RESOURCESJean de Menasce, ed. P. Gignoux and A. Tafazzoli (Louvain, 1974),
pp. 155-61; and "The Use of Clay Sealings in Sasanian Iran," in Textes
et Memoirs, V, Varia 1976, Acta Iranica (Leiden, 1977), pp. 117-
124.
Seals and seal impressions have a great deal of information to offer
on art history, religious symbolism, naming patterns, and administra-
tion for the late Sasanian period. Unfortunately, they contain no in-
formation about where and when they were made and must be used
in conjunction with coins.
Coins
Coins are at least as important as seals as primary sources. In the
first place, since late Sasanian coins are dated by year of a ruler's reign,
the orthography of their inscriptions helps to date inscribed seals. In
the second place although Sasanian seals were used by Muslims who
sometimes put Arabic inscriptions on them, early Islamic seals have
not been studied enough to enable one to make valid comparisons,
and early Muslim administrators do not seem to have used or made
administrative seals of the Sasanian type. In contrast, continuities and
changes in coins are clearly and easily traceable from the late Sasanian
to the early Islamic period on coins struck in Iraq. Coins thus provide
the only "hard" contemporary, datable evidence for the nature of
continuity and change in early Muslim Iraq, and what is learned from
them may be applied usefully to other kinds of materials.
Silver coins from the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods are
fairly common, and the typologies by year and mint location for each
ruler are fairly complete. The standard listing is F.D.J. Paruck's Sii-
siinian Coins (Bombay, 1924), which may be supplemented by R.
Vasmer's "Sassanian Coins in the Hermitage," Numismatic Chronicle
(1928), pp. 297-308, and by N. Nakshabandi and F. Rashid's "The
Sassanian Dirhems in the Iraq Museum (ad-Darahim as-Sasaniyya min
al-matl}.af al-'Iraqi)," Sumer 2 (1955): 155-76. The most important
recent work on Sasanian coins has been done by R. Gobl, who con-
tributed a substantial chapter called "Aufbau der Miinzpragung" to
Altheim and Stiehl's Asiatischer Staat, pp. 51-128, and a notice on
"Die Miinzen der Sasaniden im koniglichen Miinzkabinett, Haag, par
P. Naster," to Iranica Antiqua 3 (1963): 82-84. Gobl's Sasanidische
Numismatik (Brunswick, 1971) is the most up-to-date general study
of all aspects of Sasanian coinage. W. al-Qazzaz, "A Rare Sassanid
Dinar in the Iraq Museum (Dinar Siisani nadir fi-I-matl}.af al-'Iraqi),"