ADMINISTRATIONflanking the crown. The crescent and a five-pointed star made their
first appearance on the reverse of his coins: the crescent to the right,
the star to the left of the fire altar. These were also the first Sasanian
coins to bear dates in the form of the regnal year of the monarch
written out in Pahlavi script on the lower left side of the reverse (see
fig. la). Subsequent Sasanian silver coins maintained the placement of
these elements, and there may be a connection between the use of
astral symbols and the introduction of dates. This possibility is in-
creased by the presence, apparently for the first time, of a court as-
trologer in 496 and 497 in the reign of Jamasp (496-98/9).46
The coins of Qubadh I (488-96, 498/9-531) were essentially the
same as those of nrilz, but an upturned crescent was placed on each
shoulder of the monarch on the obverseY The star and crescent were
combined for the first time on the coins of Khusraw Anilshirvan (531-
79), where a six-pointed star was placed between the horns of a cres-
cent on each shoulder of the portrait on the obverse (see fig. 1b). In
addition, the coins minted in the thirty-fourth year of his reign, which
had a frontal portrait of the monarch on the obverse, had a six-pointed
star on either side of his crown and a star inside a crescent on each
side of the standing figure of the king on the reverse. His profile coins
also had three crescents around the margin of the obverse at ninety-
degree intervals with the crescent above his crown, which extends into
the margin making the fourth. The coins from the fifth year of his
reign onwards contained the name of the king with the slogan "may
he prosper" (M.P. afzun), and the coins from his thirty-fourth year
had the legend "the protector and master of the world. "48 With all of
this, it might be suggested that at least the placing of the crescents
around the margin symbolized Khusraw's claim to universal rule over
the four quarters of the world and was connected to the division of
his empire into four quarters and to the preference for organizing
46 Gobl, "Miinzpriigung," pp. 67, 74-75; Paruck, Sasanian Coins, pp. 27, 63, 83,
103; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," II(2), 128-29. Paruck explained the symbolism of
the crescent and star as the conjunction of Venus with the moon, which was a sign of
good luck and prosperity. More recently S. Shaked has suggested that the "stars" found
together with the moon on Sasanian seals are really representations of the sun and its
rays; see "Jewish and Christian Seals of the Sasanian Period," in Studies in Memory of
Gaston Wiet, ed. M. Rosen-Ayalon (Jerusalem, 1977), pp. 17-31.
47 Gobl, "Miinzpriigung," pp. 67, 73; Paruck, Sasanian Coins, pp. 64-65.
48 Gobl, "Miinzpriigung," pp. 57, 63; Paruck, Sasanian Coins, pp. 65, 103-4, 106,
267-71. Compare the greeting "may the visitor prosper" given by Ziyiid to al-Mughlra
ibn Shu'ba when he received the latter in the audience hall of the citadel at Istakhr in
662 (TabarI, Ta'rzkh, II,24).