The Umm Hajara Silver Hoard (al-Ush)

Summary

Kanz Umm Hajara al-fiddi is a study by Muhammad Abu al-Faraj al-Ush, chief curator of the National Museum of Damascus, published in its first edition by the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in 1972. ¹ Its subject is a hoard of 409 silver dirhams handed to the Directorate on 11 May 1970, found near the small village of Umm Hajara about forty kilometres north of al-Hasaka on the road to Qamishli. ²

Method

In his foreword the author says that in the Sasanian section he tried to bring the Pahlavi script closer to the reader, giving the legends as they appear and then explaining them, with particular attention to the mints and to scholars' views on them; he did the same for the Arab-Sasanian coins with their Pahlavi and Arabic formulas and Arabic names written in Pahlavi; he treated the Umayyad coins briefly and, for the Abbasid coins, concentrated on the names of persons and mints. ³ He follows Paruck, Göbl and Walker in identifying mint signatures. ⁴

Structure

Sasanian dirhams; Arab-Sasanian dirhams (anonymous, those of caliphs and claimants to the title Commander of the Faithful, and those of Umayyad governors); Umayyad dirhams; rebel dirhams of the Umayyad period; an Andalusian Umayyad dirham; Abbasid dirhams from al-Saffah to al-Amin; a Seljuk dirham; then indexes of mint marks, terms, formulas and names, and a French summary. ⁵ ⁶

Highlights

He explains that dates on Arab-Sasanian dirhams are either Yazdgirdi (the king's regnal year), "post-Yazdgirdi" (counted from the year after Yazdgird III's death), or Hijri. ⁷
He describes a dirham of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr struck in Kerman whose mint is written in a form found on no other coin; with Göbl he reads it as Kerman and Istakhr together, and he believes it unique. ⁸ ⁹
He describes two dirhams of Qatari ibn al-Fuja'a styled "Commander of the Faithful" and bearing the Kharijite motto "no judgement but God's". ¹⁰
He holds that the purely Arabic Umayyad dirhams developed from the Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian ones, keeping their weight, size and rings, and that the earliest is dated 79 AH without a mint, which Walker took for a trial striking. ¹¹
The hoard holds 179 Abbasid dirhams dated 134–193 AH, including several rare and unique pieces. ¹²

Sources

Muhammad Abu al-Faraj al-Ush, Kanz Umm Hajara al-fiddi [The Umm Hajara silver hoard: Sasanian, Arab-Sasanian, Umayyad, Abbasid, in the National Museum, Damascus], 1st ed., Damascus: Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, 1972 , p. 1

The Umm Hajara Silver Hoard (al-Ush)

At a glance

Summary

Method

Structure

Highlights

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Objects

Arab-Byzantine and Arab-Sasanian coinage