Dirham

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Nations in red currently use the dirham. Nations in green use a currency with a subdivision named dirham.
Silver dirham of Caliph 718–719 CE Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
Silver dirham of Yazid II minted in 721–722 CE
Silver dirham of Marwan II ibn Muhammad 749–745 CE
As-Saffah
754–758 CE
Silver dirham of Al-Hadi minted in 786–787 CE in al-Haruniya
al-Muhammadiya
in 836–837 CE
Sassanid motifs, struck in the name of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf
Later silver dirham of the Umayyad Caliphate, minted at Balkh in 729–730 CE (AH) 111)
Caliph of Córdoba
Caliph of Córdoba

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, Qatar and Tajikistan
. It was historically a silver coin.

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 equals 7 mithqal (2.975 gm of silver).

In the late Ottoman Empire (

Sasanian drachm (in Middle Persian: drahm), which was itself based on the Greek dram/drachma.[citation needed
]

In

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]

History

Lublin Museum
.

The word "dirham" ultimately comes from

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
Viking York[6]
and Dublin.

Dirham in Jewish orthodox law

The dirham is frequently mentioned in

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]

Modern-day currency

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.

See also

References

  1. ^ based on an oka of 1.2828 kg; 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)
  2. OED
  3. S2CID 140561646. Archived
    from the original on 2024-01-02. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition, s.v. 'dirhem' Archived 2020-02-09 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ BBC Art of Persia
  6. ^ 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 Isma'il ibn Achmad (ruling at Samarkand, 903-07/8), of copper covered by a once-silvery wash of tin (illustrated in Richard Hall, Viking Age Archaeology, [series Shire Archaeology] 2010:17, fig. 7).
  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)
  8. ^ 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)
  9. ^ Ovadiah Yosef, Sefer Halikhot ʿOlam, vol. 1, Jerusalem 2002 (Hebrew title: ספר הליכות עולם)
  10. ^ Ovadiah Yosef, Sefer Halikhot ʿOlam, vol. 1, Jerusalem 2002, p. 288, sec. 11; Abraham Chaim Naeh, Sefer Kuntres ha-Shi'urim Archived 2017-04-24 at the Wayback Machine, Jerusalem 1943, p. 4 (Hebrew)
  11. OCLC 762505465
  12. ^ 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)
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