Umayyad Arab-Byzantine Bronze Fals — Early Islamic Transitional Coinage

Own a Coin from the Transition from Byzantine to Islamic Money

A genuine Umayyad bronze fals from the late 7th century AD, struck during the period when Muslim authorities adapted Byzantine monetary designs while introducing Arabic inscriptions and a distinctly Islamic political identity.

✓ Guaranteed Authentic
✓ Carefully Sourced and Verified
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📷 Coins shown are representative examples. You will receive one authentic Umayyad bronze fals. Each coin is unique and will vary in design, strike, centering, preservation, patina, and overall appearance.

☪ Early Islamic inscriptions combined with Byzantine-derived monetary imagery
🏛 Issued in former Byzantine provinces of the Near East during the first century of Islamic rule
🤲 A genuine artifact from the gradual transformation of Mediterranean and Near Eastern coinage

Own This Piece of History

Why This Coin Matters

The first Islamic coinages did not appear all at once in one uniform reform.

After the Arab conquests of the 7th century, Muslim authorities inherited functioning Byzantine and Sasanian monetary systems. Rather than immediately replacing them, they continued and modified familiar coin types. The result was a broad family of Arab-Byzantine and Arab-Sasanian issues that gradually introduced Arabic inscriptions and Islamic religious or political formulas.

This fals belongs to that transitional world.

Many Arab-Byzantine bronze issues retained familiar elements of earlier Byzantine coins, including standing figures, denomination marks, and other established designs. At the same time, Arabic inscriptions increasingly appeared and Christian symbols could be modified, simplified, or omitted.

It is therefore inaccurate to call a c. AD 680–690 fals 'the moment Islam first appeared on coinage.' Islamic-authority coinage with Arabic and Islamic elements already existed earlier in the 7th century. What this coin represents is a particularly visible stage in the development of an independent Islamic monetary identity.

Under Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, major reforms in the 690s produced new gold and silver standards dominated by Arabic epigraphy and Islamic religious texts. The transition in bronze was more varied regionally, and pictorial copper issues did not disappear everywhere at the exact same moment.

This coin is therefore best understood not as a single instant when one civilization replaced another, but as evidence for a gradual administrative, religious, linguistic, and monetary transformation across the early Islamic Near East.

Perfect For

• Collectors of early Islamic coinage
• Collectors of Arab-Byzantine transitional issues
• Students of the rise of the Umayyad Caliphate
• Byzantine and Islamic history enthusiasts
• Anyone interested in major monetary transitions

What You'll Receive

• One authentic Umayyad bronze fals
• Culture/Authority: Early Islamic / Umayyad
• Period: Late 7th Century AD
• Denomination: Bronze Fals
• Byzantine-derived and early Islamic design elements as appropriate to the specimen
• Representative example (each coin is unique)
• Guaranteed authentic

Buy with Confidence

• Guaranteed authentic historic coin
• Carefully sourced and attributed
• 30-day return policy
• Secure shipping from the U.S.

Learn More

Continue the story in the Kinzer Coins Journal: What Is a Fals? The Everyday Copper Coin of the Medieval Islamic World.