For a short transitional period, approximately from 635/650 to 695/700 AD, the Islamic world issued the so-called “Arab-Byzantine” – imitations of gold and copper Byzantine coins – and “Arab-Sassanian” coins, i.e. imitations of silver Persian coins. At the end of the 7th century, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate would proceed with the creation of a new Islamic coinage. With the reforms of the Caliph Abd al-Malik 685-705 AD, Arab coins very quickly became non-pictorial and bore inscriptions of a religious nature, as the Islamic “symbol of Faith” was added. The Arab monetary policy will be continued by the Caliph al-Walid I’ 705-711 AD. On the periphery of the back of the coin is engraved the so-called bism allah which states that “In the name of Allah this dinar was minted in the year 89 (708 AD)”. With the first Abbasids from 750 AD onwards the gold dinar is consolidated as a very powerful currency for many centuries that will be widely distributed even far from Islamic lands.
Umayyads
After the battle of Jeromyakos or Yarmukha (Yarmuk) in 636 AD Palestine and Syria were lost to the Byzantines, succumbing to the Arab flood. After the astonishing expansion achieved by Muhammad’s successors, the consolidation of Islam in the Middle East was to follow. The foundations were laid with the Umayyad Caliphate, founded in 661 AD by Mu‘awiya I with Damascus as its capital. The Umayyad caliphs attempted to extend their territory towards Asia Minor at the expense of Byzantium and launched unsuccessful attacks on Constantinople (674-680 and 717-718). Under their leadership, Islam experienced rapid expansion both to the West – B. Africa, Iberia – and to the East – as far as Samarkand and the Indus. Internal disputes mainly prevented the further development of the caliphate, while to this day the Islamic world is largely negative towards the Umayyad dynasty – to a lesser extent the Sunnis and to a greater extent the Shiites. In 750 AD (132 AD) the Umayyads were overthrown by a rebellion led by Abu’l Abbas al-Saffah, who became the ancestor of the Abbasid caliphs. An Umayyad prince fled to establish a branch of the dynasty in Spain (al-Andalus), which survived until 1031 AD.
Religious inscriptions
With the second monetary reform of Abd al-Malik (696/7 AD / 77 AD), the non-pictorial trend in coin design that would dominate the Islamic world from then on prevailed. The inscription on both sides of the Islamic declaration of Faith (shahadah or kalima) was established. In the field of the obverse, it is proclaimed: “There is no god but the one God (Allah) and there is none like Him.” On the periphery of the obverse side is added: “Muhammad is the Prophet of God, who sent him with His guidance and the Religion of Truth, which will prevail over every other religion”. On the reverse side of the coins the inscriptions are as follows: In the field of the coin it is emphasized that “God is one, God is eternal, He does not beget, nor is He begotten”. On the periphery is engraved an inscription which notes that “In the name of Allah (Bism allah…) the present dinar or dirham was minted at such and such a mint in the year of the Hegira”. After 750 AD and the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty the inscriptions change slightly, but the doctrinal essence of the inscriptions remains the same.
Dinar
The gold coin established by the Arabs was called dinar from the term that characterized the corresponding Byzantine gold coin: denarius solidus (aureus), dinar. Initially, the Arab dinars were imitations of the Byzantine solidi in terms of types and mainly in terms of their weight, in an attempt to be accepted as their standards. With the reform of 696/7 AD (77 AD), along with the adoption of anepictorial engraving, a new weight standard was established. The dinar moved away from the theoretical weight of the solidus (4.55 g) and now corresponded to 20 Arabic carats (qirat), i.e. it was minted at a weight of 4.25 g, which became known as mithqal. In relation to the dirhams, the silver coins that were very common in the Islamic world and weighed about 2.9 grams, one dinar was initially equivalent to 20 dirhams. The harmonization of the minting practices of the caliphate could not leave the issuance of copper coins unaffected, especially after the end of the 8th century. Under the rule of the Abbasids, and specifically the caliph al-Ma’mun (813-833), an impressive uniformity prevailed in the monetary affairs of Islam that would be maintained for centuries. As far as the gold and silver coins issued in the caliphate’s possessions are concerned, this trend continued until the 11th century – and even in the territories of Iraq and Iran until the mid-13th century.