Mithqal

Mithqāl (Arabic: مثقال‎) is a unit of mass equal to 4.25 grams which is mostly used for measuring precious metals, such as gold, and other commodities, like saffron.

Gold dinar of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, minted at Damascus, Syria in AH 75 (697/698 CE), having a weight of almost 1 mithqāl (4.25 grams)

The name was also applied as an alternative term for the gold dinar, a coin that was used throughout much of the Islamic world from the 8th century onward and survived in parts of Africa until the 19th century.[1] The name of Mozambique's currency since 1980, the metical, is derived from mithqāl.[2]

Etymology

The word mithqāl (Arabic: مثقال‎; “weight, unit of weight”) comes from the Arabic thaqala (ثقل), meaning “to weigh”. Other variants of the unit in English include miskal (from Persian or Urdu مثقال; misqāl), mithkal, mitkal and mitqal.

Indian mithqaal

In India, the measurement is known as mithqaal. It contains 4 mashas and 3½ raties (rata'ii; مثقال).[3]

It is equivalent to 4.25 grams when measuring gold,[4] or 4.5 grams when measuring commodities.[5] It may be more or less than this.[6]

Conversion factors
Unit Mithqāl Gold dinar Dirham Gram Troy ounce Ounce Grain
Mithqāl 1 1 0.70 4.25 0.13664 0.14991 65.5875

The mithqāl in another more modern calculation is as follows:

Unit Mithqāl Nākhud Gram Ounce
Mithqāl 1 19 3.642 0.117

Nakhud is a Bahá'í unit of mass used by Bahá'u'lláh.[7] The mithqāl had originally consisted of 24 nakhuds, but in the Bayán, the collective works of the Báb, this was reduced to 19.[8]

See also

References
  1. Johnson, Marion (1968), "The Nineteenth-Century Gold 'Mithqal' in West and North Africa", The Journal of African History, Cambridge University Press, 9 (4): 547–569, doi:10.1017/s0021853700009038, ISSN 0021-8537, JSTOR 180144
  2. "Metical" in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa com Acordo Ortográfico. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003-2015. Accessed 1 April 2015. (in Portuguese)
  3. Quarterly Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society. Pakistan Historical Society. 1 January 2006. p. 86.
  4. "Assessing the Nisaab of bank notes". IslamWeb. 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2007.
  5. "M". Economic Glossary. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2007.
  6. "Glossary". The Clear Path. 2005. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2007.
  7. Smith, Peter (1 January 2000). A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baháí Faith. Oneworld. p. 250. ISBN 9781851681846.
  8. Honeyman, Nobel Augusto Perdu (5 May 2004). La relevancia de la pragmática en la traducción de textos multi-culturales: versión del Kitab-i-Aqdas (in Spanish). Universidad Almería. p. 508. ISBN 9788482406473.


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