ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEthings by fours in Zurvanism. The only important innovations on the
coins of Hurmizd IV (579-90) were the placing of a five-pointed star
inside a crescent in front of his crown or a six-pointed star on each
side of his crown on the obverse, as well as the addition of five-or
six-pointed stars to the crescents around the margin of the obverse
(see fig. lc).49
The coins of Khusraw Parviz were based on these fifth-and sixth-
century precedents and set the pattern for most of the seventh century.
Above the profile of the monarch on the obverse was an upturned
crescent surmounting the crown and extending into the margin, where
it held a star. On either side of the crown and its superstructure was
an outstretched wing and there were three more six-pointed stars inside
crescents at ninety-degree intervals around the margin and four stars
inside crescents around the margin on the reverse. The reverse still
had a star to the left and a crescent to the right of the fire altar, but
a double pearl border was added around the margin of the obverse
and a triple pearl border around the margin of the reverse (see. fig.
id). According to tradition, at the end of the thirteenth (spring, 603)
or the thirtieth (spring, 620) year of his reign, Khusraw Parviz ordered
that new coin dies be engraved and had some two or four billion
dirhams struck from the surplus in the treasuries over and above what
was set aside for provisioning the army. These coins were heavier than
usual; according to Miles, the highest frequency group of the dirhams
of Khusraw Parviz average between 4.11 and 4.15 grams. The coins
of his successors down to the end of the dynasty bore the most dis-
tinctive characteristics of his type of coin, with legends in which the
name of the ruler is followed by afzun or the slogan "may the royal
fortune increase" (M.P. afzut GDH).sO
After the conquest, the Islamic government in Iraq accepted the
existing Sasanian coins for the payment of taxes without regard for
differences in weight. Coins were minted for Yazdagerd III (probably
in eastern Iran) down to the twentieth year of his reign in 651, when
he died. Although the royal mints· are said to have been confiscated
by the Muslims at the time of the conquest, the first coins minted by
the Islamic authorities in Iraq and the East were copies of the coins
of Yazdagerd III and Khusraw Parviz. These Arab-Sasanian coins,
49 Paruck, Siisiinian Coins, p. 66.
so G. C. Miles, "Dirham," EI(2), n, 319; Paruck, Siisiinian Coins, pp. 67-68; Tabari,
Ta'rlkh, 1,1056-57. The account in Tabari is anachronous in calling these coins waraq
(Ar. "paper-thin") dirhams and in giving their weight as two-fifths of a mithqiil.