Across the Islamic world, stories of discovered hoards circulated widely. Chroniclers described caliphs redistributing caches of Roman and Persian coins to the poor, and miners in North Africa uncovering ancient statues or jewelry whose gold was melted down and taxed as rikāz. The Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi was said to have personally overseen the recovery of treasure inscribed with Greek and Sasanian motifs, interpreting it as a sign of divine favor upon his reign. Such finds fascinated scholars, who preserved fragments of antiquity even as they reclaimed their materials for contemporary use.