The Zanj Rebellion: an ancient coin reveals a fight for freedom
A rare coin at the British Museum helps tell the story of a bloody slave rebellion and the people who forged a fleeting sovereignty.
In 9th-century southern Iraq, then part of an empire that stretched from Tunisia to Uzbekistan, a man named Ali ibn Mohammed led tens of thousands of enslaved East Africans and other oppressed peoples in a rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate.
The revolt, known as Thawrat al-Zanj – the Zanj rebellion – was one of the bloodiest in pre-modern Islamic history, and kept the Caliphate occupied for almost 15 years. Yet outside of scholarly circles, it remains largely unknown.
Despite textual sources, physical evidence of the Zanj rebellion has been strangely elusive – given its scale, there's a surprising lack of ruins, human remains or other archaeological finds.
When I worked as Africa Project Curator at the British Museum, I came across a coin minted during this rebellion. Known by the catalogue reference OR.10970, the coin was last written about almost a century ago, in 1933, by John Walker – then curator in the Department of Coins and Medals – who described it as a 'rare coin of the Zanj'. In this article I use that coin, and others, to revisit the story of the Zanj rebellion.
Who were the Zanj?
The term 'Zanj' appears in Arabic sources and may ultimately derive from Persian. It refers to people from East Africa – often those from the Swahili coast and off-shore islands – in the early-Islamic period, though it was sometimes used more loosely to refer to people from wider Africa.
According to the historian al-Tabari, the Zanj of the rebellion were brought to southern Iraq's Shatt al-'Arab region to work on an extensive Abbasid Caliphate agricultural project: to reclaim and cultivate the marshlands of Lower Iraq.
The rebellion was named after the Zanj because enslaved East Africans likely made up the most important element of those fighting, some rising to the rank of commanders. But the rebel army also included other enslaved and free groups, from other parts of Africa, the Persian Gulf and adjacent regions, all of whom shared grievances against the social and economic systems of the Caliphate.
Al-Tabari describes the harsh working conditions and minimal provisions of the enslaved agricultural labourers, which helped fuel discontent. It was during this period that Ali ibn Muhammed connected with and influenced the rebels by using Islamic teachings to provide solace and inspire a rebellion.
Ali ibn Muhammed: poet turned rebel leader
Ali ibn Muhammed was the leader of the Zanj Rebellion. His ethnic identity and early life remain largely obscure, though al-Ṭabarī records that he was of enslaved descent, with a paternal grandmother who had been an enslaved Sindī (a people from an area that is now a province of south-east Pakistan). Prior to leading the rebellion, Ali served as a poet at the court of the Abbasid Caliph (ruler) al-Muntasir in Samarra, a prominent Abbasid administrative city and military base north of Baghdad.
In the years leading up to the Zanj Rebellion, the Abbasid empire was dealing with a number of socio-political crises and conflicts. Ali likely saw this as an opportune time for an uprising. He travelled across al-Bahrain (northeastern Arabia, including modern-day Bahrain) in AD 864, instigating smaller campaigns as he went. Returning to southern Iraq in AD 869, he rallied the enslaved Zanj people who worked under harsh conditions in the salt marshes. The ranks of the insurgents swelled rapidly, quickly reaching tens of thousands.
As the revolt progressed, Ali ibn Muhammad established his political centre in the marshlands. The Zanj built fortified settlements, with Medina al-Mukhtara as their capital. These settlements provided a base of operations but also likely demonstrated an intent to move from a slave rebellion into a government rivalling the Abbasid authority in the region.
All sorts of crafts were set up in these settlements to supply the rebellion and the forming rebel state, including minting coins. Minting money was a practical tool for economic exchange, but it also served as a symbol of sovereign authority.
In Islamic political thought, two key symbols were traditionally used to recognise a ruler's authority: the reading of their name during Friday prayers and the placement of their name on coins. By having coins minted in his name, Ali was not only asserting his political independence but also aligning himself with these traditional markers of rulership.
Al-Tabari recounts that Ali's banner displayed the Quranic verse 'Verily God has bought from the faithful their persons and their goods at this price, that theirs is Paradise who fight in the path of God', a favourite verse of the Kharijites, a religious sect of which Ali had been a follower.
The coin in the British Museum has the same words inscribed on it, confirming that the verse was also used by the rebels in public contexts.
The British Museum Zanj coin: political and personal
The Zanj coin in the British Museum collection – OR.10970 – is made of gold and weighs 4.27 grams, matching the Abbasid dinar standard of 4.16–4.27 grams. The inscriptions on the coin indicate that it was minted at Medina al-Mukhtara, the place mentioned by Al-Tabari as the capital of the Zanj, in the year AH 261 (AD 874).
The Arabic text on the coin reads:
Obverse (front):
- Centre: 'There is no god but God alone He has no partner Muhammad the son of the Commander of the Faithful.'
- Inner Margin: 'In the name of God this dinar was minted in Al-Madina Al-Mukhtara in the year 261'
- Outer Margin: 'Verily God has bought from the faithful their persons and their goods at this price, that theirs is Paradise who fight in the path of God'
Reverse (back):
- Centre: 'Ali. Muhammad is the Messenger of God The Mahdi 'Ali the son of Muhammad.
- Margin: And whoso will not decide by what God has sent down, these are the infidels. Is it not the case that there is no jurisdiction except God's, and no obedience to any except God?'
The coin appears to have been struck from a different die to other known Zanj coins, though it bears notable similarities to one held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, reported in the 1890s by P. Cassanova.
A curious feature of OR.10970, absent from other Zanj coins documented to date, is evidence that it was once mounted: traces of a suspension loop suggest it may have been worn as a pendant.
Intriguingly, the mounting is oriented so that the coin would have hung upside down, making its inscription difficult for others to read. This suggests its significance may have been more personal than public – an intimate possession, valued by its owner for reasons beyond its political or monetary value.
Where and when the British Museum's Zanj coin was found is unknown, but a hoard excavated at Susa in Iran includes examples of Zanj coins that provide some useful context for understanding the British Museum coin – as well as one historical detail not found anywhere else.
The Susa hoard: shedding new light
In 1948, seven dirhams (silver coins) minted by the Zanj were discovered during excavations at Susa, Iran, by the archaeologist Roman M. Ghirshman and his team. The coins formed part of a hoard dated to the 8th–9th century AD.
Six of the Susa coins were minted at the Zanj capital of Madina al-Mukhtara, with at least three of them issued in AH 261 (AD 874), the same location and year as the gold coin in the British Museum.
The Susa hoard therefore helps to confirm that the British Museum coin is not an isolated product but the result of a significant minting operation in gold and silver.
It also illustrates how widely coins could circulate. These Zanj coins were found alongside coins from Iran, connecting them to long distance trade routes. Some Zanj coins have been found as far away as Gotland, in Sweden.
One Zanj dirham from the hoard reveals even more. Much heavier than the others – weighing 4.52 grams compared with the standard weight for a dirham of around 2.97 grams – it was also minted earlier, in AH 258 (AD 871–2), at 'Muaskar al Imam'.
Muaskar al-Imam translates as 'camp of the Imam', and is thought to refer to Ali ibn Muhammad's initial headquarters in Lower Iraq. It may have been the original name for the Zanj capital of Medina al-Mukhtara or another, earlier, Zanj settlement.
Either way, the placename is not mentioned in surviving text sources and historians only know about it because it is inscribed on this coin, which has known provenance and has been reliably dated. It also indicates that Ali began minting coins, claiming the title of Imam, shortly after the rebellion began.
The end of the rebellion
The Zanj rebellion was a tumultuous period that embroiled the Abbasid Caliphs in significant military campaigns.
But following a two-year siege of the Zanj capital at Al-Mukhtara around AD 883, led by the Caliph Al-Mu'tamid's (r. AD 870–893) brother Al-Muwaffaq, Abbasid forces seized the city, marking the end of the uprising.
Yet again, coins provide an insight into this slice of history.
Coins issued at the time by Al-Muwaffaq, were likely minted to pay his troops during the siege of Medina al-Mukhtara, and can be interpreted as evidence of the huge Abbasid effort to contain the Zanj.
There are also suggestions that the Abbasid Caliphate may have issued coins specifically to commemorate the eventual suppression of the rebellion.
Following their defeat, it's possible that many Zanj coins were melted down as was common practice, both in order to mint new Abbasid coins and also perhaps to erase the impact and legacy of the Zanj.
The remaining Zanj rebel-community may have been dispersed or fragmented after the rebellion and must have lost their agency, with many likely returning to servitude, fleeing elsewhere or being forcibly relocated, leading to the loss and scattering of their material culture.
This only makes the British Museum Zanj coin – and those of the Susa hoard – more valuable. These coins provide historical, political and even personal insights into these oppressed people who forged both a formidable rebellion and a fleeting sovereignty.
