纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 046阿卜杜勒马立克金币(4)（在线收听）

"In the years that followed the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632, the caliphs were essentially the political and religious leaders of the Muslim community. All Arab Muslims in the first century of Islam, realised that this was a new state-that what went on before wasn't really relevant. These caliphs were not the successors of the Byzantine emperors or of the Sassanian king of kings. They might look to these people for solutions to administrative problems-how you collect money, and indeed what sort of money you make-but they wouldn't see themselves as performing the same sort of role. This was a new dispensation."

公元632年，穆罕默德去世之后，哈里发成为穆斯林最重要的政治及宗教领袖。在伊斯兰历的最初一百年内,所有的阿拉伯穆斯林都意识到他们处在一个全新的国度，之前的一切都不重要。哈里发不是拜占庭皇帝的继承人，也不是萨珊王朝万王之王的继承人。他们也许会借鉴这些帝王管理国家的经验，比如如何收税，收哪些税，但他们并不认为自己与前人扮演着同样的角色。这个制度是全新的。

One of the administrative solutions that Abd al-Malik borrowed from the Byzantine emperors was how to manage the currency. Up until now, the new Islamic empire had used hand-me-down coins from the pre-conquest era, or imported, and especially Byzantine, gold coins, but Abd al-Malik quickly saw what every chancellor of the exchequer has seen since, namely that there'll be economic instability if a ruler does not control the quantity and the quality of his own money supply. He understood that coins are literally the stamp of authority, asserting the dominant power in the society using them-and that power was now his.

阿卜杜勒马利克向拜占庭皇帝借鉴的管理手法之一便是货币管理。在此之前，新伊斯兰帝国所使用的货币要么是占领区的前朝传下来的，要么是从伊斯坦布尔进口的金币。但阿卜杜勒马利克很快意识到，如果不去控制货币的数量与质量，就会出现经济动荡。他也了解到货币是权力的印章，是向它所流通的社会表明统治权的手段，而统治权如今在他手中。

It's worth remembering that in the pre-modern world, coinage was often the only mass-produced item in use, and it was therefore a hugely significant element in the visual culture of a society-money was a billboard for the boss. And so the boss, Abd al-Malik, was stamped on this first overtly Islamic coinage. The Leader of the Faithful had ousted and replaced the emperors of Byzantium.

在前现代社会，货币几乎是唯一一种在日常生活中被大量制造并流通的物品，因而也是一个国家视觉文化中最重要的因素。因此，阿卜杜勒马利克本人的形象出现在了伊斯兰第一款公开行的货币上。拜占庭皇帝被信徒的领路人取而代之。