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The Arab-Byzantine coinage of jund Filastin – a potential historical source1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Tony Goodwin
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Extract

It is only in recent years that the complexity of the seventh-century Arab-Byzantine coinage of jund Filastin has become apparent. The various types from the three mints of lliya (Jerusalem), Yubna and Ludd are described, including one which is previously unpublished. There is considerable evidence to suggest that the Standing Caliph type originated at lliya and recent research has revealed that Yubna produced a variety of types unmatched by any other pre-reform mint. Two of these types have iconographic features which are otherwise unknown. These coins also constitute potentially useful historical documents, perhaps reflecting otherwise unattested military activity.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 28 , 2004 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2004

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Footnotes

1

Pseudo-Byzantine coins, which copy, sometimes loosely, their Byzantine predecessor, but lack any meaningful legends (c.650s to 670s).

References

Notes

2 For a discussion of the evidence from excavations and hoards see M. Phillips and A. Goodwin, ‘A Seventh Century Syrian Hoard of Byzantine and Imitative Copper Coins’, Numismatic Chronicle (1997) 61-87.

3 The chronology which was generally accepted up to 1976 was one in which the Umayyad Imperial Image coinage started very shortly after the conquest, perhaps around 640, and was followed by the Standing Caliph coinage in the 670s. The logic of this chronology was thoroughly demolished in 1976 by Bates, Michael in an article entitled ‘The Arab-Byzantine Coinage of Syria: an innovation by Abd al-Malik’ in A Colloquium in Memory of George Miles Carpenter (New York 1976) 16-27Google Scholar. Bates proposed a radically shorter chronology in which the Imperial Image coins were issued by Abd al-Malik from about 690 onwards and the first Standing Caliph copper coins were struck shortly after the earliest dated Standing Caliph dinars in 74 AH (693/4). Although very few numismatists would now support the old ‘long chronology’, many have expressed reservations about the very short timespan for the coinage proposed by Bates. The chronology outlined here draws both on Bates ideas and on the results of more recent numismatic research. A comprehensive summary of the chronology debate can be found in Album, S. and Goodwin, T., Sylloge of Islamic Coins in the Ashmolean 1, The Pre-reform Coinage of the Early Islamic Period (Oxford 2002) 99-107Google Scholar.

4 Walker, J., A Catalogue of the Arab-Byzantine and Post-reform V maty ad Coins (London 1956)Google Scholar.

5 Four junds or military districts, Dimashq, al-Urdunn, Hims and Filastin were created (probably) by the caliph ‘Umar (13-24 AH) with Qinnasrin added by Yezid I (60-64 AH). See Haldon, J. F., ‘Seventh-Century Continuities and Transformations: the Ajnâd and the “Thematic Myth”’, in States, Resources and Armies, Cameron, Av., ed. (The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East III. Princeton 1995) 379–423 Google Scholar.

6 It is however, clear that one type of Umayyad Imperial Image coin must have preceded the Diospolis issue. This is the large module coinage of Scythopolis (Cat. 7) which is a fairly close copy of a Byzantine follis of Justin II (565-578). These coins appear to have been used as a local currency in the towns of Scythopolis, Gerasa and Pella long after they had been replaced by smaller coins elsewhere. The local copy has the mint name on the obverse, written in a similar way to the Diospolis coin, and on the reverse the same year 17 date and Nicomedia mint mark as at Diospolis. This legend makes no sense at all for the Diospolis coin because this copies Constans II, who never minted at Nicomedia. However, it makes perfect sense at Scythopolis, where many of the Justin II prototypes have precisely this date/mint combination. The only plausible explanation is that the Diospolis coin copied features from Scythopolis, which must therefore be earlier.

7 I am grateful to Shraga Qedar for this suggestion. Presumably, if the reading is correct, it indicates a coin worth ‘part’ of a larger denomination.

8 First published in Qedar, S., ‘Copper Coinage in Syria in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries AD’, Israel Numismatic Journal 10 (1991) 27-39Google Scholar, P1.6 no.22.

9 First published in Berman, A., Islamic Coins, Exhibition winter 1976. L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art (Jerusalem 1976) 29 Google Scholar Cat. 30.

10 I am very grateful to the Nasser D. Khalili collection of Islamic Art for permission to publish two coins from the collection. Full results will be included in a forthcoming monograph in the series ‘Studies in the Khalili collection’.

11 There are isolated instances in contemporary Coptic art of saints being shown with rays around their head or even flames, e.g. the figure of St. Andrew from the monastery of Bawit (see Wessel, K., Coptic Art (London 1965) 167)Google Scholar.

12 Yubna’s port, known to the Romans as Iamnitarum Portus (now Yavneh-Yam) could easily have been the site of the mint. Given that Yubna appears to have been of lesser importance than either Iliya or Ludd, activity associated with the port is an attractive explanation for its existence as a mint.

13 Al-Balâdhurî, Kitâb futûh al-Buldân. The Origins of the Islamic State, tr. Hitti, P.K., Murgotten, F.C. (London 1916/Beirut 1966) 219 Google Scholar.