Umayyad dirham

This coin is a silver dirham struck in Wasit, present-day Iraq, in 122 AH, ca. 739/740 CE, during the reign of the Umayyad dynasty. The abbreviation AH (Anno Hijra) means the year according to the Islamic calendar. The coin was struck by Hisham ibn Abd-al-Malik, Caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus (724–743 CE). The Sunni Islamic Umayyad Caliphate ruled the present-day regions of North Africa, Spain and the Middle East from 661 to 750, when it was overthrown by the dynasty of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Religious texts in Arabic were struck in dirhams instead of pictures. The inscription on the front face of the coin indicates the minting location and year of minting: “In the name of God. This dirham was struck in Wasit in the year one and twenty and two hundred.” The text on the front reads “there are no gods but God” and “He has no equal.” The back face reads, among other things, “Muhammad is the Messenger of God,” wishes Muhammad prayers and God’s blessing, and indicates who struck the coin (Caliph Hisham ibn Abd-al-Malik).

The coin is part of a Viking Age hoard found in Hammarudda, Jomala, Åland, in 1865. The hoard included at least 180 coins: one Sasanian drachma and 179 Islamic dirhams. The coins had been hidden sometime after 857.