Watch List notes:

SAMANID REBEL, IBRAHIM B. AHMAD (334-335h), Dinar, al-Muhammadiya 334h. OBVERSE: In field: la ilaha illa Allah | wahdahu la sharik lahu | lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-hamd | wa huwa 'ala kulli shay'in qadir (Qur'an 64:1, part). REVERSE: In field: mint-mark teh | Muhammad rasul Allah | Sali Allah 'alayhi | al-Mustakfi billah | Ibrahim b. Ahmad. WEIGHT: 4.27g. REFERENCES: Album 1458 (known only for 335h and 'Nishapur only'); Bernardi -; Miles, Rayy –. CONDITION: Almost very fine and extremely rare, apparently unpublished. NOTE: This previously unpublished coin sheds further light on the turbulent history of Rayy in the early 330s, as the city slipped from Samanid control to become a Buwayhid possession. Regular Samanid dinars of Nuh b. Nasr are known from the year 333h (Miles 172; Bernardi 349Mh); these carry Qur'an 112 in the reverse field as found on the preceding lot. But while Miles believed that the Buwayhids had taken possession of Rayy in 334h, citing a dirham published by Tornberg, Treadwell (Buyid Coinage) argues convincingly that the legends on this coin, which name Rukn al-Dawla alone without mentioning 'Imad al-Dawla, are impossible for a piece of this date. Instead, Treadwell suggests that the specimen described by Tornberg was probably dated 344h (for which the legends would be correct), not 334h. The earliest Buwayhid issues from Rayy known to Treadwell were struck in 335h (Treadwell Mu335 and Mu353G; Miles 174A and 174B). The present coin is thus of historical interest in several respects. Firstly, it demonstrates that the rebellion of Ibrahim b. Ahmad began in 334h, not in 335h as previously thought, and secondly it shows that his support was not limited to the city of Nishapur. Thirdly, it allows us to correct and clarify Miles's account of the years 333-335h (op. cit., p.155), where the confusing dirham described by Tornberg led him to reject Ibn al-Athir's claim that the Buwayhids did not take Rayy until the year 335h. It does appear that Rayy was left vulnerable in the year 334h after what Miles terms 'misunderstandings between the Samanid Nuh b. Nasr and his general Abu 'Ali', but this remarkable dinar shows that it was not the Buwayhids but the Samanid rebel Ibrahim b. Ahmad who seized this opportunity to take control of the city in this year.

Estimate: £1,500-2000