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The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivision in Jordan, Libya, Qatar 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; 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; 400 dirhem equal one oka. The Ottoman dirham was based on the Sasanian drachm (in Middle Persian: 𐭦𐭥𐭦𐭭 drahm), which was itself based on the Greek dram/drachma.

In Egypt in 1895, it was equivalent to 47.661 troy grains (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 (δραχμή), the Greek coin. 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. 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 and Dublin.

Dirham in Jewish orthodox law

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 ." 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, or what was the equivalent to 16 carob-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's portion is 1 kilo and 560 grams. Others (e.g. Rabbi Avraham Chaim Naeh) 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) 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), 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.

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

• Dinar
• Gold dinar
• Fals

Notes

1. /ˈdɜːrhæm/ DUR-ham; Arabic: درهم
2. /ˈdɜːrhɛm/ DUR-hem
3. /ˈdrɑːm/

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. "DIRHAM - Encyclopaedia Iranica".
3. OED
4. Ashtor, E. (October 1982). "Levantine weights and standard parcels: a contribution to the metrology of the later Middle Ages". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 45 (3): 471–488. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00041525. ISSN 0041-977X. S2CID 140561646. Archived from the original on 2024-01-02. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
5. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition, s.v. 'dirhem' Archived 2020-02-09 at the Wayback Machine
6. BBC Art of Persia
7. 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, 2010:17, fig. 7).
8. 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)
9. 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)
10. Ovadiah Yosef, Sefer Halikhot ʿOlam, vol. 1, Jerusalem 2002 (Hebrew title: ספר הליכות עולם)
11. 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)
12. Shelomo Qorah, ʿArikhat Shūlḥan - Yilqūṭ Ḥayyīm, vol. 13 (Principles of Instruction and Tradition), Benei Barak 2012, p. 206 (Hebrew title: עריכת שולחן - ילקוט חיים) OCLC 762505465
13. 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)

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