03 3rd Simone Assemani Symposium on Islamic Coins

Monnaies et sources littéraires nous apprennent que la réforme monétaire islamique commença progressivement au premier siècle de l’hégire depuis le califat d’'Umar b. al-Khittab'. Elle fut achevée sous le calife umayyade ‘Abd al- Malik b. Marwan dans la partie orientale du monde islamique. Quant au Maghreb islamique la réforme ne s’atteignit que deux décennies après la date de l’arabisation finale en 77 H. C’est en effet, vers la fin du I/VII s. et le début du II/VIII s. que l’arabisation et l’islamisation complètes du système monétaire ifriqiyen s’aboutirent. Nous possédons un témoignage numismatique appartenant à cette conjoncture et constitue l’objet essentiel de la présente étude; c’est un fals frappé en 100 H./718 au nom d’Atrabuls (Tripolis). Ce fals est, fort probablement, rare, puisque nous n’en connaissons que trois autres exemplaires: l’un publié par Lane Poole, le deuxième par Ostrup et le troisième par Walker. Étudier ce fals convenablement à la lumière des données textuelles et archéologiques à la disposition des chercheurs notamment les données numismatiques fournies essentiellement par le nombre très réduit de fals portant le même toponyme est l’objectif de la présente contribution.

The paper wants to pick out one of the probable sources of the passion for Numismatics of Simone Assemani. His great granduncle, Giuseppe Simonio Assemani is likely to have excited this passion on him. Giuseppe Simonio Assemani became famous as great scholar of manuscripts of many oriental languages: Coptic, Etiopic, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and, above all, Syrian. He was dispatched by the Pope Clement XI to Egypt and to the neighbouring countries in order to search those manuscripts. For his reputation, he became Prefect of the Vatican Library in 1739. Generally, we know nothing about his particular interest for ancient Numismatics, interest arisen during his prefecture at the Vatican Library. In those year, in fact, very famous collections of coins and medals entered the Library: 328 Greek and Roman Medallions of the collection owned by the cardinal Alessandro Albani, the collection of medallions, coins and medals of the cardinal Gaspare Carpegna, with 4.000 pieces; the famous collection of 6.666 casts in sulphur of cameos and carvings of Pier Leone Ghezzi, the extraordinary collection of more than 5.000 pieces of papal coins of Saverio Scilla. Giuseppe Simonio Assemani was responsible for arranging and ordering a catalogue of those big collections: When he died, a great number of Greek and Roman coins was found in his apartment, together with medals and carvings, collection that shows his private interest for Numismatics. For these reason, probably he passed this interest on his great grandchild Simone Assemani, when he was still a child.

Questo saggio si propone di illustrare 22 sigilli di piombo di età aghlabita di provenienza siciliana1. Gli esemplari presi in esame, sebbene inediti, afferiscono ad una tipologia già delineata in due studi precedenti dei quali il primo, a firma di P. Balog, risale al 1979 e il secondo, pubblicato da chi scrive, risale al 2003. I sigilli pubblicati dall'autrice, a differenza di quelli illustrati dal Balog e dei nuovi che qui mi accingo ad illustrare, costituiscono il frutto di una campagna di scavo ufficiale condotta nell’area archeologica di Milena (Sicilia: provincia di Caltanissetta) e hanno dunque, rispetto a tutti gli altri, il pregio di provenire da un sito studiato a fondo dagli archeologi, il che – come il lettore si renderà conto presto – avrà importanti refluenze sulla discussione intorno all’uso di questi manufatti.

Both history sources as well as archaeological objects tell us about the past of a place. The writing of the Islamic history started already during the third quarter of the seventh century by Syrian writers who wrote about the Islamic conquests. But those books have been lost, and they are only mentioned in treaties written in the 9th and 10th centuries (ELAD 2003). Historical sources writing about Umayyad Palestine are non-existing except for one Samaritan source that was written in Arabic in 1355 C.E. This source only seldom writes about other communities other then the Samaritans.

The present paper tries to provide a rough overview over lead coins roughly dating to the Umayyad period (ca. 700-750 AD). Lead coins can be either issued alongside copper coins like in Baalbek or Jurjan as part of the regular petty coinage, they can be a local currency like in the Persian Gulf region, or they can have been produced in unofficial local workshops as a remedy against a need for petty cash. Some examples for these three categories are presented and discussed.