Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Marwan II ibn Muhammad, AH 127-132 / AD 744-750. Dinar (Gold, 19 mm, 4.00 g, 8 h), AH 132 = AD 749/50. ‘lā ilāha illā / Allāh waḥdahū / lā sharīka lahū’ (‘There is no deity but Allah, the One, there is no partner to Him’ in Arabic); in the margin, ‘Muḥammad rasūl Allāh arsalahū bi al-hudā wa dīn al-ḥaqq liyuẓhirahū ʿalā al-dīn kullih’ (‘Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. He sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, so that He may make it overcome all religions’ in Arabic). Rev. ‘Allāh aḥad Allāh / al-ṣamad lam yalid / wa lam yūlad’ (‘Allah is One, Allah is Absolute, He begets not, nor is He begotten’ in Arabic; Qurʾān 112: 1-3); in the margin, ‘bism Allāh ḍuriba hādhā al-dīnār sana thinatayn wa thalāthīn wa miʾa’ (‘In the name of Allah. This dinar was struck in the year 132’ in Arabic). Album 141. Rare. Key date, the last Umayyad dinar. Slightly clipped and with some doubling and scratches, otherwise, good very fine.



This dinar dated to AH 132 (AD 749/50 AD) was struck under Marwan II, the last caliph of the Umayyad dynasty. By then, the Abbasid revolt, launched three years earlier in Khurasan under the leadership of Abū Muslim, had already gathered unstoppable momentum. In 750 it culminated in the Battle of the Great Zab, where Marwan’s army was decisively defeated; he fled toward Egypt but was overtaken and killed. With his death, nearly a century of Umayyad rule came to an end, and the Abbasids - claiming descent from al-ʿAbbās, the Prophet’s uncle - assumed leadership of the Islamic world.

This dinar is therefore not only a rare issue of the final Umayyad caliph but also the last gold coin of the dynasty, struck on the very eve of one of the most profound political transformations in Islamic history.