About the mysterious 8th-century gold dinar of King Offa of Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon coin minted with the Islamic Arabic script of Caliph Al-Mansur.
In the British Museum sits one of the most enigmatic coins in numismatic history: a gold coin minted around 774 CE by King Offa of Mercia (the powerful Anglo-Saxon king who built Offa's Dyke along the Welsh border).
What makes this Anglo-Saxon coin extraordinary is that it is a direct copy of an Islamic gold Dinar issued by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur in Baghdad—complete with Arabic Kufic script declaring the Islamic Shahada: "There is no god but Allah alone..."!
An Anglo-Saxon King's Arabic Signature
To indicate royal Mercian authority on the coin, Offa’s moneyer stamped the Latin words OFFA REX ("King Offa") directly upside down in the middle of the Arabic text!
Why did a Christian English King Mint Arabic Coins?
Did King Offa convert to Islam? Historical scholars overwhelmingly say no. The explanation is purely commercial:
- In the 8th century, the gold Dinar of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad was the most respected international trade currency in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean.
- Offa had pledged an annual tribute of 365 gold coins to Pope Adrian I in Rome.
- To ensure the Pope's treasury and Mediterranean merchants accepted the payment without hesitation, Offa’s mint in Mercia struck gold coins imitating the exact weight and appearance of the trusted Islamic Dinar.
The moneyer in Mercia did not read Arabic; he treated the Kufic script as decorative artwork, accidentally copying the Arabic date "157 AH" (774 CE) alongside Offa's name.
King Offa's coin is a striking reminder of how early medieval Britain was deeply connected to global trade networks spanning the Mediterranean and the Islamic world.
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