ISLAMIC, Syria & al-Jazira (Pre-Seljuq). Hamdanids. Nasir al-Dawla (Abu Muhammad al-Hasan) and Sayf al-Dawla (Abu'l Hasan 'Ali), conjointly, AH 330-356 / AD 942-967. Dirham (Silver, 28 mm, 2.67 g, 7 h), a donative issue citing Nasir al-Dawla Abu Muhammad and his brother Sayf al-Dawla Abu Hasan. Khasanat al-Shamiya min Halab ('The al-Shamiya Treasury of Halab), AH 351 = AD 962/3. Album p. 99. Extremely rare and unpublished with this date. About extremely fine.


The term 'Al-Shamiya' is closely related to Bilad al'-Sham, a political and geographical term often translated as 'the land to the left hand' (for someone being in Mekka and looking toward the east). Bilad al'-Sham thus describes the Levant, which the rightly guided caliphs had conquered during the first decades after the death of the Prophet.