Coinage in Spain in the Aftermath of the Islamic Conquest

Abstract

Chapter Six considers the end of the Visigothic kingdom, which came in 711 with the Muslim invasion from northwest Africa, and how the new Islamic state and its minting compared with that of the previous regime. In ten years, Islamic coinage in Iberia moved from wholly Latin inscriptions to bilingual to wholly Arabic legends. It is believed that multiple minting sites were rapidly consolidated into one single gold mint at the new capital, Cordoba. The strictly gold minting of the late Visigothic era gave way to minting in gold dinars (solidi) and copious issues of bronze coins. Temporarily, Islamic coins in Iberia had reduced gold purity levels, but these were soon raised to the high Islamic and Byzantine standards.