Speaker
Yngve Karlsson
(Gothenburg Numismatic Society)
Description
Reading old texts can be very difficult, and when it comes to Arab-Sasanian coins, we encounter the Pahlavi script and the Middle Persian language. The Persian language survived, but the Pahlavi script did not. On the early Arab-Sasanian coins we can see that the Arabic script and language are slowly taking over, culminating in the coin reform of Abd al-Malik in 78-79H. The mint names are the most stable Pahlavi features on the coins, whereas the “BSM ALLAh” legend in Arabic is seen from the very start around the edge. More than sixty names of people and seventy-five mint names written in the Pahlavi script can be found on the coins.
Primary author
Yngve Karlsson
(Gothenburg Numismatic Society)
