Elemental Analysis of Silver Coins during the Umayyads through the PIXE Method

IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 65–75 Zohreh Jozi, Parasto Masjedi Khak, Alireza Nosrati: Elemental Analysis of Silver Coins during the Umayyads through the PIXE Method 66 After Hisham, there began a decline of Umayyad rule, such that three caliphs, namely Walid ibn Yazid (746 AD/ 125 AH), Yazid ibn Walid (747 AD/126 AH), and Ibrahim bin Walid (747 AD/126 AH) came to power within only one year. Ultimately, the last Umayyad caliph came to rule, i.e. Marwan ibn Muhammad (748–753 AD/127–132 AH) and this dynasty came to an end after Marwan was defeated by the Abbasids. The last survivor of the Umayyads went to Andalusia (Spain) and founded the branch known as the Spanish Umayyads, which survived from 759 to 1043 AD/ 138 to 422 AH (Hawting, 1986, p.41). 2. Mint of coins in the Umayyad period In the Umayyad period, Muslims used Sassanian and Byzantine coins in their exchanges until the reign of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (Ibn KHaldun, 1980). Due to the neglect of governments, impure dinars and dirhams with a high degree of impurity became common ((Ibn Khaldun, 1980, 500), which was followed by Abd al-Malik’s command for minting coins for the first time in 695 AD/ 74 AH (Ibn al-Athir, 1987, p.167; Baladhuri, 1866, p.651). Today, the oldest coins remaining from Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan’s period date back to 699 AD/ 78 AH (Yousef Faraj Allah, 1985, p.37). Abd al-Malik appointed a steady carat for dirham and dinar and, accordingly, he put official currency with its own characteristics into operation and limited the right to mint coins by assigning it only to the state mints (Baladhuri, 1866, p.473). After Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the minting of coins in the periods of Walid ibn Abd al-Malik, Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz continued in the same way (Maqrizi, 1967, p.58). During the reign of Yazid bin Abd al-Malik (722–726 AD/ 101–105 AH), plenty of strict rules were applied to the weight of coins (Baladhuri, 1866, p.652). When Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik came to power (726–746 AD/ 105–125 AH), he closed the mints in all cities except Wasit; and dirham coins were minted only in Wasit (Maqrizi, 1967, p.16). This process continued until the period of Walid ibn Yazid and, during Marwan ibn Muhammad’s period (748–753 AD/ 127–132 AH), he – the last Umayyad caliph – also minted some dirhams in the Harran mint in addition to Wasit (Baladhuri, 1866, p.17). 3. Research background Several studies have been carried out in connection with coins pertaining to the early years of the Islamic era. In this regard, Ziad conducted his studies, where he collected a series of Umayyad silver coins that had been minted in the Wasit mint between 87 and 120 AH (708–741 AD), through the XRF method. His findings highlight the high quality of the coins minted in this mint, where he reported an average silver content of 94.71% in the coins. His studies showed that there was a clear tendency towards betterquality dirhams over time, which may be due to the high control and constraints on the policies of coin minting by the rulers (Ziad, 1999). Al-Kofahi and Al-Tarawneh analyzed a total of 7 silver dirhams belonging to the Ayoubian era (564–648 AH) and 9 coins belonging to the Mamalik period (648–865 AH) by the XRF method. Their results showed that the amount of silver in the Ayoubian coins was between 8% and 52%, while a content of 12% to 55% silver existed in the coins belonging to the Mamalik era. The amount of copper in the coins belonging to the Ayoubian and Mamalik periods varied from 5% to 79%, and the high levels of copper in these coins has been attributed to the counterfeiting that took place in some mints (Al-Kofahi, Al-Tarawneh, 2000). In other study, Ben Abdelouaheda analyzed a collection of 28 silver coins belonging to the Islamic period (from the 7th to the 15th century) via the PIXE method. His results showed that coins pertaining to the Umayyad and Abbasid periods enjoyed a high carat; however, the coins belonging to the Fatimid and Zirid periods did not enjoy a good carat since their silver content was significantly reduced and their copper content increased. This issue has been attributed to the dominant economic conditions and the surveillance system of these states (Ben Abdelouaheda et al., 2010). Figure 1. Location of the mints of Umayyad coins in this study. IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 65–75 Zohreh Jozi, Parasto Masjedi Khak, Alireza Nosrati: Elemental Analysis of Silver Coins during the Umayyads through the PIXE Method 67 No. 1: Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan coin minted in Basra in 82 AH with the weight of 2.5 g. No. 2: Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan coin minted in Wasit in 85 AH with the weight of 2.3 g. No. 3: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Damascus in 88 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. No. 4: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Wasit in 88 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. No. 5: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Wasit in 90 AH with the weight of 2.8 g No. 6: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Wasit in 90 AH with the weight of 2.7 g. No. 7: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Wasit in 92 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. No. 8: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Wasit in 92 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. No. 9: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Wasit in 92 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. No. 10: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Wasit in 92 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. No. 11: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin minted in Darabgerd in 94 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. No. 12: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin, minted in Kerman in 94 AH with the weight of 2.7 g. No. 13: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin, minted in Merv in 95 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. No. 14: Walid bin Abd al-Malik coin, minted in Merv in 95 AH with the weight of 2.8 g. 0 3 cm 0 3 cm