I recently bought this silver dirham of Harun al-Rashid. I also got the new edition of Plant's Arabic Coins and How to Read Them to help understand the script. I also have access to the free online PDF of Album's Checklist of Islamic Coins. I thought it might be interesting to others to see how far I got after a few hours with the coin and these books. This is a total newbie reading. I do not speak Arabic at all or have any experience with the language. I just want to be able to identify key parts of the script on my coin. Plant is overall quite encouraging, but he points out that the Kufic script is very hard to read because many of the letters are so similar. I'd appreciate a little help from people with mroe experience with Kufic script. I'd like to confirm a few points and get some help with the reverse area legend. Here is the coin (seller's image - from Pars Coins Vauction 356): It is quite a common type, Album 219.9. al-Rashid's dirhams are a little different from many other Abbasid dirhams because he mostly did not put his own name on them. Instead he named one of his sons. Here is the same image which I have marked up to highlight a few parts of the script. The area legend on the obverse is the "Kalima": "There is no God except Allah, He is alone, (There is) no partner to him." The marginal legend on the obverse begins at about one o'clock, just above the top of my orange line. It runs counterclockwise because Arabic is read from right to left. As I understand it, this legend always follows a formula "In the name of Allah this dirham was struck at <mint> in <year>". Mint: I think the mint is named at about six o'clock. I have highlighted part of it in yellow. I think the mint is Medinat es-Salam (= City of Peace = Baghdad). I say this because of the part I have highlighted, which looks like the "es-Salam" part to me. The three short lines are "s" followed by the large and distinctive v-shaped lam-alef (the same letter as the large letters that begin and end the top line of the obverse area legend). So that is "SAL". According to Plant's list of mint names that part is pretty distinctive. Also, per Album, this type was not minted at so many mints; it is probably Medinat es-Salam or al-Muhammadiya. The seller had this listed as al-Muhammadiya but I suspect that was a copy/paste error from another listing. Can anyone confirm my mint identification? Date: On these dirhams, the dates are written out as words rather than numerals. Also the place order is reversed from what I am used to. The seller says the date on this one is AH 183. So the date should be like "three and eighty and one hundred". I think the part I have underlined in purple is the "three", the part I have underlined in blue is the "eighty", and the part I have underlined in orange is the "one hundred". Can anyone confirm that I am underlining the right part of the script for each number? The other side is the reverse. The reverse margin legend is, as I understand it, always Sura 9 verse 33. That leaves the reverse area legend. This is where I could really use some help. The first line of the reverse area legend: I think the first few letters are MHM. I am having a hard time with the rest of the first line. According to Plant, it should say, "Muhammad rasul Allah" (Muhammad the messenger of Allah) somewhere on this side of the coin. Plant says that was something the Abbasid caliphs added. That would start with MHM I guess, since in Arabic short vowels are not written. Is that what this line is? The second line of the reverse area legend: I think the part I have boxed in green is the name of al-Rashid's son, al-Amin. Is that correct and what is the rest of this line? The third line of the reverse area legend: I think part of this line (everything to the left of the rightmost vertical line) is "ibn amir al-mu’minin" meaning "son of the Commander of the Faithful". Per Album that should be on here somewhere, and this looks the most like that to me. I can't really tell what's going on toward the right, and I'm sure an expert could give a more complete reading of this line. Is that what this is, or am I totally off? Fourth line of the reverse area legend (in red): This is easy, it's just the name "Ja'far", the vizier. Hopefully this has been an interesting read. Thank you very much in advance for any help you can provide! I am sure I have made mistakes so please don't be shy about correcting me.
...well, thats purdy kool to read the script....i've had mine for years and i think i still have one pic upside down..
I wish I could help you but I can not help myself with my similar coin. Mine came with the ID as AH 185 and the 1 and 8 match yours as does the Medinat es-Salam (= City of Peace = Baghdad). I can not help with the reverse. I hope our two coins being weak in different areas might make some parts more clear.
Very good! You are correct on all points, I think. The 2nd line on reverse in full is مما أمر به الامير الامين mimma amara bihi al-amir al-Amin ("from that ordered by the amir al-Amin"). The 3rd line continues with al-Amin's given name محمد (Muhammad). So if both lines are read together, we have "from that ordered by the amir al-Amin Muhammad, son of the commander of the faithful". Album 219.9. Personally, I prefer the straight-forwardness of Umayyad & 'Abbasid Kufic to the later more artistic scripts. The Kufic of outlying dynasties such as the Fatimids and Ghaznavids can sometimes be more cryptic, however. Part of reading the coins is learning what to expect. There is a rather narrow set of possibilities as opposed to reading something like a modern Arabic newspaper. Keep up the good work!
Awesome, thanks @dltsrq - I think Richard Plant would agree with your opinion of the later Kufic based on some comments in Chapter 8 of his book.
@dougsmit You are correct. Your coin is the same as the op with identical legends and mint name but with the date 185.
You did great, @OutsiderSubtype, that's a promise for your future collection! I always keep this picture ready, it's derived from Plant (by a Russian website). And I would always compare coins with those on Zeno.ru. I'm often asking help for reading problematic or otherwise interesting coins, at the Islamic section of worlofcoins.eu. There you get varied opinions by friendly, knowledgeable Arabic readers, and they are answering your calls faster than on Zeno. But @dltsrq's answer is very promising for CoinTalk, thanks! By the way, I hope you will be taking a look at my top ten of islamic coins of 2020, that I published here yesterday.
Mine has a simpler reverse legend, but the same mint. The date is (I think) 188: I always have to dig out Plant if I want to read these things. I wish my old brain could just memorize them! @dltsrq, might @dougsmit's coin be 182 instead of 185?
@Severus Alexander Yes, I think you're right. @dougsmit's coin is 182. I was using my phone which has a good Arabic keyboard but a small screen. The 2nd and 3rd strokes of the digit appeared to my eye to close at the top but that is only an artifact of the photo. Also the initial stroke clearly extends below the base line, which it would not do if it were "kh". I agree that your coin is 188. Anonymous, with only Muhammad rassul Allah in reverse field. Album 219.2.
Just wanted to add my agreement with the OP's reading, and to thank everyone contributing. I also have used Plant to try and read Islamic coins, it definitely helps a lot but even with the help I often have trouble. But it feels so satisfying when you successfully decipher the inscription! Here's a Saffarid dirham I was able to (mostly) transliterate and translate, with help from Plant and elsewhere: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/show-me-a-coin-with-character-s.366575/#post-4859122 And if you ever feel that Kufic Arabic isn't challenging enough, try reading the Pahlavi script of Middle Persian used on Sasanian coins. Now that's a good way to feel humble.
...i lQQked for this last nite..i've now found it again.....just think..if another day had passed, it wouldve been a year....i always liked the story of the 1001 nights & that's why i got this coin...
Yes, @ominus1, that's a nice dirham, and the second pic (the reverse) is upside-down like you suspected.
