In terms of size, fullness and geographic coverage, the Hermitage collection of coins representing Islamic civilization is the best in the world, accounting as it does for over 180 thousand items. The basis of its pre-Mongolian section is represented by a large number of gold, silver and copper coins of different denominations (dinars, dirkhams and falses) of the Caliphate and the Muslim dynasties of the 9th to 11th centuries struck over the vast expanses stretching from Syria and Iraq down to Transcaucasia, Eastern Iran and Central Asia – and from Egypt down to the North-East of Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. They comprise the coinage of the Caliphate dynasties of the Umayyads (including their branch known as the Al Andalus Umayyads in Islamic Spain) and of the Abbasids and their governors in Iran and Northern Africa, as well as such independent dynasties as the Samanids in Central Asia, the Hamdanids, Buwayhids and Ziyarids in Iran and Iraq, the Safavids, Sallarids and Shaddadids in Transcaucasia, the Tulunids, Ikhshidids, Idrisids, Aghlabids and Fatimids in Egypt and Northern Africa) and the apanage rulers (muluk at-tawa’ if) in Spain.
The Seljuq-Turkmenian period is represented by the gold and electrum coinage of the great Seljuqs and by the silver and copper coinage of their heirs in Asia Minor and the Middle East (the Rum Seljuqs, Artuqids, Ayyubids and Atabegs of Iran, the Eldiguzids and other dynasties of Turkic origins). Uniquely complete and of outstanding scholarly importance is the Hermitage selection of the coinage of the Turkic rulers – the Central Asian Karakhanid dynasty dating from the late 10th to the early 13th century. The same is true about the coins struck by the Shirvanshah independent rulers of East Trancaucasia (territory of present-day Azerbaijan), dating from the 10th–16th centuries.
The dynasties of Northern Africa and Muslim Spain of the 12th–15th centuries are represented for the most part by gold coins minted by the Almoravids, Almohads and Nasrids. As for Morocco, the Hermitage Museum collection demonstrates every stage in the kingdom’s money circulation development over a period from the 16th to the early 21st century, including anonymous 19th-century cast coinage and the present-day machine-minted pieces.
Well represented in the collection are the issues of the Mongolian and post-Mongolian dynasty coinage, which provide a comprehensive picture of money circulation in Transoxiana, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, the Crimea and the middle and lower Volga basin lands. Within this section, the most remarkable for quantity and typological variety is the collection of the Golden Horde, which contains 35 213 items. Among exhibits dating from a later period, particularly noteworthy is the fine selection of gold and silver coins of the Qajar dynasty, the bulk of which comprises the numismatic treasures that formed part of the indemnity exacted by Russia from Iran in accordance with the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 10 (22) February 1828.
What deserves a special mention are sets of coins that illustrate money circulation in Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia in the 11th–12th centuries. They are virtual troves of Kufic silver coins and Eldiguzid and Karakhanid copper coins, which kept entering the Hermitage throughout the 20th century. They range from small sets (of just a few coins) to the large 9th-century Timirevsky hoard (containing over 2.7 thousand silver coins of the Caliphate) and the late 12th-century Narynsky hoard (nearly 11 thousand copper and silver-plated coins of the Karakhanid dynasty).
The coin sets of the Mongolian and post-Mongolian period (over 5,000 items) are represented by 15 hoards: 7 hoards of the Juchid dynasty coins dating from the mid-14th–first quarter of the 15th century, one hoard of fake Juchid coins with Russian imprints struck over the original and 7 hoards of coins from different Muslim dynasties of the 13th–18th centuries. Apart from that, the collection includes the Golden Horde coins excavated on the Old Crimea site during the 1983 archaeological excavation.
The collection of coins from Georgia (about 2.5 thousand items) represents all the periods of this Transcaucasia country from the Sasanian period to the early 19th century, as well as the coinage of the present-day Republic of Georgia from the last decade of the 20th–early 21st centuries. Of particular interest is the fine selection of coinage of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia dating from the 12th to 14th century (totalling 400 pieces) and the collection of present-day Armenian Republic’s coinage.