The Art of Islamic Mintage

Barakat Mohamed Morad - Egypt

The importance of currency lies in being one of the elements of the State, a symbol of its symbols, and a title of its glory, which is related to its economy, legislation, all its situations, and its relations with the neighboring and contemporary states. It reveals secrets; considered as a page revealing the successive Governments of the States that cannot be dismissed by the history of the State’s life, and in the appointment of its budget, even as an approximation. Scholars believe that the Arabic and Islamic currency since its appearance was minted only for trade, and not for other purposes, but scientific studies have proved that currency play another important role besides the role of trade, namely the role of the media, a role similar to the role played by the press, radio, television, and conferences in the present time, and we have witnesses of hundreds or even thousands of currencies in the Iraqi Museum of Baghdad, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the Arabic and Islamic museums. Currency is also a school for photography in its various phases; it gives us for any period of time a complete vision of its general and particular characteristics. Hundreds if not thousands of currencies in Mosul, Baghdad, Diyar bakir and elsewhere are the best witnesses of that; currency is also a school for Arabic calligraphy and its development in different forms, and a school to study the decorative elements of the various geometric, astronomic, vegetables, and animal, and human forms. Do not forget that currency includes a study of nicknames, titles, cities, and slogans. Studying each aspect involves special lexicons that fill in an important gap in the Arabic library. The researcher highlights the story of (global) Islamic Dinar. He mentions that Caliph Abd al-Malik minted the Arab and Islamic currencies. Gold Dinar and silver Dirham have been the most important events of the Arab- Islamic history, because of the consequent results of great importance, economically and politically, locally and globally. It can be said that this achievement marks a (coup) in the fundamental financial and economic systems that prevailed in the world of the Middle Ages. Islamic Dinar has been spread gradually, and became the only gold coin in the Islamic world, from the border of China in the east to the west of Andalusia. Arab and Islamic regimes established rules for its support and protection, but the spread of the Dinar was not limited within the Islamic world, but stepped cross the cities of the ancient world and their markets. What helped the Islamic Dinar to achieve these international standing and reputation is the protection by Caliphs and governors, in the east and west of the Islamic world, of its legal weight, its caliber, and its purity. In spite of the small differences in Dinars, which were made in the era of this Caliph or the other, its major feature during the centuries has been maintained. Furthermore, the State’s protection of the Arab and Islamic currency was an important factor in the arrival of the Dinar to its international position. The Caliphs and governors realized that the safety of all economy, the regularity of people’s interests, and reputation of the State at home and abroad, lies in the safety of its currency, hence the establishment of protectionist rules and regulations, and supervising by themselves or through their representatives to execute them.