Offa's Religion

So, I'm reading Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples (a bit dated, but, as usual, very well written), and I came across an interesting fact. King Offa of Mercia (the one who built Offa's Dyke, for you Brits out there) minted very nice coinage. He wanted to have very good coinage indeed, and to that end got dies for the best coins in the world -- Abbasid dinars, which were retooled to mint coins with his name on them (REX OFFA). However, the coins are still very good copies of the dinars, right down to the squiggles on the back; so his coinage also proclaims that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is his prophet.

Any way of making the kingdom of Mercia actually Islamic in the late 9th century? Bonus points if your answer does not contain the word "Tours".
 

Thande

Donor
Any way of making the kingdom of Mercia actually Islamic in the late 9th century? Bonus points if your answer does not contain the word "Tours".

POD: ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi instead decides to send his army slightly further west, and defeats Charles Martel at the Battle of Nantes... ;)

Seriously, interesting idea. On the thing Churchill mentioned, could it have been that the Mercians simply took Arab coins and then altered one side to show Offa's designs?
 
POD: ‘Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi instead decides to send his army slightly further west, and defeats Charles Martel at the Battle of Nantes... ;)

Seriously, interesting idea. On the thing Churchill mentioned, could it have been that the Mercians simply took Arab coins and then altered one side to show Offa's designs?

Churchill uses the phrase "copied from an Arabic dinar", and wikipedia says "copied" also. I would assume that they have some way of telling.

And as for the Battle of Nantes: I wondered how many replies I'd get before someone would write that. (OTOH, it's what I would have done too.)
 
Churchill uses the phrase "copied from an Arabic dinar", and wikipedia says "copied" also. I would assume that they have some way of telling.

And as for the Battle of Nantes: I wondered how many replies I'd get before someone would write that. (OTOH, it's what I would have done too.)
it's similar to what the Khazars did... IIRC they found a stash of Khazar coins on Gotland a while back (post-conversion to Judaism) praising Muhammad and Allah. the names of Caliphs had been basically scratched out and replaced with the Khagans.

possibly if Arab traders make their way to England (like in the Al-Anglia thread) and spread Islam into England... a large Arab presence causes some converts to Islam, and the King of Mercia is influenced enough by the Arabs to convert.
 
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