Some thirty-five years ago I had a desire to get a better understanding of non European early mediaeval coins. A friend gifted me a dozen, or so, out of his oddments box and off I set, armed with two basic references, Richard Plant's “Arabic Coins And How To Read Them” and “Marsden’s Numismata Orientalia Illustrata” by Stephen Album.
Most coins fell into place but one has defied me until today!
I knew the remaining coin was an Abassid fulus but I saw a word at the top of the central reverse legend. I read the word as Zahir, Richard Plant agreed with me and suggested it may be a fulus of caliph al-Mamun (198-218 AH/813-833 AD) naming a local official, given the abundant bronze coinage of that caliph. However, nothing was forthcoming as a positive identification in the literature, even on subsequent searches of more advanced references.
Today I had another go and, yes, I got it! From a paper in Journal of Archaeological Research and Studies 6, issue 1, published June 2023, I discovered that I had misread the word and that it was Tahir. It would appear that this fulus, previously unpublished (although known from several specimens in sales) names Tahir ibn al-Husayn and records an alliance with the Tahrid dynasty. The fifth line on the reverse contains the word Al-Harb, for Al-Harb ibn Isa.
There are four styles of fulus recorded in the paper, this one being of the third style and is the variant with the letter alef after ta. They all date to AH 200 and were struck at a single mint, Sur al-Ma’muniyyah, modern day Tyre in the Lebanon.
It’s good to finally have a secure positive identification after so long. The original research paper cited can be downloaded from the link below:
