It is only in recent years that the complexity of the seventh-century Arab-Byzantine coinage of jund Filastin has become apparent. The various types from the three mints of lliya (Jerusalem), Yubna and Ludd are described, including one which is previously unpublished. There is considerable evidence to suggest that the Standing Caliph type originated at lliya and recent research has revealed that Yubna produced a variety of types unmatched by any other pre-reform mint. Two of these types have iconographic features which are otherwise unknown. These coins also constitute potentially useful historical documents, perhaps reflecting otherwise unattested military activity.

Relations between numismatists and historians have been confused by uncertainties about each other’s role. As well as classifying coins numismatists should study them with a view to answering historical questions. This paper examines the ways in which coins convey information and illustrates the potential, as well as the problems, of using numismatics in answering some of the questions posed by the study of seventh century Syria. It also warns against the danger of pre-conceptions about the role of coinage and the status of different forms of evidence.

It is most unusual for a detailed literary account of political events to have survived which enables modern scholars to study the course of Sasanian history almost day by day. Interpretation of the History of Theophylact Simocatta has led to the mis-dating of Khusrau II’s accession to the throne to 15 February 590. The existence of extensive issues of silver drachms struck by Hormizd IV, Khusrau II and Varhrān VI during the period 590–1 and of Khusrau II in 627–8, alongside a re-examination of the sources, enables the date to be corrected to soon after 27 June (New Year) 590.

The Armenian writer Sebeos records in detail a great Arab attack on the Byzantine capital in 654, which ended in disastrous failure. No parallel accounts are known, and Sebeos’ report has not been seriously considered. Yet Sebeos, otherwise known to be a reliable author, was writing only shortly after the supposed event. The event is plausible in its historical context. Allusions to it in several historical sources may be remnants of written records, parallel to Sebeos’ account, which disappeared after the condemnation of Monotbeletism in 680–1. Indirect evidence of the attack from several other Christian sources and, to a lesser degree, from the Islamic tradition also tends to confirm Sebeos’ report.

The purpose of this article is to examine the term ‘maniera Cypria’ which was coined by Doula Mouriki to describe the thirteenth-century icon painting on the island of Cyprus. The term refers to the stylistic appearance of icons and derives from a treatment of the art of the island in traditional art historical framework. It is suggested that an alternative approach which takes into account a broader set of considerations does not support such a basic regional characterisation of the icon painting on Cyprus.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European travellers and explorers who discovered Cappadocia’s exotic landscape of volcanic rock formations introduced the notion of a region populated by monks. Although written sources of the medieval period are silent in this regard, scholarship has persisted with this notion about the region ever since. Perhaps the general eighteenth- and nineteenth-century understanding of Byzantium as a period of decline following the Golden Age of Classical Antiquity reinforced the monastic interpretation. According to Edward Gibbon (1737–1794), the later history of the Roman Empire in the east was ‘a uniform tale of weakness and misery.’

The coins struck or used in Syria during the seventh century are a potential source for historians relating to a geographical area that has left few contemporary sources relevant to the administration of the area in the years following the Persian conquest of AD 611. The coins should have the ability to shed light on fiscal administration and regional or local government, but they remain little known to historians and there has been no recent comprehensive synthesis of the coinage of this period. Two catalogues (Ilisch, 1993; Album and Goodwin, 2002) have laid many coins before the non-specialist, but they are restricted to the holdings of the particular museums and do not present a complete picture.