A Syrian Coinage of Mu'awiya ?

Summary. — The so-called « Arab-Byzantine » coinage contains a complex series of undated and anonymous coins with types derived from the Byzantine, straek between the Arab conquest of the 640 's and the reforms of Abd al-Malik of 693. The most serious attempt to establish a chronology has assigned them to the last years of this period. Historical sources and documents, however, indicate that the Islamic government was already highly organized and bureaucratic under the great leader Mu'awiya (661-680). A sophisticated system of administration and taxation implies coinage, and parallels with the East, where the «Arab-Sassanian» coinage was flourishing under Mu'awiya suggest that such was the case in Syria. I propose here that the bronze « Arab-Byzantine » types with bilingual inscriptions and mintmarks represent such an organization and may, along with a few rare gold coins, be assigned to the reign of Mu'awiya.Fig. 9 Fig. 10 Fig. 12 Fig. 11 Fig. 13Foss C. A Syrian Coinage of Mu'awiya ?. In: Revue numismatique, 6e série - Tome 158, année 2002 pp. 353-365