ISLAMIC, 'Abbasid Caliphate. temp. Al-Mansur, AH 136-158 / AD 754-775. Fals (Bronze, 19 mm, 2.62 g, 12 h), Jabal al-Fidda, AH 155 = 771/2. Within a dotted circle, ‘lā ilāha / illā Allāh / waḥdahū’ (‘There is no deity but Allah, the One’ in Arabic); in the margin, ‘bism Allāh ḍuriba hādhā al-fals bi Jabal al-Fiḍḍa sana khams wa khamsīn wa miʾa’ (‘In the name of Allah. This fals was struck in Jabal al-Fidda in the year 155’ in Arabic). Rev. Within a dotted circle, ‘Muḥammad / rasūl / Allāh’ (‘Muhammad is the messenger of Allah’ in Arabic); citing Rawh as the subordinate of ʿAbbad, the governor of Khorasan and the patron of the future ʿAbbasid caliph al-Mahdi (AH 158-169 / AD 775-785) in the margin, ‘mimmā amara bihī Rawḥ ʿāmil ʿAbbād mawlā al-Mahdī’ (‘From that ordered by Rawh, subordinate of ʿAbbad, patron of al-Mahdi’ in Arabic). Album A326. Very rare. Rough and with deposits, otherwise, very fine.

From an important collection of Byzantine and Islamic coins and seals, formed over the past 25 years.