Muhammad ibn Ali, emir of Jurjaniyya

Muhammad ibn Ali was governor or emir of Jurjaniyya (Gurganj), and some scholars take him to be the father of Ma'mun ibn Muhammad. ¹ Some, the author among them, regard his fals of 356 AH as the first Ma'munid coin. ^{1 2}

Its obverse carries the profession of God's oneness, with a margin saying this fals was struck at Jurjaniyya in the year 356; the reverse reads "To God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God ﷺ; Muhammad ibn Ali", with a verse of al-Rum in the margin. ¹ A specimen is kept in the Oriental and Islamic coin department of the Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, no. 94-44-19, 20–21 mm and 1.6 g. ¹

The author says this coin proves the house came to power long before 995, and that Jurjaniyya was detached from the Afrighids between 959 and 967 as an emirate set up by the Samanids; he therefore dates the start of the Ma'munid state to about 967. ^{3 4 2}