'Abbasid Caliphate. temp. Al-Mahdi, AH 158-169 / AD 775-785. Fals (Bronze, 17 mm, 1.25 g, 9 h), cast type in the name of the governor Ibrāhīm ibn Ṣāliḥ, no mint (Egypt), no date (AH 165-167 / AD 781-784). In three lines: ḍuriba / fī wilāyat / al-amīr (‘Struck / in the governorship / of the amir’ in Arabic). Rev. In three lines: Ibrāhīm bin / Ṣāliḥ akra- / mahu Allāh (‘Ibrāhīm ibn Ṣāliḥ, may God honor him’ in Arabic). Album 281. SNAT Egypt 179-181. Extremely rare and with exceptionally clear legends for this type. Some deposits, otherwise, good very fine.



This remarkable fals belongs to the earliest post-reform bronze coinage of the Abbasid period in Egypt and names the governor Ibrāhīm ibn Ṣāliḥ, who governed Egypt during AH 165-167 / AD 781-784 under the caliph al-Mahdī. Ibrāhīm was a member of the Abbasid ruling family and served as governor during a formative period in the development of reformed Islamic copper coinage.

Unlike the standardized gold and silver coinage, early Abbasid bronze issues often display considerable experimentation in fabric, epigraphy, and formulae. Coins naming provincial governors are especially important historical documents because they preserve administrative titles and local authority structures otherwise rarely visible in surviving material culture.

The present specimen is particularly significant because of the exceptional clarity and completeness of its inscriptions. The full reading of the legends is rarely encountered on this type, and the present coin may represent one of the finest preserved examples known. Most surviving specimens are weakly struck, corroded, fragmentary, or only partially legible, making this sharply centered and unusually clear example especially desirable.