Abstract

Numismatic evidence is an essential source for reconstructing the visual and textual history of the first eight decades of Islamic rule, particularly the reign of the Marwanid caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, when a large number of coin varieties, many with human representation, were struck. This chapter begins with the premise that when a new coin type was struck the new elements were added as the result of unique historical factors. The increasing use of Arabic in the form of pious phrases and Qurʾanic verses, and of other data such as mint names and dates is one of the hallmarks of this coinage and is traced through the all-epigraphic issues of A.H. 77 and 78. The chapter discusses the emergence of a series of pious phrases found on contemporary coinage, milestones, and tombstones, and in the Dome of the Rock, which have been labeled in all the modern literature as the shahāda.Keywords: ʿAbd al-Malik; coinage; Dome of the Rock; Islam; Qurʾanic verses; shahāda

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