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Coinage of Islamic Khwarazm (8th–13th century)

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نقود خوارزم الإسلامية (القرن 8–13)

History of the coins struck in Khwarazm and for its rulers from the Arab conquest to the Mongol invasion: a passage from king-and-horseman drachms in Khwarezmian script to Islamic Kufic coinage, periods in which minting was barred, and then an Anushtegin imperial coinage 1 2.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Umayyad Period · The Early Abbasid Caliphate · Abbasid Fragmentation · The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era
Region
Persia & Central Asia

Trade and financePolitics, governance and authority

Summary

This card summarises what Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov sets out in his book on the coinage of Khwarazm between the eighth and early thirteenth centuries, in which he counts 237 types. 3

The old Khwarazmian drachms

Early Afrighid coins show a crowned, beardless king on the obverse and a horseman on the reverse, with the dynasty's tamgha (mark) and the king's name in Old Khwarezmian and sometimes Sogdian script. 1 4 5 Using Vainberg's typology the author follows kings such as Azkajuvar (Chaghan), Kanik, Shavat and Savshafan. 6 4 7 5

Arabic script arrives

The Arabic names of caliphal governors appear on the drachms of Azkajuvar-Abd Allah in the late eighth and early ninth centuries: al-Fadl, Ja'far, "Dhu al-Ri'asatayn", Khalid, Talha and others; these are the first coins in Khwarazm with Arabic script. 8 9 10 11 The Oghuz yabghus of the lower Syr Darya struck imitations of these drachms naming Abd Allah ibn Tahir, and one of them names its mint, something unknown on the old Khwarazmian coins. 12 13 14

Islamic coinage

  • Abd Allah ibn Tahir struck coins at Khwarazm in 224/839 on the Abbasid model that goes back to the reform of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan; for U. Linder-Welin they are the first Abbasid-type coins struck in Khwarazm. 14 15
  • His governor Amir Mikal struck fulus in 226 and 228 AH, some showing a horse with a swastika sign above it. 16 17
  • The fulus of the Samanid Nuh ibn Asad of 203/818 are the first coins in Khwarazm to carry a Qur'anic quotation, from the wording of al-Saff 61:9 and al-Tawba 9:33. 18 19
  • The author notes that the horse first appears on Islamic coins on Umayyad fulus struck at Homs, but it had been on Khwarazmian coins since the fourth century and stayed for about two centuries after Islam arrived. 19

Periods without minting

The author holds that minting in the name of Khwarazm's rulers stopped four times: 818–893 under caliphal prohibition, 893–959 under the Samanids, 1014–1042 under the Ghaznavids, and 1041–1129 under the Seljuks. 2

Ma'munids, Shah Malik and the Anushtegins

Ma'munid coins are wholly Islamic, carrying verses from al-Tawba, al-Saff, al-Fath and al-Rum and the names of Samanids and caliphs. 20 The coins of Shah Malik the Oghuz carry a sword, a six-pointed star, an eagle and a lion, in Oghuz tradition. 21 Under the Anushtegins the mints spread to some thirty cities, verses were dropped from most coins, and images returned on some. 22 23

Trade and terms

Coins of the rulers of Khwarazm have been found from eastern Europe to Semirechye and China and from Scandinavia to Damascus; among them two drachms of Azkajuvar-Abd Allah in the Swedish History Museum, found in Östergötland and Gotland, and the Kreshcheny Baran hoard near Kazan (1905), which held 46 coins of Ali ibn Ma'mun. 9 24 25 Citing al-Zamakhshari, the author says pre-Islamic silver coins were called tazija, and that daniq and mithqal were coin names; he also records an old Khwarazmian coin called aster. 26 From al-Narshakhi he reports that Khwarazmian silver was current in Bukhara in 185/801 and that people accepted it reluctantly. 27

Connections

Explore the connections

Subject of
Coins of the Khwarazmshah Era (Ismoilov)
Related to
Qur'anic inscriptions on Islamic coins· Arab-Byzantine and Arab-Sasanian coinage· Khwarazmshah (title)

People and things also explored

Abu al-Fawaris Shah Malik, Khwarazmshah· Kath (Khwarazm)· Afrighids (Khwarazmshahs of Kath)· Anushtegin dynasty· Ma'munids (Khwarazmshahs of Jurjaniyya)· Qur'anic Verses on Islamic Coins: A Comparative Study· The Umm Hajara Silver Hoard (al-Ush)· Catalogue des monnaies musulmanes: Khalifes orientaux (Lavoix)

Sources

  1. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 9
  2. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 225
  3. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 222
  4. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 33
  5. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 35
  6. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 32
  7. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 34
  8. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 38
  9. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 39
  10. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 40
  11. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 51
  12. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 41
  13. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 42
  14. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 43
  15. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 44
  16. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 45
  17. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 46
  18. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 47
  19. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 175
  20. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 82
  21. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 11
  22. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 95
  23. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 164
  24. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 71
  25. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 224
  26. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 223
  27. Shohruxmirzo Ismoilov, Xorazmshohlar davri tangalari (VIII–XIII asr boshlarida) [Coins of the Khwarazmshah era, 8th–early 13th century], Bukhara: Durdona, 2025 , p. 37
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Coinage of Islamic Khwarazm (8th–13th century)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/coinage-of-khwarazm/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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Abu al-Fawaris Shah Malik, Khwarazmshah

Oghuz ruler who held Khwarazm briefly (1039–1042 in the author's table) and struck coins as Khwarazmshah showing a sword, a six-pointed star, an eagle and a lion; the author counts him a fifth house to bear the title.