Umayyad Caliphate, Bronze coinage. Æ Fals (17.7mm, 2.34 g, 10h). Al-Bab mint. Dated AH 115 (AD 733/4). In the name of Marwan b. Muhammad. Album 196E; ICV 309. Near VF. Very rare.
Al-Bab, ‘The Gate’, was the name given by the Umayyads to Derbend on the Caspian Sea. This fals names Marwan b. Muhammad, the future Umayyad caliph Marwan II (AH 127-132), who was appointed to the governorship of Armenia in AH 114. Later in his governorship Marwan launched a series of campaigns into Georgia, where his ruthlessness and indifference to suffering led to him being known as Murvan Qru, ‘Marwan the Deaf’.
