★ The Frontier town of al-Masisa' ★

ISLAMIC, 'Abbasid Caliphate. temp. Al-Rashid, AH 170-193 / AD 786-809. Fals (Bronze, 21 mm, 4.43 g, 3 h), Thaghr al-Masisa ('The Frontier town of al-Masisa'), undated. Album 298. SICA II, 1591. Rare. About very fine.

Al-Masisa, the ancient city of Mopsos-Mopsuestia in Cilicia, was located at the northern frontier of the Abbasid empire in the 2nd century AH, explaining its Arab epithet Thaghr (literally 'frontier' in Kufic).