The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. 121
in Russian and other Continental collections. 1
occasionally
These coins are bilingual; the Kufic legends, though of
rude execution, and involved in the ornamentation of the
device, were found to represent variously the names of
tXis-* Muhammad and the authorized title of this son of the
Khalif Al Mansur, viz. L**f*H Al Mahdi, "The Directed." 2
The third alternating word I have only lately been able to
decipher, and it proves to be ~^-j sannii/, "orthodox"
(tradition), which, it will be seen, accords well with the
position of Muhammad, Al Mahdi, in Khorasan, and pre-
sents us with a curiously contemporaneous illustration of
the great schism of the Moslem faith of Shi'ah and Sunni.
See Plate VI. Figs. 4, 5, 6.
The unknown characters forming the combined legend,
but reading in the opposite direction which had hitherto
defied interpretation were, as I have said, first read and
explained by M. Lerch.
No. 4. The coin represented in the Plate, under Fig. 3,
is inserted for the purpose of showing the link between the
older specimens bearing exclusively Pehlvi legends and
the first stage of the mixed or bilingual writing in Pehlvi
and Bukhara letters introductory to the supercession of
the former by the Kufic characters in Figs. 4, 5, and 6.
Traces of a portion of the Sassanian legend jpjj-$
Mazdesan bagi, may be seen at the back of the crown.
1 7 M. Lerch s experience as to the localities of
discovery of specimens of this
class of coin is instructive. He " : says Autant
que je sache elles se recontrent
principalement dans des trouvailles faites dans les environs de Boukhara en
;
lieu aux environs de Samarkand. Enfin on en a rapporte des exem-
\secona
plaires de Khojend et du Khiva. Les marchands boukhares les apportent
souvent chez nous avec d'autres monnaies antiques trouvees dans le sol de leur
Mais
pays. jamais elles n'ont etc trouvees ni en Eussie ni en d'autres pays
ordinairement si riches en monnaies orientales." Eeport of Oriental Con-
gress at St. Petersbourg, p. 423.
2 The Kufic coins of Bokhara dated in A.H. 143 (A.D. 760-1) give both the
name and title of this Khalif, thus^-^l ^ tX-fcjS'*^..^ ^J^iJ^