Umayyad Caliphate, Anonymous Silver Dirham

These silver dirhams were struck at Wasit between 738 and 744 CE, during the later years of the Umayyad Caliphate under Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and his immediate successors. Wasit, founded in the late 7th century as a military and administrative center, became one of the premier mints of the eastern Islamic world.

Umayyad dirhams are notable for their inscriptional design. Unlike earlier Byzantine or Sasanian coinage that featured rulers or religious imagery, these coins bear only Arabic inscriptions drawn from Qur’anic text and declarations of faith. This reform, introduced under the Umayyads in the late 7th century, created a distinctly Islamic coinage that emphasized religious message over portraiture.

Administrative centers like Wasit were responsible for taxation, military logistics, and producing the silver currency that moved along trade routes stretching from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. These dirhams would have circulated widely across that network, facilitating commerce in a rapidly interconnected world.

These issues come from the final decades of Umayyad rule before the Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE. As such, they are products of a mature but increasingly pressured empire, reflecting both the administrative sophistication and the political tensions of the late Umayyad period.

Each includes a Certificate of Authenticity.