Islamic - Early Pre-Reform ARAB-SASANIAN: Bishr b. Marwan, fl. 692-694, AR drachm (3.56g), AKWLA (Kufa), AH74 (in Pahlavi words), A-27.1, this remarkable coin, the Caliph Orans types, has the standard Sasanian style obverse, with the name of Bishr b. Marwan in Pahlavi and Arabic bism Allah muhammad rasul Allah in the margin // portrait of the caliph, in praying position, in place of the fire altar, flanked by two bearded attendants in Arab dress; much hornsilver in the margins on both sides, VF-XF, RRR. Bishr b. Marwan was the brother of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, appointed as governor of al-Kufa immediately after the Umayyad victory over Abd Allah b. al-Zubayr in AH72. It is generally assumed that the Syrian copper Standing Caliph fulus were also introduced in the same year (they are always undated). The silver was struck at al-Kufa AH73-75 and al-Basra 75. There is a short Pahlavi word in ObQ1, read by Malek as "DYN", which would mean "God".
