An Abbasid bronze without the Profession of Faith

[Parthicus]

Abbasid Caliphate.  AE fals.  Sabur (Bishapur) mint.  Caliph al-Mahdi (158-169 AH/775-785 CE), dated AH 167.  Obverse: Ornate outer border surrounding Kufic Arabic text "lilah al-Mahdi Amir al-Mo'mein" (for God, al-Mahdi, Commander of the Faithful).  Reverse: Text in Kufic Arabic "Sabur sela' wa sittin wa mi'at" (Sabur [Bishapur] seven and sixty and one hundred).  Album 333.  This coin: Pars Coins Bargain eSale 27, lot 205 (October 18, 2024).

Al-Mahdi was born in 744 or 745 CE to al-Mansur, who in 754 became the second Abbasid Caliph.  When al-Mahdi was just 15, his father sent him as leader of the military mission that ended the reign of the semi-independent Dabuyid Ispahbads in Tabaristan and replaced them with a series of governors who were more directly answerable to the Caliph.  The young al-Mahdi also oversaw construction of the eastern half of the new capital city Madinat al-Salaam (Baghdad).  In 775, al-Mansur died, and the caliphate passed peacefully to al-Mahdi.  Al-Mahdi's reign was generally a time of peace and prosperity within the Caliphate.  He created various public works, supported charities, and was a patron of the arts, particularly music and poetry.  He fought a series of small wars against the Byzantines; in 782 his son Harun al-Rashid led a large army that extracted large amounts of plunder from the Byzantines and forced them to pay a substantial annual tribute for the next three years. Al-Mahdi was steady in his support of orthodoxy in Islam and persecuted many who were considered heretics within Islam, though non-Muslims were fairly treated.  Al-Mahdi died in 785 and was succeeded by his eldest son, al-Hadi, who ruled for just over a year before dying and being in turn succeeded by Harun al-Rashid, al-Mahdi's other son, who would prove one of the greatest Abbasid rulers.

I found this coin interesting because, unlike nearly all other Abbasid coins of this period, it does not include the Shahada (Islamic declaration of faith) in the design. ("There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God.") The only other exceptions I know of are some border areas (Tabaristan, Bukhara, Eastern Sistan) which were still issuing coinage based on Sasanian designs.  But the reason for this anepigraphic design lacking the declaration is mysterious to me.  Al-Mahdi was thoroughly orthodox (and included the Shahada on his other coins), and I can't think of a reason for a local official to deliberately remove this statement.  Maybe it was just not considered very important, since it was only the local bronze coinage, not silver or gold.  Anyway, this was a good buy at $20 (Album lists bronze coinage from Sabur from the 140s-180s AH as Rare), and an interesting little mystery.  Please post whatever related coins you have.

[Sulla80]

@Parthicus - another interesting non-western post & coin, Thank you!  I don't have anything like this so I will post a little copper/AE coin with declaration of faith.  This one a bit of a mystery to me I think it is early Umayyad ~100 CE.

Obverse: لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللّٰهُ واحد  there is no deity/god except Allah (God) the single/only

Reverse: مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللّٰهِ  Muhammad Messenger of Allah (God)

Here is the text highlighted:

 

Edited November 25, 2024 by Sulla80