5 Somoni Abuabdullo Rudaki

Rudaki — the 9th-century Persian poet credited with establishing classical Dari Persian as a literary language — spent decades at the Samanid court in Bukhara before falling from favor, reportedly blinded and exiled in his final years. The circumstances of his disgrace remain disputed; some sources attribute it to political intrigue, others to religious accusations. Tajikistan has claimed him as a founding figure of its national cultural identity since independence, and the National Bank has issued several commemoratives in his name across different series.

KM#22 belongs to a run of silver issues produced in the late 2000s as Tajikistan expanded its numismatic program following years of post-civil-war economic recovery.