The oka, okka, or oke ( ota, اوقه) was an Ottoman measure of

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

, equal to 400

dirhem The dirham, dirhem or dirhm ( ar, درهم) is a silver unit of currency historically and currently used by several Arab and Arab influenced states. The term has also been used as a related unit of mass. Unit of mass The dirham was a un ...

s (Ottoman

dram Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxid ...

s). Its value varied, but it was standardized in the late empire as 1.2829

kilogram The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially. ...

s. 'Oka' is the most usual spelling today; 'oke' was the usual contemporary English spelling; 'okka' is the modern Turkish spelling, and is usually used in academic work about the Ottoman Empire. In

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

, the traditional unit is now called the ''eski okka'' 'old oka' or ''kara okka'' 'black okka'; the ''yeni okka'' 'new okka' is the kilogram. In

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, the oka (, plural ) was standardized at 1.282 kg and remained in use until traditional units were abolished on March 31, 1953—the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the Intern ...

had been adopted in 1876, but the older units remained in use. In

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

, the oka was equal to 1.270058636 kg or 4 onjas, each weighing 100 drams, and it remained in use until 1986, when Cyprus adopted the metric system. OED In

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, the monetary oka weighted 1.23536 kg. In

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

, it weighed 1.2208 kg, equal to 2½ artals. The oka was also used as a unit of

volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). ...

. In

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...

, it was 1.283

liter The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3) ...

s of liquid and 1.537 L of grain (

dry measure Dry measures are units of volume to measure bulk commodities that are not fluids and that were typically shipped and sold in standardized containers such as barrels. They have largely been replaced by the units used for measuring volumes in the m ...

). In Greece, an oka of

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

was 1.280 kg.

References

General references

* A.D. Alderson and Fahir İz, ''The Concise Oxford Turkish Dictionary'', 1959 * Γ. Μπαμπινιώτης (Babiniotis), Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens, 1998 *

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. S ...

, 1911 *

La Grande Encyclopédie ''La Grande Encyclopédie, inventaire raisonné des sciences, des lettres, et des arts'' (''The Great Encyclopedia: a systematic inventory of science, letters, and the arts'') is a 31-volume encyclopedia published in France from 1886 to 1902 by H. ...

* Diran Kélékian, ''Dictionnaire Turc-Français'', Constantinople: Imprimerie Mihran, 1911 * OED Obsolete units of measurement Units of mass Units of volume Ottoman units of measurement {{standard-stub