Artwork analysis: islamic

 

The artwork I chose to write about are Coins of faith and power now at the British museum.  These coins were used for trading, but the inscriptions held messages.  These coins would hold messages of their language, and even religion.  The coins hold information of the ruler, and who minted the coin.  Larger coins hold the proclamation of faith along the front side and the back displays the name the ruler would use.  The Coins come off as very simplistic piece of art that a subtle meaning in comparison to many larger artworks.  Given that these are made of metal material it is no surprise that they would retain over such a long period of time.  The coins are important because through time we can see the rise of the Arab identity as well as the formation of the Islamic world.  Some of the very first coins made were made of copper to display the transitional period that preceded Abd- al-malik’s coinage reform which removed images from the coins all together.  Based on the coins we find at the grounds of the Nishapur, this could give hints on the political power at that time.   After reading over a couple places on more information about these coins, I think that these coins were made to display belief, faith and power.  Belief and faith fall within the religion and what was practiced, while the material of the coins really show what period of time they were made along with the ruler at the time. 



Canby, Sheila and Abdullah Ghouchani. “Rare Coins from Nishapur.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rcnp/hd_rcnp.htm (October 2019)

 

The British Museum, "Coins of faith and power at the British Museum," in Smarthistory, December 21, 2015, accessed September 22, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/coins-of-faith-and-power-at-the-british-museum/.


Comments

  1. EmeraldSeptember 26, 2020 at 4:21 PM

    Hello Brenden! The coins of faith and power are pretty neat, I really like how the back of the coins have inscriptions. I think this are extremely important because it tells us that about what they might have used for trade. I wonder if this is where the idea for our coins come from because we have faith inscriptions on our currency, "In God We Trust."

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  2. Xaiyne Calma-ViloriaSeptember 27, 2020 at 11:56 PM

    The function of currency is trade, so it is quite interesting how much detail was put into each coin with its integrated form of, as you said, “simplistic and subtle” art. When you really think about it, it’s a practice that spans across all cultures of all times. The Chinese even put holes through their coins so they could be strung as a way of carrying them.

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