Bishop Elias (d. 700 CE) and the Standing Caliph Fulūs of Ḥarrān.

It is argued that the Greek monogram on the reverse of the Standing Caliph fulūs struck at Ḥarrān resolves to read the name Elias, that this Elias is probably identifiable as the bishop of Ḥarrān of that name who died in 700, and that the identification of the person responsible for striking these coins as a Christian bishop explains why the fulūs struck at Ḥarrān are the only coins of this series that fail to identify the prophet Muhammad as the "messenger of God". The primary purpose of this note is to offer a new explanation of the significance of the Greek monogram that appears on the reverse of the Standing Caliph fals struck in the town of Ḥarrān (ancient Carrhae), in jund al-Jazīra (Fig. 1). None of the 19 mints throughout the greater Syrian region that struck Standing Caliph fulūs seem to have dated these coins. However, the Standing Caliph dīnār was dated and was struck only during the brief period AH 74-77 (693/4-696/7 CE) before it was replaced in AH 77 by the purely epigraphic dīnār. Largely on the basis of this gold coinage, it has recently been argued that the "probable outside date range" for Standing Caliph fulūs is c. AH 73-80 (692/3-699/700) (Goodwin 2018:84), after which they were replaced by purely epigraphic fulūs, most of which were undated. The Standing Caliph series of coins has been so described because the obverse depicts a standing figure who seems to represent the caliph.1 Of the 19 mints that struck Standing Caliph fulūs, 15, including Ḥarrān, paired this obverse with a reverse depicting a pole on steps crossed by a circle, another three mints (all in jund Filasṭīn) depicted a large cursive m on the reverse instead, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]