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Still in appearance a Christian Roman metropolis, Damascus now is turning into the capital of a huge new Islamic empire. The head of this burgeoning empire, the caliph, is remote in his palace, and the Islamic armies are segregated in their barracks, but the people in the bazaars and streets of Damascus are about to have their new reality brought home to them in something they handle every day-money.
大马士革于635年被穆斯林军队占领，尽管表面上还是一个信仰基罗马大都市，但它事实上已成为新的伊斯兰帝国的首都。这个新兴帝国的首领哈里发住在皇宫，伊斯兰军队也都住在自己的军营，与普通居民没有什么接触。但大马士革街市上的人民将通过自己每天都要与之打交道的物品一货币，将新的现实带回家中。
In the 690s, Damascus merchants might not have understood that their world had changed permanently. Despite decades of Islamic rule, they were still after all using the coins of their former rulers-the Christian Byzantine emperors-and those coins were full of Christian symbolism. It was quite reasonable to think that, sooner or later, the emperor would return to defeat his enemies, as he had several times before. But he did not. Damascus has remained a Muslim city to this day, and perhaps the most visible sign that this new Islamic regime was going to last, was the change in the coinage.
七世纪九十年代早期，大马士革的商人们也许并没意识到他们的世界已经彻底地改变了。虽然伊斯兰教统治了几十年，但他们仍用着前朝信仰基督的拜占庭君主的货币，上面有很多基督教符号。他们想当然地以为，基督教的君主迟早会赶走敌人，再回到大马士革，因为这样的故事不止一次地发生过。但这一次，他没有回来。直至今日，大马士革仍是一座穆斯林城市。也许这个新兴的伊斯兰帝国将要长期延续下去的最明显迹象，就是货币的改变。
I want to talk about two coins. The man who issued them was Abd al-Malik, Ninth Caliph, Leader of the Faithful, to rule in succession to the Prophet Muhammad. Both coins were issued in Damascus within 12 months, across the Hijra years 76 and 77-that is, 696-697 AD. They're both of gold, and they're the same size. But they're utterly different. One coin shows the Caliph. The other coin has no image at all, and this change reveals how Islam was defining itself as a political system in these critical early years.
下令铸造本文这两枚金币的人是阿卜杜勒马利克，他是继承先知穆罕默德的第九代“哈里发”一信徒的领路人。希吉拉七十六年至七十七年，即公元696年至697年，在不到十二个月的时间内，两种硬币先后发行。它们都是金币，大小相当于英国便士，分量则略重。 两枚金币的设计完全不同，其一有哈里发像，另一枚上却没有任何图案。这种变化表明，在早期的关键岁月里，伊斯兰教不仅把自己定义为一个宗教体系，同时也是一个政治系统。
