Dinars and Dirhams : Coins of the Islamic Lands: the Early Period

The Nasser D Khalili Collection is the greatest collection of Islamic art in private hands and, with more than 8,500 coins, it also ranks as one of the world's largest collections in the field of Islamic numismatics.

The coins include no fewer than 500 unpublished types in terms of date and mint.

While these occur in the better-known categories, such as Abbasid dirhams, in some cases they represent completely new series, such as those of the emirs of 'Athbar in Arabia and the Najahid rulers of Zabid in Yemen.

It also contains the largest group of Arab and Latin bilingual coins from North Africa, for example.

This catalogue, by two of the leading specialists in the subject, is the first of two volumes devoted to the Collection's numismatic holdings and covers the first Islamic coins and the early medieval period.

It provides three types of information: the obverse and reverse of each coin are illustrated in colour; catalogue entries provide the requisite statistical information; and the essays at the beginning of each section place the coins in their historical context.