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Electronic catalogue of images of the Koz'jankovskij treasure of Arab Kufic dirhams of the 9th — 10th centuries from the museum collection of Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve

Museum collection of Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve includes the largest cash deposit of Ancient Rus' — Koz'jankovskij treasure of Arabic Kufic dirhams of the 9th — 10th centuries.

Dirham is the Arabized name for the Greek drachma currency; the epithet “Kufic” — from the Kufi script, originated in the Iraqi city of al-Kouf at the end of the 7th century and was used for the inscription of the legends on the coins of the Arab Caliphate.

Kufic dirhams are thin silver coins with a diameter of about 25—30 mm, on both sides of which are Arab legends. There are legends containing pious sayings and the names of rulers in the central part of both sides of the dirham, and the obligatory circular legends of these coins contain the continuation of pious sayings and the most significant information for us about the place and year of coinage.

The Caliphate, which was the main trading partner of Ancient Rus', supplied the silver emission of its numerous mints to the markets of Rus'. Dirhams and their fragments became the first ancient Rus' money — nogata, kuna, rezana and veverica (veksha).

The main part of the treasure (7650 coins) entered the repository of the Museum-Reserve in 1973—1974 shortly after the discovery, later they added another 13 coins from private collections mediated by Valentin Rjabcevich.

Thus, only 7663 treasure coins are kept in Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve. All coins have been tested and registered in the Books of Receipt of the Main Repository and Special Inventory Books for the Accounting of Coins, Medals, Plaques of Precious Metals. The total weight of the coins of the treasure is 19893.8 g, the net weight is 19113.3 g. Images of all coins are presented in this electronic catalogue.

Also here is the appendix “Inventory of treasure coins”, made on the basis of the V. Rjabcevich and I. Dobrovol'skij records by Vjacheslav Kuleshov, researcher of the State Hermitage Museum.

The search of a coin in the database is carried out by the number in the Books of receipts (КП) of the main repository:


КП6-2824/1—7420
КП6-2839/1—160
КП6-2844/1—34
КП6-2851/1—36
КП12-7954—7956
КП12-8134—8137
КП17-18510—18515
 Select a dirham to view 
 

More information about Koz'jankovskij treasure:

Козьянковский клад арабских куфических дирхамов IX—X веков из музейного собрания Национального Полоцкого историко-культурного музея-заповедника. — Полоцк: НПИКМЗ, 2011. — 40 с.