The Islamic Monetary Standard: The Dinar and Dirham Adam ...

International Journal of Islamic Economics and Finance Studies, 2020/1: 1-29

Uluslararası İslam Ekonomisi ve Finansı Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2020/1: 1-29 1

The Islamic Monetary Standard: The Dinar and Dirham

Adam Abdullah *

Received: 14.12.2019 Accepted: 28.03.2020

DOI: 10.25272/ijisef.659330 Type: Research Article

Abstract

The Shari’ah not only considers the Islamic monetary standard as a medium of exchange, unit of account,

store of value and a standard of deferred payment, but the Islamic functions of money also determine

Shari’ah legal injunctions concerning zakat (poor tax), jizya (poll tax), kharaj (tax on conquered territory),

diyyat (blood-money), sariqa (theft), mahar (dowry) and sarf (exchange). This study seeks to clarify the

weight of the dinar and dirham, since they impart justice as part of Shari’ah law. Through library research

and content analysis of literature from the hadith, scholars, mint-masters and writers, different regions

had different weights and coin standards, which might imply differing opinions as to what constitutes

a legal dinar and dirham. However, narrations have clarified the relationships between the Byzantine

dinar and the mithqal of Persia, Makkah, Syria, Egypt and Iraq. Combined with additional numismatic

and metrological analysis of surviving coins and glass weights, we discover that each mithqal, dirham,

daniq, qirat, habbah and khardal are defined differently, but reflect the same standard of the Prophet

(s.a.w.s.) that was later externalized with the minting of the first Islamic dinars and dirhams by Caliph cAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan, involving modern equivalents weights of 4.25g and 2.975g.

Keywords: Islamic Currency, Islamic Economics, Monetary Economics

Jel Codes: E42, E52, N15

* Al Qasimia University, United Arab Emirates, [email protected], ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6733-5647

Adam Abdullah

2 International Journal of Islamic Economics and Finance Studies, 2020/1

Introduction

Money is the common denominator for all economic transactions. Man is free to choose any

other medium of exchange, but there are implications for doing so. Ibn Khaldun (the father of

Islamic economics) tried to warn the Mamluk government in his Muqaddimah (written in 1377),

from avoiding monetary mis-management, as it would lead to their collapse. Ibn Khaldun died

in 1404, the year that Egypt suffered a hyper-inflationary depression that resulted in the

destruction of half of the human population and all of the livestock in 1405 as a result of famine

and plague, the latter which Al-Maqrizi, the student of Ibn Khaldun, attributed to punishment

from Allah (s.w.t.). Al-Maqrizi wrote the Ighathah in 1405 (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, 1940) and al-Nuqud

al-Islamiyyah (‘The Islamic Currency’) in 1415 (Al-Maqrizi, 1967) as emphatic warnings to

Muslims not to discard the dinar and dirham for any other medium of exchange including a fiat

currency such as copper (fulus). “[The people] should deal exclusively with gold and silver for

pricing goods” (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.80), and “Allah (s.w.t.) never made [fulus] legal tender”

(An-Nuqud, 1967, p.34 cited by Meloy, 2003, p.200). Furthermore, one of the functions of money

in Islam specifically mentions the dinar and dirham in imparting justice, involving Shari’ah legal

injunctions regarding zakat (poor tax), jizya (poll tax), kharaj (tax on conquered territory), diyyat

(blood-money), sariqa (theft), mahar (dowry) and sarf (exchange).

Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the dinar and dirham. This also

requires a satisfactory explanation of the Islamic currency in relation to other regional coin

weights and standards. It should be mentioned that the unit or measure of value was a

function of money that also reflected an “accounting unit of value” or “money of account”.

Such a unit of value lacked the external physical form of coinage, it was still ‘real’, given that

it was linked to weight standards of circulating gold and silver coins. Indeed, at the time of

the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), the theoretical weights of the dinar and dirham for the payment of zakat

were monies of account. Although, circulating Sassanian and Byzantine coins were adopted,

the external weight and fineness of the Islamic dinar and dirham were only later minted by the

Umayyad caliph cAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r.a.) in the year 697 (77H). Subsequently, two

important “monies of account” would also later evolve in Egypt: the army dinar (dinar jayshi),

which was used to value land (iqtac) distributed by the Sultan, and also the copper dirham of

account (dirham min’l fulus), which was used to convert the value of existing coinage and

introduced at the time of the collapse of the Mamluk gold and silver monetary system.

In reality, coins circulated by specie (intrinsic value) and not by tale (face value). The dinar and

the dirham were different currencies and would be assessed according to their respective

bullion content and purity, the supply and demand gold and silver coinage, and whether a

coin was accepted for the payment of Islamic taxes and by preference (Muslims would prefer

Islamic inscriptions rather than other images, motifs or inscriptions). Under a bimetallic

commodity standard, bad money would drive out good money when a coin of low intrinsic

value (‘bad money’) circulated with a coin at par, of equal extrinsic value but higher intrinsic

value (‘good money’). The lighter coin of lower value would be spent rather than the heavier

coin of higher value, which would then be sold abroad. However, Gresham’s Law would not


Uluslararası İslam Ekonomisi ve Finansı Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2020/1 3

apply if differing coinage circulated at market exchange rates according to their intrinsic value

alone. Indeed, the Geniza documents (Goitein, 2000, 1, pp.229-266) confirmed that coins

fluctuated with differing exchange rates according to the supply and demand of metal and the

precious metal content - notwithstanding the cost of production and minting (brassage), which

was absorbed by the mint (sikka) (Udovitch et al, 1978, p.124; Goitein, 1965, p.44). The price of

goods and services, or “God’s price” (si’r Allah), agreed on in the market, was not distorted or

inconvenienced given the intrinsic rates of exchange, and not only provided an equivalent

counter-value, but were fully considered in business transactions. The role of the

moneychanger (sarafi), therefore, was to determine the relative fair rates of exchange between

two coins according to instrinsic value. It would be incorrect to generalize that coins in

circulation where fixed in relation to each other, so that the Fatimids had adopted a bimetallic

commodity standard, the Ayyubids a gold commodity standard, and that the Mamluks had

initially adopted a gold commodity standard supported by silver, followed by a silver

commodity standard supported by copper. The evidence does not reveal that these dynasties

formally adopted any of these standards (Schultz, 2008, 1, pp.321-323). However, government

proclamations, edicts, and debasement of currencies and monies of account, certainly did

occur, which in terms of monetary policy, served to undermine the value and purchasing

power of money. Generally, silver (fiddah) and gold (dhahab) were essentially unitized into

dirhams and dinars, so that for legal and official purposes, lower quality dirhams were

referenced to in texts and differentiated from higher quality dirhams (dirham nuqrah) that were

in circulation at the time (Rabie 1972, p.162ff; Schultz 1995, pp.147-9,163,234-5; Borsch 2005,

pp.68-71; Goitein 1965, p.35).

1. Islamic Monetary Standard

The Islamic monetary standard is essentially a theory of coinage: “the dinar and dirham have

not been created…but as the medium of exchange for things” (Ihya, 2004, 4, pp.90-91; Usmani,

2001, pp.81-83). The approach taken in this study involves library and document analysis, with

sources from the Sharicah, historical accounts from jurists and writers, and combined with

empirical scientific evidence concerning the various coin (numismatic) and weights standards

(metrology) adopted by Muslim dynasties. Whilst the dinar and the dirham fully satisfy the

Islamic functions of money, as a unit of account or measure of value, we must acknowledge

that certain types of medium of exchange are unlawful in Islam – for instance, using leather

from swine. However, other types have also been excluded, such as promissory notes.

“It was reported that Abu Hurairah (r.a.) asked Marwan: “Have you legalized usury?”

Marwan said: “No.” Then Abu Hurairah said: “You have legalized selling promissory

notes (sukukun) whereas the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s.) forbade selling food-stuff unless

received by the seller”. Marwan then addressed the people and forbade selling such notes”

(Muwatta, 1991, p.260).

Logically, sukukun include non-interest bearing non-redeemable promissory notes issued as

paper currency by a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve’s federal reserve note (the dollar)

Adam Abdullah


or Bank of England’s (BoE) pound note. The latter still has the now broken “promise to pay

the bearer the sum of five (10/20/50) pounds” of silver or gold, since the BoE paper notes were

historically redeemable for bullion coins (BoE, 2020). The BoE tried to justify a new meaning

of the word ‘promise’, where “public trust in the pound is now maintained by the operation

of monetary policy, the objective of which is price stability”, and yet central banks have broken

this promise as well (Abdullah, 2013 Mar./Oct./Dec., 2015 Dec., 2016, 2018). Fiat money is

largely debt organized into bank money (the medium of exchange is debt), where a customer

promises to repay a debt, and the bank promises to repay a customer’s deposit, thus bank

credit involves exchanging two interest bearing IOUs, but such a “transaction would then

come into the forbidden category of a debt for debt” (Muwatta, 1991, p.254).

Given Imam Ghazali’s observation that “a counterfeit coin is one, which has got nothing of

gold and silver. The coin in which there is something of gold and silver cannot be called

counterfeit” (Ihya, 2004, 2, p.58), we must also logically conclude that modern alloy coins are

also unlawful. Due to a shortage of an-nuqud, cUmar ibn al-Khattab (r.a.) contemplated using

leather from camels as a medium of exchange (wasilat al-tabadul), but the sahabah advised

against it since it would create a shortage of camels (Hail, 1999, p.145 cited by Haneef and

Barakat, 2006, p.28) – hence despite the difficulties, Muslims knew that there would be

ramifications for adopting something other than what the Sharicah had intended. Man is free

to choose the medium of exchange, but there are repercussions if it is not an-nuqud and as

mentioned, one of the Islamic functions of money involves an-nuqud within Sharicah legal

requirements. Also, a specific hadith insists on the “prohibition of destroying dirhams and

dinars”;

“cAlqama b. cAbdullah (r.a.) reported on the authority of his father that Allah’s Messenger

(s.a.w.s.) forbade from destroying the coins in vogue among the Muslims without any

necessity” (Ibn Majah 12:2263, also Abu Dawud 23:3442).

We have therefore a specific injunction in the hadith that clearly states that Muslims cannot

destroy the dirhams and dinars that were in circulation – if we cannot destroy them, surely we

cannot discard them, only to adopt promissory notes and counterfeit coins, which have been

specifically rejected by classical scholarship. Rasulullah (s.a.w.s.) “is said to have prayed for the

continuation of [an-nuqud] for the ummah to exist as a prosperous community…[and] that gold

and silver, whose currency values were measured in dinar and dirham, remained extremely

stable over long periods of time in Islamic history” (Choudhury, 1997, p.92). Fiat money is

backed by debt and owned by the central bank, and bank money (in the form of deposits) is

not money at all, but merely represents non-cash credits and specifically involves a promise

to pay fiat money upon demand; hence, demands deposits reflect a right, which will not be

honoured if all the claimants exercises that right at the same time.

Unlike fiat money, one of the attributes of gold and silver is scarcity and the inability of

alchemists to create bullion (money) out of nothing, may be contrasted with the modern

alchemy of credit (money) creation from lending by the modern banking system (Abdullah,



2018). An-nuqud has physically been used since the dawn of mankind, since the first person to

mint the dinar and dirham was none other than Adam (a.s.) (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, pp.55-56). By the

7th century, the Arabs primarily traded with the Romans and the Persians: “(It is a great Grace

and Protection from Allah), for the taming of the Quraysh, (and with all those Allah's Grace and

Protections for their taming, We cause) the (Quraysh) caravans to set forth safe in winter (to

the south), and in summer (to the north without any fear)” (Al-Qur’an 106:1-2), and in so doing

the Arabs brought back Byzantine gold from Ash-Sham in the form of Heraclian dinars, Sassanid

silver in the form of Chosroes dirhams and also dirhams from Yemen. The Arabs referred to

these gold and silver coins as an-nuqud (currencies), although naqd also means the payment of

a price in dirhams, as relayed in the hadith of Jabir, “He paid (naqada) me its price” (Muslim

10:3886). Currency was clearly defined as: “nuqud is the plural of naqd and is composed of gold

and silver” (Majallah, Art.130), and scholars wrote extensively on their usage, such as Al-

Maqrizi whom even wrote a book specifically entitled “The Islamic Currency” (al-Nuqud al-

Islamiyyah, 1967).

Muslims continued to use Heraclian dinars and Chosroes dirhams throughout the life of the

Prophet (s.a.w.s.), and the Khalifah of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r.a.), up until the 8th year of the

Khalifah of cUmar (r.a.), when in 20H he coined dirhams in the Sassanid style retaining the

Pahlavi faces but adding Kufic Arabic letters such “In the Name of Allah” or “In the Name of

Allah, my Lord”. However, in 75H the Umayyad caliph cAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r.a.),

coined standardized dirhams in a specifically Islamic style, and in 77H he minted dinars at

Damascus which also carried Islamic texts in the Kufic Arabic script, thus Muslims abandoned

the currency of others and adopted their own, thus externalizing the theoretical coins and

weights enjoined at the time of Rasulullah (s.a.w.s.). A number of Islamic injunctions rest upon

the accurate knowledge of the weight and purity of the dinar and dirham, and the coins minted

by cAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan were exactly in conformity with the Sunnah in order to pay zakat

(poor tax). Yet what was the weight and purity of the Islamic currency? Narrated Abdullah

ibn cUmar: “The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said: ‘(The standard) weight is the weight of the people of

Makkah, and the (standard) measure is the measure of the people of Medina.’” (Abu Dawud

22:3334), since the Makkans were traders whilst the people of Medina were farmers. Yet, what

is the Islamic legal coin standard and what are the relevant weights of Makkah? From the

hadith, scholars, mint-masters and writers, and as noted by Ibn Khaldun (1958, 2, p.58) different

regions had different weights and coin standards. We are confronted with a myriad of

differing opinions as to what constitutes a legal mithqal and a dirham, whereas in fact, there is

no conflict. Each mithqal, dirham, daniq, qirat, habbah and khardal are defined differently to

describe the same weight standard stipulated by the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) later externalized by cAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan. Some narrations have clarified the specific relationships between

the Byzantine dinar and the mithqal of Persia, Makkah, Syria, Egypt and Iraq. The key

difference is in the actual weight of the qirats. The term ‘Makkan mithqal’, is used inter-

changeably and means the same as the ‘Sharicah mithqal’ or ‘legal mithqal’.

Adam Abdullah


2. Byzantine Dinar and Persian Mithqal

Differing weight standards prevailed in Damascus (22 qirats less a habbah), Cairo (24

kharrubahs), Makkah (20 qirats), or Iraq (60 habbahs of 100 khardal) that would define a mithqal

in a differing number of qirats, habbahs or qamhahs. The carat is the seed of the carob tree

(ceratonia siliqua) and known as siliqua in Latin, keration in Greek and either qirat or kharrubah

in Arabic. The siliqua was used as a weight, and as a coin. Theoretically, the Roman carat was

the weight of the carob seed, and 24 carats equaled the dinar, and 72 dinars equaled a Roman

pound (libra). Originally, the Roman dinar was the denarius aereus (Eagleton and Williams,

2007, p.88) and replaced by Constantine I in the year 312 with the Byzantine solidus, which also

tariffed at 1/72 of the Byzantine pound (litra). The late Roman and early Byzantine pound was

theoretically 327.45g, and thus the solidus weighed 4.55g. The pound fell to 324g by the 4th-6th

centuries, to 322g by the 6th-7th centuries, and then to 320g in the 7th century, given surviving

pound and solidus weights in the British Museum (Entwistle, 2002, p.611)1. Thus, by the time

of Heraclius the Byzantine pound weighed about 320g, and the contemporary Byzantine

standard dinar of Heraclius was the full solidus of 4.4g (Broome, 1985, p.11), or more precisely

4.44g as reflected in surviving coinage, for example struck at Carthage in 629/630 (Grierson,

1999, p.6). However, the Byzantines also minted a reduced solidus at Carthage and other cities

for trade with the East, which weighed a full solidus less a siliqua, or 4.25g (Broome, 1985,

pp.12,14), and was the weight of a mithqal2. It is interesting to note that the Byzantine pound

of 6,912 grains would later by adjusted into the Troy pound of 5,760 grains, by adjusting the

scrupulum from 24 wheat grains to 20 barley grains, so that 288 scrupulum x 24 = 6,912 wheat

grains, and 288 scrupulum x 20 barley grains = 5,760 wheat grains: thus the Byzantine and also

Persian metrological systems, were based on a wheat grain, so that the Byzantine full solidus

and the Persian gold coins would weigh approximately 4.6g.

Indeed, the Persian systems would later influence the Il-Khanate (Persian, Iraq, Turkey) and

Ottoman (Turkey/Anatolia) monetary systems, as reflected in the Tabriz mithqal, being distinct

from the dinar mithqal, which weighed 72 grains of barley (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.57), since the

former reflected a Persian coin standard of the Il Khanate and was based on the wheat grain

rather than the barley grain (Kabaklarh, 2007, p.33). The mithqal was an ancient weight: in

Persia it was historically derived from the weight of 24 chick-peas (nakhod), each weighing 4

gandums or wheat grains (Frey, 1917, p.151), whereas the Romans originally used karats (carob

seeds), a term used by the Arabs (qirat). The Arabic word nuqud (gold and silver coins) is

derived from the Persian nakhod (a weight for gold and silver). Mahmud Ghazan Khan (694-

704H/1295-1304), had no doubt learnt from the short reign and demise of his uncle Gaykhatu

1 Each solidus would be weighed by a copper-alloy weight or exagium solidi: the English word ‘assay’ is derived from

the Latin ‘exagia’, and ‘soldier’ is derived from ‘solidus’ (meaning ‘solid’ in Latin) reflecting the coin used as payment

for his services. Fractions of the solidus known as semissis (half-solidi) and tremissis (one-third solidi) were also

produced. Numismatics, or the study of currency, is derived from the ancient Greek word nomisma meaning

‘money’, and also means a ‘coin’ in Latin. The English word ‘money’ is derived from the Latin ‘moneta’, which

means the ‘mint’ in which coins were struck (‘as-Sikka’ in Arabic). 2 Mithqal referred to a weight and dinars were weighed with glass mithqal weights.



Khan, following the latter’s failed experiment at issuing paper money in 1294, and having

moved the administrative capital of the Il Khanate to Tabriz in 1295, ordered in 696H/1296-7

that all coins of the regional governments, under the sovereignty of the Il-Khan, including the

Ottomans, would be fixed according to the Tabriz mithqal, as part of his monetary reformation.

Thus, the Ottomans paid taxes to the Il Khan in dirhams weighing 3.072g, and when they

subsequently minted their first silver coin in 1326, the akche weighing 1.152g, it was supposed

to be struck from a pure (halis ayar) silver (Pamuk, 2000, p.46), whilst in practice the Ottomans

may have typically achieved a fineness of 23-23½ carats (Kabaklarh, 2007, p.36). The akche was

1/4th of the Tabriz mithqal or 6 karats = 6 x 0.192 = 1.152g and from 100 Tabriz mithqals 400 akche

were minted (100 x 4.608 / 1.152). Technically, the Ottoman monetary system involved mono-

metallism, whereby one commodity standard existed, being the silver akche as the basic unit

of account, in terms of which the value of other commodities are measured, even if the

circulation of money may include several metallic or indeed paper units, including the gold

sultani and the copper mangir.

During the Umayyads and cAbbasids the dinar was a recognized stable standard of payment,

and was often used as a medium of exchange throughout the Mediterranean. By the time of

the Mamluks, the 4.25g dinar had been devalued by 20% in 829H/1425 to the 3.4g ashrafi

(named after Barsbay, al-Malik al-Ashraf), which was slightly lighter than the Venetian ducat

and became the standard Mamluk gold coin. The first Ottoman gold coin, the sultani, was

minted in 882H/1477 and was exchanged at par to the ducat, reflecting the latter’s popularity

as a trade coin. Ottoman coins were based on the Tabriz mithqal: from 100 Tabriz mithqals 129

sultanis were initially minted weighing 3.572g of 0.997 fine (Pamuk, 2000, p.63). The Tabriz

mithqal = 24 karats = 1.5 dirhams. Each karat = 4 habbah of wheat. Since the grain of wheat weighs

approximately 0.048g, the karat = 0.192g, the Tabriz mithqal = 96 habbahs x 0.048 = 4.608g, and

the dirham = 4.608 / 1.5 = 3.072g (Kabaklarh, 2007, p.33). In 1477, from 100 mithqals = 100 x 4.608

/ 129 = 3.572g Sultanis were minted. From 100 mithqals, the weight was reduced in 1526 to 130

sultanis (3.545g), and in 1564 to 131 sultanis (3.518g), with the 0.997 fineness unchanged

(Pamuk, 2000, p.63). At that time, the Venetian ducat (zecchino or sequin) = 3.4909g of 0.986

fineness or 0.1107/troy oz actual gold weight (3.4909 x 0.986 / 31.103), comprising of 54 troy

grains, was first minted in 1284, adopting similar standards to the florin of Florence which was

struck in 1252.

Table 1 presents the Byzantine metrological system, and we may compare a Heraclian solidus

of 4.44g to the early Byzantine standard of 4.55g. The orientalists equate the sextula or mithqal

as the full solidus, however when we deduct one siliqua from the 7th century solidus we obtain

the reduced solidus of 4.25g, being the equivalent weight of the actual mithqal, as reflected in

the specific coins and glass weight identified in table 2 below. We may calculate the early

Byzantine full solidus comprising 4 wheat grains of 0.0474g per siliqua, with 24 siliqua per

sextula, which equals 4.55g (= 4 x 0.0474 x 24); or we may say, 4 scrupulum of 24 grains each

0.0474g. The uncia (uqiyyah), or ounce, represents 6 sextula (= Byzantine dinar) or 8 drachma (=

dirham al-kayl), or a ratio of 8:6 = 1 1/3, and when one applies the same Byzantine ratio to the

Adam Abdullah


Muslim mithqal coin standard of 4.25g we obtain 3.186g (= 4.25 / 1.333), or a dirham weight

based on the apothecaries’ weight system. As reflected in table 4 below, the Islamic ratio

between the legal dinar and dirham, whether between legal qirats (20:14), or legal habbas

(72:50.4), is not 1 1/3, but rather 1 3/7, such that the legal dirham weighs 2.975g. Since 1958, the

modern Troy weight is now based on a nominal grain of 0.06479891g. Thus, 1 Troy oz of 480

troy grains (= 5,760 / 12) has a modern metric equivalent of 31.1034768g, the reciprocal of which

is 0.0321507 Troy ozs / gram, and thus 1 metric tonne = 32,150.7 ozs.



Table 1: The Apothecaries Late Roman / Early Byzantine Metrological System

Byzantine Name Arabic

Equivalent

Byzantine

(gr.)

7th Cent.

(gr.)

libra (pound) ratl 1 327.45 319.50

uncia (ounce) uqiyyah 12 1 27.29 26.63

sicilicus (shekel) double-dirham 48 4 1 6.82 6.66

sextula / solidus dinar 72 6 1.5 1 4.548 4.438

drachma dirham al-kayl 96 8 2 1.333 1 3.411 3.328

scrupulum

(scruple) ¼ dinar 288 24 6 4 3 1 1.1370 1.1094

obulus daniq 576 48 12 8 6 2 1 0.5685 0.5547

siliqua (carob) qirat 1728 144 36 24 18 6 3 1 0.1895 0.1849

chalcus 4608 384 96 64 48 16 8 2.667 1 0.0711 0.0693

grana (grain) habbah 6912 576 144 96 72 24 12 4 1.5 1 0.0474 0.0462

Sources: EI (1993) “Dirham” pp.978-979, “Kirat” pp.1023-1024; Entwistle (2002), p.611; Broome (1985), p.11; Grierson (1999), p.6



Table 2: Byzantine and Islamic Coins/Weights

Dynasty Ruler Mint (Year) Coin/Weight

Heraclian Heraclius Constantinople

(610)

Full solidus

4.44g

Heraclian Heraclius Constantinople

(613)

Light-weight

solidus

4.25g

Umayyad cAbd al-Malik

ibn Marwan

Damascus

(697)

Mithqal dinar

4.25g

Abbasid Harun al-Rashid Egypt (808)

Mithqal dinar

glass weight

(sanja) 4.25g

Source: Amercian Numismatic Society (ANS, 2019)

3. Makkan Mithqal

In Rosenthal’s translation of the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun, the father of Islamic economics,

observed: “It should be known since the beginning of Islam and the time of the Companions

(sahabah) and the Followers (tabicun), the legal dirham is by general consensus the one, ten of

which are equal to seven mithqal of gold, and an ounce of gold is forty dirhams. Thus, the legal

dirham is seven-tenths of a dinar. A gold mithqal weighs seventy-two average-sized grains of

barley (habbahs). Consequently, the dirham, which is seven-tenths of a mithqal, has a weight of

fifty and two-fifths grains. All of these values are accepted by general consensus” (Ibn

Khaldun, 1958, 2, p.58)3.

In Allouche’s translation of the Ighathah, Al-Maqrizi, as a market prefect (mustahib), explained

the weights of Makkah, that the daniq = 8.4 habbah, that the daniq = 2.5 qirats, the mithqal was 72

habbahs and the dirham 50.4 habbahs: “the mithqal, a weight for the dirhams and the

dinars…[and]…the ratl, equivalent to 12 uqiyyahs, and the uqiyyah, equivalent to 40 dirhams.

Thus, the ratl (of Makkah) would be equivalent to 480 dirhams…and one nish, which was one-

half of one uqiyyah, was equivalent to 20 dirhams, and one nawat was 5 dirhams.” (Al-Maqrizi,

1994, p.56). Rasulullah (s.a.w.s.) established the nisab for silver as 5 uqiyyah, upon which a zakat

3 In Rosenthal’s 1958 English translation of the Muqaddimah, he translates habbahs as ‘grains of wheat’ when it

literally means ‘grain’ but refers to an average-sized, unshelled grain of barley, of which the extremities are cut,

whereas the qamhah is the wheat grain (c.f. Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.57).



of 5 dirhams (or one nawat) was fixed, and for every 20 dinars a zakat of ½ dinar, thus the zakat

rate is 2.5%. Al-Maqrizi identified the weight of the daniq as “8 2/5th average unshelled habbahs

[grains] of barley, of which the extremities are cut” (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.57), and “the daniq

[was] two and a half qirats” (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.59). He noted that of the bahgli, tabaris, and

jawrafi dirhams, the Persian baghli was also called the ‘black of full weight’ (sud wafiya) since it

weighed the same as the dinar. Ten jawaz dirhams (a general term for the legal dirham) weighed

7 baghlis (or dinars or mithqals): “the weight of one mithqal…weighed 72 habbahs” of average

unshelled grains of barley whose extremities are cut. (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.57), and “the weight

of one dirham was fifty and two-fifths habbahs” (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.61).

In Fawzan Barrage’s translation of Al-Dawhat al-Mushtabakat Fi Dawabit Dar al-Sikkah, Al-

Hakim, an actual mint-master of Fas and a highly respected faqih, during the reign of the

Marinid (Morocco) Sultan Abi Ànan Faris (748-759H), corroborates the view of Ibn Khaldun

and Al-Maqrizi, that the mithqal was 72 habbahs or 24 qirats4, explaining that this is the same

weight as the Sharicah mithqal: “the Romans (Byzantine) continued to use the dinar and the

Persians to use the dirham, until Islam came…The Persians had three different weights for the

dirhams: one was one mithqal, which is twenty qirats, another was twelve qirats and yet another

was ten qirats. When Islam came, the need arose to value the zakat, so an average of all three

standards was used. The sum of all three standards added up to forty-two qirats so it was

agreed that the dirham would be equal to fourteen qirats of the qirats of the mithqal, which is in

turn twenty-four qirats. The qirat was also equal to three habbahs and twenty-four times three

is seventy-two and that makes a mithqal seventy-two habbahs… It is also said that when cUmar

Ibn al-Khattab (r.a.), saw the discrepancy in the weight of the dirhams, he looked at the majority

of what the people use from the lightest to the heaviest. He divided it into twelve daniqs and

took half of that (six daniqs) to equal the dirham. Thus, when you add to the dirham three

seventh of its weight it equals a mithqal, and when you take away three tenths off the weight

of a mithqal, it equals a dirham” (Al-Hakim, 2001, p.2). In describing the history and inner

working of the mint, Al-Hakim reported from Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi whom stated, “The Imam

should order the people to transact between them with pure refined gold, and pure refined

silver only5. The Imam is to recall all struck coins, smelt them and refine them. Then he is to

strike new coins from the pure metal, and return these to their owners” (Al-Hakim, 2001, p.4).

In Wahba’s translation of Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya, Al-Mawardi (974-1058), considered a judge

par excellence (aqda al-quda), in Baghdad at the time of the cAbbasids, also corroborates the

account of Al-Hakim as to how the legal dirham, as a coin standard, was maintained by cUmar

(r.a.) amidst the declining state of Persian coinage:

4 There is also a tradition related on the authority of Jabir, states that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said: “The weight of the

dinar is 24 qirats” (Zayas, 2003, p.72). 5 As in the case of the early Heraclian and Chosroes coins, the Muslims did not transact by nominal value by ‘tale’

(i.e. by face value or by their official legal value) but by ‘specie’ (by their intrinsic weight as bullion) and considered

them only as ore (tibr), i.e. pure material of gold and silver: the various weights were used to prevent fraud. In

order to avoid injustice, when Islamic dinars and dirhams were transacted by their nominal value they should reflect

their intrinsic worth since the population automatically trusted the sikkah (the mint).

Adam Abdullah


“Now, the weight and quality of the dirham must be learned. Its weight has been fixed in

Islam as six daniqs, and every ten dirhams weigh seven mithqals. There are different

explanations for the reason why it was stabilized at that weight. It has been suggested, for

instance, that dirhams were minted by the Persians in three weights: a mithqal or 20 carats,

12 carats and 10 carats. When a weight had to be considered for the purpose of paying the

legal alms (zakat), the average weight, or the total of 42 carats divided by 3, was settled

upon, and it equaled 14 carats. Islamic dirhams minted to match this average were then

characterized as 10 per 7 mithqals, which is how it actually is. Others have argued that when cUmar ibn al-Khattab (r.a.) noticed the variety of dirhams in use, including the Baghlite,

which weighed 8 daniqs, the 4 daniq Tabarite, the 3 daniq Maghribite, and the 1 daniq

Yemenite, he ordered a study of the versions most used by all classes of people from the

highest to the lowest. They turned out to be the Baghlite and the Tabarite. Adding them

up and dividing the total of 12 by 2, he arrived at 6 daniqs as the weight of the Islamic

dirham. If you add to it 3/7th of its weight you get a mithqal, and the latter minus 3/10th yields

a dirham; thus each 10 dirhams are equivalent to 7 mithqals, and each 10 mithqals are equal

to 14 dirhams and 2/7th of one dirham. The quality has to be pure silver, for no debasing

admixture enters into its determination.” (Al-Mawardi, 2000, p.170).

In Nyazee’s translation of The Book of Revenue (Kitab al-Amwal), Abu ‘Ubayd al-Qasim ibn

Sallam (774-837), who was a judge and highly knowledgeable on jurisprudence, the Sunnah

and history, at a time when the Hanafi school was established in Iraq, the Maliki school in

Medinah and the Shafi’i school was just beginning to emerge in Syria and Egypt. Abu ‘Ubayd

had earlier provided a similar account on the Islamic currency to that of Al-Mawardi:

“They used to make an assessment for the payment of zakat in two ways: separately from

larger coins and from smaller coins. When they were about to commence minting of the

dirhams, they examined the heavier dirham and found it to be 8 daniqs. Thereafter, they

examined the samller dirham and found it to be 4 daniqs. They equalized the difference by

combining the weight of the two and dividing into two equal dirhams, with each weight 6

daniqs. After this, they checked the weight of a dirham in terms of mithqals. The mithqal had

remained of the same standard weight throughout. They took 10 of these dirhams, each

with a weight of 6 daniqs and weighed them against mithqals. The weight came out to be

exactly 7 mithqals…The sunnah about the dirhams was reaffirmed this way and the ummah

arrived at a consensus, with no one disagreeing about the fact that the weight of the full

dirham is 6 daniqs. When a dirham was found to differ, it was called heavier or a deficient

dirham…The weight of the dirham prior this was 6 [daniqs] and this has been mentioned in

some traditions. It has been related to me from Sharik from Sa’d ibn Tarif from al-Asbargh

ibn Nubata from Ali’, who said: ‘The Messenger of God (s.a.w.s.) married me to Fatima

(r.a.), for a sum of 480 dirhams with a weight of six [daniqs]’.” (Abu ‘Ubayd, 2003, pp.480-

481).



4. Syrian Mithqal

The Syrian mithqal was 22 qirats less a habbah, or 22 qirats less a fraction. Al-Maqrizi stated, cAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan “struck the dinar and the dirham: he set the weight of the dinar at 22

Syrian qirats minus one habbah, and that of the dirham at exactly 15 qirats, one qirat being equal

to 4 habbahs, and one daniq at two and a half qirats…[he] struck gold (dinars) according to the

Syrian mithqal. These were called the mayyalah dinars (‘tilting’ dinars), greater by two dinars per

hundred” (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, pp.59-60). Since each Syrian qirat contained 4 habbahs, one Syrian

mithqal thus equaled 87/88 habbahs or a nominal 21.756 qirats, which less 2% closely

approximates the actual weight of 21 3/7th derived from the dirham at 15 qirats being 7/10th of

the mithqal7. The Syrian mithqal of 21 3/7th qirats equaled the Makkan mithqal of 72 habbahs (Al-

Maqrizi, 1994, p.57). Muhammad bin S’ad said, “The weight of these dirhams is 14 carats of the

20 carats of our mithqal which was 20 carats and it weighs 15 carats out of 21 3/7th carats”

(Zalloom, 2002, p.168). Indeed, the coins minted by cAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan were readily

accepted by the Muslims - Waqidi quoted that Wahb bin Kaysan said: “I saw dinars and

dirhams, before cAbd al-Malik bin Marwan engraved and abraded them and they were the

dinar’s weight coined by cAbd al-Malik” (Zalloom, 2002, p.167). It is also narrated from cAbd

al-Malik bin As-Saib from Abu Wada’a as-Sahmi that he showed him the weight of the mithqal

saying: “I weighed it and found it the weight of cAbd al-Malik bin Marwan’s mithqal. He Said:

This was owned by Abu Wada’a bin Dhabira as-Sahmi in jahiliyyah.” (Zalloom, 2002, p.167).

Al-Balathri narrated from Uthman bin Abdullah who said: “My father said: ‘The dinars of cAbd

al-Malik bin Marwan came to Madinah where there were some of the sahabah of Rasulullah

(s.a.w.s) and others from the tabicin. No one rejected them’” (Zalloom, 2002, p.168).

Al-Baladhri narrated from Abdullah bin Th’alaba bin Sa’eer who said: “Heraclian dinars

came to the people in of Makkah in jahiliyyah as came dirhams of al-Furs al-Bughliyya

(Persians), and when they traded with them they considered them only as ore. The mithqal

had a well-known weight for them, a weight of 22 carats less a fraction. Ten dirhams

weighed seven mithqal and the pound was 12 ounces with each ounce being 40 dirhams.

The Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s.) consented to this, as did Abu Bakr, cUmar, cUthman and cAli.” (Zalloom, 2002, p.165).

According to Khalid b. Abi Rabi’ah from Ibn Hial from his father: “The pre-Islamic units

of weight (mithqals) by which cAbd al-Malik struck his coins were 22 qirats, minus a habbah;

ten weight seven.” (Al-Tabari, 1989, 22, p.91).

According to ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Jarir al-Laythi, from Hilal b. Usamah: “I asked Sa’id b. al-

Musayyab how much the zakat should be on dinars, and he said: ‘For every 20 mithqals in

Syrian weights, a half mithqal.’ I said, ‘Why Syrian rather than Egyptian?’ He replied, ‘It is

the Syrian that dinars are struck, and that was the weight of the (earlier) dinars before the

dinars were struck; they were 22 qirats minus a habbah’ Sa’id said, ‘I know that, because I

6 87 habbahs / 4 habbahs per qirat = 21.75 qirats 7 A dirham of 15 qirats / 0.7 = 21.428571 or 21 3/7th

Adam Abdullah


had sent some dinars to Damascus, and they were struck at that weight.” (Al-Tabari, 1989,

22, pp.91-92).

5. Eqyptian Mithqal

We must differentiate between the legal and Egyptian mithqal, and also the coin standards of

various dynasties. Although Bates states, “in Fatimid and Ayyubid Egypt, [the mithqal] was

divided into 24 qirats and 72 habbahs” (Bates, 1981, p.78), in fact the mithqal weight varied

depending on the type of grain. The legal mithqal was based on the barley grain (habbah), but

the Egyptian kharrubahs was “equivalent to 3 qamhahs [wheat grains not barley grains] and the

mithqal to 24 kharrubahs” (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.68). Al-Maqrizi clarifies that, “weight standards

vary in Egypt and Syria: 100 Syrian mithqals weigh one and one-fourth mithqal less in Egypt,

and this proportion is also true for the dirhams” (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.68). Ayyubid or Mamluk

coin standards were based on an Egyptian mithqal that weighed 1.25% heavier than the Syian

(legal) weights, and weighed 4.303g (= 4.25 x 1.0125) for the dinar and 3.012g (= 2.975 x 1.0125)

for the dirham, as reflected in surviving glass weights (Schultz, 2003, pp.67-69).

Notwithstanding the prevailing coin standard, Egyptian bronze weights have been discovered

and correspond to the legal mithqal weight 4.25g and dirham 2.975g (Bates, 1981, p.79).

Given the importance of our analysis on the accuracy of metrology and numismatics in

determining the exact Egyptian weight and coin standards, we present the following figures

relating to individual hoards of coins and glass weights for dinars, dirhams and fulus, from the

Mamluk period, and the surviving specimens indeed reflect the Egyptian mithqal that weighed

about 4.3g and the dirham of about 3g. In figure 1, the combined average weight of 16 dinars is

4.303g revealing the intention to conform to the Egyptian mithqal standard, being 1.25% more

than the legal mithqal weight of 4.25g. The 11 Salimi dinars struck in 804-805/1401-1403 average

4.29g; and the implied average mithqal weight of the 5 Mu’ayyad full mithqal and half (nifs)

mithqal dinars struck in 821/1418-1419 is 4.33g.



Figure 1: Distribution of Mamluk Dinars (16 coins)

Source: Schultz (2003, pp.61-62)

In figure 2, out of 17 objects, 7 glass mithqal weights (41%) with an average weight of 4.3g, are

distributed within the range of 4.25 - 4.35g; and in figure 3, out of 10 objects, another 7 glass

double-mithqal weights (70%) with an average weight of 8.6g, are distributed within the range

of 8.55 - 8.70g. In figure 4, out of 77 objects, 65 glass half-dirham weights (84%) with an average

weight of 1.5g, are distributed within the range 1.45 - 1.55g; in figure 5, out of 291 objects, 245

glass dirham weights (84%) with an average weight of 3g, are distributed within the range of

2.90 - 3.10g; and in figure 6, out of 379 objects, 323 glass double-dirham weights (85%) with an

average weight of 6g, are distributed within the range of 5.80 - 6.20g.

Figure 2: Distribution of Mamluk Mithqal Glass Weights (17 objects)

Source: Schultz (2003, p.70)

Adam Abdullah


Figure 3: Distribution of Mamluk Double-Mithqal Glass Weights (10 objects)


Figure 4: Distribution of Mamluk Half-Dirham Glass Weights (77 objects)


Figure 5: Distribution of Mamluk Dirham Glass Weights (291 objects)




Figure 6: Distribution of Mamluk Double-Dirham Glass Weights (379 objects)


Figure 7: Distribution of Mamluk Fulus Coins (310 coins)


Finally, in figure 7, out of a hoard of 310 fulus that was minted in Cairo during the reign of al-

Ashraf Nasir al-Din Sha'ban (764-778/1363-1376), 307 fulus copper coins (99%) with an average

weight of 4.302g, are distributed within a tight bell-curve between 3.80 - 4.10g, falling within

an interval of 1.10g. Chronicles report that, after 759/1357-1358, 1 fals = 1 Egyptian mithqal of

4.303g, and hence the intention was clearly to conform to Egyptian weights.

In 783H/1381-1382 seven copper coins were minted in Cairo, 6 of a full uqiyya weight and 1 of

a half-uqiyya weight, with an implied average weight for the uqiyya of 34.86g. These coins have

suffered some wear, however, in assessing for a reasonable adjustment for a loss in weights

due to wear over time, Grierson suggested 1.5% for gold and 0.5% for glass (Grierson, 1960,

p.254). Since 1 uqiyya = 12 dirhams, the dirham weight suggests 2.905g, and to obtain an Egyptian

standard of 3.01g, one needs to adjust by 3.5% which is possibly too high for copper, and thus

we probably require a larger number of specimens before arriving at any realistic conclusion

Adam Abdullah


(Schultz, 2003, p.64), as to whether these coins reflected the Egyptian equivalent of the Islamic

ounce.

Al-Maqrizi also mentioned that the dirham kamali (DK) was fixed at 18 kharrubahs (Al-Maqrizi,

1994, p.68) or 54 qamhahs, so that by weight the Egyptian mithqal was 1.333 (24/18 kharrubahs or

72/54 qamhahs) heavier that the Egyptian dirham in circulation, which we know from Al-

Maqrizi’s account, was the debased DK at 2/3 fine. Under the Ayyubids and Mamluks, the

army dinar or dinar jayshi (DJ), a term derived from the diwan al-jaysh, was an important money

of account used to determine the present value of agricultural land for land concessions (iqta’)

granted by the Sultan for military service, in lieu of a stipend. The DJ was payable in cash and

in kind and worth the equivalent of 2/3 of the Egyptian dinar (ED), being the same as the

Egyptian mithqal (EM). On the basis of an exchange rate of 20 DKs to 1 ED, the DJ was also

equivalent by value to 13.333 DKs. Moreover, the dirham nuqra (DN)8 was an official money of

account that evaluated the pure metallic value of ordinary circulating dirhams, and exchanged

at 13.333 DNs to 1 ED (Rabie, 1972, p.48; Goitein, 1965, p.43; Ehrenkreutz, 1992, IX, p.503).

From an analysis of coin specimens held by the American Numismatic Society (ANS, 2019),

the Fatimid coin standard for the dinar was about 4.19g (Ehrenkreutz, 1959, p.180), a short-

weight noticed in Collin’s translation of Ahsan al-Taqasim fi Ma‘rifat al-Aqalim, by Al-

Muqaddasi whom stated in 375H/985 that, “in all provinces of this region [the Maghrib], the

standard is the dinar, which is lighter than the mithqal by a habbah, that is to say a grain of

barley…The dirham is also short in legal weight…[coins] circulate by number [rather than by

weight]” (Al-Muqaddasi, 2001, pp.198-199). A mithqal weighing 4.25g less a habbah, or 71/72 of

the Sharicah mithqal, equals exactly 4.19g.

6. Iraqi Mithqal

Al-Maqrizi also states that the mithqal is a weight that has not changed since ancient times and

was the equivalent of 60 habbahs, where each habbah weighed 100 grains of wild mustard

(khardal), hence a mithqal weighed 6,000 khardal. The weight of the dirham was also 60 habbahs,

but each habbah weighing 70 khardal, so that the weight of the dirham was 4,200 khardal, being

7/10th of a mithqal (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, pp.57,62). In following the Iraqi practice of dividing the

mithqal into 60 habbahs, “the 11th century treatise of Eliya Bar-Sinaeus, Archbishop of Nisibin9,

Maqala fi’l-awzan wa’l-makayil, translated by Henri Sauvaire in 1877 and 1880…describes the

8 With 1 DJ being equal to 2/3 of an ED (or EM), and a prevailing ED:DK exchange rate of 20:1, for a coin of the

purity of a kamlili dirham (dirham al-nuqra al-kamiliyya), the DJ = 13.333 (20 x 0.666). Not all the dirhams in circulation

were of 3g and 2/3 purity such as the DK, for some were of lower fineness and many were fractions. The DN was

not the same as the DK as Borsch suggests (Borsch, 2005, pp.159-159 citing Schultz 1995, pp.147-149,163,234-224),

but rather the DN was adopted as a monetary standard of account, to evaluate the metallic content of a coin, and

used in other official capacities, for the evaluation of government salaries, in waqf documents and in legal

documents as suggested by Goitein (1965, pp.35,37,43,46) and Ehrenkreutz (1992, IX, p.503). At 13.333 DN:1 ED,

the DK weighed 3g with 2g of pure silver or .666 fine, and its pure silver (fidda al-nuqra) content would have a value

of 13.333 / .666 = 20. The gold:silver ratio for either the DK or the DN was therefore, 2g x 20 / 4.3g for the DK, or, 3g

x 13.333 / 4.3 for the DN = 9.3 9 Nisibin is the modern Nusaybin in south-east Turkey, an ancient Assyrian city in upper Mesopotamia, close to

the modern Turkish-Syrian border, within Kurdistan.



procedure for making a set of weights for mithqals and dirhams, For mithqals, one begins with

100 mustard seeds, the weight of a gold-habbah, and makes from these a bronze weight for 1

habbah…using smaller weights in combination as the standard for larger weights, one makes

a complete set…A set of dirhams weights is made the same way, beginning with a silver-habbah

of 70 instead of 100 mustard seeds” (Bates, 1981, p.78).

Again, the weight of the habbah would not be the same weight of habbah expressed in the

Egyptian, Syrian or Makkan mithqals, but nonetheless, the legal mithqal should weigh the

equivalent of 6,000 khardal, and similarly the dirham weighs 4,200 khardal. The pre-Islamic Iraqi

mithqal is distinct from Islamic cAbbasid dynasty (ruling from Baghdad), although some of

their coins were light by one, two or even three habbahs, until the reign of Abu Ja’far al-Mansur

(136-58H/754-75) whom minted hashimi dirhams according to the Basra mithqal, which was set

according to the weight of Syrian mayyalah mithqal (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.63) at 21 and 3/7th qirats.

Adam Abdullah


Tables 3 and 4 summarize historical coin and weight standards.

Table 3: The Mithqal in Relation to Historical and Modern Weights

Mithqal

Weight Historical and Modern Weights

Legal

Mithqal

4.25g of 20 qirats = 0.2125g per qirat

4.25g of 8 daniqs = 0.53125 habbahs per daniq for gold

4.25g of 72 habbahs = 0.0590277g per habbah

4.25g / 6000 khardal = 0.0007083g per khardal

6,000 khardal / 72 habbahs = 83.33 khardal per habbah

dirham is 7/10th of 20 qirats = 14 qirats

dirham of 2.975g of 6 daniqs = 0.495833g per daniq of silver

Syrian

Mithqal

4.25g of 21.428571 qirats = 0.1983g per qirats

22 qirats of 4 habbahs per qirats, less 1 habbah = 87 habbahs

mayyalah dinars of 21.75 qirats (87 habbahs / 4 habbahs per qirat), less 2%

approx. = 21 3/7 qirats

dirham = 15 qirats being 7/10th of the mithqal

Egyptian

Mithqal

4.303g of 24 kharrubahs = 0.1793g per kharrubah

Egyptian mithqal = 72 qamhahs or 24 kharrubahs (3 qamhahs per kharrubahs)

Al-Maqrizi: Egyptian mithqal > Syrian mithqal by 1.25%

Ayyubid, Mamluk coin standard = 4.303g (4.25 x 1.0125)

Al-Muqaddasi: Maghribi dinar = legal mithqal less one habbah or 71/72 habbah

Fatimid dinar standard = 4.25g / 72 x 71 = 4.19g

Iraqi

Mithqal

4.25g of 60 habbahs = 0.0708333g per habbah

one gold habbah = 100 mustard seeds (khardal)

one silver habbah = 70 khardal

mithqal = 60 habbah x 100 khardal = 6,000 khardal

dirham = 60 habbah x 70 khardal = 4,200 khardal

4.25g of 6,000 khardal = 0.0007083g

Byzantine

Solidus

theoretically about 4.55g of 24 siliqua = 0.1895833g per siliqua or carat

early Byzantine pound = 327.45g; by 6th-7th century fell to 322g, then to 320g

with devaluation of the pound, the siliqua no longer weighed a carob seed

Heraclian

Dinar

the pound fell to about 320g by 7th century as per weights in British Museum

the reduced solidus was a full solidus less a siliqua, tariffed at 1/72 of a pound

the reduced solidus = the mithqal, and used for trade with the Orient

hence the reduced solidus of 24 siliqua = 0.1770833g per siliqua or carat



Table 4: The Dinar and Dirham, and Regional Coin and Weight Standards

An-Nuqud

& the Sassanian

drachma of

Khosrau II

Weight

in

Mithqals

Legal

Qirat

Legal

Daniq

Syrian

Qirat

2½ qirats

to 1 daniq

Weight in

Habbahs

barley

grains

Egyptian

Qirat

3 habbhas

to 1 qirat

Iraqi Mithqal

= 60 habbahs (h)

1 gold h = 100 k

1 silver h = 70 k

khardal (k) wild

mustard seeds

Weight

in

grams

Heraclius (Byzantine) dinar

1 pound = 72

full solidus

of 24 siliqua

(carobs)

in grams

mithqal =

reduced

solidus

of 23 siliqua

(carobs)

in grams

legal dinar 1 20

21 3/7 72 24 6000 4.25 4.44 4.25

Baghli

(the mule) 1 20 8

Juwariqiyya

Dirham

(from Jurqan)

3/5 12

Tabri

(from

Tabaristan)

1/2 10 4

legal dirham 7/10 14 6 15 50 2/5 16 4/5 4200 2.975



Table 5 specifically highlights the differences between the ‘full’ and ‘reduced’ solidus.

Orientalists often argue that Muslims merely copied the Byzantine dinar, but the mithqal

preceded the Romans. The Muslims never used actual carob seeds to weigh gold and silver,

but barley grains, and ultimately it was the Byzantines that reduced their solidus to trade with

the Persians and the Arabs.

Table 5: Full and Reduced Solidus of Heraclius

Heraclian

Dinars

Pound

(grams)

Solidus per

pound

Solidus

(grams)

Siliqua per

Solidus

Siliqua

(grams)

Full Solidus 320 72 4.44 24 0.185

Reduced

Solidus 306 72 4.25 23 0.185

Sources: Broome (1985), pp.11,12,14; Grierson (1999), p.6; Entwistle (2002), p.611

Another interesting aspect of metrology is the underlying synergy of the dinar, dirham, mithqal

and daniq in every ancient currency. The Persian daniq was not only a weight but also a small

coin, exactly similar to the Greco-Roman obol: 6 daniqs or 6 obols being equal to 1 Sassanian

drahm or Attic drachma. Also, the shekel meaning ‘weight’ has its roots in Mesopotamia, the

Akkadian ‘she’ meaning ‘barley’, with the half shekel being the weight of the mithqal. Since

Britain and France (Gaul) were former Roman provinces, the British pound has the Roman

abbreviation for L (libra) with a stroke through it, and £1 = 240 pennies; also ‘shilling’ came

from the word solidus, and the pennyweight (pwt or dwt), with abbreviation ‘d’ from the silver

denarius. English coinage was derived from the French Carolingian reform, which spread

under King Charlemagne to the Saxon kingdom of Mercia under King Offa (757-796), and thus,

£1 = 20s, each containing 12d (and the half penny equaled the obol). Each penny initially

weighed 30 wheat grains under the Tower pound, up until 1527 when the Troy system was

adopted and each penny weighed 24 barley grains.

7. Makkan Weights

We may summarize the Makkan weights with their modern metric counterparts as follows;

1 legal mithqal / dinar = 20 qirats = 8 daniqs = 72 habbahs = 6,000 khardal = 4.25g

1 legal dirham = 14 qirats = 6 daniqs = 50.4 habbahs = 4,200 khardal = 2.975g

hence 7 mithqals = 10 dirhams, so 7 x 4.25 = 29.75g

and 10 dirhams = 7 mithqals, so 10 x 2.975 = 29.75g

1 legal qirat = 4.25 / 20 or 2.975 / 14 = 0.2125g

1 legal gold daniq = 4.25 / 8 = 0.053125g



1 legal silver daniq = 2.975 / 6 = 0.4958333g

1 legal habbah = 4.25 / 72 or 2.975 / 50.4 = 0.059028g

1 uqiyyah of 40 legal dirhams = 40 x 2.975 = 119g

1 nish = ½ of 1 uqiyyah = 20 dirhams = 20 x 2.975 = 59.5g

1 ratl of 12 uqiyyahs = 12 x 40 = 480 dirhams = 480 x 2.975 = 1,428g

5 uqiyyahs = nisab for silver = 200 dirhams = 200 x 2.975 = 595g

1 nawat = zakat on silver10 = 5 dirhams = 5 x 2.975 = 14.875g

Legal exchange rate for zakat = 10 dirhams to 1 dinar, and the nisab for gold = 20 dinars = 85g,

thus, the zakat on gold11 = ½ dinar = 2.125g

8. Dirham Weight

With respect to the dirham weight, an analysis is warranted as to its accurate weight, for some

writers, perhaps influenced by orientalists, have sought to differentiate between the legal

silver dirham and a dirham weight. The silver dirham is referred to as the dirham al-kayl, or the

dirham of measurement, since the legal ratl, sac and mudd are multiples of it (Al-Maqrizi, 1994,

pp.61,87.90), where 1 mudd = ¼ sac = 1 1/3rd (Baghdadi) ratls. Nonetheless, some have given

varying estimates for the dirham weight: Zalloom (2000, p.54) stipulates 3.17g (thereby arriving

at 408g for the Baghdadi ratl, and the same figure as Al-Qardawi, 2005, p.239). Allouche (1994,

p.89) suggests 3.186g, based on Popper (1957,16:39) whom cites 3.186g and 3.148g from

Zambaur (EI, 1993, pp.978-979,1023-1024), with an average of 3.17g; the French Commission

cites 3.0884g in 1799 and 3.0898g in 1845 (Sauvaire, 1884, 4, p.317); and Popper (1957,16, p.39)

cites 3.12g in Egypt or 3.2g in Palestine and Syria from Baedeker. Whilst the ratl (of 12 uqiyyahs)

in Makkah was 480 silver dirhams (of 2.975g), in Cairo the ratl (pound) was 144 dirhams of the

time (Al-Maqrizi, 1994, p.56). Atiya stated 1 ratl of 144 dirhams weighed 499g in modern Egypt,

with each dirham weighing (1/144 of 449) 3.12g (Popper, 1957,16, p.39; EI, 1993, p.1129).

Notwithstanding, various weights assessed by the orientalists, the important determinant for

the weight of the legal dirham was the legal mithqal, since post-reform by Umar ibn Al-Khattab

(634-644) the legal dirham weighed 7/10th of the mithqal. The legal mithqal or dinar weighed 72

habbahs or 4.25g and the legal dirham weighed 50.4 habbahs or 2.975g. As mentioned, the mithqal

weight was also evident in earlier civilizations, such as the silver coinage of Ancient Greece

and Persia. In particular, table 6 presents the mithqal drachma of Alexander the Great (336-323

BC) and similarly of the Sassanian rulers Yazdegerd II (438-457) and Khusrau II (590-628). At

the time of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), the dirhams reflected the weight standard of the Sassanian

drahm of Khusrau II that circulated in Makkah and Madinah. As cited by Al-Mawardi and Abu

10 “No zakat is due on property mounting to less than five uqiyyahs (ounces of silver)” (Bukhari 24:487) and “for

silver the zakat is one-fortieth” (Bukhari 24:534) 11 From al-Hassan ibn cUmar through cAli that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said, “bring forth the zakat on gold [at the rate

of] one-half dinar for every twenty dinars” (Ibn Rushd, 2003, 1, p.297)

Adam Abdullah


Ubayd, during the Rashidun Caliphate, the dirhams were reformed by Umar ibn Al-Khattab

(634-644), although the earliest surviving dated Arab-Sassanian dirham was minted from the

coinage of Yazdigird III (632-651) by Uthman bin Affan (644-656), engraved with Bismillah (in

the name of Allah), in the year 651/31AH (Broome, 1985, p.5).

Table 6: Greek, Persian, Arab-Sassanian and Islamic Dirham Coins

Dynasty Ruler Mint (Year) Coin

Macedon

Alexander III

(Alexander the

Great)

Colophon

(320 BC)

drachma

4.23g

Sassanian Yazdigird II Ardashir

(450)

drahm

4.25g

Sassanian Khusrau II Jayy (Isfahan)

(627)

drahm

4.24g

Rashidun

Caliphate

Uthman bin

Affan

(Yezdigird III)

Sijistan

(651)

drahm

3.0g

Umayyad cAbd al-Malik

ibn Marwan

Damascus

(699)

dirham

2.975g

Source: Amercian Numismatic Society (ANS, 2019)

Conclusion

In this study, we have clarified the nature of the Islamic monetary standard. Ibn Khaldun

(1958) and Al-Maqrizi (1994) both warned Muslims against abandoning the Islamic currency.

Ultimately, the cAbbasids lost their caliphate to the Ottomans in 1517 as a result of currency

mis-management and manipulation through debasement and devaluation with fiat (copper)

money (Abdullah, 2016). The Ottomans similarly lost their Caliphate to paper money and

external debt (Abdullah, 2013, Mar.). Given a continuous cycle of financial crises in modern

times, we should equally reflect on the consequences of avoiding a currency with intrinsic

value. At a personal level, our wealth and assets are being eroded. We calculate the nisab (of

85g of gold) according to the equivalent price of gold in fiat (paper) money, in order to

determine whether our assets in nominal terms are zakatable. If we first calculated zakatable

wealth in real terms in terms of gold, then since 1971 the gold price has risen from USD 35/oz



to about USD 1,250/oz, and we would soon realize that in real terms, the value of our wealth

and the value of the zakat in terms of fiat currency have both essentially collapsed. The positive

effect of zakat in lifting the poor out of poverty has been entirely lost due to exponential decay

in the value of money (reflected in its higher rate of exchange with a fixed amount of gold), as

a result of an excessive increase in the supply money (generated by the modern banking

system and the combined deposit and lending rates of interest), in relation to the demand for

money, the effect of which is an increase in prices. This Islamic monetary theory of value

(Abdullah, 2016), takes into account value, supply and demand, such that the cause is the

decline in the value of money and the effect is price inflation. Since interest rates and prices

are positively correlated, we are forced to lower our standard of living to pay for higher prices,

such that our wealth is being confiscated through inflation and transferred to the combined

profit-and-loss statement of the banking system. The fiat standard is money backed by debt,

and is being exponentially devalued by aggregate interest rates (riba). Absent of usury, our

medium of exchange would increase in value and purchasing power, thus lowering prices.

Interest is a circular argument: it does not protect the value of money – it devalues it. When

we pause to reflect, how can a nation hope to increase its wealth, increase its means of paying

others, by charging interest upon itself. Our current monetary system involves debt at interest

organized into currency and is not sustainable. Accordingly, we should to appreciate the

importance of the Islamic monetary standard, and recognize that it was the once and is also

the future of money, as the Prophet (s.a.w.s) has foretold, “A time is certainly coming over

mankind in which there will be nothing (left) which will be of use save a dinar and a dirham”

(Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad).

Adam Abdullah


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