★ A UNIQUE GOLD DINAR ★

LE MONDE ARABE
Abbasid Caliphate
al-Mu‘tamid ‘ala Allah AH 256-279 (870-892 CE). Dinar citing al-Mufawwidh ila Allah AH 268 (881-82), Nisibin. Obverse: Kalima. Below: al-mufawwidh ila allah. Inner marginal inscription: Mint and date. Outer marginal inscription: Qur’an XXX: 4-5 / Reverse: lillah - muhammad - rasul - allah - al-mu‘tamid ‘ala allah. Marginal inscription: Qur’an IX: 33. 4,19g. Unpublished.

Good very fine.

This apparently unique gold dinar is an important historical evidence for reconstructing the political realities that developed around Nisibin in the mid-260s AH. According to narrative sources, in Ramadan 267 AH (April/May 881 CE) Ishaq ibn Kundaj, a Türkic military commander serving the ‘Abbasids and the governor of Mosul, defeated near Nisibin a coalition of local warlords and chieftains thus confirming his rights over the entire Jazira province. In fact, this gold dinar along with the specimen dated 267 AH and sold at one of the auctions in 1986 (Münzen und Medaillen AG Auktion 69, lot 70), was struck in Nisibin under control of this Ishaq ibn Kundaj.