An Important Hephthalite Imitation

268, Lot: 186. Estimate $200. Sold for $1700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HUNNIC TRIBES, Hephthalites. Circa AD 700. AR Drachm (33mm, 3.37 g, 4h). Imitating an issue of the Umayyad governor ‘Abd Allah ibn Khazim from the Marw mint. Dated AH 69 (AD 688/9). Crowned Sasanian style bust right; bismallah in lower right margin, tamgha in lower left margin; c/m’s: Sogdian legend, crowned facing head with tamgha to left (2) / Fire altar with ribbons; flanked by two attendants; star and crescent flanking flames; date to left, mint name to right. Göbl, Dokumente -; cf. SICA 1, cf. CNG 60 (22 May 2002), 1090-6 (for series); for c/m’s: cf. Göbl, Dokumente KM 79 (Sogdian legend), the other perhaps unpublished. Good VF, flan wavy from countermarks, reverse die shift. Extremely rare.

In AH 61, Salm bin Ziyad was appointed Governor of Khurasan by the Umayyad caliph Yazid I. Three years later, bin Ziyad was deposed and replaced by ‘Abd Allah bin Khazim. The new governor quickly threw in his lot with the rebel faction led by bin Zubayr, dragging Khurasan into internecine conflict. Meanwhile, the Hepthalites took advantage of Arab distraction and invaded the region. In such a fractured state, Khurasan could not resist the Huns, and the whole of the province fell under Hepthalite control for a brief period.

This coin was struck after the deposition of bin Ziyad, using the imitation of his reverse type, as opposed to the other issues bearing a Hunnic style reverse. These types are clear evidence that this and related imitations (cf. CNG 60, 1090-6) were all produced in the same Khorasanian locality, by the same Sogdian speaking peoples. The group minting these imitations was plainly impartial to whether the prototype was Sasanian (with Khusro II types), or Arab-Sasanian, imitating either ‘Abd Allah bin Khazim or Salm bin Ziyad. However, the omnipresence of the tamgha and Sogdian legends (in countermark or engraveur) indicates that an association with Sogdian Hephthalite groups is the most important factor in the coins' production and identity.