Precious metal coinages and monetary expansion in late antiquity

Exploring the Economy of Late Antiquity

“…92 Th is reference should be read with Ammianus ' description of the fl ourishing state of the southern coast of Arabia in the latter part of the fourth century, with its 'dense clustering of commercial ports' and 'numerous safe harbours'. 93 Th e argument is not that Byzantine vessels did not ply these waters but that they must have been a minor part of the traffi c.…”

“…100 It was his reign above all that was crucial in consolidating a Sasanian commercial network that led from Sind to Balkh, and from Merv to Bukhara and the desert oases leading to Turfan. 101 Merv churned out huge quantities of Bahrām V's drachms, 102 and these circulated north in suffi cient numbers to become the prototype of the Bukhara silver drachms of the sixth century. 103 Merv was the interface of Persian and Sogdian commercial dominance, 104 and a major station in the diff usion of Nestorian Christianity into Central Asia .…”

“…123 Th e hoard from Wuqia in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region museum, which was never properly published since its discovery in 1959, contains at least 546 drachms of his (96 per cent of the Sasanian coins). 124 Th e peak of Sasanian silver circulation in Turfan seems to have occurred later, in the second quarter of the seventh century. It was the purity of the silver coinage that won general acceptance for it from Bukhara to Turfan, 125 and this must have been a major factor in the state's decision to maintain high levels of purity.…”

“…Th e bulk of the solidi date between 350 and 367, whereas the hoard stems from the second quarter of the sixth century! 150 At any rate, it is always interesting to be able to match a numismatic fi nd with textual or other evidence. In the early sixth century, the wealthier Christian families of Najrān in southern Arabia used solidi in their transactions.…”

Monks, dinars and date palms: hagiographical production and the expansion of monastic institutions in the early Islamic Persian Gulf

“…The Christian elites of the Persian Gulf, however, derived their surplus wealth principally from trade. Growth in trade during the seventh century is evident from increasing monetisation (Banaji 2006), even if the distribution and dating of Sasanian coin finds in the region remain inconclusive (Kennet 2008). The activities of East Syrian traders in the Indian Ocean are well known thanks both to the captivating account of Cosmas Indicopleustes (Mundell Mango 1996) and extensive evidence for connections between the inhabitants of Fars and the Gulf with India, such as the Pahlavi inscriptions from Chennai now dated to the ninth century (Gropp 1991; Cereti 2009).…”