Apart from their monetary function, coins in Islamic lands were symbols of legitimacy, faith, power and prestige accrued to the rulers in whose names they were struck. Such gold dinars and silver dirhams were often works of art in their own right while their inscriptions, designs and possible archaeological contexts often provide key information in the history of Islamic art.

With the advent of Islam, the first Muslim rulers in the former Persian Empire continued to rely upon the coinage of the Sasanian mints, probably to prevent currency shortages and to help maintain confidence in the monetary system. This coin follows the type of silver drachm from the reign of Khusraw II (590-628). As is standard, it depicts a royal bust with characteristic winged crown on the obverse with a Pahlavi inscription at left “may his kingship increase,” and on the reverse a Zoroastrian fire temple with two attendants and in Pahlavi a mint name and date. This coin, however, was struck long after the time of Khusraw II, likely using a recut die. The Arabic text to the right of the bust indicates that this Islamic dirham was struck in Basra in the name of the Arab governor ‘Ubaydullah b. Ziyad (r. 674-83). Inscribed just outside the margin is bism allah “in the name of God” further attesting that the coin dates to the Islamic era.