Umayyad Gold Dinar
OriginCaliphate
First Minted696
MaterialGold
TypeCoin
About Umayyad Gold Dinar
The first purely Islamic gold coin. Caliph Abd al-Malik introduced it in his coinage reform of 696. The dinar bore no images, only Quranic inscriptions declaring the oneness of God. This broke decisively from Byzantine and Sasanian traditions. The dinar weighed 4.25 grams of pure gold, matching the Byzantine solidus. The reform established the pattern for Islamic coinage for over a thousand years.
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