ISLAMIC, 'Abbasid Caliphate. Jahwar ibn Marrar al-'ljli, rebel in Rayy, AH 137-138 / AD 754/755-755/756. Fals (Bronze, 23 mm, 2.66 g, 6 h), Rayy (Rhages), AH 138 / AD 755/756. Legend in Arabic within octagon formed by two squares; around, legend in Arabic. Rev. Legend in Arabic in a square with 8 annulets at the corners and the middle of the sides; around, legend in Arabic. Lowick&Savage, 646. Miles, Numismatic History of Rayy, 41. Peus 408 (2012), 1424. Extremely rare. Attractive earthen highlights. The obverse a bit rough, otherwise, very fine.
Jahwar ibn Marrar al-'ljli was an Abbasid commander sent to Rayy by the Caliph Al-Mansur to suppress the rebellion of a Zoroastrian nobleman named Sunpadh. The general quickly defeated the local insurgency, but he himself then turned against the Caliph and seized the treasures he had captured from the rebels for his own army. Al-Mansur reacted to this blatant treachery by sending out an even larger army under the command of one of his most loyal supporters, Muhammad Ibn al-Ash'-ath, a brilliant general who would later become the Abbasid governor of Damascus and of Egypt. It is at this time that the hard-pressed Jahwar started issuing his own coins, but he was quickly expelled from Rayy by Muhammad and killed soon thereafter. The coinage of Jahwar ibn Marrar al-'ljli is hence of extreme rarity today, and this is only the second example to appear in a public sale in the last two decades