Search

, literally grain or kernel, a fraction in the Troy weight system of the Arabs, of undefined weight. Most Arab authors describe the ḥabba as 1/60 of the unit of weight adopted, as a 1/10 of the dānaḳ (which in Arab metrology is a sixth part of the unit [see sikka ]), but there are other estimates which vary from 1/48 to 1/72. The ḥabba thus means someting very different according to the unit of weight; there is a ḥabba of the silver measure, a ḥabba of the gold measure, a ḥabba of the mit̲h̲ḳāl , later of the dirham etc. On the supposition that the oldest Arab unit of Troy weight was the mit̲h̲ḳāl [ q.v.] of …

(i. e. brass or base silver), the name of the base small money of the Mag̲h̲rib in the vth to viiith centuries, the debased copies of the square Almohad silver coins, which had long enjoyed great popularity and were struck by many Christian rulers as monetae miliarenses, millarès. — The ḥandūsiya are small, irregularly cut little coins of base silver weighing from 7 to 14 grains. As a ride they bear neither ruler’s name, mint nor date, but only a religious legend (a variant of Ḳurʾān, xl. 47) and probably owe their origin to the Zīrid, Ḥafṣid, …

(a.) “finger”, the inch, an Arab measure of length, as in Europe the twelfth part of the foot ( ḳadam), 1/24 of the ell ( d̲h̲irāʿ). The inch belongs to the earliest of the Arab measures of length and was marked, probably from the earliest period, on the Nilometer of the island of al-Rawḍa built in 96 a. h. [see miḳyās]. Its length there is 2.2925 cm. = 1 inch (the ell is 54.07 cm. = 21.8 inches). Being a derived measure the inch is not an invariable magnitude, for example to-day in Cairo the inch of the d̲h̲irāʿ muhandasa = 3.195 cm. = 1.25 inches, of the d̲h̲irāʿ istanbulī = 2.82 cm. = 1.1 inch, of the d̲h̲ir…

(pl. Fulus), the copper coin of early Islām. The name is derived from the late Greek φόλλιΣ (which in its turn comes from the latin follis), the name of the Byzantine copper coin of 40 nummia in the coinage as organised by the Emperor Anastasius I (491—518 a. d.). The Byzantine follis therefore bore the mark of value M = 40 on its reverse. Its weight was originally to have been an ounce (about 30 grammes) but it decreased rapidly; by the time of the ¶ conquest of Syria by the Arabs it had sunk to 6 grammes; the smaller Byzantine copper coins marked Κ (= 20), Ι (= 10) and Ε (= 5 …

(from the Greek κεράτιον = seed, grain of corn; the seed of the carob tree, Ceratonia Siliqua L.), a unit of weight in the Muḥammadan apothecary’s measure and coinage. (1) Apothecary’s weight. The name and the weight had long been adopted from the Byzantines by the Arabs before Islām. The Constantinian weight system founded by the Arabs in Syria and Egypt and left unaltered by them was as follows (the Arabic names are given beside the Latin): These seven denominations have survived apart from inevitable variations to the present day. The raṭl of this system of about 1/3rd kg., its 1/72nd part ¶ …

(στατήρ), a weight in the apothecary’s or troy system, taken over from the Greeks and usually estimated according to two different scales. On the one hand we find the equations: 1 istār = 6 dirham and 2 dānaḳ = 4 mit̲h̲ḳāl (an apothecary’s stater); on the other, we have 1 istār = 6½ dirham = 4½ mit̲h̲ḳāl (commercial istār in the East). The first equation will only be correct if the coined dirham and the mit̲h̲ḳāl maiyāl are taken ; the second equation is approximately correct only if we take the coined dirham and the old mit̲h̲ḳāl (gold dīnār) . In both cases the result is a much larger amoun…

1. A unit of the silver coinage in the Arab monetary system. The name (Gr. δραχμή, Pers.: diram) was in use from ancient times, while the coin to which it was applied was borrowed by the Arabs from the Persians. The derivation of the legal weight of the dirham is more difficult than that of the dīnār, as the dirhams were not struck very accurately. The definition of the legal dirham is very variously given by the historians, but all agree that the weight of the dirham was to that of the mit̲h̲ḳāl as 7:10. But si…

(στατήρ), a weight in the apothecary’s or troy System, taken over from the Greeks and usually estimated according to two different scales. On the one hand we find the equations: 1 istār = 6 dirham and 2 dānaḳ = 4 mit̲h̲ḳāl (an apothecary’s stater); on the other, we have 1 istār = 6½ dirham = 4½ mit̲h̲ḳāl (commercial istār in the East). The first equation will only be correct if the coined dirham and the mit̲h̲ḳāl maiyāl are taken . The second equation is approximately correct only if we take the coined dirham and the old mit̲h̲ḳāl (gold dinār) (2.97 × 6.5 = 19.3 = 4.24 × 4.5 = 19.125). In …

, a technical term in administrative law, the meaning of which is, act of counting, office of muḥtasib. The word then acquired the special meaning of police, and finally the police in charge of the markets and public morals. It is in this ¶ latter, the narrowest, meaning that ḥisba is used by those authors who deal with Muslim law (Māwardī, Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn, Maḳrīzī etc.), but there can be no doubt that ḥisba meant something more than the office of muḥtasib in the narrower sense. Occasional references in historians ( Dār al-Muhāsaba wa ’l-Mawārīt̲h̲ or wa ’l-Mawtā) show that ḥisba was the name of…

, from the Greek-Latin denarius (aureus) the name of the unit of gold currency of early Islām. Why the Arabs called the gold piece dīnār is not quite clear from Greek or Latin inscriptions or literary sources. Pliny once ( Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiii. § 13) calls the aureus denarius, and we frequently find the expression denarius aureus or δηνάριον χρυσοῦν, in the east as well as the equation δηνάριον = νόμισμα χρυσοῦν but the Arabic and Syriac name dīnār seems to point to the fact that in Syria the gold coin (after the reform of the currency by Constantine I. 309—319) was usua…

(t.), g̲h̲irs̲h̲ or ḳirs̲h̲ (a.), the name of the heavy silver coin of Turkey, translated by piastre in European languages. The Oriental nations borrowed this name from the Slavonic-German form of the word grossus (gros, grosso, groat, groš, Groschen). The national coin of the early Ottoman empire was the aḳča, a small silver piece, which had evolved from the half and third dirhem of Western Asia and weighted about 15 grains at the time of the foundation of the Ottoman empire but fell in weight very rapidly. The last aḳča’s, which were struck at the end of the xviith century, weighed only 2 …

, an Arab measure of capacity (dry measure) containing from 25—50 litres (5— 10 gallons). In the pre-Islāmic period the use of measures of capacity with dry and liquid wares was in general use, as is shown by the usually Arabic names for these measures in contrast to the measures of weight and their names borrowed from the Greeks and Romans. It has still long been the custom to measure these wares by their weight and not by their volume. East and west in this respect have undergone opposite deve…

or Fyndyḳly, the name of the old gold coin of Turkey, said to be derived from the pearl border, which was likened to grains of corn ( funduḳ) (Ismāʿīl G̲h̲ālib, Taḳwīm, p. 274). This name only came into general use when two different gold coins began to be struck. The Turkish gold coin that had been in use till then, usually called simply altyn based its weight on that of the ducat. Down to the conquest of Constantinople, European ducats, usually of Venetian origin and later Hungarian and Dutch ducats, circulated almost exclusively in the Ottoman dominions.…

, literally grain or kernel, a fraction in the Troy weight system of the Arabs, of undefined weight. Most Arab authors describe the ḥabba as 1/60 of the unit of weight adopted, as a 1/10 of the dānaḳ (which in Arab metrology is a sixth part of the unit, see i. 912b), but there are other estimates which vary from 1/48 to 1/12. The habba thus means something very different according to the unit of weight; there is a habba of the silver measure, a ḥabba of the gold measure, a habba of the mit̲h̲ḳāl, later of the dirham etc. On the supposition that …

(the seed of the carob-tree, Ceratonia Siliqua L.), synonymous with ḳīrāṭ. This term is frequently found on Egyptian glass weights ¶ of the first and second centuries a. h. usually to give the weight of a copper coin ( e.g. fals of 25, or 30 or 35 k̲h̲arrūba etc.). The weighing of well preserved glass weights gives an average weight of 0,196 gr. (3 grains) for the k̲h̲arrūba, i.e. rather more than a gold ḳīrāṭ. In Tunis the word was applied to a copper coin down to quite modern times. For further information see the article ḳīrāṭ. (E. v. Zambaur)

(from the Latin centenarius, cf. German Zentner and English hundredweight), an avoirdupois weight in the ancient Arab weight system mentioned as early as Ḳurʾān iii. 12, 68. Out of the wealth of tradition regarding the amount of this weight, we may select as the most usual and the one in keeping with its literal meaning, the equation I ḳinṭār = 100 raṭl, which however, is very indefinite. The term ḳinṭār is, following its use in the Ḳurʾān, chiefly applied to a considerable sum in gold coins (usually 10,000 dinars = 85 lbs.). On other weights ( wasḳ and kurr) see ḳafīz. (E. v. Zambaur) Bibliograph…

, a measure of capacity in local use and varying very much, whose size varies between ½ and 2 l. (or kg. = ¾ to 3½ pints). The term existed as early as the 3rd century a. h. (E. v. Zambaur) Bibliography (for the preceding article also): Sauvaire, Matériaux, im Journ. As., Series 8, viii. (1886), 126 sq. S. Lane Poole, Arabic Glass Weights in the British Museum, N°. 47, 51 Becker, Papyri Schott-Reinhardt, i. 31 and 72 al-Ṭabarī (ed. de Goeje), Glossarium, p. cdxxxiv and cdlxii Behrnauer, Institutions de Police chez les Arabes in the Journ. As., Series 5, xvi. (1860), 131 al-Ḵh̲wārizmī, Mafātīḥ al-ʿ…

(ξέστιΣ, sextarius, sétier, Sester etc), an Arab measure of capacity for fluids equal to about a pint. In the early period of Islām the use of measures of capacity seems to have been more general than in the later period for in the mounds of ruins in Egypt, we find numerous broken bottles with the official stamp indicating their capacity expressed in ḳisṭ’s. We get an idea of the volume from statements such as a ḳisṭ of oil weighs 18 ūḳīya, a ḳisṭ of wine 20, a ḳisṭ of honey 27; assuming a troy ounce of 27.288 grammes and taking into account the specific g…

(στατήρ), unité de poids du système des poids fins et des poids médicinaux, empruntée aux Grecs, et évaluée le plus souvent de deux façons différentes. D’un côté, nous trouvons les égalités: 1 istār = 6 dirhams et 2 dānaḳs = 4 mit̲h̲ḳāls (statère médicinal), d’autre part 1 istār -= 6 ½ dirhams = 4 ½ mit̲h̲ḳāls (istār commercial en Orient). La première égalité n’est juste que si nous supposons le dirham-monnaie et le mit̲h̲ḳāl mayyāl ; la deuxième égalité n’est approximativement exacte que si nous prenons pour base le dirham-monnaie et le vieux mit̲h̲ḳāl (dīnār d’or) (2,97 × 6,5 = 19,3 et…