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Lot 6
Pre-reform issues, Arab-Sasanian. Ubaydallah b. Ziyad. AH 54-64 / AD 673-683. AR Drachm (27.8mm, 2.89 g, 4h). KRMAN-NAR (Narmashir) mint. Dated AH 61 (AD 681/2). VF.
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Live Auction
Islamic Auction 9
Live bidding begins Apr 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM BST
(20d 17h 56m left for internet bidding)
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Description
Pre-reform issues, Arab-Sasanian. Ubaydallah b. Ziyad. AH 54-64 / AD 673-683. AR Drachm (27.8mm, 2.89 g, 4h). KRMAN-NAR (Narmashir) mint. Dated AH 61 (AD 681/2). With Pahlavi PYRWČ (pērōz, ‘Victorious’) before usual name legend, Obverse margin: – / bism Allah ∴ / – / –. Malek, Arab-Sasanian 737; SICA 1, –; Album 12. Dark toning, clipped to the weight of a post-Reform dirham (but with all legends complete). VF. Extremely rare.
This remarkable issue has been described as ‘perhaps the earliest Islamic commemorative coin’. Adding the word pērōz to the normal name-legend in this way proclaims the governor as ‘The Victorious ‘Ubaydallah b. Ziyad’. This feature is unique to these extremely rare drachms of ‘Ubaydallah struck at KLMAN-NAR in this year, and has no parallel on the Arab-Sasanian coinage.
It has been suggested that the victory alluded to here was the tragic battle of Karbala, which took place in this year. Following the death of the caliph Mu‘awiya I in AH 60, the sons of some prominent Companions of the Prophet disputed Mu‘awiya’s choice of his son Yazid as his successor. These included Husayn, the son of the fourth caliph, ‘Ali, who refused to give his allegiance to Yazid. Encouraged by promises of support from the inhabitants of Kufa, Husayn marched from Mecca to Iraq in AH 61, but was intercepted by a much larger Umayyad force under ‘Ubaydallah b. Ziyad. ‘Ubaydallah refused to give Husayn safe passage to Kufa, and battle ensued on the plain of Karbala on 10 Muharram AH 61. Hopelessly outnumbered, Husayn was killed along with most of his relatives and companions. Both Sunni and Shi‘a Muslims acknowledge Karbala as an historical tragedy, and one which cemented the enduring divisions between these two branches of Islam.
The final winners of all CNG Islamic Auction 9 lots will be determined during the live sale that will be held on 24-25 April 2025.
Islamic Auction 9 – Session One – Lots 1–255 will be held Thursday afternoon, 24 April 2025 beginning at 2:00 PM GMT.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
This remarkable issue has been described as ‘perhaps the earliest Islamic commemorative coin’. Adding the word pērōz to the normal name-legend in this way proclaims the governor as ‘The Victorious ‘Ubaydallah b. Ziyad’. This feature is unique to these extremely rare drachms of ‘Ubaydallah struck at KLMAN-NAR in this year, and has no parallel on the Arab-Sasanian coinage.
It has been suggested that the victory alluded to here was the tragic battle of Karbala, which took place in this year. Following the death of the caliph Mu‘awiya I in AH 60, the sons of some prominent Companions of the Prophet disputed Mu‘awiya’s choice of his son Yazid as his successor. These included Husayn, the son of the fourth caliph, ‘Ali, who refused to give his allegiance to Yazid. Encouraged by promises of support from the inhabitants of Kufa, Husayn marched from Mecca to Iraq in AH 61, but was intercepted by a much larger Umayyad force under ‘Ubaydallah b. Ziyad. ‘Ubaydallah refused to give Husayn safe passage to Kufa, and battle ensued on the plain of Karbala on 10 Muharram AH 61. Hopelessly outnumbered, Husayn was killed along with most of his relatives and companions. Both Sunni and Shi‘a Muslims acknowledge Karbala as an historical tragedy, and one which cemented the enduring divisions between these two branches of Islam.
The final winners of all CNG Islamic Auction 9 lots will be determined during the live sale that will be held on 24-25 April 2025.
Islamic Auction 9 – Session One – Lots 1–255 will be held Thursday afternoon, 24 April 2025 beginning at 2:00 PM GMT.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
