Ancient Iranian Numismatics in Memory of David Sellwood in ed. M.Faghfoury, Ancient Iran Series, Vol.12 (Jordan Centre for Persian Studies, UCI), 2020
This articles considers Sasanian silver coinage from the perspective of the production of one min... more This articles considers Sasanian silver coinage from the perspective of the production of one mint denoted by the mint signature abbreviation AM, most probably located in Amul in Tabaristan. Coins with this mint signature are scarce and poorly represented in the major museum collections. The article demonstrates that there was an almost continuous output of coins from this mint from the time of Varhran V in the fifth century AD right up the reign of the Sasanian Queen Boran in around 630 AD.
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which helps to put in context and provide further details than that may be found in the historical literature. The longer one goes
back in time the less reliable, and more incomplete the literature is.
As set out in the first article, Āmul was such an important
centre in Sasanian times, that coins were struck for hundreds of years more or less continually right up to around 9H (AD 630),
until the final coins struck under one of the last Sasanian kings Ardashīr III.
Then there was a substantial gap where no coins are
known to have been struck in Tabaristān until 93H, when the DābūyidI sIpahbād Farrukhān started striking silver drachms following
the style of the coinage of the great Sasanian king Khusrau II (Khusrau Parviz), but of a weight one half of Sasanian drachms.
These coins had legends in Pahlavi and had the portrait of what denoted the crowned ruler on the obverse and a Zoroastrian fire
altar on the reverse flanked by two attendants. The DābūyidIspahbāds struck these coins right up to the fall of the last DābūyidIspahbādKhurshīd
in around 142/3 H. Thereafter the 'Abbasid governors of Tabaristan struck coins using the same style for over 30 years. These coins all name Tabaristan as the mint place, most probably for a mint in Āmul
itself, but perhaps Sārī as well. This coinage is covered by the second article in this series.
This third article focuses on the coinage
struck by the ‘Alīds, Hasan b Zayd and his brother Muhammad b Zayd in Āmul and elsewhere. At that time Āmul and Sārī were
the main cities in Tabaristān, but no coins are known for this period for Sārī. They also governed Gurgān (Jurjān in Arabic as
written on coinage) after they expanded their territory outside the traditional boundaries of Tabaristān. Their rule spanned the
period 250 to 287H.The sources for the history of Tabaristān are richer and more reliable for this period than for the Sasanian
and Umayyad periods, for which the material is scant and a mixture of fact and legend. Both al-Tabarī and ibn Isfandiyār have a
significant amount to say about the ʽAlīds and their presence in Tabaristān. Other sources also have points of detail to add such
.as ibn al-Athīr, al-Balādhurī, Balʽamī, al-Hamadhanī, al-Isfahānī, al-Masʽudī, al-Sābī and al-Yaʽqūbī.
A fourth article covers the period 287H to 323H
which helps to put in context and provide further details than that may be found in the historical literature. The longer one goes
back in time the less reliable, and more incomplete the literature is.
As set out in the first article, Āmul was such an important
centre in Sasanian times, that coins were struck for hundreds of years more or less continually right up to around 9H (AD 630),
until the final coins struck under one of the last Sasanian kings Ardashīr III.
Then there was a substantial gap where no coins are
known to have been struck in Tabaristān until 93H, when the DābūyidI sIpahbād Farrukhān started striking silver drachms following
the style of the coinage of the great Sasanian king Khusrau II (Khusrau Parviz), but of a weight one half of Sasanian drachms.
These coins had legends in Pahlavi and had the portrait of what denoted the crowned ruler on the obverse and a Zoroastrian fire
altar on the reverse flanked by two attendants. The DābūyidIspahbāds struck these coins right up to the fall of the last DābūyidIspahbādKhurshīd
in around 142/3 H. Thereafter the 'Abbasid governors of Tabaristan struck coins using the same style for over 30 years. These coins all name Tabaristan as the mint place, most probably for a mint in Āmul
itself, but perhaps Sārī as well. This coinage is covered by the second article in this series.
This third article focuses on the coinage
struck by the ‘Alīds, Hasan b Zayd and his brother Muhammad b Zayd in Āmul and elsewhere. At that time Āmul and Sārī were
the main cities in Tabaristān, but no coins are known for this period for Sārī. They also governed Gurgān (Jurjān in Arabic as
written on coinage) after they expanded their territory outside the traditional boundaries of Tabaristān. Their rule spanned the
period 250 to 287H.The sources for the history of Tabaristān are richer and more reliable for this period than for the Sasanian
and Umayyad periods, for which the material is scant and a mixture of fact and legend. Both al-Tabarī and ibn Isfandiyār have a
significant amount to say about the ʽAlīds and their presence in Tabaristān. Other sources also have points of detail to add such
.as ibn al-Athīr, al-Balādhurī, Balʽamī, al-Hamadhanī, al-Isfahānī, al-Masʽudī, al-Sābī and al-Yaʽqūbī.
A fourth article covers the period 287H to 323H