Visualising the divine on Byzantine and Early Islamic Coinage

Coins have always provided a stage on which the dramas of religion and politics, statehood and rebellion, marriage and succession, and triumph and desperation are played.

In the first quarter of the seventh century, the East Roman Emperor Herakleios requisitioned silver from the churches of Constantinople to pay his army. The coins bore the petition ‘God help the Romans’.

A generation later the leader of the first Muslim Empire, the Umayyad Caliph Abd Al-Malik, created a gold coinage emblazoned with Islamic verse, which transformed the nature of Muslim coinage for centuries.

This fascinating exhibition explores the origins and manufacturing processes of coinage in the neighbouring Byzantine and early Muslim empires. The relationship between these two empires was characterised by a constant dialogue of trade, intellectual exchange and military confrontation. These coins show how currency was used by each to assert cultural difference and promote its own concept of the divine.

This fascinating exhibition explores the origins and manufacturing processes of coinage in the neighbouring Byzantine and early Muslim empires. The relationship between these two empires was characterised by a constant dialogue of trade, intellectual exchange and military confrontation. These coins show how currency was used by each to assert cultural difference and promote its own concept of the divine.