ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, AH 41-60 / AD 661-680. Drachm (Silver, 30 mm, 3.82 g, 3 h), Arab-Sasanian type, citing the caliph Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, DA (Darabgird), AH 45 = AD 665/6. Draped bust resembling Khosrau II to right, wearing an elaborate mural crown; behind head, ‘GDE ʾp̄zwt'’ (‘[may his] glory increase’ in Pahlavi); before head, ‘mʾʾwyʾ ʾmyl / Y wlwyšnykʾn’ = ‘Māʾāwyā amīr ī wurrōyišnīgān’ (‘Muʿawiya, Commander of the Believers’ in Pahlavi); in outer margin, ‘bism Allāh’ (‘In the name of Allah’ in Arabic). Rev. Fire altar with ribbons, flanked by two attendants; above altar, crescent and star; to left, date in Pahlavi; to right, DA (abbreviation for the name of the mint in Pahlavi). Album 14 (AH 43 only). Apparently unrecorded with this date. Struck from a slightly corroded obverse die and with a few scratches, otherwise, about extremely fine.



This interesting type is the earliest issue to cite a caliph by name and the only known type to cite Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the famous founder of the Umayyad dynasty.