'Abbasid Caliphate. Al-Mu'tadid. AH 279-289 / AD 892-902. AR Donative Dirham (25.5mm, 2.95 g, 11h). Medallic type with broad margins. Amid mint. Dated AH 286 (AD 899). Superb EF.

CNG Islamic Auction 3
Lot: 109. Estimated: $ 5 000

‘Abbasid Caliphate, Silver

Sold For $ 9 500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

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'Abbasid Caliphate. Al-Mu'tadid. AH 279-289 / AD 892-902. AR Donative Dirham (25.5mm, 2.95 g, 11h). Medallic type with broad margins. Amid mint. Dated AH 286 (AD 899). Obverse margin: bismillah duriba bi-Amid sanat fathuha wa huwa sitt wa thamanin wa mi’atain. Cf. Album 242M; cf. Leu auction 7 (24 October 2020), lot 2075 (standard dirhams with similar legends). Minor spotting on reverse. Superb EF. Of the highest rarity, apparently unpublished as a donative and believed unique.

This handsome presentation dirham was doubtless struck to mark al-Mu‘tadid’s capture of the city of Amid in AH 286. The siege is described in some detail by al-Tabari:

In Rabi II, 286 al-Mu‘tadid billah had reached Amid and encamped with his soldiers to lay siege to the city. Muhammad b. Ahmad b. ‘Isa b. Shaykh had locked the gates of the city of Amid against him and against his partisans in it. Al-Mu‘tadid had distributed his armies around the city and laid siege to the inhabitants. This took place late in the second half of Rabi I, 286. Following that, battles broke out between them. Mangonels were set up against the inhabitants of Amid who in turn set up mangonels on their wall, and they bombarded each other.

On Saturday, Jumada I 19, 286 Muhammad b. Ahmad b. ‘Isa sent word to al-Mu‘tadid seeking guarantees of safe-conduct for himself, his family, and the inhabitants of Amid. Al-Mu‘tadid granted that to him. On the same day, Muhammad b. Ahmad b. ‘Isa with his men and allies left and went to al-Mu‘tadid. The Caliph bestowed robes of honour upon him and his ranking men...On Jumada I 25, 286, a1-Mu‘tadid's dispatch reporting his conquest reached Madinat al-Salam, whereupon it was read from the pulpit in the Friday Mosque.

Al-Mu‘tadid stayed on in Amid for the remainder of Jumada I and through twenty-three days of Jumada II. On Saturday, Jumada II 22, 286 he travelled from Amid to al-Raqqah. In his place at Amid, he left his son ‘Ali with troops that he had attached to him in order to secure the region and establish administrative control of Qinnasrin and the fortified cities as well as Diyar Rabi‘ah and Diyar Mudar...Al-Mu‘tadid ordered the destruction of the wall of Amid, and a portion of it was destroyed, while the rest could not be destroyed and was left intact.

(Al-Tabari 2186-2188, slightly abridged from Rosenthal, Frank, The History of Al-Tabari, Volume XXXVIII: The Return of the Caliphate to Baghdad, New York, 1985).



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