| Central Asia, Marw |
| Diam. 26 mm. |
Reign of 'Abd al-Malik, 699 - 700 AD |
| Collection of the American Numismatic Society, 1971.316.1286 W: 2.796 |
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The caliph's decision of (695-696 AD) to use Arabic as the administrative language of the Islamic state and to employ epigraph rather than figural imagery on coinage resulted in a new, distinctively Muslim numismatic type that set Islam apart both from its non-Muslim neighbors and its pre-Muslim past. As the most frequently seen product of the state and the official affirmation of the faith, its politics, and its economy, coinage played a vital role in asserting Islam's uniqueness and the legitimacy of its rule. This coin, issued in, Marw, a city on the frontier of Islam's empire, bears the name of neither caliph nor governor but instead the basic testimonies of the faith, written in a stately script, slightly more cursive than that in previous Coins above. |
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