136, Lot: 264. Estimate $75. Sold for $210. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARAB-SASANIAN. Dabuyads of Tabaristan. Sulayman. 787-789 AD. AR Tabari Drachm (26mm, 1.50 gm). Dated PYE 136 (787/8 AD). Sasanian style bust imitating Khosrau II right, but with face replaced by rhomboid bearing the Arabic word bakh / Fire altar flanked by attendants; date and mint. SIC Ashmolean -; Walker, Arab-Sassanian p.145, B.43; Album 65. Good VF. Scarce variety and date.

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