Coinage of the pre-Islamic Arabian kingdoms

Farajallah Ahmad Yusuf opens his introduction by noting that the Arabs knew coinage before Islam, struck by kingdoms of the Arabian Peninsula such as Saba and the Nabataeans. ¹

The Sabaeans struck coins on the Greek model, the oldest from the second half of the fourth century BCE, with the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and an owl, olive sprig and crescent on the reverse, and letters in Musnad script marking the denomination. ¹ In the late second and early first centuries BCE coins appeared with a bearded, crowned man representing the king or the god Almaqah; Sabaean coin names in inscriptions include balat and radim. ¹

The Nabataean kings struck a series of coins, Hellenistic in influence before Obodas II and less so after; the reign of Aretas IV (9 BCE–40 CE) was the kingdom's golden age, hardly a year of it passing without a new issue. ² Tomb inscriptions at al-Hijr (Mada'in Salih) name "Aretan sela coins" as fines for violating the tombs. ^{2 3}