Vladimir Suchy » 3-March-2020 12:14pm

* al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Zakariyyá (abú `Abd Alláh aš-Ší`í, +911/298 h.) - (أبو عبد الله الشيعي) ‎الحسين بن محمد بن زكريا - en.Wikipedia

** neither `Asír, nor `Adan Lá`ah is legible of this specimen, cf.
عدن - عَسِيرٌ

Related readings:

Madelung, W.: Manṣūr al-Yaman - Abu ’l-Ḳāsim al-Ḥasan b. Farad̲j̲ b. Ḥaws̲h̲ab b. Zād̲h̲ān al-Nad̲j̲d̲j̲ār al-Kūfī - Ibn Ḥaws̲h̲ab - Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition

Fatimid Caliphate - الفاطميون - (الخلافة الفاطمية) - الدولة الفاطمية‎ - en.Wikipedia

abú Muhammad `Abd Alláh al-Mahdí Bi-Alláh (Sa'íd ibn al-Husayn, 873 – 4 March 934) - أبو محمد عبد الله المهدي بالله - en.Wikipedia

The Book of the Sage and Disciple - كتاب العالم والغلام - en.Wikipedia

onlycoins » 13-March-2020 2:25am

Ibn Hashoub had a small movement in Yemen and was unable to mint currencies

Vladimir Suchy » 14-March-2020 7:55am

Well, attribution of this coin is tentative since the reading of mint is uncertain and neither is clear how many persons are named - one or two - nor who they were. Unfortunately, provenance is not given by a cataloguer. But `Alawí origin of this previously unrecorded dirham from a periphery of Islamic `ummah is probable.

For now, it seems that

al-Mahdí could be laqab of abú Muhammad `Abd Alláh Fátimí (Sa'íd ibn al-Husayn)
and
al-Mansúr bi-Alláh could be laqab of abú al-Qásim al-Ḥasan b. Faraj b. Ḥawšab, d. 302 h.

sorena » 29-August-2020 12:16pm

AR Dirham of Husayn b. Zikrawayh (Ahmad b. Abdallah) al-Mahdi al-Mansur bi allah, man of mole, first Qarmatid who struck coin, he was beheaded in 291 AH, in Baghdad.
Writen by Farbod mosanef in Oriental Coins, no.4, Autumn 2017:
http://www.academia.edu/35768949/Introducing_Coin_of_Husayn_...

sorena » 29-August-2020 12:20pm

similar #204896

sorena » 29-August-2020 4:10pm

Vladimir Suchy » 29-August-2020 4:45pm

, thank you! Where could be a mint located?

sorena » 29-August-2020 11:01pm

you are welcome,maybe mint is askar al-mahdi(court or military camp of mahdi).

Vladimir Suchy » 30-August-2020 1:04am

Attribution corrected accordingly.

Aramazd » 3-September-2023 11:46am

There is no mint on this coin. See my note to the similar coin 204896.

Vladimir Suchy » 3-September-2023 1:41pm

👍 BTW, what’s the provenance of this coin-type? Where it was actually struck, since it’s mint less?

Inspironi » 30-March-2025 1:22am

This coin was described in detail by L.Ilisch here: FINT coin of the month, February 2021, and it belongs to the Tubingen collection as FINT PZS-95.

The unnamed mint is presumably Hims and the issuer must have been al-Husayn b. Zakarawayh, also known as sahib al-shama (Man with the mole), the leader of the Qarmatid movement in the northern Syria and a self-proclaimed Mahdi, before his defeat in the Battle of Hama and subsequent public execution in Baghdad in Rabi' I 291. This coinage was mentioned in several sources (as established by H.Halm in his 'The Empire of the Mahdi – The Rise of the Fatimids', 1996).

Reportedly there exists another specimen (made from the same dies, so it is not Zeno #245664) in private hands which surfaced in mid-1990-ies.

Morton & Eden's description is partly incorrect (there is no mint name on this coin) and the suggested historic background is entirely false. L.Ilisch commented that he deliberately did not disclose the true origin of this coinage to the auction house, hoping to keep the interest to this coin - and the bids during the auction - at bay.

Inspironi » 30-March-2025 3:59pm

A few more details explaining the confusion about the mint place and the issuer of this coin.

The bismalla formula with the date is moved to the inner circular legend on reverse:
بسم الله ضرب هذا الدرهم في عصر المهدي سنه تسعین وماتین
What was earlier read as bi-'Askar (بعسكر: in camp) is in fact fi 'asr (في عصر: in era), so instead of the mint place we have here 'in the era of al-Mahdi'.
In the article of Farbod Mosanef the author also misread these words as 'Askar, arriving to the conclusion that this coinage was 'almost certainly intended for al-Mahdi's military camp'.

Now to the identity of the issuer, styling himself here as al-Mahdi al-Mansur billah. He was earlier identified with Yahya b. Zakarawayh, the earlier Qarmatid leader, before al-Husayn. Confusingly, he was the first to declare himself al-Mahdi, and after his death during the unsuccessful siege of Damascus his supporters rallied around his brother al-Husayn. Actually, the sources studied by H.Halm (Nuwayri, Ibn al-Dawadari and Maqrizi) mantain that it was Yahya, nicknamed 'Master of the She-Camel', who struck the coins, but Halm argued that Yahya was not in control of any mint, up to his death at some point in AH 290. Conversely, when his brother al-Husayn, 'the Man with the mole', became a new al-Mahdi, he was able to capture Hims, with a mint which struck the Tulunid dinars and such dinars are recorded with the date AH 290, the last Tulunid issues from Hims, evidently struck before al-Husayn took over this city. Compare to the report in Tabari III:2225 under year AH 290 - 'He (i.e. al-Husayn b. Zakarawayh) then moved on the environs of Hims and seized control of the city. His name was mentioned from the pulpits during the Friday service. He called himself al-Mahdi...'

Therefore, although the mint place and the issuer are not directly revealed on the coin, it is implied that al-Mahdi al-Mansur billah was al-Husayn b. Zakarawayh ('Man with the mole'), not his brother Yahya, and the mint place should have been Hims, not some uncertain military camp site.

The remaining legends on this coin with non-standard design are as follows:

Outer marginal inscription on reverse: محمد رسول الله ارسله بالهدى ودين الحق ليظهره على الدين كله ولو كره المشركون (Surah at-Tawbah, Q.9:33, like on the regular Abbasid dirhams).
Outer marginal inscription on obverse: قل جاء الحق وزهق الباطل إن الباطل كان زهوقا (Surah al-Isra', Q.17:81, earlier occurring on the coins struck by the 'Alid rebels in Medina and Basra in AH 145, then on the coinage of the Rassid imams of Yemen).
Inner circular inscription on obverse: قل لا اسالكم عليه اجراً الا المودة في القربى (part of Surah al-Shura, Q.42:23, this verse is also found on other coins struck by the 'Alids at different periods and areas).

Vladimir Suchy » 31-March-2025 9:46am

Thank you for the comments, description updated accordingly.