Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1689. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARAB-SASANIAN. Dabuyads of Tabaristan. Sulayman. 787-789 AD. AR Hemidrachm (1.86 gm). Dated PYE 137 (788/9 AD). Sasanian style bust imitating Khosrau II right, but with face replaced by rhomboid bearing the Arabic word bakh; Arabic marginal legend / Fire altar flanked by attendants; date and mint. SIC Ashmolean 436; Walker, Arab-Sassanian 287. Good VF. Scarce variety. ($150)

From the Bellaria Collection. Ex Monetarium List 35 (Summer 1981), lot 195.

Sulayman was the only ruler of Tabaristan who felt it necessary to adhere to the Islamic stricture against portraiture and replace the Sasanian bust with an abstract design.