2018-09-19 Wed

In 685 AD after a chaotic period of civil war, Abd al-Malik Ibn Marwan became the fifth Caliph of Umayyad Caliphate. During the reign he established Arabic as the official language and set a pattern for Islamic coinage which was emulated by all his successors.

Abd-al-Malik reform introduced a purely epigraphic coinage which created complete break with the past. He responsible to issued new Dinar. On its obverse was the upright figure of the Standing Caliph, wearing the headdress and holding a sword, with testimony of Islam inscribed in the margin. The reverse retains the column on three steps, but the Islamic calendar date is written out with legend ‘Bismillah’.

Later, Images were replaced by Quranic verses and the profession of faith, the shahada, in Kufic script. The central inscription on one side reads ‘There is no god but Allah alone. He has no partner’. Along the margin appears Sura 9.33 from the Quran. The central inscription on the other side states that ‘God is one, God is eternal, He was not born nor does He give birth’.

Image Source: Google Images