Watch List notes:

ISLAMIC, 'Abbasid Caliphate. temp. Al-Rashid, AH 170-193 / AD 786-809. Fals (Bronze, 18 mm, 2.00 g, 11 h), citing the Barmakid official Muhammad ibn Yahya, Istakhr, AH 182 = AD 798/9. In inner field, 'there is no god except Allah, alone, He has no partner' (in Kufic); in outer margin, 'From what was ordered by the commander, Muhammad ibn Yahya, may Allah honor him' (in Kufic). Rev. In inner field, 'Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, Barmaki' (in Kufic); this fals was struck at Istakhr year two and eighty and one hundred' (in Kufic). Album 325. Very rare. Minor edge crack and with some doubling, otherwise, good very fine.


Little is known about Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Barmaki other than that he was part of the prominent Barmakid family, whose members served in important administrative roles under the early Abbasid caliphs.