Watch List notes:

Umayyad Governors of Sind, Hakam b. 'Awana (d. 122h), qandhari dirham, obv., la ilaha | illa Allah | triplet of pellets, rev., amr bihi | al-Hakam | ibn 'Awana, 0.48g (cf Stephen Album Rare Coins auction 28, 18 May 2017, lot 2122, same obverse die), cleaned, flan slightly ragged, good very fine and excessively rare. The local Umayyad coinage of Sind has recently been discussed by Lutz Ilisch ('Reichswährung und Regionalwährung nach der Münzreform 'Abd al-Maliks im islamischen Osten,' in Die Grenzen der Welt: Arabica et Iranica ad honorem Heinz Gaube, Wiesbaden 2008). Following the foundation of a new capital, al-Mansura, by the governor 'Amr b. Muhammad al-Thaqafi, the Muslims began to issue a silver coinage with Arabic legends which struck to the same weight as the existing pre-Islamic coinage stock (between 0.5-0.7g with regional variation). Ilisch publishes a coin of similar design to the present specimen, but naming 'Amr b. Muhammad rather than Hakam b. 'Awana (plate 1, 1). The following extract from al-Baladhuri describes Hakam's career (translation from A.V. Williams Jackson [ed], History of India: Volume 5 – The Mohammedan Period as Described by its Own Historians, London 1907): Hakim ibn 'Awana al-Kalbi succeeded Tamim. The people of India had returned to idolatry, excepting those of Kassa, and the Muslims had no place of security in which they could take refuge, so he built a town on the other side of the lake facing India, and called it al-Mahfuza 'the secure,' and this he made a place of refuge and security for them, and their chief town. He asked the elders of the tribe of Kalb, who were of Syrian descent, what name he should give the town. Some said Dimashq (Damascus), others, Hims (Emesa), and others Tadmur (Palmyra), whereupon Hakim chose the latter name for his city, to which he gave the epithet of al-Mahfuzah, and dwelt there. 'Amr ibn Muhammad ibn Qasim was with Hakim, and the latter advised with him, trusted him with many important matters, and sent him out of al-Mahfuza on a warlike expedition. He was victorious in his commission, and was made an amir. He founded a city on this side of the lake, which he called Mansura, in which the governors now dwell. Hakim recovered from the enemy those places which they had subjugated, and gave satisfaction to the people in his country, so that Khalid said: "It is very surprising – I gave the charge of the country to the most generous of Arabs, that is, to Tamim, and they were disgusted; I gave it to the most niggardly of men, and they were satisfied." Hakim was killed there.
(700-1000 GBP)