ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1 CENTRAL ASIA 20 COINAGE AND THE MONETARY SYSTEM E. A. Davidovich and A. H. Dani Contents CENTRAL ASIA .................................... 395 Coinage and the circulation of money from the eighth to the tenth century ...... 396 Coinage and the circulation of money from the eleventh century to the beginning of the thirteenth ................................... 403 Coinage and the circulation of money under the Mongols (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) ..................................... 408 Coinage and the circulation of money in Transoxania under Timur and the Timurids (late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) ...................... 412 AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN AND NORTHERN INDIA .............. 417 Part One CENTRAL ASIA (E. A. Davidovich) The minting of coins and the circulation of money in the major sub-regions of Central Asia in all the periods between the eighth and the fifteenth century show both similarities and differences. Local variations in the composition and supply of currency were due to a number of factors (economics, politics, traditions, the psychology of the people), among 395 ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1 Coinage and the circulation of money . which state borders were no longer the most important. For example, even in the relatively centralized Samanid state (late ninth and tenth centuries) there existed a number of variants in monetary circulation. The local variants cannot all be compared on equal terms, both because of constraints of space and because of the differing degrees to which these variants have been studied. We shall thus concentrate on one sub-region, that of Transoxania. For other regions, the main differences vis-à-vis Transoxania will be noted. Coinage and the circulation of money from the eighth to the tenth century After the conquest of Central Asia by the Arabs, the local mints started issuing gold, sil- ver and bronze coins inscribed in Arabic on both sides. These coins came to be known technically as ‘Kufic’, from the type of Arabic script used for their legends. Kufic gold coins (dinars) were not minted regularly or on a large scale in Transoxania. Under the Tahirids (821–73), dinars were minted periodically in Samarkand and Chach (Tashkent). Even under the Samanids (tenth century), whose capital was Bukhara, the issue of dinars in Bukhara, Samarkand and Chach remained only occasional. Samanid dinars were minted on a markedly larger scale beyond the borders of Transoxania, particularly in Nishapur and Muhammadiyya (Rayy). Hoards of gold coins found in Transoxania consist mainly of externally minted Samanid dinars (mostly from Nishapur). There was clearly more than one legal standard of fineness for dinars.1 The bulk of the Samanid dinars from Nishapur are of the highest standard (93–98%, and usually 96% fine gold). Muhammadiyya issued dinars both of that high standard and of lower standards. The official weight-standard of the dinar is known (4.26 g) and the mean weight of 4.2 g corresponds to this. Noteworthy, however, are a significant number of coins that exceed the weight requirement. Tenth-century Arab geographers such as al-Istakhr¯ı and Ibn Hawqal point out that gold coins fulfilled different functions in the various regions of the caliphate. In some (e.g. Jibal and Tabaristan), dinars were the medium of exchange; in others (e.g. Kirman, Fars and Transoxania), they were not. When describing the money of Bukhara, al-Istakhr¯ı notes, ‘Dirhams are their coinage; they do not deal among themselves in dinars, which they treat as goods.’2 The geographer and traveller Yaq¯ ut¯ explained this matter in more detail for the enlightenment of his thirteenth-century contemporaries: ‘In the time of the Samanids, the inhabitants of Bukhara used dirhams for trading purposes and did not deal among 1 Ehrenkreutz, 1963, pp. 253–4. 2 Al-Istakhr¯ı, 1927, p. 314. 396 ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1 Coinage and the circulation of money . themselves in dinars. Gold was just another commodity.’3 Gold coins were, until the tenth century, clearly used in Transoxania for rewards or gifts alone. They served as treasure and universal currency but not as a medium of exchange in domestic trade. This is attested by the composition of the hoards, the well-preserved state of the coins, the peculiarities of their real weights and the fact that the local mints of Transoxania issued dinars only periodically. Monetary circulation in the territory of Transoxania was marked by the long coex- istence of two groups of quite dissimilar dirhams: the Kufic and what are termed the Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ dirhams. The Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ dirhams were modelled on the drachm of the Sasanian king Bahram¯ V (420–38). The representation in the eighth century of the monarch’s crowned bust (obverse) and fire-altar and two guards (reverse) was quite dif- ferent from the fifth-century design, the former being schematized and executed in dots and dashes. The Pahlavi inscriptions on both sides of the coin have disappeared (with only the rudiments left), but what remains is something that was featured earlier on the obverse in front of the face of the monarch, namely a Sogdian inscription (three words), and in one issue it is replaced by a shorter (one-word) inscription. Behind the monarch’s head, the rudiments of a Pahlavi inscription have been changed into four barbed spikes (Fig. 1:1 – see p. 444). In the second half of the eighth century, these rudiments were replaced in some issues by Arabic inscriptions (Fig. 1:2–4). In the final quarter of that century the Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ coins were called ‘Mahdiyya’ after the caliph al-Mahd¯ı (775–85). Man- uscript sources do not record this name but it occurs in coin inscriptions. The Mahdiyya dirhams were of a high standard (over 70% silver). All or most were nummi subaerati (fine silver coating on a copper core). The mean weight (3.2 g) of the eighth-century Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ dirhams shows that they were minted in accordance with the local weight-standard. They were issued by three mints: those of Bukhara, Samarkand and Chach.4 In the eighth century there was an abundance of Kufic dirhams of the Umayyads (Fig. 1:6) and early cAbbasids in the territory of Transoxania, minted in many cities beyond its borders. The hoards pertaining to the late eighth century include both Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ and Kufic dirhams. The latter were minted from very high-standard silver and their offi- cial weight-standard was 2.97 g. An unpublished hoard found near Samarkand contains, together with Kufic and Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ dirhams, a number of drachms of the Sasanians. Late Sasanian drachms were probably still to be found in the markets of Transoxania in the eighth century. 3 Yaq¯ ut,¯ 1866–73, p. 519. 4 Davidovich, 1979, pp. 92–117. 397 ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1 Coinage and the circulation of money . Fig. 1. 1–5: Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ dirhams, eighth century (obverse, behind the king’s head: 1: rudiments of a Pahlavi inscription; 2: Arabic inscription, ‘Khalid’; 3: Arabic inscription: ‘Muhammad’; 4: Arabic inscription, ‘Mahd¯ı’; 5: reverse). 6: Kufic dirham from Darabgird, 96/714–15. 7: fals of the Samanid sovereign Isma¯c¯ıl b. Ahmad, 288/900–1 (enlarged). 398 ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1 Coinage and the circulation of money . It might have been expected that, in the ninth century, when the local minting of Kufic dirhams in Samarkand, Chach and Bukhara became fairly regular and abundant, these Mus- lim coins inscribed with quotations from the Qur’an would have supplanted the Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ dirhams with their pre-Islamic legends. In fact, the opposite happened since the position of the Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ dirhams became consolidated in the ninth and tenth cen- turies. Written sources from those centuries distinguish three types of Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ coins: Musayyab¯ı, Muhammad¯ı and Ghitr¯ıf¯ı dirhams. The tribute received by the caliphate from various cities and regions of Transoxania was initially reckoned in silver, but in the first quarter of the ninth century it was recalculated in terms of these dirhams. It is particu- larly interesting that the recalculation was carried out in a particular form for each region. The table below summarizes the data provided by Ibn Khurradadhb¯ ¯ıh for the year 826: Musayyab¯ı (total annual Muhammad¯ı (total annual Ghitr¯ıf¯ı (total annual production: just under production: 1,417,000) production: 1,189,200) 755,500) Chach with mines, Sogdiana (Samarkand), Bukhara Khujand, Usrushana Buttam and Kash with (partial), Turk cities mines, Nasaf, Ferghana, on the Syr Darya (partial) Usrushana (partial) What, then, was the difference between Musayyab¯ı, Muhammad¯ı and Ghitr¯ıf¯ı dirhams? This question has occupied many numismatists and historians, all reckoning the distinc- tion to lie in the Arabic inscriptions on the obverse, but this has proved a blind alley for research5 since no account was taken of the pattern of monetary circulation, the clear information provided by some written sources and the mistakes of others, compared with numismatic facts. The distinction has proved to lie not in the inscriptions but primarily in the metal, together with weight, dimensions and appearance.6 In the last quarter of the eighth century, the Bukhar¯ Khudat¯ dirhams underwent two local reforms. The first concerned their issue in Samarkand and Bukhara, with a reduction in their silver content, weight-standard and size. The reformed dirhams – also nummi sub- aerati but with two coatings –were no more than 40% silver. These were to be the Muham- mad¯ı dirhams, some issues of which later bore the name ‘Muhammadiyya’. The second reform was conducted in Bukhara alone and legend ascribes it to Ghitr¯ıf b. cAta’,¯ governor of Khurasan in 792–3. Tradition has it that the inhabitants of Bukhara presented him with the clear task of giving the market a coinage that would not circulate beyond the city limits.