SAMANID Nasr II ibn Ahmad dirham 325 AH (937 AD) Samarqand mint

Description

Nasr II was made Amir at the age of 8 after his father was assassination. There was a bubble of war for the whole reign. He got involved with the Ismailis, which angered a lot of Sunni army officers, who plotted a coup. The coup was crushed, but he was convinced to abdicate by his son, who succeeded him.

Nasr II ruled at the high point of Samanid power. Notwithstanding his support for culture, there was almost continuous war with various opponents.

The Samanid brothers Nuh, Ahmad, Yahya, and Ilyas were governors for the Abbasid Caliphs in the 9th century AD. Successor rulers engaged in wars with each other. For a while there was a single Samanid Empire. The tendency of military governors to rebel eventually put an end to the dynasty.

The term “Islamic coins” refers to coins made by Muslim governments from the time of the first caliphs to an end point in time that varies with the particular country being considered, but is generally some time from the 17th to 19th century. There is a geographic exclusion: India and points east are generally considered separately. The main reference used here is “Checklist of Islamic Coins,” by Stephen Album.