Mithqal

Mithqāl (Arabic: مثقال) is a unit of mass equal to 4.25 grams (0.137 ozt) 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]

Nikki mithqal

A gold coin minted in Nikki, Benin and known as the mithqal was in wide circulation in West Africa in the 18th century, particularly the Niger bend. It was useable in the trans-Saharan trade and coexisted with the use of cowries as shell money.[7]

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 Troy ounce
Mithqāl 1 19 3.642 0.117

Nakhud is a Baháʼí unit of mass used by Bahá'u'lláh.[8] The mithqāl had originally consisted of 24 nakhuds, but in the Bayán, the collective works of the Báb, this was reduced to 19.[9]

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, S2CID 161545754
  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. Green, Toby (2020). A Fistful of Shells. UK: Penguin Books. p. 325.
  8. Smith, Peter (2000). "Nakhud". A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith (illustrated, reprint ed.). Oxford: Oneworld Publications. p. 250. ISBN 1-85168-184-1. Retrieved 20 October 2020 – via Google Books.
  9. 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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