The dirham was a unit of mass used across North Africa, the Middle East, Persia andIfat; later known asAdal, with varying values.
The value of Islamic dirham was 14 qirat. 10 dirham equals 7mithqal (2.975 gm of silver).
In the late Ottoman Empire (Ottoman Turkish:درهم), the standard dirham was 3.207g;[1] 400 dirhem equal oneoka. The Ottoman dirham was based on theSasanian drachm (inMiddle Persian: 𐭦𐭥𐭦𐭭drahm), which was itself based on the Greekdram/drachma.[2]
There is currently a movement within the Islamic world to revive the dirham as a unit of mass for measuring silver, although the exact value is disputed (either 3 or 2.975 grams).[4]
Silver hoard fromLublin-Czechów, comprising 214 silver dirhams issued between 711–712 and 882–883 CE,Lublin Museum.
The word "dirham" ultimately comes fromdrachma (δραχμή), the Greek coin.[5] The Greek-speakingByzantine Empire lay partially in theLevant and traded withArabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward. Near the end of the 7th century the coin became anIslamic currency bearing thename of the sovereign and a religious verse. The Arabs introduced their own coins.
Thedirham is frequently mentioned inJewishorthodox law as a unit of weight used to measure various requirements in religious functions, such as the weight in silver specie pledged in Marriage Contracts (Ketubbah), the quantity of flour requiring the separation of thedough-portion, etc. Jewish physician and philosopher,Maimonides, uses the Egyptiandirham to approximate the quantity of flour fordough-portion, writing inMishnahEduyot 1:2: "And I found the rate of the dough-portion in that measurement to be approximately five-hundred and twentydirhams of wheat flour, while all these dirhams are the Egyptian [dirham]." This view is repeated byMaran'sShulhan Arukh (Hil. Hallah,Yoreh Deah § 324:3) in the name of theTur. In Maimonides' commentary of the Mishnah (Eduyot 1:2, note 18), RabbiYosef Qafih explains that the weight of each Egyptiandirham was approximately 3.333 grams,[8] or what was the equivalent to 16carob-grains[9] which, when taken together, the minimum weight of flour requiring the separation of the dough-portion comes to approx. 1 kilo and 733 grams. RabbiOvadiah Yosef, in hisSefer Halikhot ʿOlam (vol. 1, pp. 288–291),[10] makes use of a different standard for the Egyptiandirham, saying that it weighed approx. 3.0 grams, meaning the minimum requirement for separating thepriest's portion is 1 kilo and 560 grams. Others (e.g. RabbiAvraham Chaim Naeh) say the Egyptiandirham weighed approx. 3.205 grams,[11] which total weight for the requirement of separating the dough-portion comes to 1 kilo and 666 grams. Rabbi Shelomo Qorah (Chief Rabbi ofBnei Barak) wrote that the traditional weight used inYemen for eachdirham weighed 3.20 grams for a total of 31.5dirhams given as the redemption of one's firstborn son (pidyon haben), or 3.36 grams for the 30dirhams required by theShulhan Arukh (Yoreh De'ah 305:1),[12] and which in relation to the separation of the dough-portion made for a total weight of 1 kilo and 770.72 grams.
The worddrachmon (Hebrew:דרכמון), used in some translations of Maimonides' commentary of theMishnah, has in all places the same connotation asdirham.[13]
^based on an oka of 1.2828kg; Diran Kélékian gives 3.21 g (Dictionnaire Turc-Français, Constantinople: Imprimerie Mihran, 1911); Γ. Μπαμπινιώτης gives 3.203 g (Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens, 1998)
^In addition to Islamicdirhams in ninth and tenth century English hoards, a counterfeitdirham was found atCoppergate, inYork, struck as if forIsma'il ibn Achmad (ruling at Samarkand, 903-07/8), ofcopper covered by a once-silvery wash of tin (illustrated in Richard Hall,Viking Age Archaeology, [series Shire Archaeology] 2010:17, fig. 7).
^Mishnah – with a Commentary of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, ed. Yosef Qafih, vol. 2 –Seder Neziqim, pub.Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1965, p. 189 (Hebrew title:משנה עם פירוש הרמב"ם)
^Mishnah – with a Commentary of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (ed.Yosef Qafih), vol. 3,Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1967, s.v. Introduction to TractateMenahoth, p. 68 (note 35) (Hebrew)
^Shelomo Qorah,ʿArikhat Shūlḥan - Yilqūṭ Ḥayyīm, vol. 13 (Principles of Instruction and Tradition), Benei Barak 2012, p. 206 (Hebrew title:עריכת שולחן - ילקוט חיים)OCLC762505465
^Mishnah – with a Commentary of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, ed. Yosef Qafih, vol. 3 –Seder Kodashim, pub.Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1967, s.v. Introduction to TractateMenahoth, p. 68 (note 35) (Hebrew title:משנה עם פירוש הרמב"ם)
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