In the middle of the nineteenth century, the world heard for the first time about a British gold dinar that bore on both sides the expressions of monotheism and belief in God and the prophethood of Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace. Although the history of minting the dinar discovered in Rome dates back at least a thousand years before that time, it did not gain its fame except with the issuance of the report prepared by. the researcher in numismatics, “Adrian Le Ngberrier” and sent it to the Society of Collectors of Coins, Necklaces and Securities in Britain in the year 1841.

According to the report, the aforementioned dinar dates back to the era of an English king who lived in the second half of the eighth century AD, that is, 1,200 years ago. He is King Uva Rex, one of the most powerful Anglo-Saxon kings who united the conflicting emirates of the British island under the wing of his kingdom, Mercia. After a hard effort and devastating wars. So who is Ova Rex? And why did he mint a golden dinar, add to it the phrases of monotheism, and remove from it the cross that distinguished all Latin and European coins at the time? Did the influence of Islam reach Britain at that date? How was this king’s relationship with Muslims? Does this gold coin mean that the King of England converted to Islam at that time? That is what we will stand with in our next lines.

“Uva Rex” united the English.

Britain was exposed between the mid-fourth century AD and the mid-sixth century AD to the first Germanic invasions, and the Germans are those whom historians have termed as Anglo-Saxons or Saxons, and they are a mixture of Saxons, English, and Jutes coming from Denmark, Jutland (in present-day Sweden) and Germany. These barbaric groups invaded the British island without much resistance from its indigenous people, who fled from the invaders and settled in the southern regions of Wales, which became their home and residence.

Soon a bitter struggle broke out between the leaders of these sects, and each of them was able to become independent and form a private kingdom, until tomorrow there were 7 kingdoms on the British island, including Wessex, Sussex, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. And “Kent”, and the leadership of those kingdoms eventually came to the dominance of “Mercia” after wars and bitter struggle, as everyone owed it allegiance and complete submission, and this happened only during the reign of its greatest king, King “Uva Rex” (757-796 AD / 140-180 AH), who deservedly managed to win the titles “King of England”, “King of all English countries” and “The Great King of Mercia” [1].

Offa did not achieve this great achievement by uniting the British island under the authority of his state except because of his great military force that relied on a strong financial tributary of trade and the collection of profit and wealth. He must be interested in trade and encourage it.” [2]. Offa’s interest in trade reflected his interest in the economy, as well as his desire to form diplomatic and commercial relations with the European powers surrounding him, and even with the Islamic world, which was at the height of its civilized and military strength under the rule of the first Abbasid caliphs, such as Abu Jaafar al-Mansur, Muhammad al-Mahdi, Musa al-Hadi, and then Harun Al Rasheed.

Islamic Offa Dinar

As we indicated, Offa was keen to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with the most powerful European kingdoms at the time, namely the Kingdom of the Franks (France) and the Holy Roman Empire led by King “Charlemagne”. He also worked to fix silver and gold coins for the English to facilitate commercial transactions between England and its neighbors, as well as the world.

The strength of Islam, at that time, reached the European continent itself, with the victory of Muslims in Andalusia and southern France, and their stability there for long periods. However, it was noted that “Ufa” before reaching a commercial agreement between the English and the French, did not want to recognize the authority of the papal Catholic Church in Rome, whose sword was then in the hands of “Charlemagne”, the protector of its power and sovereignty in the European continent, and “Charlemagne” punished him.

Historians have noticed that the coins of the beginning of the “Ufa” era bore on their back the Christian sign of the cross, and their face bore the image of King “Ufa”, but the matter changed with the coins presented at the end of his era, until the sign of the cross faded and the image of the king disappeared, and then finally the remarkable golden dinar appeared, which In 157 AH / 774 AD [4], the phrase “Tawheed and Islam” was inscribed on it, “Ufa”.

On the front of the dinar, we find in the margin, “Muhammad is the Messenger of God, who sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, to make it prevail over all religions.” And in the center, “There is no god but God, alone with no partner.” And on the back, we find in the margin, “In the name of God, this dinar was struck in the year 157 and 100.” And in the center is “Muhammad is the Messenger of God OFFA REX”. This dinar appeared for the first time in a hall sold in Rome, and it may have been part of an annual gift or tribute to Pope “Adrian I”, as “Ufa” promised to send 365 gold coins to the Pope every year [5].

Interpretations of historians and researchers have varied about the real reasons that prompted King Offa to mint this currency, so a team went to the fact that the rule of the dinar was in the east and west of the Islamic world alike, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean by land and sea, and even in Andalusia and southern France in the era of Abd al-Rahman inside the Umayyad And his children and grandchildren after him for two centuries, all of this made the Latin and European powers try to follow the same approach and mint a dinar that bears an Islamic character.

This interpretation is supported by the fact that “Charlemagne”, the king of the Holy Roman Empire and its heart is France, was the first to initiate the strengthening of relations with the Abbasids in the era of the caliph Harun al-Rashid, as they exchanged precious gifts, which made “Uva Rex” King of England seek possession of some of this booty By developing relations with the most powerful empires in the world at the time, by minting this currency to activate commercial transactions between him and the Muslims, and in order to open the way to accepting this currency in the Islamic world, which was loathe to accept coins with images of crosses, then to facilitate trade and status between Muslims without oppression or oppression. This is an opinion that the British historian “Blunt” [6] was at the head of.

However, the appearance of this dinar and its discovery in Rome made some historians explain that it was caused by spite in the papacy, to which the king of “Mercia” and the British island used to pay every year an annual tribute estimated at 365 golden dinars for every day of the year. This interpretation is based on the well-known sharp differences between Offa, the English churchmen, and the Pope in Rome, and even between him and Charlemagne, King of France and the Holy Roman Empire and protector of the first cross in Europe, where Offa treated him as equals [7].

However, the positions of the papacy and the Roman Church hostile to such expressions after the era of “Ufa” during the Crusades confirm that it would not have accepted that one of its followers, including “Ufa”, would pay the annual tribute in a currency bearing clear Islamic expressions such as this dinar, and it happened that the Crusader princes minted in Tripoli And Sidon coins bearing the name of the Messenger Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, and the Hijri date.

The delegate of the Pope accompanying Louis IX’s crusade rejected that coin, which excludes the hypothesis of accepting the papacy in Rome three centuries before the era of the Crusades while it was at the height of its power for such a currency coming from England, even if it was By way of tribute from a Christian king, unless this king is of another religion [8].

Did King Offa convert to Islam then?

The pattern of the Ufa gold dinar with phrases of monotheism is more similar to the shape of the Abbasid Baghdadi dinar than to the Moroccan or Andalusian dinar; This confirms that Offa had a strong relationship with the Abbasid authorities, and that it allowed Muslim merchants to enter Britain in the eighth century AD to buy and sell what they wanted according to the mutual relations between the two sides. Therefore, Dr. “Mustafa Al-Kinani” believes that the golden dinar sent to the papacy in Rome bearing the word of monotheism is clear evidence of the entry of King “Ufa” into Islam through Muslim merchants, to whom the doors of Britain were opened.

Al-Kinani says: “Since Muslim merchants were not just merchants, but they were Islamic advocates at the same time and were fully aware of all jurisprudential matters, the principles of advocacy and Islamic law as a whole, in addition to what they were characterized by good manners, correct behavior, integrity and honesty, so they were rightly the best example that represents the Muslim By example, they gave the societies with which they traded bright images of Islam and Muslims… There is nothing to prevent the existence of a kind of direct contact between some of these great Muslim merchants and Ufa, during which they discussed with him the concept of Islamic expressions of monotheism engraved on the Abbasid dinars after his inscriptions dazzled him”[ 9].

And it seems that these discussions have evolved to invite him to Islam, and their discussion with him in all matters related to Christianity, and just as the Muslims who emigrated to Abyssinia were able to invite the Christian King of Abyssinia to Islam under the leadership of Jaafar bin Abi Talib, may God be pleased with him, it seems that these merchants were also able to succeed in their mission with King Offa, and perhaps he was safe alone or with his family and senior aides at the beginning of the matter,

then he announced the matter and decided to mint this currency, some of which he sent as tribute to the papacy in Rome as he had done previously, and the biggest evidence of that is the disappearance of documents of the era of King “Offa” despite our obtaining Documents of those who preceded him and those who followed him from among the kings of Britain, as described by Al-Kinani.

It is not surprising for Muslim merchants to play this role. Because they did it in the best way in the countries and islands of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, as well as the countries of East, West and Central Africa, and Islamic geography books tell us about Muslims’ knowledge of the British Isles, which the famous geographer “Al-Idrisi” called in his famous encyclopedia “Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Pentafaq al-Afaq” on the island of Inqiltara” (Inqiltara, Enkeletara, or Enkirtara), and Al-Idrisi dealt with its most important cities at the time, including London, which he called “Lendras” on the “Ntanza” [10] river, that is, the Thames today. 

There is no doubt that Al-Idrisi’s knowledge of this British geography and his handling of its most important cities, the distances between cities, their geography, and the nature of their people is a product of the experience of the Muslims who preceded him through the first five centuries in discovering these countries, in addition to the scientific committee he established for this purpose.

Whatever the historians’ interpretation of the reasons for the existence of the phrase “unification” on a British gold dinar 1,200 years ago, this confirms beyond any doubt the strength of the Islamic state globally in its Abbasid era, especially in the times of Abu Jaafar al-Mansur, al-Hadi, al-Mahdi and al-Rashid, whether this power was represented In the economy that forced the European and Latin powers to succumb to their culture and dominance to mint such a currency, or was it represented in the power of Islamic call and diplomacy that might have persuaded this powerful Christian king who ruled the British island to enter Islam, despite the obliteration of this fact by subsequent kings, patriarchs, and politicians of his era.

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Sources:

1. Mustafa Al-Kinani: The Age of Offa, King of England, pg. 62.
2. Mustafa Al-Kinani: Previously, p. 65.
3. Offa Anglo-Saxon king
4. Mustafa Al-Kinani: Relations between Genoa and the Islamic Near East, pp. 312-316.
5. Gold dinar of King Offa
6. The Age of Offa, King of England, pp. 125, 126.
7. Gold dinar of King Offa
8. The Offa era, pp. 115-127.
9. Ex source.
10. Al-Idrisi: Nuzhat al-Mushtaq 2/944 and beyond.