The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Moroccan dirham, the United Arab Emirates and Armenian dram, and is the name of a currency subdivision in Jordanian dinar, Libyan dinar, Qatari riyal and Tajikistan. It was historically a silver coin.
Unit of mass
The dirham was a unit of mass used across North Africa, the Middle East, Persia and
Ifat Sultanate; later known as
Adal Sultanate, with varying values.
The value of Islamic dirham was 14 qirat. 10 dirham equals 7 mithqal (2.975 gm of silver).
In the late Ottoman Empire (), the standard dirham was 3.207 gram;[based on an oka of 1.2828 kilogram; 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)] 400 dirhem equal one oka. The Ottoman dirham was based on the Sassanian drachm (in Middle Persian: 𐭦𐭥𐭦𐭭 drahm), which was itself based on the Greek Ancient drachma.
In Egypt in 1895, it was equivalent to 47.661 (3.088 gram).[OED]
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
Ancient drachma (δραχμή), the Greek coin.
[ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition, s.v. 'dirhem' ] The Greek-speaking
Byzantine Empire lay partially in the
Levant and traded with
Arabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward. It was this currency which was initially adopted as a Persian word (
Middle Persian drahm or
dram); then near the end of the 7th century the coin became an
Islamic coinage bearing the name of the sovereign and a religious verse. The Arabs introduced their own coins.
The Islamic dirham was 8 daniq.[BBC Art of Persia] The dirham was struck in many Mediterranean countries, including Al-Andalus (Moors Spain) and the Byzantine Empire ( miliaresion), and could be used as currency in Europe between the 10th and 12th centuries, notably in areas with Viking connections, such as Jorvik[In addition to Islamic dirhams in ninth and tenth century English hoards, a counterfeit dirham was found at Coppergate, in York, struck as if for Ismail Samani (ruling at Samarkand, 903-07/8), of copper covered by a once-silvery wash of tin (illustrated in Richard Hall, Viking Age Archaeology, series 2010:17, fig. 7).] and Dublin.
Dirham in Jewish orthodox law
The
dirham is frequently mentioned in
Jewish Halakha 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, uses the Egyptian
dirham to approximate the quantity of flour for dough-portion, writing in
Mishnah Eduyot 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
Yosef Karo's
Shulhan Arukh (
Hil. Hallah,
Yoreh Deah § 324:3) in the name of the Tur. In Maimonides' commentary of the Mishnah (
Eduyot 1:2, note 18), Rabbi
Yosef Qafih explains that the weight of each Egyptian
dirham was approximately 3.333 grams,
[ 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)] or what was the equivalent to 16
carob-grains
[ Mishnah – with a Commentary of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (ed. Yosef Qafih), vol. 3, Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1967, s.v. Introduction to Tractate Menahoth, p. 68 (note 35) (Hebrew)] 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),
[Ovadiah Yosef, Sefer Halikhot ʿOlam, vol. 1, Jerusalem 2002 (Hebrew title: ספר הליכות עולם)] 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
Kohen's portion is 1 kilo and 560 grams. Others (e.g. Rabbi Avraham Chaim Naeh) say the Egyptian
dirham weighed approx. 3.205 grams,
[Ovadiah Yosef, Sefer Halikhot ʿOlam, vol. 1, Jerusalem 2002, p. 288, sec. 11; Abraham Chaim Naeh, Sefer Kuntres ha-Shi'urim , Jerusalem 1943, p. 4 (Hebrew)] 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) wrote that the traditional weight used in
Yemen 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
Shulchan Aruch (
Yoreh De'ah 305:1),
[Shelomo Qorah, ʿArikhat Shūlḥan - Yilqūṭ Ḥayyīm, vol. 13 (Principles of Instruction and Tradition), Benei Barak 2012, p. 206 (Hebrew title: עריכת שולחן - ילקוט חיים) ] 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 Mishnah, 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: 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, issued and/or proposed by several states and Quasi-state, is also divided into dirhams.
See also
Notes
