Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

In the year AH 77 (AD 696), the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (ruled AD 685-705) was responsible for one of the most significant reforms in the early history of Islam. The figurative motifs that had decorated Islamic coins until that moment were entirely replaced by epigraphic decoration, giving Islamic coinage a very distinctive appearance. Inscriptions on this dinar (gold coin), include Qur’anic passages that proclaim the belief in one God and in Muhammad as His prophet. While a wide range of variations continued to occur in time and place, epigraphic coins remained canonical across the Islamic world.