Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Islamic Auction 3 27 Apr 2023
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Pre-reform issues, Arab-Sasanian. temp 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan. AH 65-86 / AD 685-705. AR Drachm (23.5mm, 1.58 g, 9h). Without mint-name. Undated. Obverse field: Armoured bust to right, holding sheathed sword in right hand, with name of the Sasanian ruler Khusraw in Pahlawi to right and GDH APZWT ('may his glory increase' ) to left
Obverse margin: bismillah la i- / laha illa Allah wa / hdahu Muhammad ra / [sul Allah] / Reverse field: Arch supported on columns, within which is a vertical barbed spear which has two pennants floating to the right just below the head; to right and left of the columns: khaqat (sic) Allah - amir al-mu'minin; to either side of the spear-shaft: nasr – Allah. Cf. Malek, Arab-Sasanian fig. 9.32.27; cf. Walker 1941, p.24, ANS.5 = Gaube 1973, 2.3.2.4. Clipped and with edge chips. Near VF. Excessively rare.
One of the greatest rarities of the Arab-Sasanian series, the 'Mihrab and 'Anaza' drachm has been rightly described as 'extraordinary' (Grabar, O., The Formation of Islamic Art, revised and enlarged edition, Yale, 1987).
As this name suggests, scholars have tended to focus on the remarkable image on the reverse, showing a lance or spear mounted within an arch. It was George Miles who first suggested that this represented the spear of the Prophet himself, set within a mihrab. Miles even suggested tentatively that the mihrab could be identified more specifically as the mihrab mujawwaf, or niche type, in which case this coin would be the earliest depiction of this important Islamic architectural feature. Later scholars have suggested other possibilities, however, and Luke Treadwell has pointed out that arches of this type are found on Christian and even Jewish coins also.
Most scholars have assumed that this coin was struck at Damascus, the Umayyad capital, but there are good reasons for rejecting this view. While other experimental drachms issued at Damascus during the mid-70s/690s bear both mint and date, the present coin bears neither of these pieces of information. Of the available space on the obverse, the obvious place to include this information would have been to the right of the Sasanian bust (where it is found on Standing Caliph drachms dated AH 75). Instead, it was evidently felt more important to retain the name of the long-dead Khusraw II, written in Pahlawi, than to include the date and place of issue. This decision would make little sense for a coin struck at Damascus, which had not previously been part of the Sasanian empire.
The inscription to the right of the mihrab on the reverse presents some problems. It has generally been interpreted as khalifat, 'caliph', with the long ī omitted and the final letter written as a t rather than a ta marbuta. The present coin offers an unpublished variety of this legend, and simply reads kh-f-t with the l also omitted. In spite of these orthographical difficulties, there seems little doubt that the word khalifat was intended, since the same word is also found, spelled similarly, beside the standing figure of the Caliph himself seen on drachms dated AH 75. But this presents another puzzle: why, on the present coin, is the phrase 'caliph of God' placed next to a depiction of a spear within an arch, rather than beside the armoured bust on the obverse? Closer examination of the composition of the 'mihrab and 'anaza' image may hint at an unexpected answer. The two pellets either side of the spearhead do not form an integral part of the design, but can be interpreted as the eyes of a hidden face, with the top of the arch as the headdress, the spearhead as the nose, and the tassels on the spear shaft forming a beard, with the vertical inscriptions either side of the shaft resembling the folds of a cloak. Whatever the intentions of the die-engraver, it is difficult to imagine that this face has only been seen by twenty-first century eyes.
Another curious feature of the Mihrab and 'Anaza drachms is the large number of dies used. The seven specimens listed by Treadwell were struck from seven different obverse and six reverse dies, and the present coin adds yet another a new die pair to this total. While extremely rare today, this gives the impression of a coinage which was intended to be struck in quantity, and this seems at odds with the idea of this having been a short-lived, experimental type trialled briefly in Damascus.
Furthermore, the portrait on the obverse is clearly different from the familiar crowned image of Khusraw II. It is clearly a military bust, wearing a helmet and holding a sheathed sword rather awkwardly, and with cross-hatching across his breast representing armour. These details are not found on drachms struck at Damascus between AH 72-75, but are paralleled on an extremely rare Arab-Hephthalite issue struck by Yazid b. Muhallab in AH 84. The reverse of this type features a standing warrior, equipped with chain-mail and armed with sword and spear, and wearing a distinctive domed, crested helmet which has clear similarities with that seen on the Mihrab and 'Anaza drachms. Support for this view comes from the fact that at least one surviving Mihrab and 'Anaza coin bears a Hephthalite countermark, indicating that these coins did indeed circulate in the East, thousands of miles from Damascus.
On this analysis, there are good reasons for regarding the Mihrab and 'Anaza coinage as having been struck for a specific event in the context of a military campaign, rather than forming part of the sequence of experimental drachms produced at Damascus. The iconography of the Mihrab and 'Anaza drachm is clearly appropriate for a military coinage: an armoured bust on the obverse, helmeted and wearing a sword, and a barbed spear accompanied by the phrase 'Victory from God' on the reverse. If these coins were struck at a travelling mint accompanying an army on campaign, this might also account for the absence of a mint-name and a fixed date.
Whether struck to play a role in an iconographic 'war of images' between Damascus and Byzantium, or issued as a physical expression of a military victory in the East, this extremely rare drachm surely merits Miles's description of 'a very valuable little archaeological document.'
Obverse margin: bismillah la i- / laha illa Allah wa / hdahu Muhammad ra / [sul Allah] / Reverse field: Arch supported on columns, within which is a vertical barbed spear which has two pennants floating to the right just below the head; to right and left of the columns: khaqat (sic) Allah - amir al-mu'minin; to either side of the spear-shaft: nasr – Allah. Cf. Malek, Arab-Sasanian fig. 9.32.27; cf. Walker 1941, p.24, ANS.5 = Gaube 1973, 2.3.2.4. Clipped and with edge chips. Near VF. Excessively rare.
One of the greatest rarities of the Arab-Sasanian series, the 'Mihrab and 'Anaza' drachm has been rightly described as 'extraordinary' (Grabar, O., The Formation of Islamic Art, revised and enlarged edition, Yale, 1987).
As this name suggests, scholars have tended to focus on the remarkable image on the reverse, showing a lance or spear mounted within an arch. It was George Miles who first suggested that this represented the spear of the Prophet himself, set within a mihrab. Miles even suggested tentatively that the mihrab could be identified more specifically as the mihrab mujawwaf, or niche type, in which case this coin would be the earliest depiction of this important Islamic architectural feature. Later scholars have suggested other possibilities, however, and Luke Treadwell has pointed out that arches of this type are found on Christian and even Jewish coins also.
Most scholars have assumed that this coin was struck at Damascus, the Umayyad capital, but there are good reasons for rejecting this view. While other experimental drachms issued at Damascus during the mid-70s/690s bear both mint and date, the present coin bears neither of these pieces of information. Of the available space on the obverse, the obvious place to include this information would have been to the right of the Sasanian bust (where it is found on Standing Caliph drachms dated AH 75). Instead, it was evidently felt more important to retain the name of the long-dead Khusraw II, written in Pahlawi, than to include the date and place of issue. This decision would make little sense for a coin struck at Damascus, which had not previously been part of the Sasanian empire.
The inscription to the right of the mihrab on the reverse presents some problems. It has generally been interpreted as khalifat, 'caliph', with the long ī omitted and the final letter written as a t rather than a ta marbuta. The present coin offers an unpublished variety of this legend, and simply reads kh-f-t with the l also omitted. In spite of these orthographical difficulties, there seems little doubt that the word khalifat was intended, since the same word is also found, spelled similarly, beside the standing figure of the Caliph himself seen on drachms dated AH 75. But this presents another puzzle: why, on the present coin, is the phrase 'caliph of God' placed next to a depiction of a spear within an arch, rather than beside the armoured bust on the obverse? Closer examination of the composition of the 'mihrab and 'anaza' image may hint at an unexpected answer. The two pellets either side of the spearhead do not form an integral part of the design, but can be interpreted as the eyes of a hidden face, with the top of the arch as the headdress, the spearhead as the nose, and the tassels on the spear shaft forming a beard, with the vertical inscriptions either side of the shaft resembling the folds of a cloak. Whatever the intentions of the die-engraver, it is difficult to imagine that this face has only been seen by twenty-first century eyes.
Another curious feature of the Mihrab and 'Anaza drachms is the large number of dies used. The seven specimens listed by Treadwell were struck from seven different obverse and six reverse dies, and the present coin adds yet another a new die pair to this total. While extremely rare today, this gives the impression of a coinage which was intended to be struck in quantity, and this seems at odds with the idea of this having been a short-lived, experimental type trialled briefly in Damascus.
Furthermore, the portrait on the obverse is clearly different from the familiar crowned image of Khusraw II. It is clearly a military bust, wearing a helmet and holding a sheathed sword rather awkwardly, and with cross-hatching across his breast representing armour. These details are not found on drachms struck at Damascus between AH 72-75, but are paralleled on an extremely rare Arab-Hephthalite issue struck by Yazid b. Muhallab in AH 84. The reverse of this type features a standing warrior, equipped with chain-mail and armed with sword and spear, and wearing a distinctive domed, crested helmet which has clear similarities with that seen on the Mihrab and 'Anaza drachms. Support for this view comes from the fact that at least one surviving Mihrab and 'Anaza coin bears a Hephthalite countermark, indicating that these coins did indeed circulate in the East, thousands of miles from Damascus.
On this analysis, there are good reasons for regarding the Mihrab and 'Anaza coinage as having been struck for a specific event in the context of a military campaign, rather than forming part of the sequence of experimental drachms produced at Damascus. The iconography of the Mihrab and 'Anaza drachm is clearly appropriate for a military coinage: an armoured bust on the obverse, helmeted and wearing a sword, and a barbed spear accompanied by the phrase 'Victory from God' on the reverse. If these coins were struck at a travelling mint accompanying an army on campaign, this might also account for the absence of a mint-name and a fixed date.
Whether struck to play a role in an iconographic 'war of images' between Damascus and Byzantium, or issued as a physical expression of a military victory in the East, this extremely rare drachm surely merits Miles's description of 'a very valuable little archaeological document.'