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'Abbasid Caliphate. Al-Mu'tamid. AH 256-279 / AD 870-892. AV Dinar (23.1mm, 3.80 g, 10h). Al-Rayy mint. Dated AH 270 (AD 883/4). Obverse field: la ilaha illa / Allah wahdahu / la sharik lahu / al-Muwaffaq billah / Reverse field: lillah / Muhammad / rasul / Allah / al-Mu‘tamid ‘ala-’llah / Dhu’l-Wizaratayn. Bernardi type 176; Album 239.3. Edge marks, central flan split, some tooling in fields. Good Fine. Of the highest rarity, apparently unpublished.
The important city of Rayy was active as a mint for Arab-Sasanian and Umayyad silver coins, but it was during the latter half of the second century, by which time the city had been officially renamed as al-Muhammadiya, that it became one one of the most prolific mints in the Islamic world. The new name honoured the future caliph al-Mahdi Muhammad, who was based in Rayy in his capacity of Governor of the East when formally appointed as heir to the caliph al-Mansur in AH 147.
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From the late 140s until the 430s, the city almost invariably appears on the coinage with the mint-name al-Muhammadiya and, as Miles notes, ‘The occasional reappearance of the name Rayy in the ‘Abbasid period can hardly be inadvertent’ (Miles, Rayy p. 32). Bernardi records just a single gold coin of Rayy issued before AH 334: a dinar dated AH 293 on which the mint-name is reportedly Madinat al-Rayy (Bernardi 226Ma, citing a unique specimen in Istanbul, published by Artuk but not illustrated). But it is difficult to see why a dinar of al-Rayy should have been struck in AH 270, although the mint-name itself is unambiguous. An ‘Abbasid dinar of al-Muhammadiya is known dated AH 268 (Bernardi 177Mh), and Miles reports another dated AH 275, but no coins at all appear to be known for the seven years between. Miles suggests that the control of Rayy was disputed between several local warlords during these years. The Turkish general Adhkutekin b. Asantekin occupied the city twice: first in AH 266, and again in AH 272 after defeating the ‘Alid ruler, Muhammad b. Zayd.
But there are reasons to suspect that there may have been a power vacuum in Rayy around the year AH 270. There was civil war among the ‘Alids in this year following the death of al-Hasan b. Zayd, while the Dulafids, who had held power in Jibal during the 260s as vassals of the Saffarids, abruptly transferred their allegiance to the caliph in AD 270 when faced by the prospect of a caliphal army entering their domains to march against the Saffarids in the East. The caliph’s forces were led by none other than Sa‘id b. Makhlad, who appears on this coin by the title Dhu’l-Wizaratayn, who had finally defeated the Zanj in this year. In exchange for switching their allegiance to the ‘Abbasid cause, the Dulafids were granted the right to place their own names on the coinage, and the first Dulafid coins, struck in Shiraz in AH 270, accordingly name the Dulafid ruler ‘Ahmad b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz alongside the caliph and his commander, Dhu’l-Wizaratayn. Rayy lay on the fringes of the Dulafid lands, and al-Muhammadiya is not known as a Dulafid mint. But whoever was in fact in control of Rayy in AH 270 may well have felt it prudent to make a very public statement of allegiance to Sa‘id b. Makhlad and the ‘Abbasid cause, and to distance themselves from both the ‘Alids and the Saffarids.
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