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Lot 199

An Umayyad glass vessel Stamp, dated AH 129/AD 746, in the names of Caliph Marwan II (AH 127-132/AD 744-750) and Zamil b. 'Amr (Finance Director of the Oasis of Damascus)
Syria

23 April 2013, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

£5,000 - £7,000

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An Umayyad glass vessel Stamp, dated AH 129/AD 746, in the names of Caliph Marwan II (AH 127-132/AD 744-750) and Zamil b. 'Amr (Finance Director of the Oasis of Damascus)
Syria

of green colour
22mm. diam./ 4.08gr.

Footnotes

Six or seven line inscription:

...['abd Allah/ Mar-]wan Am[ir/ al-]mu'minin 'ala [yaday/ al-]A-]mir Zamil ibin ['Amru]/ fi sana ti-[sa' wa/ 'ishshrin wa mia]
"The Servant of God/ Marwan Commander/ of the Faithful at the hands/ of the Amir Zamil b. 'Amru/ in the year nine and/ twenty and one hundred."

Zamil b. 'Amru is mentioned in Tabari as Sahib al-kharaj (Finance Director) of the ghuta (oasis) of Damascus (see Tabari's index), and in Ibn al-Athir (references given by Morton). There is also a mention in Tabari of the eviction of the Qaysi governor Zamil ibn. 'Amr by the Yamani populace of the villages of the Ghutah (The History of al-Tabari, Vol. XXVII, "The Abbasid Revolution," translated by John Alden Williams, 1984, p. 73-74). The presence of the name of the Caliph seems to be the rule on these Umayyad vessel stamps from Greater Syria, in contrast to those from Egypt where its presence is exceptional.

Additional information