Apart from their monetary function, coins struck for Muslim caliphs and kings were symbols of the legitimacy, faith, power, and prestige that accrued to the dynasts in whose names they were minted. By the 690s, the sole markings on most Islamic consisted of writing, including the Muslim profession of faith, or shahada, the date and place of issue, and the name of the ruler. Their purely epigraphic content distinguished them from Byzantine and Sasanian coins (see M.2002.1.448), on which a human portrait appears as a symbol of the government’s authority, as with many coins familiar to us today.
The inscriptions on this dinar state that it was struck in AH 614 (1217 CE), in the name of the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Nasir at Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad), the capital. Gold coins such as this example were not for daily use but were instead reserved for large transactions such as paying taxes or tributes. The comparatively humbler copper fals was used in day-to-day commerce.
