1500 Years of Sovereignty over the Holy Land Now Awaits Reestablishment
By Misbahuddin Mirza
May/Jun 25
The Holy Land of Palestine, home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, reverberates in the heartbeat of the world’s two billion Muslims. In the last fifteen centuries, Muslims have given immense sacrifices to uphold this blessed land’s sanctity, security, and sovereignty. It is imperative to explore how Muslims have documented their presence and, more importantly, their sovereignty in this hallowed land from the seventh century via numismatics, the study of coins and currency.
Only sovereign rulers have the authority to produce legal tender in the lands they rule. This is the reason that historians use numismatics as it provides tangible evidence about past economies, political systems, social structures, and cultural practices which offer valuable insights into historical periods that might not be fully captured through other sources Coins are a snapshot of a specific time and place in history. To understand Palestinian history, one can look at Palestine’s mints and the currency used in Palestine by various Muslim dynasties from the seventh century through the 20th century.
Umayyad Numismatics
In 637 CE, Sophronius called Sophronius the Sophist, surrendered Jerusalem to Caliph Umar bin Al-Khattab (‘alayhi rahmat). In 661 CE, Muawiya (‘alayhi rahmat), founder of the Umayyad Dynasty, started a coinage reform by replacing the cross on existing Byzantine coins with a staff. According to Tony Goodwin, an independent researcher and author, in his online Cambridge University Press article, “The Arab-Byzantine coinage of Jund Filastin [is] a potential historical source.” He continued, “It is only in recent years that the complexity of the seventh-century Arab-Byzantine coinage of Jund Filastin has become apparent. The various types from the three mints of lliya (Jerusalem), Yubna, and Ludd are described, including one which is previously unpublished. There is considerable evidence to suggest that the Standing Caliph type originated at lliya, and recent research has revealed that Yubna produced a variety of types unmatched by any other pre-reform mint, which means that their dies were produced locally and specifically for this mint.”
Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (d. 705 CE) completely overhauled coinage design, removing all vestiges of Byzantine influence and ushering in the era of coins that were entirely Islamic in nature. These coins even had Quranic verses inscribed upon them. The following two coins were minted in Iliya, Palestine, in 685 to 705 CE. Iliya was the proper name of what is today known as Jerusalem (from Roman Aelia Capitolina of Emperor Hadrian).
Abbasid Numismatics
From 750 to 1258 CE, the Abbasid Empire minted coins in several Palestinian mints. These mints produced gold dinars, as well as bronze and other metal coins. The following gold dinar of Caliph al-Muqtadir, 908-932 CE (ruler from 295- 320 Hijri), was minted in Palestine, and the following Bronze Fals of Caliph al-Mamun was minted in Al-Quds, Jerusalem.
Ikhshidid Numismatics
The Abbasid Caliph issued the title “Ikhshidid,” meaning prince or ruler to Muhammad ibn Tughj, his former governor of Egypt. The Ikhshidids were Turkic who ruled Egypt and Syria from 935 to 969 CE. This dynasty also minted gold dinars in Palestine. A gold dinar minted by the Ikhshidid Dynasty at the al-Ramla mint in Palestine is shown below.
Tulunid Numismatics
The Turkic Tulunid Dynasty was established in Egypt and Syria by the Vice Governor of the Abbasid Caliphate who was the first to operate independently of the Abbasid Caliphate from 868 to 905. Under the Tulunids, agriculture and commerce developed in the provinces. They also minted gold dinars in Palestine.
Seljuq Numismatics
The Zangids’ general Salahuddin Ayyubi ousted the Fatimids, who had ruled most of Palestine during 1071. During the 11th and 12th centuries CE, due to inflation, the Seljuq Sultanate issued pale gold dinars in Palestine, which contained almost 80% silver.
Ottoman Numismatics
The Ottoman Sultanate ruled Palestine for 401 years. For most of that period, their gold coins were the dominant legal tender. In 1840, the Ottomans introduced paper currency. Initially, there was resistance to this as people did not realize that the paper money was fully backed by gold. In 1863, the Ottoman State granted a 30-year privilege on the issuance of paper banknotes to the Imperial Ottoman Bank which was founded in partnership with French and British financiers. In January 1914, the Imperial Ottoman Bank (IOB) branches in Beirut and Jaffa requested banknotes from its main office be circulated in Palestine. But Ottoman Empire Piastres would only circulate in Palestine until the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I just three years later.
On July 18, 1949, the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine Note on Currency and Banking in Palestine and Transjordan documented the changes in Palestine’s currency from the Ottoman era through to the radical changes it went through under the British Mandate. The Mandate period ended with the creation of the state of Israel on historic Palestine leading to the enforcement of the Israeli currency in Palestine. The Commission’s report read, “Starting from November 1927, the Currency Board put into circulation a new currency which in 1928 became the sole legal currency. This was the Palestine pound, equivalent in value to the pound sterling and divided into 1,000 mils.” The report continued, “No banking system existed in Palestine prior to the end of the nineteenth century, so that the fellahin were left entirely at the moneylenders’ mercy. The first banks established in the country were foreign banks which opened branches in Palestine; towards 1900, local Jewish banks were subsequently formed for financing Zionist settlements.”
After the illegitimate partition of Palestine and the violent creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the British Mandate’s Palestinian Pound was replaced with the Israeli Pound (ILP). Subsequently, Jordan and Egypt, which controlled parts of Palestine, introduced their respective currencies as the new legal tender in areas under their rule. On July 1, 1950, in Palestine’s West Bank, Jordan replaced the British Mandate’s issued Palestinian Pound currency with the Jordanian Dinar. A year later, Egypt replaced the Palestinian Pound in the Gaza Strip with Egyptian Pounds. This brought an end to the British Mandate’s currency.
After seizing the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Israel introduced the ILP in the occupied territories. In 1980, the ILP was replaced by the Shekel. After its creation in the post-Oslo period, the Palestinian Authority established a Palestine Monetary Authority but it does not issue any currency due to its lack of actual sovereignty in the region.
Misbahuddin Mirza, M.S., P.E., an avid numismatist, is a licensed professional engineer registered in New York and New Jersey. He is the author of the iBook Illustrated Muslim Travel Guide to Jerusalem.
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