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Lot 51
Umayyad Caliphate, Silver coinage. AR Dirham (26.9mm, 2.79 g, 2h). Maskin mint. Dated AH 90 (AD 708/9). VF, some double-striking.
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Live Auction
Islamic Auction 9
Live bidding begins Apr 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM BST
(18d 1h 19m left for internet bidding)
Category
Description
Umayyad Caliphate, Silver coinage. AR Dirham (26.9mm, 2.79 g, 2h). Maskin mint. Dated AH 90 (AD 708/9). Obverse margin: bism Allah duriba hadha al-dirham bi-Maskin fi sanat tisa‘in . Klat –; al-‘Ajlan –; The Shah Firzan Heritage of Islamic Coins p. 13 (this piece). VF, some double-striking. Of the highest rarity, believed unique, and the only Islamic coin recorded from this mint.
In the year AH 90, dozens of silver dirham mints were opened or reopened throughout the Eastern Islamic lands. This was a radical departure from the previous five years, when almost all Umayyad dirhams had been struck at Wasit and Damascus, supplemented by a handful of rare and often ephemeral mints active in the Umayyad North. The scale of the change becomes apparent when one compares the number of active mints for the years AH 89 (six) and AH 90 (at least forty). The reasons for this change are not fully understood, but may well be connected to other, broader changes in provincial administration and taxation.
Some of these mints were very prolific. From others, including Maskin, only a tiny number of dirhams have survived today, and it seems unlikely that these rare mints ever produced silver in quantity. Perhaps a decision was taken to establish one dirham mint in every administrative district, only for it to become clear that not all of these would be needed equally?
Le Strange (The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge, 1905, pp. 51 and 80), describes the district of Maskin as follows:
‘The Dujayl Canal...meaning “the Little Tigris”, watered all the rich district of Maskin lying to the north of West Baghdad beyond Katrabbul.... The district of the Dujayl, otherwise called Maskin, included a great number of villages and towns, lying westward of ‘Ukbara and the Tigris channel, the chief of which was Harba, which was visited by Ibn Jubayr in 580 (1184) and still exists. Here may be seen at the present day the ruins of a great stone bridge across the canal which, as the historian Fakhri records and the extant inscription still testifies, was built by the Caliph Mustansir in 629 (1232). Near Harba was Al-Hazirah (the Enclosure), where the cotton stuffs called Kirbas were manufactured, being largely exported. Yakut further names a considerable number of villages — there were over a hundred in all — which were of this district, and many of these, as for example Al-Balad (the Hamlet) near Hazirah, are still to be found on the map. As late as the 8th (14th) century the Dujayl district, with Harba for its chief town, is described by Mustawfi as of amazing fertility, and its pomegranates were the best to be found in the markets of Baghdad.’
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.
In the year AH 90, dozens of silver dirham mints were opened or reopened throughout the Eastern Islamic lands. This was a radical departure from the previous five years, when almost all Umayyad dirhams had been struck at Wasit and Damascus, supplemented by a handful of rare and often ephemeral mints active in the Umayyad North. The scale of the change becomes apparent when one compares the number of active mints for the years AH 89 (six) and AH 90 (at least forty). The reasons for this change are not fully understood, but may well be connected to other, broader changes in provincial administration and taxation.
Some of these mints were very prolific. From others, including Maskin, only a tiny number of dirhams have survived today, and it seems unlikely that these rare mints ever produced silver in quantity. Perhaps a decision was taken to establish one dirham mint in every administrative district, only for it to become clear that not all of these would be needed equally?
Le Strange (The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, Cambridge, 1905, pp. 51 and 80), describes the district of Maskin as follows:
‘The Dujayl Canal...meaning “the Little Tigris”, watered all the rich district of Maskin lying to the north of West Baghdad beyond Katrabbul.... The district of the Dujayl, otherwise called Maskin, included a great number of villages and towns, lying westward of ‘Ukbara and the Tigris channel, the chief of which was Harba, which was visited by Ibn Jubayr in 580 (1184) and still exists. Here may be seen at the present day the ruins of a great stone bridge across the canal which, as the historian Fakhri records and the extant inscription still testifies, was built by the Caliph Mustansir in 629 (1232). Near Harba was Al-Hazirah (the Enclosure), where the cotton stuffs called Kirbas were manufactured, being largely exported. Yakut further names a considerable number of villages — there were over a hundred in all — which were of this district, and many of these, as for example Al-Balad (the Hamlet) near Hazirah, are still to be found on the map. As late as the 8th (14th) century the Dujayl district, with Harba for its chief town, is described by Mustawfi as of amazing fertility, and its pomegranates were the best to be found in the markets of Baghdad.’
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.
