'Abbasid Revolution

Triton XXI, Lot: 948. Estimate $5000. Sold for $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, 'Abbasid Revolution. Kharijites. AH 132-136 / AD 749-754. AR Dirham (26mm, 2.85 g, 6h). Tanbarak mint. Dated AH 133 (AD 697/8 or 699/700). First portion of the kalimat at-tawḥīd: lā ilāha illā-llāhu waḥdahu lā sharīka la (there is no god except Allah, and one [is] he; (there is) no partner to him) in three lines; in outer margin, b-ismi-llāh zarb hazā āl-dirham bi-tanbarak fī sanat thelath wa thelathīn wa mi’atain (in the name of Allah struck this dirham in Tanbarak in the year three and thirty and one hundred (after the Hijra)); all within double pelleted circular border; outer border consisting of la hukm illa lillah (there is no decision but Allah’s) and four pellet-in-annulets surrounded by pelleted circular border / “Umayyad Second Symbol” (Sura 112 [al-ikhlas]): allah ahad allah/es-samad lem yalid/ wa lem yūlad wa lem yakun/lahu kufū ahad (Allah is one. Allah is Eternal. He did not beget and he was not begotten, and there was not to him equal a single one) in three lines; in outer margin the “Umayyad Second Symbol” (Sura 9 [al-tauba]:33): [muḥammadur] rasūlu-llāh arsalahu bi-’lhudā wa dīn al-haqq lī-yuzhirahu ’ala al-dīn kollihi walau ka[riha al-mushrikūn] (Muhammad is the messenger of Allah; him He sent with guidance and true faith to make it prevail over all other faiths even though the polytheists may hate it); all within double pelleted circular border; outer border consisting of five annulets surrounded by pelleted circular border. Wurtzel Group 4-A, 29; Klat 198; Album 207.2; ICV 360; Morton & Eden 79, lot 55 (different dies). Good VF, mottled toning, light deposits. Extremely rare.

This extremely rare mint-name has not been read with certainty. Bayburd, in Anatolia, is a possible reading but unlikely on historical grounds. Album suggests Tanbarak as a variant form of Tabarak, a name given to several fortresses in Iran and possibly the place known in Parthian times as Tambrax.