
Oliver White
Head of Department


Sold for £2,805 inc. premium
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Head of Department
See Stephen Album, Checklist of Islamic Coins, Santa Rosa, 2011, no. 132A and Giulio Bernardi, Arabic Gold Coins Corpus, Trieste, 2010, no. 45.
Inscriptions: the basmalah; a form of the shahadah and a shorter version of Qur'an, sura IX (al-tawbah), part of verse 33 with the added, 'Muhammad, the Messenger of God'.
'Umar ibn Abd'l al- Aziz was a learned and serious caliph and surrounded himself with great scholars. Under his rule he was responsible for strict reforms concerning alcohol, dress rules and fair dispensation of Zakat. He was also a great social reformer preventing state officials from business practices, use of unpaid labour and land reform. He was regarded as a true Muslim ruler, in contrast to many of his predecessors. Traditionally 'Umar was recognized as an authentic caliph, while other Umayyad rulers were viewed as kings.