Islamic Coins
The Coinage of Islamic Coins
Islamic coinage made one of the most deliberate design breaks in the entire history of currency. Early coinage in the newly-Muslim territories simply imitated the Byzantine and Sasanian coins already in circulation there, portraits and all. Then, around 696–697 AD, Caliph Abd al-Malik ordered a reform that replaced that imagery entirely with text: Quranic inscriptions, religious statements, and the ruler's titles, with no human figure anywhere on the coin. It's one of the only currency traditions in history to consciously reject portraiture as its foundational design choice, rather than drifting into it gradually.
That epigraphic tradition then traveled an enormous distance, both geographically and across time — from the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates through the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Persia, and Mughal India, each adapting the same core dinar-and-dirham weight standard to their own calligraphic and political traditions for well over a thousand years. Even the rare exceptions are notable specifically because they're exceptions: a small number of Mughal emperors, most famously Jahangir, briefly reintroduced portraiture against a thousand years of convention.
Every coin below is organized by dynasty and region. Browse a category, or search for a specific ruler, mint, or reference number.
Explore Islamic Coins
Mughal India
Mughal coinage is famous for exceptionally refined calligraphy — and for one genuine break from Islamic convention: Emperor Jahangir briefly issued coins bearing his own portrait and zodiac imagery, a rare and deliberate departure from thirteen centuries of aniconic tradition.
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Ottoman
Coinage of an empire that lasted over six centuries — from the early silver akçe through later kurş and gold issues. Instead of a portrait, Ottoman coins carry the tuğra, the sultan’s elaborate calligraphic monogram, as their defining visual mark.
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Safavid & Persian
Persian dynastic coinage, most prominently the Safavid Empire, distinguished from Sunni Ottoman and Mughal issues by explicitly Shia religious inscriptions — a numismatic record of a religious and political identity distinct from its neighboring Islamic powers.
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Umayyad & Abbasid
The earliest widespread Islamic dynasties, and the ones that established the aniconic gold dinar and silver dirham standard following Abd al-Malik’s reform. Minted across an enormous territory, from Spain to Central Asia, under two successive caliphates spanning roughly 661 to 1258.
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Did You Know?
Just before Abd al-Malik's aniconic reform eliminated imagery from Islamic coinage for good, a short-lived transitional Umayyad gold dinar known today as the “Standing Caliph” type showed the caliph himself, standing and holding a sword — making it one of the very last figural images to appear on an Islamic coin before religious text took over the currency entirely.
Coins in Islamic Coins
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