Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1694. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $325. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC DYNASTIES. Ummayads. Circa 695-750 AD. Æ Fals (2.80 gm). Jerusalem mint. Candlestick on tripod base (Menorah?) / "Mohammad is the Prophet of Allah." SIC Ashmolean - ; Barag type 4; Walker, Arab-Byzantine 605. Near VF, dark green patina. Rare. ($150)

An unusual figural bronze struck in Jerusalem by the new Islamic rulers, with a clearly Jewish motif. The type was early-on identified as a menorah, although as Barag points out in his article, only one rare variety has a true representation of the menorah with seven arms and a flat base. The object on this piece actually tends to resemble the Omer (offering) cup depicted on the silver coins of the First Jewish War (see lots 715-718, above), with a rounded bowl (albeit ribbed rather than plain), a knobbed stem and footed base. We may have two different objects presented, both related to Jewish Temple ritual. The Jewish inhabitants of the new Arab province of Bilad as Sham (Palestine) got along tolerably well with their new Islamic rulers, having a common enemy in the implacably hostile Christian Byzantine empire. And the early Ummayad calpihs were obviously willing to allow the expression of Jewish religious symbolism.