Palestine A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha

Numismatic and monetary evidence are important sources of knowledge on the economy and degree of political autonomy of Roman, Byzantine and medieval Islamic Palestine. Numismatic evidence of Arab Byzantine coinage of the province of Jund Filastin (the military/administrative province of Palestine in early Islam) in the 7th century (Goodwin 2004)

shows the continuities of Palestine, the variety of styles and traditions evolving in the country, as well as some of the distinct traditions evolving within Palestine.

One of the key indicators of economic prosperity and greater regional and economic autonomy under empire was the ability of a particular region or city to issue its own currency. As we have already seen, the earliest phase of the momentary phenomenon in Palestine began in the late 6th and early 5th century BC and took place in Philistia. This phase continued into the 4th century up to the end of the Achaemenid (Persian) rule over Palestine. Throughout much of this period the economically autonomous Palestinian cities of Gaza, Ascalon and Ashdod were able to issue their own silver coins. The monetary phenomenon of silver coinage became widely known as the coinage of Philistia or Philisto-Arabian coins.

However, in the 1st century AD the Roman Empire granted many cities in Palestine the right to mint only bronze and copper coins. Minting prestigious silver coins was confined to a few important cities outside of Rome.

Bronze coins were issued by many Palestinian cities, including Gaza, Caesarea, Joppa (Jaffa), Ascalon, Ptolemais (Akka), Tiberias, Sepphoris, Neapolis (Nablus), Antipatris, Diospolis (Lydda), Nicopolis (Emmaus), Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem) and Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin). Antoninus Pius (Titus Fulvus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, 86–161

AD), also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161 AD.

His name appears on imperial bronze coins struck in Gaza, Philistia. This tradition of bronze coinage struck in several Palestinian cities persisted into the Byzantine era.

Islam in Palestine pragmatically adapted and combined the Roman/ Byzantine monetary tradition of coinage with the Achaemenid silver coinage in Palestine and encouraged the minting of both silver and gold coins in Palestinian cities. Furthermore, the continuation of this Arab-Byzantine tradition and the continuity of economic growth and prosperous trade in Palestine under Islam is evident in the widespread presence of precious metals and minting of gold coinage in Islamic Palestine.

Rare and naturally occurring elements of high economic value and investment, historically precious metals were important in fine jewellery and coinage as currency. The best known precious metals were the Arab Islamic coinage and initially coins were minted in Filastin in copper, and later gold and silver coins were widely minted in several Palestinian cities.

The key elements of the Islamic coins struck in Palestine – materials, words, designs, signs and symbols – evolved significantly from the initial Byzantine-style coinage used in early Islam to the post-reform currency introduced by Caliph ‘Abdel Malik ibn Marwan around 696 AD into the coins used during the Abbasid, Tulunid, Ikhshidid and Fatimid periods from the 8th to the 11th centuries (Shamma 1969, 1980). After the Umayyads took over the Muslim Caliphate and made Damascus their capital in 661 AD, the economic and financial stability of their vast Islamic empire was one of their top priorities. Consequently, the Byzantine-style solidus – originally a Roman weight unit of a relatively pure gold – influenced the Umayyad gold dinar; the Arabic name of the gold coin derives from denarius, a Roman coin. The Arab gold dinar was first issued by the reforming Caliph ‘Abdel Malik ibn Marwan around 696 AD, with his own image replacing that of the Byzantine Emperor. However, subsequently the image of the Caliph was removed from the Islamic currency. Greek was the official language of the Byzantine Empire and under the influence of Byzantine-style coinage, the fineness of the gold Arab dinar was measured in qirat (carat) which derives from the Greek κεράτιον. The carat as a gold unit of weight still stands today.

The Islamic-style currency reform introduced by this fifth Umayyad ruler was designed to reinforce Umayyad power and provide a standardised Arab Islamic coinage that reflected the new politico-cultural reality of the time (Ramadan 2010b). Using the oldest calligraphic form of the Arabic script, the Kufi script, in addition to ‘there is no god but God’ and later ‘Muhammad is the messenger of God’, gold, silver and copper coins struck in Palestine added the Arabic name Filastin.

The economic and monetary prosperity of Palestine in early Islam and the centrality of the coins minted locally in the province of Jund Filastin, especially in the administrative capital al-Ramla, in the first half of the 8th century is evident from the origins of the two hoards of post-reform Islamic coins excavated at Jericho. Currency is about monetary power and the currency minted locally in Palestine gives us a sense of the extent of the local autonomy exercised in the province of Palestine under Islam. Not surprisingly, in view of the location of Jericho and the centrality of the province of Palestine in the Umayyad period, the provinces of Jund Filastin and Jund Dimashq ‘provided an almost equal number of coins’ excavated from the Jericho site (Walmsley 2000: 338). Originating from a range of mints in Bilad al-Sham, the percentage of these coins were as follows:

• 32 per cent minted in the province of Jund Filastin; • 35 per cent from the province of Jund Dimashq; • 20 per cent minted in Jund Hims; • 6 per cent from Jund al-Urdun; • 5 per cent from al-Jazirah; • 1 per cent from Jund Qinnasrin; • 1 per cent from Egypt (Walmsley 2000: 336‒337).

These coins were from the following mints:

• twenty-seven Jund Filastin (twenty-three from the mint of the capital al-Ramla; three Lydda; one Iliya [Jerusalem]); • twenty-nine Jund Dimashq (all from the mint of the capital Dimashq); • five Jund al-Urdin (four Tiberias; one al-Urdun); • seventeen Jund Hims (all from Hims mint)

• one Jund Qinnasrin (Aleppo mint); • four al-Jazirah (al-Ruha mint); • one Egypt (Alexandria mint) (Walmsley 2000: 338).

Under Islam, especially from the early 8th century onwards, Palestine also began to develop its own distinct Arab Islamic traditions of weights, measures and coinage; crucially coins were produced in several Palestinian cities with the mint formula ‘struck in Filastin’ (Gil, M. 1997: 257)9 and circulated locally, regionally and internationally. The earliest numismatic evidence for the official designation of the country as Palaestina on Roman coins comes from the period of Vespasian (69 to 79 AD) and subsequently for the name ‘Syria Palaestina’ from the period of Marcus Aurelius, who was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD. In the 1st century AD the Roman Empire also granted many Palestinian cities the right to mint bronze coins.

Sir George Francis Hill, the Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum (1931–1936), produced the British Museum Catalogue of Palestine coins showing sixteen Palestinian cities minting their own coins (Hill 1914).

This tradition of economic autonomy and Palestine city-coins came to an end in the 3rd century AD when the (western) Roman Empire disintegrated, but it was renewed and expanded in Muslim-ruled Palestine in the Middle Ages to include the minting of coins in silver and gold in the Palestine cities of Ilya10 (Bayt al-Maqdis, al-Quds, Jerusalem), al-Ramla, Tabariyyah (Tiberias), ‘Asqalan and others. This autonomous bronze coinage of Palestine cities under the Romans and Byzantines and silver and gold under Islam suggests the development of a considerable degree of regional Palestinian autonomy and of distinct local traditions, away from rigid imperial control:

The finds of coins indicate that there was an intensive production of coins in Palestine in the following places: Jerusalem, Bet Guvrin [Beit Jibrin], Ramla, Ascalon, ‘Amman, Gaza, Lod [Lydda], Yavne [Yubna], Tiberias, Bet Shean [Beisan], Sipphoris [Saffuriyah] and Tyre. Some of these mints were already in existence during the Byzantine era, and it appears that they were again in use during the days of the Damascene Caliphs after ‘Abdel Malik. The inscriptions on the coins were Ilyā Filastin [al‑Quds Filastin], ‘Asqalān Filastin, and the like. From the mint of Bet Shean (Beisan), coins were found with Greek inscriptions, but appear to have been gradually replaced by Arabic. Among those coins from Bet Shean there were some with the Greek inscription ‘Skythopolis’ together with the Arabic, ‘Baysān’ or ‘Baysan’ (Gil, M. 1997: 110).

The history of Islamic Palestine is often read through overall Caliphate chronologies with little consideration for local developments and regional conditions. Under Islam Filastin developed a substantial measure of economic and commercial autonomy. It produced its own coinage and developed its own distinct commercial traditions of weights and measures. Its coins were minted in several Palestinian cities with the inscription ‘in Palestine’, in the same way as the country of manufacture or production is stated on goods today.

Al-Maqdisi devotes an entire section of his work to these distinct traditions, measures and coins of his native country (Gil, M. 1997: 257). The minting of Islamic coins (dinar in gold and dirham in silver) in Filastin began under the Umayyads. It was initially halted by the Abbasids but was restarted in al-Ramla under the Tulunids, which was the first independent Muslim dynasty to rule Egypt, Palestine and much of Syria from 868 until 905 AD. Three decades later the Ikhshidid dynasty ruled Egypt and Palestine from 935 to 969 AD:

[in the 9th century Palestinian] coins began to appear with the inscription bi-filastin [‘ بفلسطين ’, ‘in-Palestine’]. The first of these were produced in the days of Khumarawayh and his son, Harun, from 890

until 904, and these were gold dinars with the unusual weight of 3.2

grams. These practices continued during the period when the Abbasids reconquered Egypt and Palestine ... The Ikhshidids continued to mint coins in Ramla, as previously, but unlike the inferior quality of the Palestinian coins produced under the Tulunids, Muhammad ibn Tughj, the Ikhshid, ordered the minting of dinars of a finer quality ...

The mint in Ramla continued working during Fatimid times as well ... The mint in Tiberias was also active ... After the conquest of most of Palestine by the Crusaders, the mint in Ascalon [‘Asqalan] was activated. (Gil, M. 1997: 258; see also Album 1998)11