Watch List notes:

ARAB-SASANIAN, AL-HAJJAJ B. YUSUF. Drachm, al-Mada'in 76h. OBVERSE: Sasanian bust to right, before which: al-Hajjaj ibn | Yusuf (in Arabic) in two lines; in four quadrants of border: bism | Allah || la i- | laha i- | la A- || llah wa- | hdahu | Muhammad || rasu- | l A- | llah arranged radially and divided by stars-in-crescents. REVERSE: Sasanian fire-altar flanked by attendants, star to right of flames and crescent to left. To right: duriba bi'l-Mada'in. To left: sitt wa saba'in. WEIGHT: 4.16g. REFERENCE: Malek National Library and Museum, Tehran, accession no. 4000.06.00002 CONDITION: Extremely fine and excessively rare. Al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf was born in the city of Ta'if, in the Hijaz, circa 40h. His background was fairly undistinguished, although his mother had been married to a governor of Kufa, and he only came to prominence in his mid-20s when he left his home town for Damascus. There he joined the security forces of the new caliph, 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan, and soon attracted attention for his leadership in quelling a mutiny. A series of rapid promotions followed, culminating in al-Hajjaj being chosen to lead the campaign against 'Abdallah b. al-Zubayr in 72h. Acting with characteristic ruthlessness and efficiency, al-Hajjaj besieged Ibn al-Zubayr in Makka, bombarding the city with catapults during a siege of seven months. Ibn al-Zubayr was finally killed in 73h, and 'Abd al-Malik rewarded al-Hajjaj with the governorships of the Hijaz, Yemen, and al-Yamama, which not only gave him the opportunity to ensure that the region was pacified but also allowed him to make undertake various alterations and restoration work in Makka itself. In 74h, 'Abd al-Malik combined the governorships of Basra and Kufa to make al-Hajjaj Governor of Iraq, a position he held until his death in 96h. This meant that al-Hajjaj was in charge of the various lands in the East which had been conquered by Basran and Kufan troops, stretching from Mesopotamia as far as the Indian subcontinent. The present coin is an extremely rare example of one of the first Arab-Sasanian drachms al-Hajjaj issued. In its legends and design it immediately stands out as being innovative and distinctive, with the the radial arrangement of the long shahada in the obverse margin a clear departure from previous types. But it is the language used for the legends themselves which is perhaps the greatest innovation, because not only the governor's name on the obverse but the mint and date on the reverse are all written in Arabic rather than Pahlawi. The coin's design is still obviously Sasanian, with no attempt to modify the bust on the obverse or the fire-altar and attendands on the reverse, but it is a purely Islamic issue in its legends and the information it conveys. Surprisingly, these Arabic-only drachms were only issued at two mints: al-Mada'in and Jayy, and are known only for the year 76h. Although al-Hajjaj continued to strike Arab-Sasanian drachms at a number of mints in Fars, coins struck from 77h onwards reverted to using Pahlawi for the mint and date (although almost all still bore his name in Arabic), accompanied by progressively shorter marginal legends which were more conventionally arranged. This strongly suggests that the present coin represents an experimental type, conceived as part of the wider set of coinage reforms then being undertaken by the caliph, rather than another step in a gradual sequence of incremental changes made by provincial governors. Its predecessors, on this analysis, would be 'Abd al-Malik's Damascus drachms issued between 72h-75h, which also have fully Arabic legends (as appropriate for Damascus, where there was no tradition of Pahlawi coinage). Al-Mada'in, meaning 'the two cities', is an extremely rare Islamic mint-name and refers to the Sasanian city complex at Ctesiphon. It is recorded that in 76h, the year in which this coin was struck , al-Hajjaj suppressed a rebellion by the governor of al-Mada'in, al-Mutarrif b. al-Mughira b. Shu'ba, who had joined forces with the Kharijites against whom al-Hajjaj was then campaigning.
(35000-45000 GBP)