Islamic, Umayyad Caliphate. ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, caliph (AH 65–86 / AD 685–705). Arab–Sasanian silver dirham, issued in the name of Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Umayyad governor. The name Khālid appears in Pahlavi as HLYT. Mint: BYŠ (Bishapur) Date: AH 74 (AD 693/694), written in Pahlavi script. Obverse: Crowned Sasanian-style bust right; Arabic inscriptions bism Allāh and Muḥammad rasūl Allāh in the outer margin; four pellets following bism Allāh. Reverse: Zoroastrian fire altar flanked by two attendants; star and crescent flanking the flames; date in Pahlavi to left, mint name to right. References: Walker, Arab-Sasanian 214; Album 24, Rare. Weight: 3.57 g Diameter: 34 × 32 mm ________________________________________ Historical Background: Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh served as an Umayyad governor in southern Iran during the reign of Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, a period marked by administrative consolidation and monetary transition. At this time, the Umayyads continued to issue Arab–Sasanian coinage, retaining Sasanian imagery—such as the crowned royal bust and Zoroastrian fire altar—while gradually introducing Islamic religious inscriptions in Arabic. These hybrid issues reflect the pragmatic policies of the early Umayyad administration, which relied on established local monetary traditions to ensure economic stability while asserting Islamic authority through inscriptions. Khālid’s name rendered in Pahlavi (HLYT) illustrates the persistence of pre-Islamic bureaucratic practices in Iran well into the late 7th century. Such coins were struck shortly before ʿAbd al-Malik’s major monetary reforms, which would soon replace figural coinage with fully epigraphic Islamic issues.