This is a noncommerical site dealing with the coins of early Islam, dating from about 690 to 1500 AD. The concentration here is exclusively on the silver and copper coins struck in Europe and northern Africa and in western and central Asia, excluding the Indian subcontinent.

To many Western minds, the history of this civilization is a story with three chapters: (1) the initial rise of an immense empire rivaling Charlemagne's, (2) a period of cataclysmic struggles between the Crusaders and their opponents, and (3) the loss of Constantinople in 1453. The history of the region is, of course, much richer than this, and it is documented on the surviving coins, which usually indicate the year in which they were struck, the location of the mint, and name of the ruler who was in control of that mint in that specific year. We have no comparable numismatic record to help verify the historical record of Western Europe during the same time period.

SOURCES OF COINS

These coins are readily available, despite their age, and they are not expensive. Many nice silver coins can be found in the $10 price range and worn coppers can be obtained for as little as $1 each, even though they may be over 1000 years old. (Of course, not ALL of the varieties are so common and inexpensive). This Web Site does not endorse any specific coin dealers, though several well-established firms can be found by glancing through the ads in the Celator (a superb numismatic journal). Many of the coins at this Site were obtained 20 years ago from Steve Album (P.O. Box 7386, Santa Rosa, CA 95407 USA), a dealer who not only sells coins but also offers an attribution service. (The coins shown here are not for sale.)

LITERATURE

Newcomers who take an interest in this subject should immediately purchase two books: Richard J. Plant's "Arabic Coins and how to read them" (a publication of B.A. Seaby, Inc.) and Steve Album's "A Checklist of Popular Islamic Coins" (Santa Rosa, 1993). The author of this Web Site has relied mainly on three general works: Michael Mitchiner's "Oriental Coins and their Values, The World of Islam" (a single volume), Stanley Lane Poole's "Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum" (10 Volumes), and Ibrahim and Cevriye Artuk's catalog of the Islamic coins in Istambul's Archaeological Museum (2 Volumes, text in Turkish).

CONVENTIONS

Since this Site is directed to non-Orientalists, all dates have been presented in the familiar "AD" form, except those that are inscribed on illustrated coins. Those are kept in the Islamic "AH" form, which can be converted to AD by subtracting three percent (to convert from Islam's shorter lunar year) and adding 622 (the year of the Hegira). To convert from AD to AH, subtract 622 and add three percent. (The results of these computations will not be exact, but will be close enough for most purposes.) Geographical regions have been identified using the familiar names of modern countries, and we have pretended that there is a clear distinction separating a class of independent "rulers" from those who are just subordinates or local "administrators". In fact, this distinction can be quite hazy.

READING THE COINS

Anyone who delves into this subject must eventually tackle the Arabic language, since many coins have no pictorial designs, just writing. Richard Plant's book (mentioned above) is specifically designed to help with this process, and it will not be replicated here. The Arabic alphabet is discussed several places on the Web (perhaps here or here). The "kalima", shown on the coin at the right occurs on most coins and deserves special attention. The first part (left) reads "There is no god but God. He is alone." The prominent V-shaped or X-shaped symbol is the Arabic "la". The second part (right) reads "Muhammad is the messenger of God", where the distinctive "o\o" at the upper-right is the Arabic "mhm", start of the word "Muhammad".

PUBLIC DOMAIN

All of the material at this site is in the public domain and may be freely copied. That specifically includes all of the coin images, but it does not include material at other sites (the Celator, etc.) that are accessed through this site but were produced by other authors.

Thank you for reading the introduction. Now to the coins...