Was Great Britain ever ruled by Muslims?
By Naseem00
@Naseem00 (1996)
Pakistan
November 9, 2012 9:37am CST
In the British Museum there is an ancient gold coin which was issued by the British King Offa. Offa was an Anglo Saxon king who ruled Kingdom of Mercia, AD 773-96. Interestingly on the coin there is Islamic inscription which clearly reads 'LA ILAHA ILLAL LAH' (there is no God but Allah) also the words 'MUHAMMADUR RASUL ULLAH' {Muhammad is Allah's prophet) can be seen on the coin. Looking at the image of this coin it looks like Offa was a Muslim (convert).
http://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=00031108001&imagex=1&searchnum=0002
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/bmh/BMH-AQ-offa.htm
Your thoughts
11 responses
@JohnRok1 (2051)
•
13 Nov 12
Naseem, you've given us the answer in another discussion. It is unlikely that anyone in Britain knew the inscription was an inscription, let alone what it meant. It is a not very accurate copy of an Islamic dinar and may well have been part of the money that Offa had vowed to send to the Pope, as the earliest known history of the coin is that it was found in Rome.
@shilran (178)
•
9 Nov 12
I don't think that Muslims ruled Great Britain other than they ruled whole the world:) However if the current situation continued whole the world will be rule by Muslims in the future. cos they spread so faster around the world.Europe feel that threat more than ever now. for Eg.If Muslims grow by this rate in next 20 years the majority will be Muslims in France Then French people will be the minority.France is now afraid of it and trying to avoid it bringing new law and rules.
@samar54 (2454)
• Egypt
9 Nov 12
Naseem I think he mean conversion , there are three counties will be Muslim Britain , France , Germany within some years . (takbeer ya Muslim)
Islam is spread ,Vatican recognition that Islam most prevalent religions and within a few years it will be the first religion in the world , Christian will be the second center
@samar54 (2454)
• Egypt
11 Nov 12
If this comment show to you , I think links was the causse , I can,t send message to you too,
I searched for what you want and you found these sites, where researchers in history reached for information on this great king which they injustice him and tried to blur history .. Even his burial place was nowhere near the river until flooding him the river and hide its effects, either King sent to the Almohads in Andalusia is King John was a big Fan with King offa, offered him one of the researchers that the search for the tomb of Offa, this infuriating Pope on him, fear than to follow the example of King Offa and convert to Islam.
The currency in the era of Offa in the beginning of his reign is the Christian sign of the cross on the coin, on the face of the second image of the King Offa
Then late in his day carried the currency is not the cross, but somewhat similar to put small size and then faded in recent years of his time as well as the disappearance of his image.
Then jumped Offa jump that he wanted so enable to his religion , engraving phrases Tawhid Islamic on his Golden Dinar
@maidangela7349 (1191)
•
9 Nov 12
Offa was a viking and they had a thriving trade with Istanbul. They would raid the west coast of Ireland and parts of england and capture slaves then ship them through the Adriatic to what is now St Petersburg (they called that area Rus from which we now get Russia) then down the rivers into the Black sea and then the Bosphorus and sell the slaves in the markets of Constantinople in exhange for spices and silk. So they would need coins for trading purposes so why not use arabic
@Naseem00 (1996)
• Pakistan
10 Nov 12
Hi, Thank you for sharing..
Do you have some historic evidence for that claim since the name Istanbul was not heard of during the life of King Offa. It was called Constantinople and was named Istanbul when captured by Ottomans during the 15th century.
So they would need coins for trading purposes so why not use arabic
Sorry I don't get it, why to use Arabic and that too saying something which could be considered an insult to the Church at the least.
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
30 Nov 12
I don't know (Don't you hate it when people respond that way? 
)
)@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
30 Nov 12
If you want to find out more, you can go to a page I found with a "Search the Web"-search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offa_of_Mercia
But it says basically that 1) Offa was a Christian king who 2) traded with Islamic Spain.
@francesca5 (1344)
•
9 Nov 12
if you read what the british museum link says it is that offa created an imitation dinar, because there was a lot of trade with the areas in which the dinar was used, including islamic spain.
so its likely that the coin was created to do trade in that area. according to wikipedia offa was a christian, which makes sense, as though the muslim religion was spreading by the time offa was alive, it was still quite a young religion and hadn't spread that far.
so the most likely explanation is that britain was trading with the middle east at that time, and the offa imitation dinars were used for that purpose.
@Naseem00 (1996)
• Pakistan
9 Nov 12
Hi, Yes the British Museum link says it was most likely made to be used in trade. What I do not understand is since this was a gold coin, it has its own value and any inscription was not going to make it more valuable, then why king Offa chose to use Arabic inscription which he might not have even understood?
@francesca5 (1344)
•
10 Nov 12
i don't know, but its a very interesting question, i would assume it was a sort of money printing thing, that in the area he was trading he wanted a coin that looked like a local coin.
or maybe it was a sort of conceit, after all there were a lot of valuable products in the middle eastern area around that time, so trade was probably centered around there, so he may have copied the local currency to give the impression he was important.
@samar54 (2454)
• Egypt
9 Nov 12
I'm not sure if he converted or not ,may be the coin is evidence of his conversion to Islam .
Already I read months ago that one of the kings of Europe sent to the king of Andalusia wants to send him the elders in order to convert English people to Islam (and probably is King Offa), but unfortunately the King not did that
I found this forum and a lot of information about this topic:
http://islamfin.go-forum.net/t2584-topic?highlight=%C7%E1%E3%E1%DF+%C7%E6%DD%C7
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
9 Nov 12
Great Britain was never under Muslim rule, although coinage of the middle ages was often influenced from the strangest sources. It would not be difficult to imagine coinage from a distant region to find it's way into Britain, especially when you consider than coins of that period where valued due to their metal content and not as the tokens of today are valued. Therefore coinage from any country would have value here and would be accepted as exchange for goods.
It would not require many such coins to arrive in Britain in order for some aspects of the design to influence our coinage. There is no reason to believe that the person striking the coin had any idea what the inscription meant.
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Nov 12
No, Offa was NOT a Muslim (he was a Christian).
The coin was apparently minted without any knowledge that the Arabic was anything more than just random ornament. As the second link you give explains, Offa had promised to give the Pope 365 pieces of gold a year and it is likely that he was simply given an Arab coin as a pattern of weight and that he directed his coiners to copy it.
@Naseem00 (1996)
• Pakistan
9 Nov 12
Hi, Yes that could be the case.
Don't you think it is an irony that Offa had produced those coins to be given to the Pope while the inscriptions on the coins said something that could be seen as an insult to the pope specially during the time of the crusades.
1 person likes this
@Devilova (5392)
• Indonesia
9 Nov 12
If that coin was used to be evidence whether to ask or to answer.
Many verses will be given depend on whom who give it.
Since the coin didn't explain specificly about it.
Except we have a strong evidence or whitnes who clear this out.
Like biography, letters, tomb, artefac, etc.
@Graptopetalum (1807)
• Canada
29 Nov 12
I think there are several questions that should be asked here.
Did Offa know anythiing about these coins being made? - Perhaps not.
Did Offa design them himself? - Maybe not.
Could Offa read Arabic? - Probably not.
Did Offa know enough about Islam to realize why the Arabic writing should be offensive to Christians? - Very possibly not.
This might make Offa sound ignorant but this was in the dark ages, when Britain was in rather a mess. Standards of education weren't very good, even for royalty and they didn't have the internet.
@Graptopetalum (1807)
• Canada
29 Nov 12
iuliuxd, I very much hope not. Hostility to Islam is growing in the West and I strongly suspect a huge war is inevitable.
