State Authority, Administrative Structures and Its Reflection on Coinage (winter term 2018/2019)
Prof Stefan Heidemann
Bi-weekly, Wednesday, 4.00 to 6.00 pm CET
First session: Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Last session: Wednesday, January 23, 2019
This webinar is part of the "Webinar Initiative in Islamic Material Culture" jointly organized by the Universität Bonn (Bethany Walker), the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich (Andreas Kaplony), NYU in New York (Abigail Krasner Balbale), and Universität Hamburg (Stefan Heidemann).
Why Coins and Why Administration?
For the period prior to the fifteenth century, historians of Islamic societies have few primary documents or archives at hand, and even less for the first three centuries of the Empire. Most documents are coming from Egypt and more and more are discovered in Khurāsān. But for the rest of the early Islamic world these documents are largely missing. Islamic coins are the most prolific epigraphic sources for pre-1500 history in the Middle East. Nevertheless, their potential for understanding history is often neglected. Islamic coins as bearers of texts – there can be up to 150 words on one coin – are unique in the history of civilization. They offer the often needed primary independent evidence for administrative practices and state authority produced in the course of events. Their design includes numerous hints, which have to be decoded. The coin is able to serve different historiographic fields such as political, economic, industrial, social and legal history as well as Islamic art and material culture. As groups, coins constitute a source of their own – a sequence of changing texts generated from coins over the decades from a single mint can serve as narrative for local and imperial history.
What Does the Webinar Offer?
While this course is not an introductory course in numismatics, it is nevertheless designed to introduce historians and archaeologists to the main issues of working with Islamic coins and to answer questions on state authority and administration based on coins and coin sequences.
The Webinar explores the different dimensions of the coin as source for state authority and administration. The goal is to learn to exploit coinage for historical research within historical Islamic studies.
Topics are
- Terms and Terminology of Coins and Coinage
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Coin Design and Its Functions
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Legal Context of Coinage and Contracts in the Middle East
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The Social Function of Money
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The Administrative History of Coin Production in the Islamic Empire
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Who are the People Named on the Coins and Why?
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Comparison Between Coinage and Narrative History Case Studies
The complete syllabus and a reading list can be downloaded here.
Syllabus and Topics
Oct. 31, 2018 – Introduction: Terms and Terminology
What is a coin? Terminology and description of coins; different forms of coin production; organization of a mint; technology of a mass product. This is just a brief introduction into the basics of this source. For those who look for the first time at coins form a scholarly point of view, they are advised to study the chapters of Grierson, to be familiar with some basic concepts, so that we can fast move toward analysing the source for the purposes of a historian.
Required reading:
Grierson, Philip, Numismatics. London et al. 1975, pp. 95-120 (“The Making of a Coin”).
Additional literature:
Ibid. Chapter 2 (“The Western Tradition”).
Ibid. Chapter 3 (“The Eastern Tradition”).
American Numismatic Society: “Introduction to Numismatic Terms and Methods.” Available online http://www.numismatics.org/Seminar/TermsMethods (10/10/2018).
Nov. 14, 2018 - Legal Concept of Money and Its Social Function
Two quite difficult topics will be addressed in this and the following unit, as prerequisite for understanding coins as a source for administration and state authority. We first have first to address basic ideas on the legal concepts of money, and its social function. Both influence the design of coinage. While the legal concepts are specific to the Islamic empire, the social function is not. Cipolla’s short essay volume is still a classic for understanding pre-modern monetary systems. For the understanding of pre-modern economy in general Crone’s work had become a classic.
Required readings:
Heidemann, Stefan, “Unislamic Taxes and an Unislamic Monetary System in Seljuq Baghdad.” In: Ismail Safa Üstün (ed.), Islam Medeniyatinde Baǧdat (Medinetü’s-Selām) Uluslararasi Sempozyum – International Symposium on Baghdad (Madinat al-Salam) in the Islamic Civilization (M. Ü. Ilahiyat Fakültesi Vakfı Yayınları 246). Istanbul 2011, pp. 493-506.
Brunschvig, R., “Conceptions monétaires chez les juristes musulmanes (VIIIe-XIIIe siécles).” In: Arabica 14 (1967), pp. 113-143.
For the general understanding of pre-modern money and economy:
Cipolla, Carlo M., Money, Prices and Civilization in the Mediterranean World. Princeton 1956. [Important work for a general understanding of pre-modern coinages].
Crone, Patricia, Pre-Industrial Societies. Anatomy of the Pre-Modern World. 2nd ed., Oxford 2003. [Important for the understanding of pre-modern economies].
Schultz, Warren, “’It Has No Root Among Any Community That Believes in Revealed Religion, Nor Legal Foundation for Its Implementation’: Placing al-Maqrīzī’s Comments on Money in a Wider Context.” In: Mamlūk Studies Review 7/2 (2003), pp. 169-181.
Nov. 28, 2018 – The Function of Design for Coins
The general function of design in circulation is also a human condition going beyond one culture. Gottfried wrote a book on aesthetics and the rhetoric of money. While this book is only in German, the gust of it is available in English in an article.
Required readings:
Gabriel, Gottfried, “Aesthetics and Political Iconography of Money.” In: Udo J. Hebel – Christoph Wagner (eds.), Pictorial Cultures and Political Iconographies. Berlin 2011, pp. 418-428.
Bacharach, Jere, “Thoughts about Pennies and other Monies.” In: MESA Bulletin 35 (2001), pp. 2-14.
Bacharach, Jere, “Material Evidence and Narrative Sources: Teaching and Studying Numismatic Evidence.” In: Daniellea Talmon-Heller – Katia Cytryn-Silverman (eds.), Material Evidence and Narrative Sources. Interdisciplinary Studies of the History of the Muslim Middle East. Leiden 2013, pp. 17-29. [Good readable introduction into the topic].
Heidemann, Stefan, “Calligraphy on Islamic Coins.” In: Jürgen Wasim Frembgen (ed.), The Aura of Alif. The Art of Writing in Islam. Munich et al. 2010, pp. 161-172. [Translation of the German: „Kalligraphie auf islamischen Münzen.“ In: Die Aura des Alif. Schriftkunst im Islam].
Further literature on that topic:
Ilisch, Lutz, “Reichswährung und Regionalwährung nach der Münzreform ʿAbd Al-Maliks im islamischen Osten.” In: Lorenz Korn – Eva Orthmann – Florian Schwarz (eds.), Die Grenzen der Welt. Arabica et Iranica ad honorem Heinz Gaube. Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 167-179.
Heidemann, Stefan, “The Evolving Representation of the Early Islamic Empire and Its Religion on Coin Imagery.” In: Angelika Neuwirth – Nicolai Sinai – Michael Marx (eds.), The Qur’an in Context. Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qurʾanic Milieu (Text and Studies on the Qur'an 6). Leiden 2010, pp. 149-195.
Gabriel, Gottfried, Ästhetik und Rhetorik des Geldes. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2002.
Dec. 5, 2018 – How to Read a Coin? Its Vocabulary.
Islamic Coins are bearers of text. We know about the names of the rulers, and the hierarchy of rulers the coinage. We also now about some religious inscription. But in order to determine the administrative and the political structures we have to get familiar with the standard design and its meaningful additions. We look at the administrative vocabulary used on coinage. There is not yet good literature on that topic, therefore I advise to read the article in the New Cambridge History of Islam as an introduction.
Required reading:
Heidemann, Stefan, “Numismatics – Coins and Coin Circulation from the 7th to the 11th Century.” In: Chase Robinson (ed.), The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries. Cambridge 2010, pp. 648-663, 775-779, pl. 16.1-16.41.
Dec. 19, 2018 – Centralization and Local Production
In the production of precious metal coinage we see phases of centralization and decentralisation. We have to distinguish two approaches. The centralization of production of coinage, which can be analysed in certain features on the coins itself. Secondly, we have the centralisation and decentralization of authority and supervision on the coinage system. Both features are of course entangled, but how and to what degree is always dependant on the political and administrative conditions. In a chronological overview these periods will be highlighted.
Required readings:
Heidemann, Stefan, “Numismatics – Coins and Coin Circulation from the 7th to the 11th Century.” In: Chase Robinson (ed.), The New Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries. Cambridge 2010, pp. 648-663, 775-779, pl. 16.1-16.41.
Bacharach, Jere, Islamic History through Coins. Cairo – New York 2006, chapter 1.
Additional literature:
DeShazo, Alan S. – Bates, Michael L., “The Umayyad Governors of al-ʿIrāq and the Changing Annulet Patterns on Their Dirhams.” In: Numismatic Chronicle 14 (1974), pp. 110–8.
El-Hibri, Tayyeb, “Coinage Reform Under the ʿAbbāsid Caliph al-Maʾmūn.” In: JESHO 36 (1993), pp. 58–83.
Case studies (optional):
Bates, Michael, “Khurāsānī Revolutionaries and al-Mahdī’s Title.” In: Farhad Daftari – Josef W. Meri (eds.), Culture and Memory in Medieval Islam. Essay in Honour of Wilferd Madelung. London 2003, pp. 279-317. [This is an exemplary study of what numismatics can do].
Ilisch, Lutz, “Marks and Isolated Words on Copper Coins Issued by the ‘Treasury of Aleppo’ in 146-148 H, a Clue to the Interpretation of Marks on Early Islamic Coppers?” In: Andrew Oddy – Ingrid Schulze – Wolfgang Schulze (eds.), Coinage and History in the Seventh Century Near East, Vol. 4. Proceedings of the 14th Seventh Century Syrian Numismatic Round Table held at The Hive, Worcester, on 28th and 29th September 2013. London 2015, pp. 241-250.
January 9, 2019 – Organising a Major Mint in the Empire: The Case of Yaḥyā al-Harashī and Madīnat al-Jayy (Iṣfahān) in 162/778-9.
Guest Lecturer: Matthias Naue, Universität Hamburg.
The Early Islamic Empire was a highly monetarized society, this can be seen in its coinage, its deficiencies which resulted in imitations, and in its strength, the large scale of industrialized centralized production. As a case study, the mint of Madīnat al-Jayy (the citadel if Iṣfahān) became in the year 162/778-9 for only one year the second most prolific mint in the entire empire, after Baghdād. Responsible for this shift was the governor Yaḥyā al-Harashī. The lecture introduces briefly into the methodology of die comparison. It then shows in the case study the analyses of a hoard of about 500 coins from that very mint and year. Valuable data can be yielded about the
monetarization of the empire by counting the dies. In comparison with other mints it will be looked at how the mint fits into the mint organisation of the empire in the time of caliph al-Mahdī.
Required readings:
Crone, Patricia, Slaves on Horses. The Evolution of an Islamic Polity. Cambridge et al. 2003, pp. 144-145 (follow the cited literature on Yaḥyā al-Harashī).
Grierson, Philip, Numismatics. London et al. 1975, pp. 140-161.
Noonan, Thomas, “Early ʿAbbāsid Mint Output.” In: JESHO 29 (1986), pp. 113-175.
Explanation and application of the method in Islamic numismatics:
Bacharach, Jere, “Early Islamic Mint Output: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Methodology and the Application of ‘Coin-Die Count’ Method.” In: JESHO 9 (1966), pp. 212-241.
Jan. 23, 2019 – Imperial Titulature on Sanjar’s Coinage – Imperial Authority from a Regional Perspective.
Guest Lecturer: Dr. Sebastian Hanstein, Universität Tübingen.
The Seljūq Empire in the Middle Islamic Period was differently organised than the Islamic Empire in its early phase. As Jürgen Paul explained, we have core regions where the Sultan Sanjar executed immediate power, but also quite autonomous governors, and vassal states, and rulers who just acknowledge the overlordship of Sanjar. The fractured empire did not have a unified coinage or coinage system, or an administrative body supervising the coinage. There were interregional coinages such as the Dīnār of Nīshāpūr and regional precious coinages. The regional coinages were commissioned by regional governors, and vassal rulers. The tradition of the sikka, the naming of the hierarchy of power from time of the centralised empire of the 3rd/9th century was upheld, but under the condition of regionalised coinages in large and powerful empire from Syria to Central Asia. The text of these coins mirror still the imperial hierarchy up to the sultan and the caliph, but always from the local perspective. This is reflected not only in the design, but also in the the positioning of the names, and finally in the use of the elaborate titulature for the hierarchy of overlords.
Required reading:
Peacocks, A. C. S., The Great Seljuk Empire. Edinburgh 2015.
Additional literature:
Paul, Jürgen, Lokale und Imperiale Herrschaft im Iran des 12. Jahrhunderts. Herrschaftspraxis und Konzepte. Wiesbaden 2016.
The complete syllabus and a reading list can be also downloaded here.
Prerequisites for Participation
Spoken and written proficiency in English language. The course is open to all advanced students in B.A., M.A., and PhD programs of Islamic studies, historians, art historians, and archaeologists of the Middle East. All students need a computer, reliable internet access, and a headset. In a short personal Skype interview in early October 2018, we will check whether all technical assets are working.
Students from Hamburg have to sign up in the campus system 'Stine' and to contact Stefan Heidemann as early as possible to register and get the necessary introduction into the technology.
Students from other universities than Universität Hamburg are welcome and have to apply with a short CV and a motivation letter in English. The applications should be sent to Prof Stefan Heidemann (stefan.heidemann@uni-hamburg.de) until October 14, 2018. Preference is given to students from universities within the network of the webinar initiative "Islamic Material Culture".
Interviews will be held until October 27, 2018.