An 8th-century Coin
This inscription includes a Qur’anic verse that is not typically found on coins. It refers to “love of kin,” likely chosen to stress kinship to the Prophet Muhammad.
Obverse, in field: “no deity other than the One God, He has no associate, in the name of God this dirham was struck in Sijistan year one and thirty and one hundred”; in margin: “Say, I ask of you no reward for this other than love of kin” (Q42:23). Reverse, in field: “God is One, God is Eternal, He does not beget nor is He begotten and there is none like unto Him” (Q112); in margin: “Muhammad is the messenger of God who sent him with guidance and the religion of truth that he might make it supreme over all other religions, even though the polytheists may detest it” (Q9:33)
An 8th-century Coin
This coin was minted in Khorasan during the period of the Revolution. It does not have a name, but it was likely minted by Abu Muslim who was in control over that region at that time. Obverse: field: “no god but God, unique, He has no associate”; margin: “in the name of God this dirham was struck in Marw the year two and thirty and one hundred.” Reverse: field: “God is One, God is Eternal, He does not beget nor is he begotten and there is none like unto him” [Q112]; margin: “Muhammad is the messenger of God who sent him with guidance and the religion of truth that he might make it supreme over all other religions, even though the polytheists may detest it” [Q9:33].
An 8th-century Description
This description of the ‘Abbasid Revolution was written by an Armenian priest named Ghewond, who wrote around the year 790.
It still remains for us to return to the earlier sequence of this history, for while [the last Umayyad caliph] Marwān held authority over the Ishmaelites and warred with his own people, another raging fire flared up in the eastern regions from the land of Khorasan. When all of the naxarark‘ [nobles] of the sons of Ishmael saw that the insupportable danger from their own people had overpowered them, they tried to find a way to save their lives. Some of them from the same house as their Lawgiver [the Prophet Muhammad] broke away and fled into the land of Khorasan where they lived in hiding for some time. Then after that, having united the troops of the land of Khorasan, Qaḥṭaba and a certain Abū Muslim, who was cunning in astrological sorcery, were appointed generals over them. They, united, killed the governor of the land and won over his troops to themselves as well as the rest of the multitudes of commoners of the land, who were tormented by the impossible tyranny of the tax collectors. Little by little they began to attack the region of Asorestan.
A 15th-century Description
This passage comes from a book explaining the contentions between the Umayyads and ‘Abbasids, written by an Egyptian Muslim scholar named Maqrizi in the 15th century.
Source, pp. 87-9.
Medieval Islamic History 