al-Hajjaj's Mint and Coinage

دار الضرب وسكك الحجاج

Al-Hajjaj struck dirhams at the end of 75h and ordered them struck in all regions in 76h. 'Awana ibn al-Hakam: he asked how the Persians struck dirhams, took a mint-house, gathered the minters, struck the sultan's money from bullion and the purifications of zuyuf, sattuqa and bahraja, then licensed merchants' sheets for a fee and sealed the minters' hands. He struck 'ali dirhams marked 'bismillah, al-Hajjaj', then 'God is one, God the eternal' — the jurists disliked them and they were called makruha, or so the Ajam called them for their short weight; the Sumayriyya were named for their first striker. Mus'ab had struck dirhams by Ibn al-Zubayr's order in 70h on the Kisra-type marked 'baraka wa-'afiya' — al-Hajjaj altered them — and, per Ibn al-Kalbi, dinars too; al-Harith ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Rabi'a struck wazn-sab'a in Ibn al-Zubayr's days. Abd al-Malik first struck gold after the Year of Union, 74h (some dinars in 72, then 75). Then Umar ibn Hubayra refined the silver beyond his predecessors and bore hard on the changers; Khalid al-Qasri harder; Yusuf ibn Umar hardest — cut hands and flogged backs — so the Hubayriyya, Khalidiyya and Yusufiyya were the best Umayyad coin, the only Umayyad dirhams al-Mansur accepted for kharaj, whence the first dirhams were called makruha.

Overview

Al-Hajjaj struck dirhams at the end of the year 75 AH, then ordered them struck in all regions in 76 AH. ¹

The mint

The source relates from Awana ibn al-Hakam that al-Hajjaj asked what the Persians used to do in striking dirhams, so he set up a mint and gathered the minters in it. He struck for the sultan from what came in of gold dust, from the refined base coin, the stuqa and the bahraja. Then he allowed the merchants to strike their own coins, and profited from the surplus of the fee. ¹

His dirhams bore the inscription "In the name of God, al-Hajjaj"; a year later the inscription was "God is one, God the eternal". The jurists disliked them, so they were called "disliked" (makruha). It is said that the Persians disliked their being underweight, and that they were called "al-Sumayriyya" after the first man who struck them. ¹

What came before and after

Musab struck dirhams in 70 AH on the pattern of the Sasanian kings, and al-Hajjaj changed them. It is reported from Hisham ibn al-Kalbi that he struck dinars with them. Ibn Abi al-Zinad says that Abd al-Malik was the first to strike gold in 74 AH; Abu al-Zubayr the critic says he struck some in 72 AH, then in 75 AH. ¹

Afterwards Umar ibn Hubayra tightened the refining of silver, and Khalid al-Qasri added to it, then Yusuf ibn Umar, who cut off hands and beat bodies over it. So the Hubayriyya, the Khalidiyya and the Yusufiyya were the finest coins of the Umayyads, and al-Mansur would accept none but them in the land tax; the first dirhams were called "disliked". ¹

Abd al-Malik's Coinage Reform

Heraclius's dinars and the Persian Baghliyya dirhams reached Jahiliya Mecca and traded only as bullion: their mithqal twenty-two qirats less a fraction, ten dirhams seven mithqals, the ratl twelve uqiyyas of forty dirhams — weights the Prophet confirmed, and Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, and Mu'awiya after him. Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr struck a few dirhams under Ibn al-Zubayr, later broken; then Abd al-Malik asked and tested, wrote al-Hajjaj to strike dirhams at fifteen qirats of the dinar-qirats, and struck the Damascene dinars — which came to Medina with Companions and Followers there and none objected. Al-Hasan ibn Salih: the Ajam dirhams ran great and small — twenty, twelve, ten qirats — and when Islam needed the mean for zakah they summed forty-two and struck the third, fourteen qirats, so ten Arab dirhams weigh seven mithqals. Quraysh's weights: the dirham for silver, the dinar for gold, ten dirham-weights to seven dinar-weights, the sha'ira a sixtieth of a dirham, the uqiyya forty dirhams, the nashsh twenty, the nawa five — all confirmed when the Prophet entered Mecca. And Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, asked who first struck engraved dinars, said 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan — dinars came Byzantine, dirhams Kisrawi and few Himyari'.

al-Hajjaj's Mint and Coinage

At a glance

Overview

The mint

What came before and after

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

Abd al-Malik's Coinage Reform