Eastern Arabia tetradrachm 2nd century CE Abi'el, Mleiha (Maleha, Sharjah) mint VF

Eastern Arabia, Mleiha: in name of Abi'el, bronze tetradrachm (15.28g), Mleiha (Maleha, Sharjah) mint, 2nd century CE. Crude imitation of the coinage of Alexander III the Great. Head of Herakles, wearing lion skin headdress / Figure seated, holding scepter, horse standing on arm, palm tree and trident (symbol of Mleiha?), "Abi'el" in crude form of Aramaic in right field. Lovely example. Very fine. Very rare. The localized production of Alexander-type coinage at Mleiha represents a critical threshold in the economic and political development of Late Pre-Islamic Southeastern Arabia. Emerging in the late third century BCE, this numismatic series marks the region's deliberate transition from a bullion economy to a formalized monetary system, a shift necessitated by its growing role in interregional commerce. By adopting internationally recognized Hellenistic weight standards and monetary conventions, local authorities strategically integrated the Oman Peninsula into the expansive trade networks connecting the Seleucid Empire, the broader Persian Gulf, and the Indian subcontinent. Furthermore, the continuous minting of this currency, particularly the issues bearing the Aramaic inscription of the regional dynast Abi'el, signifies a sophisticated assertion of local political autonomy. This monetization demonstrates how Arabian elites utilized established global economic mediums to project administrative authority and consolidate their strategic position within ancient trade routes.

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