD;  and the second from the reign of the last Abbasid, al-Mustasim, reigned 1242-1258 AD.  The first is a standard dinar, citing Jafar as vizier.   The second is a heavyweight, 13.33 grams which is three times the weight of a standard dinar.  

You can see Jafar cited in the last line in the field on the dinar on the left.  

Charlemagne sent al Rashid an emissary recorded as “Isaac the Jew.”  The Caliph sent the Emperor gifts including an elephant which arrived in Aachen in 802 AD.  

Al-Mustasim underestimated the threat posed by the Mongols until he suffered defeat in Baghdad in 1258.  Various tales are told of his death, most likely being he was rolled in a carpet and trampled by either the Mongols’ horses, or by elephants.  

[JeandAcre]

I've heard and read in various places, anecdotally but from reliable sources, that Jews had key administrative positions from the Sasanian period well past the Caliphates.  (Not to mention, for instance, in El Cid's Valencia at the end of the 11th c.)  Sounds like , where emissaries were concerned, Charlemagne had done some homework

[Hrefn]

Harun al Rashid’s viziers the Barmakids were of Persian origin, and originally Buddhist, though they converted to Islam.  Jews, with their peculiar status as a nation in diaspora, were well suited to employment as diplomats by all sides.  

[Kali]

Beautiful coins, Cordoba. I just own a few Dirhams of al-Mu'tamid, Huran al-Rashid , & al-Muqtadir.

[JeandAcre]

8 hours ago, Hrefn said:

Harun al Rashid’s viziers the Barmakids were of Persian origin, and originally Buddhist, though they converted to Islam.  Jews, with their peculiar status as a nation in diaspora, were well suited to employment as diplomats by all sides.  

@Hrefn, you're owed a Massive apology for my delay in acknowledging your post.  Even at this brief interval, I couldn't tell you how this happened (apart from Long Covid Brain, and the kind of ongoing, literally global (and personal) chaos that inspires the paraphrase of John Lennon, 'Life is what happens while you're trying to maintain a train of thought').  But I misread you comment by a neat 180 degrees, and actually thought that you'd said that Jews were unsuited to diplomacy on all sides.

Please, receive my most sincere and cordial apologies.  And Thank you for your almost surgically incisive observation.

Edited June 6, 2022 by JeandAcre

[Hrefn]

@JeandAcre Dinna fash yerself, Laddie.  No harm, no foul.  And as you so astutely hint at, being incisive is for me a professional requirement.