Methodology in Islamic Numismatics

Methodology in Islamic Numismatics Michael L. Bates Curator of Islamic Coins American Numismatic Society New York Signore signori, ladies and gentle- A talk given at a meeting in Sicily, 1989: men, hence certain allusions. The original title Given the topic "Coins," with the was “On the classification of Islamic coins.” focus "The Present State of Studies," and thirty minutes to speak, it was not so easy to specialized subdiscipline of Islamic history. decide what the content of my lecture should be. Certainly in the time allotted, I can't under- Almost as soon as coinage was take a general survey of Islamic coinage. I invented, rulers and cities realized the utility would hardly dare to give you a dry survey of of coins not merely as a means of exchange current work in progress, for fear of facing a but as bearers of messages. Coins circulate room full of nodding heads, if indeed I would outside the boundaries of the state that issues not see a room that gradually emptied as I them; they continue to circulate or at least to spoke. A third alternative is to speak about exist long after their making; and as such, how Islamic numismatics should be done, although they are small objects, they are an how it should be approached, what are the ideal medium for saying something about new ways of studying and understanding those who issue them: who they were, what coinage in the Islamic world, and especially they believed, and where and when they held how non-specialists should approach and power. In the ancient world before Islam the utilize numismatic evidence in their work. nature of the messages on coins evolved steadily. They began with simple inscriptions But because any such discussion naming the people or ruler who authorized must necessarily reflect the speaker's own their issue, coupled with symbols that in some opinions, and since I have strong and contro- sense served the same function of identifica- versial opinions on the subject, there is an- tion. In the Roman imperial period, the mes- other danger here, that of egotism or the sages expanded to comprise complicated perception of egotism. Those who know me visual scenes referring to events or policies, will perhaps not be surprised that I have se- images that have often been called "propa- lected this third alternative nevertheless. My ganda" though it is not at all certain who the lecture will reflect a purely personal point of intended audience was or what they could view, but I hope at least it will be an interest- make of it. By the end of the classical era, that ing one, and one which has its importance not is, by the time Islam arrived on the scene, it just for the study of Islamic coins but also for was normal for the messages to include the the study and understanding of any body of name of the ruler, his honorific titles, an Islamic artifacts and of Islamic history as a idealized portrait, religious symbols and whole. I will take for granted, before this inscriptions, the monetary unit represented by audience, the importance of numismatics as a the coin, and the date and place of minting. Draft 30 Nov 1989--not for publication or citation 1 Islam's response to this established tradition, general. The absence of images left more when it came time for Muslims to think seri- room for longer and more explicit inscrip- ously about what kind of coinage the new tions. As a result of these practices, every religious community should have, was, after a Islamic coin is a miniature document, telling brief period of experimentation, to reject not us who ruled at a given place and time, what only the images which had till then been so he called himself, and something of his be- important a component of coin design, but liefs. also the issuance of coin in the name of an Having recognized the importance individual ruler. Instead, the earliest truly of coins as message bearers, I think it is neces- Islamic coins had nothing but religious in- sary to caution against taking these intended scriptions, indicating that they were issued not messages too seriously. One often finds the under human authority but that of God and the notion in Islamic numismatic and historical community of believers. In less than a century, writing that coins were made exclusively for however, the tradition reasserted itself that a the purpose of bearing messages, as if the coin should bear the name of the individual large trucks on our highways travel from place responsible for its value—or, put another way, to place only to display advertising for the that coins were a good way of proclaiming companies that own them. I would lay down royal power. Although the religious inscrip- as a maxim that coins were manufactured for tions were preserved, it became customary for one reason only: because someone had bullion Islamic coins to bear also the name of the ruler or non-legal-tender coins and wanted to trans- and of his overlords if any. God continued to form this raw material into money. The idea appear on the coin in the shahada la ilah illah that a ruler might issue coins solely to pro- Allah, but as the supreme overlord (by this claim his authority or commemorate some reasoning we can assert that the side of the event is to me a misguided one. Such motives coin with the shahada, when it exists, is to be might explain a change in coin design or regarded as the face of the coin, regardless of inscriptions, but it is essential to remember which side of the coin was impressed by that the coins themselves were made only which die). The appearance of the ruler's name because someone needed money and could get on coins became so normal that it was consid- it more cheaply by bringing bullion to the mint ered one of the two indications of sovereignty than in any other way. The someone who in a territory, along with the call for blessings needed money was, often, the ruler or the on the ruler in the Friday prayer service. government, taking bullion from the public or Before Islam, coins were dated private treasury, but this is only a special case most commonly with the years of rule of an of a general phenomenon and it is not to be emperor. Along with the abandonment at the assumed that the government was the domi- beginning of the ruler's name and portrait, nant or even the largest customer of the mint. Islam also replaced regnal dating by a chronol- The misconception that coins ogy based on the years of existence of the might have been issued for political or ego- community, that is, the Hijra year, resulting in centric reasons, or that rulers took care to the first use of a continuous universal calendar insure an adequate supply of coinage to their for dating coins. The practice of putting the subjects, is related to a general error that I will name of the city of minting on coins was discuss again later, that of the "top-down" continued from pre-Islamic times and made Draft 30 Nov 1989--not for publication or citation 2 approach to Islamic numismatics. Ancient the search for unique novelties which is so coins in collections today are essentially the much a part of traditional numismatics, a field relics of an economic system, surviving exam- which is dominated, more than any of the ples of money, and in seeking reasons for their others we have dealt with in this conference, evolution we ought always to keep economic by the enthusiastic amateur collector. Most, motives in first place. Economic factors were almost all, of the work done today and in the not the only forces resulting in changes in past on Islamic numismatics is produced by coins, but they must always have been amateurs (as opposed to academically trained pre-eminent. scholars). This is a blessing and a curse; a blessing, because there is far more work to do The evidence coins provide for than the handful of curators and professors in monetary history in the form of their weight the field can ever hope to accomplish, but a and alloy is only part of what we might call curse because the valuations of amateurs the unintended messages borne by coins determine too much what work is done and which are often more interesting than the how. Unique coins are not really very interest- messages that were intentionally impressed ing; they are by definition freaks, and are of upon them. Technology, administration little use as evidence until they can be inte- (mints, geographical centers, centralization vs. grated into the overall pattern of minting in a decentralization), epigraphical style, artistic given region and era. Or, to put it another way, quality, semiotics of inscriptions and design, facts are useless without a theory to explain are among the features of coins that tell us them. For the collector or dealer, unique or something about the people, societies, and rare coins are not only exciting but usually governments that produced them. Such unin- profitable, but there is no profit in knowledge tentional messages also have the virtue of from concentrating on rarities while ignoring authenticity: rulers may exaggerate, conceal, the broad mass of coinage and the pattern of or lie in the inscriptions they order on coins, its issue and circulation. but the coins themselves and their manufac- ture reflect a reality often beyond the control For me, the key to thinking rightly of any cognizant intelligence.

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