
Oliver White
Head of Department
£2,000 - £3,000
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Head of Department
Provenance: Frank Linville Collection, Malter Sale XXXIX, 2 April 1989, 104, ill.
Seven line inscription:
bi-sm Allah/ amara 'Ubayd Allah/ ibin al-Habhab mithqa-/ l nisf fals/ khamsat 'ashr/ qirat wa-/fin
"in the name of God/ Ordered 'Ubayd Allah/ b. al-Habhab a weigh-/t of a half-fals/ of fifteen qirat, full-wei-/ght"
'Ubayd Allah b. al-Habhab is the only official known to have issued half-fals (of 12,15,17 qirat) with his name on them (see Balog 1976, 85). The nine known specimens are from the same die (see Morton 1985, 36). Thirty qirat fals weights exist for this Amir (Petrie 1926, 98, description incomplete). A.H. Morton (1985, p. 54) wrote that these pairs of weights (15/30, 17/34 etc.) give proof that the value of the fals was not always fixed at 36 qirat or kharruba.