LE MONDE ARABE
Umayyad Caliphate
Hisham, AH 105-125 (724-743 CE). Dirham AH 114 (732-33 CE), al-Bab. Obverse: Kalima. Marginal inscription: Mint and date / Reverse: Qur'an CXII: 1-4. Marginal inscription: Qur'an IX: 33. 2,61g. Klat 142, citing two other examples.

Only a few specimens of this type are known. Rare and historically important. Good very fine.

Al-Bab or Bab al-Abwab (Darband city in Daghastan province) was the northernmost mint in the Umayyad Empire. It struck coins only occasionally, particularly when the governor of the Umayyad North visited the city. According to Arab authors, in 114 AH Marwan ibn Muhammad, the future and the last Umayyad caliph Marwan II, was appointed governor of Arminiya and Adharbayjan. After coming to Darband, Marwan set up there a mint which, according to Michael Bates, remained until 126 AH (Bates 1989, 101). Al-Bab was one of the locations of the so-called travelling “Northern mint”.