Most Important Islamic Coin on Display at Museum of Islamic Art
"This is a fairly extraordinary moment because Qatar has the greatest and most important collection of Islamic coins in the world, and nobody until this day was aware of how important the collection is,” Dr Alain Baron, world renowned numismatist and curator of the exhibition, told The Peninsula yesterday.
Qatar has been actively buying in the last 40 years which has resulted to a vast collection of over 100,000 Islamic coins most of which are rarities and some of which are being exhibited to the public for the first time in history, according to Baron.
The exhibition features six gold Islamic coins and tells the story of the rise of Arab identity and formation of the Islamic world. Described as the ‘earliest witnesses of Islam’, the coins were created as early as the century of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and detail some of the first dated illustrations of the suras of the Holy Quran in history.
Starting from imitations of Byzantine coins where the Christian symbols were deliberately taken away, the Umayyad caliph Abd Al Malik bin Marwan created the first purely Islamic coin in 77 AH (after the Hirja, 696 AD/CE). This marked the birth of the dinar which is still the currency of many countries in the region. During this creation process, other trial strikes resulted, namely the celebrated Standing Caliph gold coin, the world’s most important Islamic coin and the highlight of this show.
An imitation originally of Byzantine prototype, the Standing Caliph was adopted by Abd Al Malik bin Marwan in order to show his independence and power to the Byzantines. It is the first Arab depiction of the ruler himself and for the first time in history bears the Arabic inscription ‘dinar’ making it the most important Islamic coin in the world.
There are plans to come up with a publication of the collection as well as a travelling exhibition, said Baron.
With its immense collection of the most important Islamic coins, Qatar can play an important role as representative and keeper of Arab identity and culture and share the greatness of the Arab world dating back hundreds of years to the time of the Prophet (PBUH), added Baron.
‘Masterpieces of Islamic Coinage’ exhibition coincides with The New York Times Art for Tomorrow conference under the theme "Boundaries, Identity & the Public Realm.”
"Art for Tomorrow is a conference dedicated to cultural identity and
this exhibition is such a beautiful message of identity, of greatness of
nations and of how art explains life which completely fits into the
theme of the conference,” added Baron.
