Umayyad Caliphate. temp. 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, AH 65-86 / AD 685-705. Fals (Bronze, 21 mm, 3.36 g, 6 h), Standing Caliph coinage, Iliya Filastin (Jerusalem), No date. Standing caliph facing, holding sword; around: Muḥammad (to the left) rasūl Allāh (to the right) (‘Muḥammad is the Messenger of God’ in Arabic). Rev. Large cursive m above line; to left upwards: Īliyāʾ, to right upwards: Filasṭīn (‘Jerusalem / Palestine’ in Arabic). Album 3545. DOCAB 92. Schulze Type 3/1 (310/260). Very rare and exceptionally well preserved. Minor areas of weakness, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.



The standing caliph coinage of the late 7th century AD represents one of the most historically important transitional series of early Islamic numismatics. Struck during the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik, these issues combined Byzantine imperial iconography with increasingly Islamic Arabic inscriptions shortly before the great Umayyad epigraphic reform that introduced fully inscriptional coinage.

The present Jerusalem issue belongs to the so-called ‘Muḥammad type’, distinguished by the clear Arabic profession Muḥammad rasūl Allāh flanking the standing ruler. The mint-name Īliyāʾ derives from Aelia Capitolina, the Roman name of Jerusalem, while Filasṭīn refers to the administrative district of Palestine.

Well-preserved examples of the Jerusalem standing caliph series are considerably rarer than most surviving specimens of this historically significant transitional coinage.