Cuve Foss*
A Syrian Coinage of Mu'awiya?
(PL XXXVII-XXXVIII)
Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan was the dominant figure of seventh-Syria, during the half century from the early stages of the Arab conquest through the consolidation of the Umayyad caliphate.1 The caliph Abu Bakr sent Mu'awiya and
* History Department, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 20057 - USA clivefoss@hotmail.com A preliminary version of this paper was delivered at the Arab-Byzantine Forum held in Dumbarton Oaks on 17 November 2000. My thanks to Cecile Morrisson for much helpful criticism and to Alan DeShazo and Steve Album for generous advice on Arab-Sassanian coinage and to Alan DeShazo and Charlie Karukstis for providing illustrations. 1. For what follows, see the detailed summary of M. Hinds in Encyclopedia of Islam2, with full references. Much of it is based on the tenth-century historian Tabari: The History ofal-Tabari xviii: Between Civil Wars: The Caliphate of Mďawiyah, tr. Michael Morony, Albany NY, 1978. G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, London, 1986, p. 34-45 presents a clear modern account.
RN 2002, p. 353-365