Dirham of Marwan II ibn Muhammad, AH 127-132

Arab-Sasanian Dirham in the name of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

The dirham, dirhem or dirhm ( ar, درهم) is a silver unit of currency historically and currently used by several

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

and Arab influenced states. The term has also been used as a related unit of mass.

Unit of mass

The dirham was a unit of weight used across North Africa, the Middle East, Persia and Ifat; later known as Adal, with varying values. The value of Islamic dirham was 14 qirat, 10 dirham = 7

mithqal Mithqāl ( ar, ) is a unit of mass equal to which is mostly used for measuring precious metals, such as gold, and other commodities, like saffron. The name was also applied as an alternative term for the gold dinar, a coin that was used throug ...

, in Islamic law (2.975 gm of silver). In the late Ottoman Empire ( ota, درهم), the standard dirham was 3.207 g; 400 dirhem equal one

oka Oka or OKA may refer to: Cars * Oka (automobile), a small car designed by AvtoVAZ and produced by ZMA and SeAZ * OKA 4wd, a large 4-wheel-drive vehicle made in Western Australia by OKA Military * 2B1 Oka, Soviet 420 mm self-propelled mor ...

. The Ottoman dirham was based on the

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

drachm (in

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

: ''drahm''), which was itself based on the Roman dram/drachm. In

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

in 1895, it was equivalent to 47.661

troy grain A grain is a unit of measurement of mass, and in the troy weight, avoirdupois, and apothecaries' systems, equal to exactly milligrams. It is nominally based upon the mass of a single ideal seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissan ...

s (3.088 g). 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).

History

The word "dirham" ultimately comes from ''

drachma The drachma ( el, δραχμή , ; pl. ''drachmae'' or ''drachmas'') was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history: # An ancient Greek currency unit issued by many Greek city states during a period of ten centuries, fro ...

'' (δραχμή), the Greek coin.''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

'', 1st edition
s.v. 'dirhem'
/ref> The Greek-speaking

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

controlled the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

and traded with

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward. It was this currency which was initially adopted as a Persian word (

''drahm'' or ''dram''); then near the end of the 7th century the coin became an Islamic currency bearing the name of the sovereign and a religious verse. The "dirham" was the coin of the Persians. The Arabs introduced their own coins. The Islamic dirham was 8 daniq. The dirham was struck in many

Mediterranean countries The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

, including

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...

(

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

) and the

(''

miliaresion The ''miliaresion'' ( el, μιλιαρήσιον, from la, miliarensis), is a name used for two types of Byzantine silver coins. In its most usual sense, it refers to the themed flat silver coin struck between the 8th and 11th Century. History O ...

''), and could be used as currency in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

between the 10th and 12th centuries, notably in areas with

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

connections, such as Viking York and Dublin.

Dirham in Jewish orthodox law

The ''dirham'' is frequently mentioned in

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

orthodox 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 the dough-portion, etc. Jewish physician and philosopher,

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

, uses the Egyptian ''dirham'' to approximate the quantity of flour for dough-portion, writing in

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

Eduyot Tractate Eduyot (Hebrew: עדויות, lit. "testimonies") is the seventh tractate in the order Nezikin of the Mishnah. When, after the destruction of the Temple, it became necessary, through the removal of R. Gamaliel II from the office of patriar ...

'' 1:2: "And I found the rate of the dough-portion in that measurement to be approximately five-hundred and twenty ''dirhams'' of wheat flour, while all these dirhams are the Egyptian 'dirham''" This view is repeated by

Maran Maran () is an honorific title for exceptionally respected rabbis who are considered influential teachers and leaders. The term is more prevalent among Sephardi Jews, but it is also widely used by Ashkenazi Haredi Jews. It is an Aramaic word used ...

's ''

Shulhan Arukh The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in I ...

'' (''Hil. Hallah'',

Yoreh Deah Yoreh De'ah ( he, יורה דעה) is a section of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha (Jewish law), Arba'ah Turim around 1300. This section treats all aspects of Jewish law not pertinent to the Hebrew calendar, finance, torts, marriage, ...

§ 324:3) in the name of the Tur. In Maimonides' commentary of the Mishnah (''Eduyot'' 1:2, note 18), Rabbi

Yosef Qafih Yosef Qafiḥ ( he, יוסף קאפח , ), widely known as Rabbi Yosef Kapach (27 November 1917 – 21 July 2000), was a Yemenite-Israeli authority on Jewish religious law (''halakha''), a dayan of the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Israel, and o ...

explains that the weight of each Egyptian ''dirham'' was approximately 3.333 grams, or what was the equivalent to 16

carob The carob ( ; ''Ceratonia siliqua'') is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and lands ...

-grains which, when taken together, the minimum weight of flour requiring the separation of the dough-portion comes to approx. 1 kilo and 733 grams. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, in his ''Sefer Halikhot ʿOlam'' (vol. 1, pp. 288–291), makes use of a different standard for the Egyptian ''dirham'', saying that it weighed approx. 3.0 grams, meaning the minimum requirement for separating the

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

's portion is 1 kilo and 560 grams. Others (e.g. Rabbi

Avraham Chaim Naeh Avraham Chaim Naeh (3 May 1890 – 21 July 1954) was a Lubavitcher chassidApprobations to ''Ketzos ha-Shulchan''. and major '' posek'' ( halachic authority) active during the first half of twentieth century. He is most famous for his works ''Ketzo ...

) say the Egyptian ''dirham'' weighed approx. 3.205 grams, which total weight for the requirement of separating the dough-portion comes to 1 kilo and 666 grams. Rabbi Shelomo Qorah (Chief Rabbi of

Bnei Barak Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq ( he, בְּנֵי בְּרַק ) is a city located on the central Mediterranean coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an area of 709 hectares (1752 acres, or 2.74 squ ...

) wrote that the traditional weight used in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

for each ''dirham'' weighed 3.20 grams for a total of 31.5 ''dirhams'' given as the redemption of one's firstborn son ('' pidyon haben''), or 3.36 grams for the 30 ''dirhams'' required by the

(''Yoreh De'ah'' 305:1), and which in relation to the separation of the dough-portion made for a total weight of 1 kilo and 770.72 grams. The word ''drachmon'' (), used in some translations of Maimonides' commentary of the

, has in all places the same connotation as ''dirham''.''Mishnah – with a Commentary of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon'', ed. Yosef Qafih, vol. 3 – ''Seder Kodashim'', pub.

Mossad Harav Kook Mossad HaRav Kook ( he, מוסד הרב קוק, "Rabbi Kook Institute") is a religious research foundation and publishing house based in Jerusalem. Mossad Harav Kook is named after Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British ...

: Jerusalem 1967, s.v. Introduction to Tractate ''Menahoth'', p. 68 (note 35) (Hebrew title: משנה עם פירוש הרמב"ם)

Modern-day currency

Currently the valid national currencies with the name ''dirham'' are: Modern currencies with the subdivision ''dirham'' or ''diram'' are: The unofficial

modern gold dinar The modern Islamic gold dinar (sometimes referred as Islamic dinar or Gold dinar) is a projected bullion gold coin, so far not issued as official currency by any national state. It aims to revive the historical gold dinar which was a leading coin ...

, issued and/or proposed by several states and

proto-states A quasi-state (some times referred to as state-like entity or proto-state) is a political entity that does not represent a fully institutionalised or autonomous sovereign state. The precise definition of ''quasi-state'' in political literature f ...

, is also divided into dirhams.

References

{{Islamic banking and finance Denominations (currency) Silver coins Obsolete units of measurement Ottoman units of measurement Units of mass Islamic banking Islamic banking and finance terminology

Unit of mass

History

Dirham in Jewish orthodox law

Modern-day currency

See also

References