Reign

A 9th-century Medallion

This medallion is very unusual. It shows Mutawakkil on one side and a camel on the other. Scholars have wondered if it represents the caliph’s defeat of the Buja, a camel-riding people in the Sudan. The inscription reads: “In the name of God, Muhammad is his messenger, al-Mutawakkil bi-Allah”, and on the reverse: “In the year [AH] 241 [AD 855/6] al-Mu`tazz bi-Allah”.

A 9th-century Coin

Obverse, in field: “There is no god except God alone, who has no associate”; Qur’an 30:4 in part in the margin. Reverse, in field: “for God, Muhammad is the messenger of God, al-Mutawakkil ‘ala Allah”; Qur’an 9:33 in margin.