Now (monnaie) — Wikipedia

In medieval Islamic civilization, sikka designates monetary strike. It is a prerogative of sovereign power, a monopoly of the State and its actors, who regulated the conditions for the manufacture of parts (alloys, weight, title, type), and their emission. Monnantage was one of the foundations and markers of political sovereignty. It is one of the caliph privileges, in the same way as the invocation during the Khutba (Sermon) which precedes Friday prayer. One of the first gestures accomplished by each new sovereign during his advent is to make money in his name in the strike workshops, called Dâr al-Sikka, located in places of power (palaces, capitals).

From the Reformation of Abd al -Malik (Caliph Omeyyade reigning from 692 to 705), the coinage is – as in the Byzantine – Tribetallic Empire. We then distinguish the golden dinar, the silver dirham, and the bronze fales. This reform had a lasting and constant influence on the other powers of Islam which succeeded the Omeyyade Caliphate. Quickly, however, however, the currency evolves: with the Abbasid revolution, the multiplication of local powers, the avènements of other caliphate (Fatimids of Madhiyya then Cairo, Omeyyads de Cordoba), the original types fall into disuse in favor of new emissions. Some common features remain: the currencies are aniconic (without images, unlike the Greco-Roman tradition for example), trimestallism is maintained.

The golden currencies immediately had a strong symbolic value: carrying political messages, linked to the avènements, to the elites, they illustrated the prosperity and the prestige of a diet capable of draining the precious metal towards it. If the Caliph could thus delegate to local officials the coinage of silver and bronze, gold remained a califal privilege, especially under Abd al-Rahman III, which from 929, proclaiming itself, made currencies hit in its name .

However, this privilege and the delegation report are stretching: the great Sultanian powers (Bouyides, Seledjouk, Zenguids, Ayyoubids) of the 12th and 12th centuries were not deprived of beating currencies.

Silver coins (dirhams) were mainly used for commercial transactions involving volumes superior to everyday consumption. It is a flow currency, which is used above all to secure transactions with high added value. The Fulûs was daily circulation currency, the one that made it possible to buy everyday consumer goods.

Since the Abbasside era (750 – 1258), gold and silver currencies have been a support for the dissemination of the main elements of princely tenure, inscribed on the field, on one of the faces of the currency . In the “provinces” of the Empire, the habit was gradually taken at the XI ^{It is} century to add to the Caliph the name and title of the local sovereign having received the delegation of power. The fall of the Abbasid Caliphate at XIII ^{It is} Century caused a break, and new solutions were found: if among mamlouks or rassoulides, the double mention of the sultan and the last Caliph remains, certain powers are content to cite the 4 well -guided caliphs of the early days of Islam.

Any part generally includes the place and the year of striking. In fact, currencies are sometimes the only documents available to attest to the trace of a power. We can also understand, by making the chronology of the emissions, the developments of the tenure of the princes issuers.

In the center of currencies, it was common to find the proclamation of divine unity, Shahâda, and Koranic verses on the margins. The IX verse, 33 of the Koran is thus often present (“he sent Muhammad with the good orientation and the true religion to make him victorious of any religion, even if it repugates the associationists”) among the Omeyyads, and acquired almost a value -canonical.

When the abbassid caliph Al-Ma’mūn came out victorious from his fight against Al-Amîn in 813, he added the verse called “victory” (XXX, 4-5: “The command belongs to God, before after that . That day, the believers will rejoice in the victory of God “) which remained for a long time on the Abbasid currencies.

Certain powers in search of legitimacy or a new political message therefore felt currencies to convey ideas, even if it means modifying monetary forms. Thus in fatimids the central field was often replaced by a series of concentric circles, in the Almohads, the parts were often square, which made it possible to identify them at a glance. Almohade propaganda, based on the message of Ibn Tumart, Madhi, sought to bring Islam into a new era, and currencies conveyed this ideology.

Many of the Islamic currencies circulated on a European scale. Good aloi, recognized for their reliability and their easy circulation in the Mediterranean, they are found until Great Britain or certain currencies are sometimes imitated by Christian sovereigns to facilitate traffic in great trade. Likewise, the circulation of certain competing types could be prohibited: this was the case in 1036 when the al-Qa’im Caliph of Baghdad had the “Maghreb” currencies (fatimids here) prohibit on the domestic market, because it “hunted” The currency abbassids by its greatest quality. The currencies, fundamentally, were therefore a decisive medium of caliph propaganda, but also of legitimization of local powers, whether competitors or simply in search of political empowerment.

• Hennequin, G., “La Monnaie et les Coins”, in J.-CL. Garcin (dir.), “States, cultures and societies in the medieval Muslim world”, Paris, 2000, vol. 2, p. 219 – 244
• Aillet C., Tixier You Mesnil E., Vallet E. (Dirs.), Gouverner An Islam X ^{It is} – XV ^{It is} centuries, Paris, 2014, p. 42-43 (Atland)