Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 194
An Umayyad glass Weight (dirham) with the name and titles of the Caliph 'Abd Al-Malik, (65-86AH/ 865-705AD) Probably Syria
23 April 2013, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£15,000 - £20,000
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An Umayyad glass Weight (dirham) with the name and titles of the Caliph 'Abd Al-Malik, (65-86AH/ 865-705AD)
Probably Syria
Probably Syria
of pale bluish-green colour
24mm. diam., 2.82gr
24mm. diam., 2.82gr
Footnotes
Provenance: Frank Linville Collection: Malter Sale XXXIX, 2 April 1989, 89, ill.
Four line inscription: 'abd Allah/ 'Abd al-Malik/ Amir al-mu'-/ minin
"The servant of God/ 'Abd al-Malik/ Commander of the Faith-/ ful"
This weight was stamped with the name of the Caliph himself, probably in Damascus, and is of significant interest for the history of glass-weights and Islamic coinage. The name of 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan is attached to the Great reform in ca. 77-78AH/700AD establishing a new coinage based on Islamic metrology and epigraphic types avoiding images and symbols. The Islamic historiography (al Bayhaqi) reported that the production of glass weights started from the Reform.
Three other weights of this type are known: Abdel-Kader 1939, 1; Launois 1959, 1 and Launois 1969, 1. The inscriptions on these four weights, all stamped with different dies exhibit the same reading in slightly different arrangements. The denomination is not specified. The weights of the published pieces are given as 3.95gr., 4.5gr., and 2.16gr.
The weight of the present example at 2.82gr appears to be one of the earliest metrological references for the so called "Reformed dirham" standard, known from coinage and from later glass disks declaring themselves to be weights for dirham (Morton, 1985), p. 16-17).
This weight can therefore be considered as an early testimony for the origins of Islamic coinage.