Umayyad coinage

In this contribution a few remarkable Arab-Byzantine coins are discussed. They were struck in late 7th-century Bilād aš-Šām. This core province of the Umayyad Caliphate, adjacent to the Byzantine Empire, is also known as historical (Greater) Syria or the Levant. The aim of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, strengthening certain findings or assumptions of earlier research; on the other, reconsidering a somewhat overlooked hypothesis. In the first category nearly all considered issues can ultimately be traced back to questions of die cutting and die linking. As for the revisited hypothesis, it fits in the broader context of the propaganda war conducted between two rival empires at the end of the 7th century, the Umayyad Caliphate and Byzantium. This paper reflects the modest hope of a non-professional numismatist to offer the specialists some material they can build on, and to broaden, to a limited extent, the debate about early Umayyad coinage and Arab-Byzantine relations.

This Festschrift honors the outstanding German scientist Dr. Lutz Ilisch who from 1990 until his retirement in 2017 headed as collection curator the Research Center for Islamic Numismatics (FINT), which had been built up with his efforts at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Lutz Ilisch has long been regarded as an internationally recognized luminary in the field of numismatics. Just as he represents this research area in a considerable breadth, this publication on the occasion of his 70th birthday is also  characterized by a great diversity of content and methodology of the included contributions. The volume contains articles with catalog character or on coin finds as well as others on the history of science and art, including an excursion into Islamic architecture. The timeframe in which coins, seals and weights are discussed ranges from the Sāsānian to the early modern period. With almost twenty authors, this volume, in English and German, brings together a circle of very different companions, friends and colleagues of Lutz Ilisch from no less than four continents, including coin dealers as well as professors. In addition, the Festschrift contains some personal words as well as a list of all publications by Lutz Ilisch from 1970 to 2020.
https://wasmuth-verlag.de/shop/archaeologie-alte-kulturen/studia-numismatica-et-islamica-in-honorem-lutz-ilisch/

Die Festschrift ehrt den herausragenden Wissenschaftler Dr. Lutz Ilisch, welcher von 1990 bis 2017 als Sammlungskustos an der Universität Tübingen die von ihm aufgebaute Forschungsstelle für Islamische Numismatik leitete und seit langem als international geschätzte Koryphäe dieses Fachgebiets gilt. So wie er die Münzkunde in einer beachtlichen Breite vertritt, zeichnet sich auch diese Publikation anlässlich seines 70. Geburtstags durch eine große inhaltliche und methodische Vielfalt der enthaltenen Beiträge aus, wobei der zeitliche Rahmen, in den die thematisierten Münzen, Siegel und Gewichte gehören, von der Sāsāniden- bis in die Neuzeit reicht und Beiträge mit Katalog-Charakter oder zur Fundnumismatik ebenso enthalten sind wie solche zur Wissenschafts- und Kunstgeschichte einschließlich der islamischen Architektur. Mit fast 20 Autorinnen und Autoren vereint der Band in deutscher und englischer Sprache einen Kreis ganz unterschiedlicher Weggefährten, Freunde und Kollegen Lutz Ilischs von nicht weniger als vier Kontinenten, darunter Münzhändler wie Professoren. Neben eher persönlichen Worten ist es natürlich auch ein Verzeichnis sämtlicher Publikationen Lutz Ilischs 1970–2020, das die Reihe der wissenschaftlichen Aufsätze ergänzt.

Arabic Glasses (Coin weights, jetons and vessel stamps) from Umayyad Syria, in T. Goodwin (ed.), Coinage and History in Seventh Century Near East 5. Proceedings of the 15th Seventh Century Syrian Numismatic Round Table held at Corpus Christi College, Oxford on the 17th and 18th September 2016, London, Archetype, 2017, pp. 175-195

This study entitled "Monetary Reform In The Umayyad Caliphate And its Influence On The State" Economy And Administration During The Period )  41-132H / 661-750AD(  clarifies the historical and cultural importance of monitory reform in the Umayyad and the effect it left on the Umayyad State economically and administratively of which the most important effect was the State’s complete independence from foreign influences. The study also reveals the different meanings of the word “currency” in the Arabic language; the various kinds of monetary transactions and the kinds of currency that was rotated before the Umayyad era. In addition، it includes the explanation of  the first attempts to mintage Islamic currencies in both the Umayyad and Rasheedy’s Era; the specification of the beginning of monetary reform; the discussion of the reasons that led Caliph Abdul-Malik Bin Marwan to take the decision to reform and the challenges  which encountered him  during this process. The study also illustrates the efforts made by his successors to secure the safety of the new Islamic and Arabic monitory basis، both gold and silver; investigates the forms of monetary reform by pointing out the original sources of the material of which the Arabic Islamic money was made of whether gold، silver or copper; and explains the methods by which the money was mintaged which also gave the currency its Arabic Islamic identification by adding Quranic verses، the Higra calendar and the name of the city where the money was mintaged. Models of the final forms and shapes of the Arabic Islamic currency that was rotated in the Islamic States is also given in the study ، with a follow up on the effects of the monetary reform on the economic progress in the Umyyad State agriculturally، industrially، commercially and administratively. The researcher followed the historical research method that depends greatly on collecting academic data from its original sources، in addition to using recent references that deal with the subject of the study with comparison and contrast based on neutrality and objectivity to achieve the academic goals of the study.

It is proposed that, in the Marwanid period (79-132), the various provinces of the Caucasus region had only a single silver coin mint that was located at the residence of the regional governor, and moved from place to place as he did, each time assuming the name of the city or province--with a few exceptions. Since the article was written, some new issues of the region have been discovered, which complicate the picture.

The article addresses the problem of when Umayyad copper coinage in southern Bilad al-Sham (roughly speaking present-day Israel and Jordan) ended. Most of these coins are undated, and no clear typological arguments exist for distinguishing late Umayyad from early Abbasid issues. This has led some authors to believe that continuity in copper coinage prevailed between these two dynasties. However, the archaeological material shows widespread destruction throughout southern Bilad al-Sham as the result of a severe earthquake in 749 CE. Since this natural disaster brought urban life to an end in many cities, it is most likely that, by and large, the issue of copper coins in the various mints of southern Bilad al-Sham also ceased.

The lecture will be an update of the article: "Nuevos documentos sobre la Conquista Omeya de Hispania: Los precintos de plomo,  The new evidence for the Umayyad conquest of Hispania: the lead seals." احتام فتح الاندلس

See at:  https://www.academia.edu/2324901/
or at:  http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/Seals.html

The objective of the lecture is to first correct some previous readings and some of the interpretations of function of the same and secondly to present some of the more important new seals that have been registered since the above article was published. We will try to argument their relation to the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and  the governors period of al-Andalus and to contrast them with the surprising number of new ones from the 'Greater Syria' area that have since appeared. The other objective of the talk is to publicly put to critical test, in front of a specialized audience, the readings and interpretations made of both sets of seals.
Finaly, but urgently,  to draw the attention of archeologist dealing with sites of the early Islamic period to the importance of these lead seals and the need to use electronic detection in their final cribs so as to avoid sending this vital information to the dump as had been done for many decades in Ruscino and most probably in many of the numerous other digs covering the vast area of the early Islamic period.

In this contribution a few remarkable Arab-Byzantine coins are discussed. They were struck in late 7th-century Bilād aš-Šām. This core province of the Umayyad Caliphate, adjacent to the Byzantine Empire, is also known as historical (Greater) Syria or the Levant.
The aim of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, strengthening certain findings or assumptions of earlier research; on the other, reconsidering a somewhat overlooked hypothesis. In the first category nearly all considered issues can ultimately be traced back to questions of die cutting and die linking. As for the revisited hypothesis, it fits in the broader context of the propaganda war conducted between two rival empires at the end of the 7th century, the Umayyad Caliphate and Byzantium.
This paper reflects the modest hope of a non-professional numismatist to offer the specialists some material they can build on, and to broaden, to a limited extent, the debate about early Umayyad coinage and Arab-Byzantine relations.

Attention is drawn to the unnoticed occurrence of the Greek term ΚAΛΟΝ on the reverse of some seventh-century Arab-Byzantine coins of the jāza hādhā type. The implications of the same for the dating and attribution of the two main subtypes within the larger jāza hādhā group are explored.

Following the Arab conquest of Jerusalem in 638 CE, its official name remained essentially unchanged for over a century, the Latin form Aelia merely being transliterated into the Arabic Īliyā. This fact is attested on coins and seals dating from the Umayyad period. In the early 9th century CE, the name Īliyā fell out of use to be replaced by al-Quds, in recognition of the sacred status of Jerusalem. This study offers an explanation for delayed name change by examining the testimony of earliest surviving sources, including in particular the contemporaneous coins and the foremost Islamic monument that survives from Umayyad rule, the Dome of the Rock. New observations about this early Islamic shrine and its mosaic decoration are reported and analysed. The various strands of evidence are brought together and throw new light on the persistence of the name Īliyā for Jerusalem.

بعد از اینکه اعراب در سال ۶۳۸ میادی ] ۱۶ یا ۱۷ هجری[ اورشلیم را فتح کردند، نام این شهر تا حدود یک قرن تقریبا دست نخورده ماند؛ با این تغییر کوچک که فقط عنوان لاتین آن که آئیلیا بود کمی عربی گردید و تبدیل به ایلیا شد. شاهد این مدعا -ثابت ماندن نام تا حدود یک قرن- سکه ها و مهرهایی است که از دوره اموی باقی مانده است. از سال های ابتدایی قرن نهم میادی ]اواخر قرن دوم هجری[ بود که عنوان ایلیا جای خود را به لفظ قدس ) )al-Quds داد، دلیل این نام گذاری هم جایگاه قدس یای بود که اورشلیم داشت. این پژوهش در نظر دارد تا با تکیه بر قدیم یترین منابع باقیمانده از دورهٔ اموی نظیر سکه های این عصر و همچنین قدیم یترین بنای باقیمانده از عصر حا کمان اموی، یعنی قب ةالصخره توضیحی برای این تأخیر در تغییر نام پیدا کند. همچنین مشاهدات و نظرات جدید دربارهٔ این بنای مقدس اسامی و نمای خاص موزاییکی اش آورده و تحلیل شده است. و در نهایت شواهد و مدارک مختلف را کنار هم چید هایم تا با نگاهی نو بقای یک صد سالهٔ نام ایلیا برای اورشلیم را بررسی کنیم.

The production of coins from the Taifa kingdoms is a reflection of the political fragmentation of al-Andalus in the fifth century AH. Coin issues were irregular and the fineness of the coins was unstable. The interpretation of such a complex monetary policy required a numismatic treatise which would take into account all data related to the eleventh century coins. This is what this research is focused on. The methodology developed is explained below. It consists in analysing chronologically the production of coins from the different Taifa kingdoms, as well as in comparing them to each other. The metal composition of the coins has been taken into account, as the metallographic studies conducted over the last decades make it possible to clearly analyse this essential information. It is on the basis of this methodology that the results obtained have been varied and novel.

An examination of 159 hoards with 1822 dirhams minted at Damascus during the first four centuries of Islam sheds much light on a number of important questions regarding the economic history of the Near East during the Umayyad, ‘Abbāsid, and Ikhshīdid eras. Using the hoard-count method of estimating mint outputs, it has been determined that the Damascus mint was significantly active only during the Umayyad period, a time when the city was the capital of the caliphate. Having no local silver mines and lacking revenue transfers from the provinces after 127 H, Damascus was, at best, a marginal mint for the production of dirhams. However, because Syria and the eastern Mediterranean region in general fell into a gold-copper metallic zone during the period in question, it is surprising that Damascus was at all an important mint when the city was the capital of the Islamic world.

In the seventh century, there were (at least) two mithqal standards, the 4.25 mithqal of Mecca and Madina, and the 4.10 full weight silver drahm of Iran, considered as another mithqal (Baladhur, Futuh, ). The Hijaz mithqal was the standard adopted by Abd al-Malik for the new Islamic dinar of 77, but the eastern reformed dirham of 78-79 was 7/10th of the Iranian mithqal. Both mithqals, despite their difference, can be traced back to the Athenian drachma, which circulated and was imitated in Arabia, and which was the basis for the successive Alexander, Seleucid, Arsacid, and Sasanian coinages of Iran, declining to the lower mithqal standard only in the 6-7th centuries.

A survey of the last Roman and earliest Arab coinage of Egypt, the latter being coins of Alexandria that simply continued the very last Roman issues of the city, followed by various coins evidently Arab (or at least evidently post-Roman), with images and symbols adapted from the Roman coinage.

It is argued that the earliest Islamic coinage of North Africa was issued simultaneously at two mints, probably Carthage and al-Qayrawan, first with simple religious statements in Latin and, at Carthage only, copies of images from earlier Roman coins of the city, and then secondly at both places with more accurate translations of the Muslim shahada. During the Arab conquest of al-Andalus similar coins were minted there, with somewhat different translations of the shahada, while minting in North Africa ceased. About 715 coinage in Iberia stopped briefly but a final issue appeared from the mint of Qayrawan. The irregularities in the inscriptions suggest that early Muslims in peripheral provinces were not well informed about the new religious formulas being composed in Damascus and the Eastern provinces. This paper was reprinted in Yarmouk Numismatics 8 (1996). A table omitted in both editions has been inserted in this pdf.

This paper proposes new interpretations of the origin or significance of two obverse types from the so-called Imperial Image phase of Arab-Byzantine coinage, the 'falconer' type as produced at the so-called pseudo-Damascus mint and the seated couple type as produced initially at Scythopolis. It is argued that the originator of the 'falconer' type was primarily influenced by some antique local art-work depicting an emperor, probably Constantius II, with a phoenix on a globe, and that the originator of the seated couple type may have intended these to represent the tychai of Scythopolis and a neighbouring city, perhaps Gerasa.

I thought this paper was one of my more brillant efforts, but it turned out to be completely wrong in its conclusion. Lutz Ilisch pointed out (Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter 176 2003, 5), that the dirham is more likely to be an 8th-century Moroccan imitation. The point had been discussed earlier in the Yahoo Islamic Coins Group website, 2001 and 2002, and was first corrected in a private communication to the author by Gert Rispling. I quite agree with Rispling, Ilisch, and others: the dirham was minted in Morocco in the 8th century.

The methodology I used might still be useful, particularly the notes about style, design, measurements and eipigraphy of Umayyad dirhams. They do not all look alike!

This article considers the various powers who fought over the control over the region of Kirman after the Islamic conquest of Iran and Iraq. For much of the Umayyad period the region fell outside the control of the Umayyads and instead was held at different times by the Zubayrids, Kharijites and other opponents. The Arab Sasanian coinage reflects this and is able to assist in our understanding who was in fact in control at different times

Кулешов Вяч. С., Сапаров Н. Ж. Пайкендский клад 2014 года // Материалы Бухарской археологической экспедиции. Вып. XIII : Отчёт о раскопках в Пайкенде в 2013–2104 гг. / [Редактор А. В. Омельченко]. СПб.: Государственный Эрмитаж, 2016. — С. 65–67, 198–199 (рис. 125–126).

Einige Münzbilder und Darstellungen in Stuck und Malerei aus den sog. Wüstenschlössern in der
Levante wurden von der bisherigen Forschung als Darstellungen eines Umayyadenkalifen oder -
prinzen interpretiert. Sie entsprechen keiner uniformen, neuartigen Herrscherikonografie, sondern
orientierten sich an römisch-byzantinischen und sasanidischen Vorbildern. Diese Vorbilder wurden
von den Umayyadenkalifen keinesfalls zufällig ausgewählt, waren Byzanz und das Sasanidenreich
doch die beiden Großmächte der spätantiken Welt, denen es die Umayyaden gleichtun wollten. An
welche Werte und Ideale – heilig wie profan – wollten die Umayyadenkalifen durch diese
Angleichung anknüpfen? Wie der Umayyadenkalif sahen sich der sasanidische Shahanshah und der
byzantinische Kaiser als göttlich legitimiert. Die sakrale Aura des Herrschers kam bildlich z. B. im
Nimbus zum Ausdruck, wie man ihn auch in Qusayr Amra findet. Auch die mögliche Verwendung von
biblischen Figuren oder Christus Pantokrator als Vorlagen gab dem umayyadischen Herrscherbild
vielleicht einen sakralen Charakter. In diesem Vortrag sollen zum einen die möglichen Vorlagen der
umayyadischen Herrscherbilder untersucht werden, zum anderen soll der Frage nachgegangen
werden, was diese Motivauswahl über die Konstruktion einer umayyadischen Herrscheridentität
aussagt.

This article considers the Arab Sasanian coinage of Sistan, which provides a chronology of the various governors of Sistan in the early Islamic period. This was a difficult region to govern and for much of the time the region was independent of Umayyad control

Lecture given by authour at the " V Coloquio Internacional, La Perdida de las Hispanias. Ideologia, poder y conflicto.  Made into 'article form'  by  Sebastian Gaspariño for MANQUSO  http://www.amuletosdealandalus.com/Manquso.com/ : The intention is to eventually publish the lecture in English in article form.

For more on Umayyad lead seals: http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/Seals.html

Corrected 12/1/2015. Coins of period see: http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/gov_trans_types.htm
The transitional coinage, exclusively in Latin, was struck during three years 93-95H, practically a year after the very beginning of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania.  The first coins known are dated in 93H coinciding with the belated arrival of governor Musa ibn Nusair and the Arab djund, which according to some sources occurred a full year after the beginning of Tarik ibn Ziyad's raid, a long time lapse that would seem to indicate that Musa was completely unprepared for the turn of events and had evidently not give the order for the conquest. This possibility is further confirmed by his very violent beating and near execution of his runaway mawla when he finally did catch up with him all the way up near Talavera, north-west of Toledo the abandoned Visigoth capital.  It could be seen as if  Tarik's large booty raid, using mainly a few thousand auxiliary Berber infantry troops, was, after the unexpected death in battle of Rodrigo, the Visigoth king, opportunistically improvised on the spur of the moment into an accidental conquest.  If so the Umayyad rulers of Damascus would have been even more surprised than Musa by this turn of events, especially in view of the very tenuous hold that was had, at that point in time, over the Maghreb al Aqsa, probably only limited, as the chronicles and the numismatic evidence seems to indicate, to vulnerable military cantonments in Tlimsan and far away Tangiers ( For rare fals of these two locations see copper coins in http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/gov_ifriquiya_coinage.htm , in the Greater Syria area many of the fals mints seem to coincide with djund settlements which may indicate a direct relation of these early copper coins with the intendancy of the military). 
These exceptional transitional coins contain on the margin of the obverse the first part of the shahada in abbreviated Latin, mainly the consonants of the phrase are used,  the Kalima or the first part of the Shahada is in the form, IN Nomine DoNiNi= bismi Allah, Non DeuS NiSi Deus= la ilaha ila Allah, SoLuS NoSTer= wahdahu. While on the margins of the reverse is the mint in the abbreviation SPN for Hispania followed by the year of hidjra in roman numerals (ex. 93H = XCIII). On the center of the same area is the indiction dating ( Indiction is the 15 year time lapses which the Romans/Byzantines used mainly for fiscal purposes). Very much in contrast with the transitional coins struck in Ifriquiya = AFRC from 84-95H., the above mentioned coins seem to have been struck on no fixed metallic content. A very few are of seemingly good gold while others in a wide range of electrons. The general low gold content of these coins might be directly related not so much to jewelry and votive objects taken as booty but more likely to the very low gold register of the Visigoth coinage circulating at this late period. The dies of the indiction coins are extremely varied and in most cases very crudely done. It is surprising that after seeing a couple hundred of these coins that no two coins from exactly the same pair of dies appear to have been registered. This would indicate a lack of centralized control and a mint, or mints, itinerant with the various military contingents as these moved rapidly around the Iberian Peninsula at that turbulent historic period. Probably these coins represent the metallic booty of the moment, mainly Visigoth coins and objects of metallic value, that is gold & silver, taken either by war act “ghanima” or extracted by peace pact “sulh”, and which was all being rapidly monetized in situ for its quick redistribution among the military participants. It was probably done deliberately in the coinage types that the djund of Ifriquiya had been for more than a decade familiar with. The very early dating in 93H of these coins is indicative of this intentionality, as is Musa’s bringing along with his djund the necessary mint masters for implementing what seems to be a premeditated policy (1). This quickness in monetization was necessary as the djund had a violent tradition of not waiting very long for what it thought was its due share of booty. Some of the lead seals of the period seem to clearly be indicative of this rapid redistribution in situ (see 711 article in: www.academia.edu/2324901  'The new evidence of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania..’,  and also its ‘Actualization’ in www.academia.edu/5751302/ .  Also indicative of the administrative turmoil of the moment would be the period falsification of these very same coins:  www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/gov_period_falsifications.htm ).

The next transition in the coinage comes with the important bilingual coinage of the year 98H/ 716, which coincides with the year when the capital of al-Andalus was transferred from Seville to Cordoba by Al-Hurr. Before the recent appearance of the lead seals of the period of the Umayyad conquest (see fig.3 & p.149-150 in above referred article) these coins were considered to be the first extant material document for the use of the  Arabic script in the Iberia Peninsula and the first evidence of the appearance of the still enigmatic term “al-Andalus ", a word whose etymology to date, in spite of various interesting theories, still very much eludes us: it could suggest a homophonic, but improbable,” Vandalia" as suggested, by R. Dozy a century and more ago, or the mythical "Atlantida" as J. Valve not very convincingly tried to argue, or as has more recently been very interestingly argued by H. Halm that it could be derived from the traditional "Gothic Sors" in the composed word "landahlauts" that is allotted or drawn land, which in its phonetic form "landalos" according to this author, became to the Arabic ear with the addition of the beginning article, al-Andalus. This is quite a heated debate that is not going to be settled any time soon, if ever. The search, in my opinion, should commence by trying to answer the basic question of: was the word "al-Andalus" brought in or picked up in Hispania by its new masters? The earliest transitional coinage may be suggesting the latter, for if the new masters of Hispania, as we have read above, had no qualms in translating from Arabic to Latin something so important as the kalima, that is the first part of the shahada, and imposing the hidjra dating in roman numerals, then why not an Arabic mint name, had they had one? They obviously did not have one. If as Roger Collins reasonably argues the ruling Visigoth elite must have kept part of their identitary oral 'Gothic' language to communicate among themselves, indirectly indicative of this, are the intentionally gothic names chosen by their kings, nobles of both sexes and others, which would to seem to indicate then that Halm's "Landalos" may well be on the correct track. This seemingly unnecessary addition by the conquerors of a new name place, al-Andalus, for an area which already had two known ones to them, Spania & Hesperidis, must have had at the moment, under the probable governorship of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz b. Musa, an important and clear political intent of early ‘independentism’  (see text on the slides 16-18 of ‘The Seals of the Umayyad Conquest…. https://www.academia.edu/5751302 for a possible explanation for the seemingly unnecessary addition of al-Andalus).
These bilingual coins, struck in relatively good gold, have something important in common with the indiction series, which is the star form that is always prominently in the center of the reverse of both. A fact that has bewildered many generations of numismatist.The solution we now think was found long ago (more than a century ago!) by Antonio Delgado in an until very recently unpublished work (see: https://www.academia.edu/2326452 pg.56) were he logically argues that this prominent star, smack center of the coins,  is a “speaking image” for  Hesperidis, the star of the west (Venus) which was in classical Greek period progressively applied to western geographical regions till it finally became applied to the Iberian Peninsula. It seems logical that the Arab conquerors moving first across many of the Greek speaking provinces of the Roman/Byzantine empire would have naturally picked up the name Hesperia as one of the names for the Iberian Peninsula and in their first coins put the symbol as synonymous to Hispania and quickly after that, in the bilingual coinage, as also synonymous to the new name place "al-Andalus". So singularly these coins contain three “names” for the same geographical area (2). T.I توفيق ابراهيم

1-The earlier choice of Musa ibn Nusair’s of striking coins in Ifriquiya in the regional Byzantine style, in Latin, when the ‘arabization’ of coinage had been implemented by ´Abd al-Malik more than a decade earlier in 77H could be taken as an early sign of an attempted distancing from the central authority in Damascus. It was not a matter of lacking mint masters with the adequate knowledge of  Arabic script as he was striking dated copper coinage in Ifriquiya , fals, fully in Arabic from 91H onwards ( Walker P. 148).
2- One should take note that the bilingual coin has the peculiarity of having in Arabic only the second part of the accepted shahada, the  risala محمد رسول الله and not the obligatory لا اله الا الله . Nor does the basmala appear at the beginning the Arabic mint and date legend as is usual. I certainly do not think too much should be made out of this omission which was probably dictated by the limited space and the fact that that the term الله was central to the meaning of the risala text and must have sufficed making this seeming omission acceptable. Curiously the use of  محمد رسول الله  was a late comer to Islamic coinage and was not first introduced by the Umayyads but by the rebel anti-caliph Ibn Zubair and  became standard on coins only after that. But that obviously does not mean that it was not in oral or written use before that).

Le haut Moyen Âge ibérique se caractérise par un changement brutal initié en 711 avec la conquête musulmane du royaume wisigothique. Cet évènement qui bouleversa l'histoire de l'Espagne n'est éclairé que de manière très lacunaire par les sources latines et arabes. Au cours des dernières années, le développement de l'archéologie a néanmoins contribué à une meilleure connaissance de la fin de la monarchie de Tolède et du début d'al-Andalus. Parmi le matériel exhumé, les monnaies sont souvent privilégiées dans les travaux scientifiques et la numismatique bénéficie pour ces périodes d'une bibliographie abondante. Cela permet aujourd'hui une approche plus exhaustive et une meilleure compréhension de leur rôle, de leur utilisation et de leur circulation. Mais les monnaies représentent également un précieux témoignage des difficultés de la fin du royaume wisigothique qui facilitèrent l'entrée et les avancées des troupes arabo-berbères en Hispanie. De même, elles sont les vestiges matériels presqu'exclusifs de la conquête, en particulier pour les régions du Nord du royaume au sujet desquelles les textes se montrent très lacunaires. Enfin, elles furent un outil administratif des Omeyyades au sein d'un émirat dont la centralisation s'accentua avec les réformes réalisées sous 'Abd al-Raḥmān II (822-852). Cette évolution est perceptible dans la nature même du numéraire employé : alors que les Wisigoths perpétuèrent un monnayage sur le modèle antique en frappant une division du solidus, les musulmans privilégièrent le dirham, rattachant la Péninsule au « monométallisme » argent caractéristique du haut Moyen Âge occidental. Summary From Visigoths to Umayyads (672-852)

studies in the Khalili Collection, have, without a doubt, shed an enormous amount of light on the various types of known Arab-Byzantine coins and, in particular, on the great deal of diversity within the series of Standing Caliph coins of Yubna-Filastin. His overview and cataloging of such types allows us to understand and appreciate the complexity of the series as is indicated by the numerous renditions and styles of the caliph as well as the various types and placements of the Arabic legends on both sides of the coins. Nonetheless, with Mr. Goodwin's encouragement, I have decided to provide a short note on a slightly unusual coin of Yubna that I came across last year. 1 The coin, which I believe has not been previously published, stood out to me for two reasons: One, it was rather well-centered for a coin of this mint, and two, the legends were quite clear, particularly for a Yubna type. On the obverse, the word "Allah" to the left of the standing caliph is crisp and distinct, although on the opposite side of the caliph, there is no visible legend, unfortunately. On the reverse, we see the standard "m", which was struck with a tail hanging off the upper right side, accompanied by an exergual line below, and some remnants of either a small dot or star above. Alongside the "m" we see a somewhat typical representation of the mint-name "Yubna" ‫ىنبي(‬ ), upwards and to the right as well as "Filastin" or , downwards and to the left of the "m."

During the first half of the fifth/eleventh century, the caliphal minting practices of the previous century gradually changed, and by the end of this period, a very different monetary system had been established. While in the fourth/tenth century, dinars and dirhams were regularly minted in al-Andalus, by the middle of the next century the number of mints had multiplied and each regional power possessed its own model for the emission of coins. Moreover, the quality of gold and silver coins decreased considerably. The aim of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis of the monetary production developed in the first half of the fifth/eleventh century among the different dynasties of al-Andalus in order to establish the chronological phases that mark the shift from one model of minting to others.