This paper takes up the question of the first use of caliphal titles in the form of individual personal honorifics by al-Mansur and al-Mahdi in 145 H. The circumstances of the decision are analyzed in the light of the numismatic evidence... more
This paper takes up the question of the first use of caliphal titles in the form of individual personal honorifics by al-Mansur and al-Mahdi in 145 H. The circumstances of the decision are analyzed in the light of the numismatic evidence from al-Rayy, where al-Mahdi Muhammad was governor (al-Mansur does not seem to have used his title on coins). The young governor was called al-Mahdi on a coin of Samarqand two years before the events that led to the new official titles. An examination of eastern copper coinage in the first two decades of Abbasid rule, with other literary evidence, suggests that some partisans of the dynasty had for long regarded him as the expected Mahdi of the end of the world.
