CNG 90, Lot: 1998. Estimate $200. Sold for $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf. Amir, AH 75-95 / AD 694-714. PB Seal (22mm, 13.13 g). “al-amr a/l-Hajjaj/bin Yusuf” in Arabic within incuse square / Blank. Cf. Christie’s (17 October 1997), 354 (for a similar example). VF, earthen deposits.

Ex Islamic Coin Auction 17 (26 October 2010), lot 93.

Al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf (b. Al-Hakam b. 'Akil al-Thakafi, Abu Muhammad) was the most famous and able governor of the Ummayyads. He was born to a poor family in Ta'if in 661. He first came to the notice of 'Abd al-Malik by restoring discipline among mutinous troops. He did this with a severity for which he later became renowned. He was equally brave in action and became a trusted commander of the caliph. In the process he was instrumental in recapturing Mecca from the anti-caliph, Ibn al-Zubayr and thereby re-uniting the Islamic state. He was appointed governor of Iraq and, in addition to this, four years later, governor of Khorassan and Sidjistan. By 702, from his fortified base at Wasit which he had founded, he was master of the entire Islamic East. From there he organised the conquests of Transoxiana, 'Uman and India. On the civil side it was he who organised the division of the qur'an into thirty ajza, and he who was instrumental in striking the first purely arabic coinage. He was also an important agricultural reformer, ensuring greater productivity in his lands. His administrative powers were equally great when organising his territory peacefully as they had been when he was conquering it. He died aged fifty-two in June 714. He had left such a powerful legacy however that verses about him and anecdotes, not always in his favor, continued to be circulated until the present day.