QMI-INS-055hb · 126 AH
Glass Raṭl Weight of Yazīd III
رطل زجاجي باسم يزيد بن الوليد
Found at Damascus, Syria
- بسم الله أمر
- بالوفا (بالوفاء)
- عبد الله يزيد أ
- مير المومنين (المؤمنين) عل (على) يدي
- الوليد بن عبد الر
- حمن سنة ست [و]عشر
- ين ومية (ومائة) رطل
- واف
In the name of God. He commanded full measure: the servant of God Yazīd, Com- mander of the Faithful; by the hand of al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Ra- ḥmān, in the year six [and] twen- ty and one hundred. A raṭl, full.
A pound (raṭl) weight of green glass, stamped while the glass was still semi-molten with a disc carrying the official legend; a small rosette is set beside the last word. It measures 4.2 cm in height and 7.5 cm in diameter and was found at Damascus. It names the servant of God Yazīd, Commander of the Faithful, that is, the Umayyad caliph Yazīd III ibn al-Walīd, who reigned for some six months in 126 AH, and the official by whose hand it was made, al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, together with the year 126. The legend closes by declaring the weight a “full raṭl”. Its opening, that God “commands honesty” (literally, full measure), suits an object used to weigh coins of gold, silver and copper.
Source: Reading by Ahmed W. Shaker from the museum’s photograph. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, acc. no. 47.6 (“Inscribed Pound Weight”), with the museum’s translation of the inscription. Provenance: Dikran Kelekian, New York and Paris; Henry Walters, 1914; bequest to the Walters Art Museum, 1931. Photograph: The Walters Art Museum, CC0.