The ancient kingdoms of the Middle East—Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hittite—had no coined money. The use of coins reached Persia from the Lydian kingdom of Croesus and the Persian satrapies of Asia Minor. The first ruler of the Achaemenid dynasty to strike coins was probably Darius I (522–486 bc), as the Greek historian Herodotus suggests. The coins of the dynasty were the daric struck from gold of very pure quality and the siglos in silver; 20 sigloi (shekels) made a daric, which weighed 8.4 grams. The types of both coins were the same: obverse, the Persian king in a kneeling position holding a bow in his left hand and a spear in his right; reverse, only a rough irregular incuse caused in the striking. These roughly oval pieces were uninscribed and remained in issue unaltered in type until the fall of the empire. The issue of gold was the royal prerogative, but the conquered Greek and other cities and states were allowed to issue silver and copper, while a number of Persian satraps struck silver in their own names, producing some of the earliest and finest coin portraits. At the fall of the empire, various satraps struck silver coins of their own.

Alexander’s coinage and that of the Seleucids were purely Greek in character. In the mid-3rd century bc the Parthians became a great power in Persia. They had an extensive but monotonous coinage in silver (tetradrachms and drachmas) and copper. The coins do not bear the name of the issuer but that of Arsaces, which was used as a dynastic title. Some of the coins are dated in the Seleucid era; on the later coins the Greek becomes corrupt and is often joined by an inscription in Persian. Some local dynasties (e.g., of Persis and Characene), vassals of the Parthian kings, also struck coins.

The Sāsānian coinage was very extensive in silver, and the early emperors also coined gold and copper, although rarely. The coin types throughout the dynasty are the same: on the obverse is a bust of the king with his name and titles, and on the reverse a fire altar, usually with two attendant priests. From about the 4th century ad, with a few earlier examples, the reverse legend gives the mint and the regnal year of issue. The standard of the gold coins is derived from that of the Roman solidi; the silver coins are drachmas following the Parthian standard and are remarkable for their broad, thin form, which was copied by the Arabs for their silver coins.

Open full sized image

Khosrow II, coin, 590–628 ce; in the collection of the American Numismatic Society.

Courtesy of the American Numismatic Society

The conquering Muslims at first mimicked the coinage of their predecessors. In the western provinces they issued gold and copper pieces imitated from contemporary Byzantine coins, modifying the cross on the reverse of the latter somewhat to suit Muslim sensibilities. In the eastern provinces the Arab governors issued silver dirhams that were copies of late Sāsānian coins (mostly of those of Khosrow II; with the addition of short Arabic inscriptions on the margin and often the name of the Arab governor in Pahlavi; even the crude representation of the fire altar was retained. Toward the end of the 7th century, the fifth Umayyad caliph, ʿAbd al-Malik, instituted a coinage more in keeping with the principles of Islam. This “reformed coinage” was of gold (first issued in ad 698–699), silver (first issued in 696–697), and copper. The old coin, called dinar (from the Aramaic derivation of the Roman denarius aureus), derived its standard (4.25 grams) from the Byzantine solidus; the standard of the silver coin (dirham, from the name of the Sāsānian coin, which in its turn was derived from Greek drachma) was reduced to 2.92 grams, but it retained in its thin material and style some features of its Sāsānian predecessor; the name of the copper change, fals, comes from the Latin word follis (“money bag,” by derivation a copper coin of low value). The reformed gold and silver coinage has no pictorial type, only skillfully arranged inscriptions, which are nonetheless of high historical value.

The reformed dinar and dirham bear on the obverse the Muslim profession of faith—“There is no god but God: he has no associate”—and around it the marginal legend “In the name of God; this dinar (or dirham) was struck at . . . in the year . . . .” The reverse area has a quotation from Qurʾān CXII, “Say: He is Allah, the One! / Allah, the eternally Besought of all! / He begetteth not nor was begotten. / and there is none comparable unto Him.” Around is Qurʾān IX, 33: “He it is who hath sent His messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion, however much the idolators may be averse.”

In the mid-8th century the ʿAbbāsids overthrew the Umayyad caliphate but at first made little change in the coinage. In time the caliph’s name was added and, at the provincial mints, that of the local governor, and in the 9th century a second marginal inscription was added: “Allah’s is the command in the former case and in the latter—and in that day believers will rejoice / In Allah’s help to victory.” (Qurʾān XXX, 4–5).

The ʿAbbāsid caliphate broke up in the 9th and 10th centuries, and the succeeding independent rulers regularly put their own names on the coins, although they retained that of the caliph of Baghdad, whose nominal authority was still recognized. Thus, in northern Africa and Egypt the Idrīsids, Aghlabids, Ṭūlūnids, and Ikhshīdids had their own coinage. From the eastern provinces there are the coins of the Ṭāhirids, Ṣaffārids (both in the 9th century), and the Būyids (10th–11th century). In Central Asia there was the extensive coinage of the Ṣāmānids, mainly in silver. In northern Africa and Egypt the extensive Fāṭimid currency in gold introduced a new type of dinar with legends arranged in three concentric circles. In the west the Umayyads of Spain issued a copious coinage from the mid-8th to the beginning of the 11th century, first in silver and later also in gold; their tradition was continued during the 11th century by the small local rulers of Spain who succeeded them and by the Almoravids, who united Morocco and Spain in one empire.

Islamic gold coinage became one of the great currencies of the medieval world, and the dinar enjoyed great popularity on the western shores of the Mediterranean. It was referred to in Europe in earlier times under the name of mancusus, while the Almoravid dinar was known as morabiti (whence Spanish maravedi). The quarter dinars (known as taris) of the Fāṭimids, who ruled also in Sicily, were imitated in southern Italy and Sicily and by their Norman successors. Huge quantities of silver dirhams also reached eastern and northern Europe and especially (as a result of the fur trade) Scandinavia.

The Almohads, who succeeded the Almoravids in the 12th century, introduced a coinage that was new in both standard and form. Their fine gold dinars (2.3 grams) are among the most beautiful coins of the Muslim world; the dirham (1.5 grams) is square. The coinage of the Almohads survived also among their successors, well into the late Middle Ages, and was also widely current, and imitated, on the European shores of the Mediterranean.

In the east the successors of the Seljuqs (Artukids, Zangids, etc.), who, because of the scarcity of silver, issued large copper coins, introduced a striking innovation: they adopted types borrowed from ancient Greek and Roman, Sāsānian, and Byzantine sources. The Seljuqs of Asia Minor (12th–13th century) had silver coins showing a horseman with a mace over his shoulders, or a lion and sun. Farther east the Ghaznavids (10th–12th century), on their conquest of India, struck coins with Sanskrit inscriptions.

In the 13th century the Mongols swept through all Asia except India. The khans of the Golden Horde issued an extensive series of small silver coins (which influenced early Russian coinage). The Il-Khans of Persia struck large and handsome coins in all three metals. In the 14th century, Timur (Tamerlane) revived the power of the Mongols and struck silver and copper coins. His son Shahrukh introduced a new type of dirham, with, obverse, profession of the faith with the name of the first four caliphs on the margin and, on the reverse, his title.

Meanwhile, the new gold Venetian ducat spread in the East. It was used until the 18th century, and its standard (3.56 grams) was adopted for Islamic coins.