An Abbasid gold dinar from the reign of Harun al-Rashid (AD 786-809) Baghdad, dated AH 171/ AD 787-788 with three lines of inscription in kufic surrounded by a band of inscription in kufic to each side, very fine and rare 18 mm. approx; 3.93 g. Footnotes: See Giulio Bernardi, Arabic Gold Coins Corpus, Trieste, 2010, no. 58b. Inscriptions: a form of the shahadah and a version of Qur'an, sura IX (al-tawbah), part of verse 33 with the added, 'Muhammad, the Messenger of God'. In the year AH 170 caliph Harun al-Rashid broke with tradition and placed his name on the coinage. For the years AH 170-171 his name and title were inscribed across the central reverse field citing him as Harun amir al-mu'minin, 'Harun Commander of the Faithful. Harun al-Rashid is best known as the ruler who appears in some of the tales of the One Thousand and One Nights, some of which are set at his court. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com