Persia (Pre-Seljuq). Hasanwayhids. Badr ibn Hasanwayh, AH 369-405 / AD 980-1014. Dirham (Silver, 26 mm, 5.51 g, 11 h), citing the Būyid overlord Sulṭān al-Dawla Abū Shujāʿ ibn Bahāʾ al-Dawla, [al-Rur], Date unclear [AH 403-5 = AD 1012-5]. Central field, in four lines: lā ilāha illā Allāh / waḥdahū lā sharīka lahū / al-Qādir bi-llāh al-amīr / Badr ibn Ḥasanwayh (‘There is no deity but God alone, He has no associate / al-Qādir bi-llāh, the amīr / Badr ibn Ḥasanwayh’ in Arabic). Margin largely illegible. Rev. Central field, in four lines: Muḥammad rasūl Allāh / amīr al-umarāʾ A / bū Shujāʿ / ibn Bahāʾ al-Dawla (‘Muḥammad is the Messenger of God / the commander of commanders, Abū Shujāʿ / son of Bahāʾ al-Dawla’ in Arabic). Margin largely illegible. Album 1589.5. Extremely rare and nicely toned. The usual areas of weakness and very minor scratches on the reverse, otherwise, very fine.


The Ḥasanwayhids were a Kurdish dynasty based in the central Zagros region around Kermānshāh, active during the later 4th and early 5th centuries AH. Badr ibn Ḥasanwayh was the most important ruler of the dynasty and governed within the wider political orbit of the Būyids, whose authority remained a major source of formal legitimacy in western Iran and Iraq at this time.