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Lot 378
Zanj Rebellion. 'Ali b. Muhammad. AH 258-271 / AD 872-884. AR Dirham (22.3mm, 2.83 g, 11h). Al-Madinat al-Mukhtara mint. Dated AH 259 (AD 872/3). Fine.
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Live Auction
Islamic Auction 9
Live bidding begins Apr 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM BST
(12d 6h 56m left for internet bidding)
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Description
Zanj Rebellion. 'Ali b. Muhammad. AH 258-271 / AD 872-884. AR Dirham (22.3mm, 2.83 g, 11h). Al-Madinat al-Mukhtara mint. Dated AH 259 (AD 872/3). Reverse field: ‘Ali / Muhammad / rasul / Allah / al-Mahdi 'Ali ibn Muhammad. Album 1432; ICV 1424. Edge chip. Fine. Extremely rare.
The mid-3rd/9th century saw a sudden demand for agricultural labour in the marshlands of southern Iraq, where wealthy landowners wanted to improve the land. This saw a sudden influx of slaves into the area around Basra, where they lived and worked in appalling conditions. This included many East Africans - the word ‘Zanj’ was used by the Arabs as a term for people from the East African coast.
‘Ali bin Muhammad, who led the Zanj Rebellion, probably grew up in Persia. He had spent some time at the court of al-Mustansir (AH 247-248), but soon became an implacable foe of the ‘Abbasids, stirring up unrest against the caliphate. Arriving in Basra in AH 254, he soon made contact with the Zanj working in the marshlands, acquiring the sobriquet of Sahib al-Zanj, ‘Lord of the Zanj.’ Finally, late in AH 255, he and his followers broke out in open revolt, launching a rebellion which was only suppressed after fifteen years of bitter fighting. Contemporary estimates of the number of deaths during the Zanj Rebellion, in which towns including Ubulla, Suq al-Ahwaz and Basra were sacked, range from 500,000 to 2,500,000.
The capital of the revolt was Al-Madinat al-Mukhtara, ‘The City of the Elect’. It was located somewhere in Southern Iraq, but was destroyed so completely after the end of the rebellion in AH 270 that its location is not known today.
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 Two – Lots 256–529 will be held Thursday afternoon, 25 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.
The mid-3rd/9th century saw a sudden demand for agricultural labour in the marshlands of southern Iraq, where wealthy landowners wanted to improve the land. This saw a sudden influx of slaves into the area around Basra, where they lived and worked in appalling conditions. This included many East Africans - the word ‘Zanj’ was used by the Arabs as a term for people from the East African coast.
‘Ali bin Muhammad, who led the Zanj Rebellion, probably grew up in Persia. He had spent some time at the court of al-Mustansir (AH 247-248), but soon became an implacable foe of the ‘Abbasids, stirring up unrest against the caliphate. Arriving in Basra in AH 254, he soon made contact with the Zanj working in the marshlands, acquiring the sobriquet of Sahib al-Zanj, ‘Lord of the Zanj.’ Finally, late in AH 255, he and his followers broke out in open revolt, launching a rebellion which was only suppressed after fifteen years of bitter fighting. Contemporary estimates of the number of deaths during the Zanj Rebellion, in which towns including Ubulla, Suq al-Ahwaz and Basra were sacked, range from 500,000 to 2,500,000.
The capital of the revolt was Al-Madinat al-Mukhtara, ‘The City of the Elect’. It was located somewhere in Southern Iraq, but was destroyed so completely after the end of the rebellion in AH 270 that its location is not known today.
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 Two – Lots 256–529 will be held Thursday afternoon, 25 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.
