A Glass Dīnār Weight In The Name Of ʿAbd Al-ʿAzīz Ibn Marwān, c. 86 AH / 705 CE
Islamic Awareness
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First Composed: 10th February 2007
Last Modified: 10th February 2007
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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
(a)
(b)
(a) Picture of the coin weight issued in the name of ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Marwān. (b) The epigraphic content.
Date
c. 86 AH / 705 CE.
Characteristics
Pale blue. Excellent condition, but surface dulled in places. Legend partly recessed. 2.8 cm.; stamp 2.0 cm.; 4.29 gms.
Contents
Comments
ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān governed Egypt for over twenty years (65-86 AH / 685-705 CE). The weight of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz's glass piece, 4.29 gms, shows that it must be dated to the latter part of his governorship in Egypt, for it is clearly on the standard introduced for the dīnār in ʿAbd al-Malik's coinage reform, which came into effect, for the gold coinage, in 77 AH / 696-697 CE. The standard is normally calculated at 4.25 gms but a discrepancy of 0.4 gms in the weight of a single specimen is not unacceptable. Other than the coins themselves it is one of the earliest, perhaps the earliest, of the documents we possess for the standard of the reform dīnār (compare this with glass dirham weight, 73-91 AH / 692-709 CE).
Location
British Museum, London.
References
[1] A. H. Morton, "A Glass Dīnār Weight In The Name Of ʿAbd Al-ʿAzīz B. Marwān", Bulletin Of The School Of Oriental And African Studies, 1986, Volume 49, No. 1, pp. 177-182.
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