Sassanian coin

During the late pre-Islamic era, when the region of Oman and the UAE came under the control of the Sassanians in Iran, Sassanian coinage began to circulate in the region. Then with the spread of Islam, Islamic era coins made their way through, with coins from Iran, Iraq, and India widely accepted throughout the region. The first subtle changes to existing coins included the addition of "tayyib" (good) in the recently evolved Kufic script on Byzantine style copper coinage, or short and simple religious statements such as "Bismillah" (with the Name of Allah) on the margins of Sassanian coinage.

Image created by FIND Contributor Rym Tina Ghazal for her story “The Coins and Currency Detective.”