ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEmander of the Faithful and inherited it from the Sasanians along with
the mints and coins themselves. The imitation of late Sas ani an coins
by the early Muslim rulers in the east is one of the clearest aspects of
direct continuity both in finance administration and in royal symbol-
ism. Although the Sasanians used both gold and silver coins, taxes
were computed in the silver coins called zuze in Syriac or dirhams in
Arabic; these were derived from the Attic drachma, which had been
introduced into the east by Alexander the Great and had been per-
petuated by the Seleucids and Parthians. The Sasanian dirham had an
average weight of 3.9 grams and was supposed to be equal in value
to one twenty-fifth of a gold coin, while four zuze equaled a stater
(Syr. esttrii, Gk. tetradrachma) or Hebrew sheke1.^45
Sasanian coins were a convenient means of publishing royal claims
to authority along with certain aspects of Sasanian imperial ideology,
and they provide contemporary evidence for the theoretical founda-
tions of Sasanian rule. Normally Sasanian silver coins presented a
portrait of the reigning monarch in profile on the obverse, each with
his distinctive crown and headdress. From the beginning of the dy-
nasty, the Magian fire altar flanked by two priests was represented on
the reverse as an indication of the official status enjoyed by Magianism
under the Sasanians. Of equal importance was the introduction of
astral symbols on the coins of fifth-century rulers and the organization
of these symbols into meaningful patterns on the coins of the last
Sasanian monarchs. Yazdagerd I (399-420) was the first monarch
represented with a crescent moon on the front of his crown, and the
coins of both Bahram V (420-38) and Yazdagerd 11 (438-57) show
an upturned crescent beneath a circle representing the sun above their
crowns. The coins of Firuz (459-84) marked the definite establishment
of these symbols on Sasanian coins; the obverse contains a crescent
in front of the crown and the crown itself is surmounted by an upturned
crescent beneath a circle. Some of his coins show two outspread wings
'5 E. Ebeling, "Das Aramaisch-Mittel-Persische Glossar Frahang-i-Pahlavik im Lichte
der assyriologischen Forschung," Mitteilungen der Altorientalischen Gesellschaft 14
(1941),36-37; R. Gobl, "Aufbau der Miinzpragung," in F. Altheim, Ein Asiatischer
Staat, p. 97; F. Paruck, Siisiinian Coins (Bombay, 1924), pp. 37, 39, 47; N. Pigulevskaya,
Les villes de l'etat iranien aux epoques parthe et sassanide (Paris, 1963), p. 183; M. L.
Rodkinson, The Babylonian Talmud (Boston, 1918), X, "Baba Kama," 147; idem, XI,
"Baba Metzia," 112; idem, XIV, "Baba Bathra," 366-67; C. E. Sachau, Syrische Rechts-
bitcher (Berlin, 1907), Il, 198; A. V66bus, History of the School of Nisibis, CSCO
(Louvain, 1965), p. 273; J. Walker, A Catalogue of the Arab-Sassanian Coins (London,
1941), pp. cxlvi-vii.