Rare Islamic gold coin
The earliest appearance of the Shahada on a gold coin struck during the caliphate of ‘Abd al-Malik bin Marwan (AD 685–705) is coming up for auction with Morton & Eden in London on 12 June. This extremely rare coin, measuring just 20mm in diameter, is expected to reach between £150,000 and £200,000 due to its historical importance and rarity.
During the Umayyad period of Arab expansion across former Byzantine and Persian lands, experiments were put in hand by the caliph ‘Abd al-Malik bin Marwan to establish a national Islamic currency.
In former Byzantine regions where the solidus was well-established as the primary gold coin in commerce, the Arabs started to experiment by initially removing any traces of Christian symbolism from the coinage but at the same time retaining the images of the Byzantine rulers.
The next stage was to eliminate all Latin inscriptions and introduce the Shahada in kufic script, emphasising the basic tenets of Islam and rejecting the Christian belief of the Trinity– Bismillah la illah ila Allah wahdahu Muhammad rasul Allah (In the name of God, there is no god but God. He is unique. Mohammad is the Messenger of God). In the end, the caliph established a purely epigraphic Islamic coinage in AD 697, and coins like this one, which was struck around 691–94, were demonetised.
Tom Eden of Morton & Eden
