Sale: CNG 73, Lot: 1089. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 13 September 2006.  Sold For $450. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARAB-SASANIAN, Bishapur. al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. 691-714. Æ 18mm (0.60 g, 7h). Struck after 699. Crowned facing Sasanian style bust; “hc’cywsp’n” in blundered Pahlavi / Horse advancing right. Gyselen Type 62. VF, brown patina.

Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf was an important administrator during the Umayyad Caliphate.Appointed Governor of Iraq in 691, he replaced the administrative language of the area from Pahlavi to Arabic during his governorship. Renowned for the apparent severity of his rule and his crushing of a local Khwarij uprising, he was appointed in 699 as governor of of several districts in Persia with the goal of suppressing rebellions in those areas. Included in his control was the important Sasanian city of Bishapur, at which time this coin was struck