ARAB SASANIAN AR DIRHAM (drachm) 'al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf, AH 75-95 (AD 694-713), DATED Mint: Bishapur/ AH 79 (AD698) ALBUM 35.2.
Obverse: Crowned bust to right, the full name of the governor in Arabic legend before it. "Lillah al,Hamd ", and four dots top of each star and crescent around margin , obverse and reverse .
Reverse: The usual Sasanian reverse with a fire alter in the centre with two attendants on both sides. Pahlavi legends for date (left) and mint (right). 4.18gm, 30mm, Extremely fine And Rare variet.
Notes: In the early years of the Islamic (Arab) Empire's expansion to the East, and before the monetary reform of Abd al Malik (AH77), the Arabs adopted the existing Sasanian coinage in the Eastern provinces. The name of the governors replaced the Sasanian king's name and exclamations such as ' bismillah ' (in the name of god), or ' lillah alhamd ' (thanks to god), or ' rabbi ' ( my god) were added to the obverse margins. The mint and date occurs on the reverse as in the Sasanian series.
Abū Muhammad al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī (Arabic: أبو محمد الحجاج بن يوسف بن الحكم بن عقيل الثقفي‎; Ta'if 661 – Wasit, 714), known simply as al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (Arabic: الحجاج بن يوسف‎ / ALA: al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf (or otherwise transliterated),[1] was perhaps the most notable governor who served the Umayyad Caliphate. An extremely capable though ruthless statesman, a strict in character, but also a harsh and demanding master, he was widely feared by his contemporaries and became a deeply controversial figure and an object of deep-seated enmity among later, pro-Abbasid writers, who ascribed to him persecutions and mass executions.