Reposted from the web

Summary: The Saudi National Museum exhibition Forging Narratives: The Coinage Heritage of Saudi Arabia traces Islamic coinage from early Umayyad gold coins to later dynasties. This English account keeps the source's dates, rulers, coin details, exhibition context, and photographs in one clear museum note.

The Saudi National Museum is hosting a special exhibition called "Forging Narratives: The Coinage Heritage of Saudi Arabia" from September 17 to December 16, 2025, featuring items from the famous coin collector Alain Baron. The exhibition follows a chronological order, starting with the oldest Umayyad gold coins, which surprisingly feature Byzantine emperors.

Before the Umayyad Caliphate was established, the Syrian region used Byzantine gold coins. After the Umayyad Caliphate was founded in 661, it began minting gold coins in Damascus. Early Umayyad gold coins continued to use Byzantine imagery. You can see coins showing the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (reigned 610-641) and his two sons, Constantine III and Heraklonas, on the front, with Latin text on the back. Unlike Byzantine coins, the crowns and scepters of the emperors on Umayyad coins lack crosses, and the cross on the steps on the back is just a vertical line without a horizontal bar.

These Umayyad coins reflect the early culture of the Umayyad Caliphate, which continued to inherit Byzantine traditions. When Bedouin nomads from the Arabian Peninsula flooded into the grand city of Damascus, they saw a rich and colorful Byzantine culture. Because of this, they continued to use Byzantine culture in areas outside of religion, such as music, art, and architecture, becoming heirs to the Byzantine legacy.

















It was not until the 690s that the Umayyad Caliphate began to move away from Byzantine culture and design its own gold coins. In 693, Caliph Abd al-Malik (reigned 685-705) minted gold dinar coins in Damascus, and by 696, he removed human figures, keeping only Arabic text. During the same period, Abd al-Malik also promoted the use of Arabic over Greek in Syria, making Arabic the only official language of the Umayyad Caliphate. From then on, the Umayyad Caliphate shifted from being an heir to Byzantine and Sasanian cultures to becoming a true Arab civilization.













This commemorative silver coin was issued between 800 and 810 AD by Queen Zubaidah (Zubaidah bint Ja`far ibn al-Mansur, 765-831) of the Abbasid Caliphate to give to noble dignitaries of the time.

Zubaidah is known as a key figure in the Golden Age of the Abbasid Caliphate and the most important queen in its history. She was the wife of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid caliph. This was the most prosperous era of the Abbasid Caliphate, with the capital, Baghdad, housing libraries and the translation center known as the House of Wisdom. Baghdad was the world center for knowledge, culture, and trade at the time.

Zubaidah was famous for her generosity and donated to many poets, scholars, and doctors, regardless of their social or religious backgrounds. She spent over 20,000 dinars to improve the water supply in and around Mecca, deepened the Zamzam well, and built a series of rest areas, wells, and pools along the road connecting Baghdad, Mecca, and Medina. This road is still called the Zubaidah Road today. The famous traveler Ibn Battuta once said: "Every reservoir, pool, or well on this road from Mecca to Baghdad is there because of her generous gifts... If she had not cared for this road, no one would be able to use it."



















This dirham coin was minted in 1243 in what is now Kurraman, Pakistan, during the reign of Empress Dowager Töregene Khatun of the Yuan Dynasty.

Empress Dowager Töregene Khatun took power in 1242 after the death of her husband, Ögedei Khan, and returned power in 1246 after her son, Güyük Khan, was elected Great Khan. During her time in power, she successfully balanced the competing forces of the Mongol Empire. Over five years, she not only ruled the vast empire but also laid the foundation for her son's succession. While she was in power, the Seljuk Sultan from Turkey and the Abbasid Caliph from Baghdad both sent envoys to her camp.

The city of Kurraman is located in the Kurram Valley of Pakistan and was a famous minting center during the Khwarazmian and Mongol periods.





A gold dinar coin minted by the Ilkhanate in 1338.





A gold dinar coin minted in Baghdad by the Ilkhanate in 1338.



A coin minting mold brought back by Sultan Muhammad ibn Sam of the Ghurid dynasty after he conquered India in 1204. These molds broke easily during the minting process, so they are very hard to preserve.





The interactive coin minting display at the exhibition shows the coin-making process in detail.







A coin from the 7th-century Umayyad Caliphate minted in Bishapur, featuring an image of a camel rider with a spear. Bishapur is located in southwestern Iran and was once the capital of the Sasanian Empire.



A coin from the Seljuk Empire minted between 1040 and 1063, featuring an image of a falconer on horseback.



The earliest Islamic coin found within Saudi territory is this Umayyad dinar minted in 723. It is engraved with the name of the mint, al-Madina Ma'din Amir al-Mu'minin, which tells us this coin was minted in Medina. This coin shows the important status of Medina during the Umayyad Caliphate.



This section features dinar coins minted in Mecca between the 9th-century Abbasid Caliphate and the 10th-century Fatimid Caliphate.



This is a gold dinar minted in Mecca during the Fatimid Caliphate in 971.



The Saudi Ministry of Culture holds two large coin collections. The first was found in 1980 by a farmer cleaning an old well in a village near Ha'il in northern Saudi Arabia. It includes 414 silver dinars, with 7 dating back to the late Umayyad period and 406 to the early Abbasid period, from mints including Baghdad, Basra, Armenia, Balkh, and Kufa. The second collection was found by chance in 2010 by a sand transport worker in another village near Ha'il, containing 2,296 gold and silver coins from the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties.







A modern Saudi gold coin trial strike minted in 1950, with text on the back that differs from the final version in circulation. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This article visits traditional homes in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with a focus on courtyard layouts, family spaces, and local building details. It keeps the original travel route, house names, photographs, and cultural observations for readers interested in Muslim heritage and Gulf architecture.

Continued from the previous post:

Visiting traditional homes in Tunisia and Egypt

Visiting traditional homes in southeastern Turkey

Name: Bayt Ba'ishan

Location: Inside the old city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Date: 1923

Introduction: The Ba'ishan family came from the Hadramaut region in eastern Yemen and specialized in the tea and grain trade. The famous Jeddah musician Omar Ba'ishan and the journalist Mohammad Ba'ishan both come from this family. This old house consists of two parts, and the first floor has a small courtyard used as an outdoor space for namaz. There is now a cold drink shop inside where tourists can rest.



















Name: Bayt Jeddah

Location: Inside the old city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Date: 1880

Introduction: Bayt Jeddah is also called Salloum's house. It was built by Sheikh Abdullah Bin Obaid Salloum in 1880. It preserves many pieces of furniture used by the Salloum family in the past, including some imported from India that are over 120 years old. The old house has three floors. The first floor is a reception room, and the second floor is the bedroom. You can see many daily items here, including old suitcases, sewing machines, and an old-fashioned kerosene refrigerator. In the old house, you can see the area in the Hejaz region specifically designed to receive female neighbors. In the past, female neighbors used to gather there every afternoon to drink tea and chat.



















Name: Crossroad of Civilizations Museum

Location: Inside the Al Shindagha historical district in Dubai, UAE

Date: 19th century

Introduction: The Crossroad of Civilizations Museum is located in a traditional Gulf-style house built in the 19th century. This was the former residence of Sheikh Hashr Bin Maktoum Al Maktoum, the brother of the eighth ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Saeed. It opened as a museum in 2014 and displays many formal book manuscripts and traditional weaponry.













Name: Museum of the Poet Al Oqaili

Location: Inside the Al Ras historical district in Dubai, UAE

Date: 1923

Introduction: The former residence of the poet Al Oqaili (1875-1954). Al Oqaili is a very famous Arab writer who showed a great talent for poetry from a young age. In his middle age, he traveled around the Persian Gulf, living in places like Iraq, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi, before finally settling in Dubai in the early 20th century. In 1923, he hired craftsmen from his hometown of Al-Ahsa to build this house. The entire building is made of coral, stone, plaster, teak, and palm fronds, along with a traditional Iranian building material called Sarooj. Sarooj is a waterproof mortar made by kneading clay and limestone for two days, then adding bathhouse furnace ash, cattail fibers, eggs, and straw, and finally beating it with wooden sticks.

In 1954, Al Oqaili passed away in this house at the age of 81. He never married or had children, so the house was inherited by his cousin who came from Saudi Arabia.

















Name: Al Bait Al Qadeem Restaurant

Location: Inside the Al Ras historical district in Dubai, UAE

Year: 1909

Introduction: Al Bait Alqadeem means old house in Arabic. This restaurant is located in a traditional Gulf-style residence built in 1909 by a pearl boat owner named Abdulla Bin Jamaan, who was also a bodyguard for the ruler of Dubai at the time. In 1954, Abdulla Bin Jamaan became the first mayor of Dubai. Today, this old house has been turned into a restaurant serving traditional Gulf cuisine.











Name: Sharjah Heritage Museum

Location: Inside the Heart of Sharjah historical district in the old city of Sharjah, UAE.

Year: 1795

Introduction: The historical building housing the Sharjah Heritage Museum was built by pearl merchant Saeed bin Mohammed Al Shamsi in 1795. It is also known as Bait Saeed Al Taweel, which means the house of Saeed the Tall. The museum showcases the traditional lifestyle of the people of Sharjah through crafts, folk music, wedding ceremonies, and folktales.









Name: Bait Al Naboodah

Location: Inside the Heart of Sharjah historical district in the old city of Sharjah, UAE.

Year: 1845

Introduction: Bait Al Naboodah is one of the most famous traditional Gulf residences in Sharjah. It was built in 1845 by Obaid bin Eissa Bin Ali Al Shamsi, the wealthiest pearl merchant in 19th-century Sharjah, who was nicknamed Al Naboodah.

Al Naboodah's pearl trade reached Africa, France, and India, and he accumulated massive wealth, especially from his pearl trade with India. In 1845, Al Naboodah rebuilt his father's ancestral home. The new residence featured a large courtyard with coral stone walls, unique Indian teak columns, and plaster carvings made by Persian craftsmen. Additionally, this house did not use the traditional Emirati wind tower (barjeel), but instead pioneered the use of air-scoops (malaqaf) built along the inner walls to circulate air.

The descendants of Al Naboodah lived here until the 1970s, but the building was badly damaged due to years of neglect. In the 1990s, the Sharjah Museums Authority hired a team of historians to carry out a large-scale renovation that lasted several years, and it officially opened to the public in 1995.



















The interactive display of the courtyard allows you to click on any building component on the screen to see an introduction and the restoration process for that part.









The coral stones used to build the courtyard come in two types: brain coral and fan coral. After being pulled from the seabed, these corals were dried in the sun, making them very light yet strong. Environmental protection laws now forbid the collection of coral stones, so limestone from the mountains had to be used to repair the damaged coral stones in the courtyard.





Summer temperatures in Sharjah can exceed 45 degrees Celsius. Many people used to hide in the mountains or oases to escape the heat between June and August, a summer migration route known as al maqeedh. With the summer house, people no longer had to travel inland to escape the heat during the summer.

Sharjah residents usually started preparing their summer houses at the end of March. They would coat the inside and outside of the house with a lime powder called norah, which reflects sunlight. The most important feature of the summer house is the many vents on the roof that help air circulate. During the day, wind blowing from the land flows into the house, and at night, the wind comes from the sea.





Toilet



Kitchen view all

A Saudi Arabian cleric says he has left the country for a safe location after concerns were raised regarding his whereabouts, according to a Twitter page attributed to him. Emad al-Moubayed had tweeted a video criticising recent reforms in the Kingdom.
 
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Rabih bin Shleweh Alenezi, a prominent colonel in Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Public Security, announced his defection in a video he posted to his Twitter account, in which he cited violations of human rights in the Kingdom.
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