The dirham, dirhem or drahm ( Arabic: درهم) is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, and is the name of a currency subdivision in Jordan, Libya, Qatar and Tajikistan. It was historically a silver coin.
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 equals 7 mithqal (2.975 gm of silver).
In the late Ottoman Empire ( Ottoman Turkish: درهم), the standard dirham was 3.207 g; [1] 400 dirhem equal one oka. The Ottoman dirham was based on the Sasanian drachm (in Middle Persian: drahm), which was itself based on the Greek dram/drachma.[ citation needed]
In Egypt in 1895, it was equivalent to 47.661 troy grains (3.088 g). [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). [3]
The word "dirham" ultimately comes from drachma (δραχμή), the Greek coin. [4] The Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire controlled 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 currency bearing the name of the sovereign and a religious verse. The Arabs introduced their own coins. The Islamic dirham was 8 daniq. [5] The dirham was struck in many Mediterranean countries, including Al-Andalus ( Moorish 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 Viking York [6] and Dublin.
The dirham is frequently mentioned in Jewish 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, 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 Maran'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, [7] or what was the equivalent to 16 carob-grains [8] 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), [9] 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's portion is 1 kilo and 560 grams. Others (e.g. Rabbi Avraham Chaim Naeh) say the Egyptian dirham weighed approx. 3.205 grams, [10] 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 Shulhan Arukh (Yoreh De'ah 305:1), [11] 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 ( Hebrew: דרכמון), used in some translations of Maimonides' commentary of the Mishnah, has in all places the same connotation as dirham. [12]
Currently the valid national currencies with the name dirham are:
Countries | Currency | ISO 4217 code |
---|---|---|
Morocco | Moroccan dirham | MAD |
United Arab Emirates | United Arab Emirates dirham | AED |
Armenia | Armenian dram | AMD |
Modern currencies with the subdivision dirham or diram are:
Countries | Currency | ISO 4217 code | Subdivision |
---|---|---|---|
Libya | Libyan dinar | LYD | Dirham |
Qatar | Qatari riyal | QAR | Dirham |
Jordan | Jordanian dinar | JOD | Dirham |
Tajikistan | Tajikistani somoni | TJS | Diram |
The unofficial modern gold dinar, issued and/or proposed by several states and proto-states, is also divided into dirhams.