The meaning and value of the legal dirham and dinar

The dirham and the dinar differ in value and weight in different regions, cities, and provinces.

The religious law has had occasion to refer to these (coins) and has mentioned them in connection with many laws concerning the charity tax, marriage (fees), fixed legal fines, and other things. Therefore, the religious law must have its own (dirham and dinar) with a specific value given to them by (the religious law itself) and agreeing with the intention of (the religious law).

These coins are then the ones to which the laws refer. They are different from the non-legal (coins).

Since the beginning of Islam and the time of the men around Muhammad and the men of the second generation, the legal dirham is by general consensus the one, ten of which are equal to seven mithqal of gold, and 1 ounce of gold is 40 dirhams.

Thus, the legal dirham is 7/10 of a dinar. A gold mithqal weighs 72 average-sized grains of wheat.

Consequently, the dirham, which is seven-tenths of a mithqal, has a weight of fifty and 2/5 grains.

All these values are accepted by general consensus. The pre-Islamic dirham was of several kinds. The best was the tabari, a dirham of eight danaqs, and the baghli, a dirham of four danags.

For the legal dirham, they took the mean, that is, 6 danaqs. The charity tax on 100 baghli dirhams or 100 tabari dirhams was fixed at 5 such “mean” dirhams.

People do not agree, however, that (the value of legal dirhams) was established (only) by ‘Abd-al-Malik and by general consensus later on, as we have reported and as was mentioned by al-Khattabi 577 in the Kitab Ma’alim as-sunan and by al-Mawardi in the Kitab al-Ahkam as-sultaniyah. 578 Thorough scholars of recent times do not think so, because it would imply that legal dirhams and dinars were not known in the time of the man around Muhammad and subsequently, even though legal tariffs such as the charity tax, marriage (fees), fixed legal fines, andother such things are based on them, as we have (just) mentioned.

The value of (legal dirhams and dinars) was known at the (earliest) times (of Islam) for the implementation of laws involving tariffs based on (legal dirhams and dinars), but their value was not individually specified outside. It was an internal custom of the Muslims, which had become accepted under the influence of the religious law, and which used a fixed value and weight for (dirhams and dinars).

The Muslim dynasty thereafter became great and flourishing. Conditions called for individual specification of the value and the weight of dirhams and dinars, in accordance with the religious law, in order to obviate the (constant) obligation to determine their value.

This (situation) developed in the days of ‘Abd-al-Malik. He specified the individual value of (the dinar and the dirham) outside (in real money), as it had been in theory.

On the coins, he engraved his name and date after the 2 confessions of faith:

“I confess there is no God but God” and “I confess that Muhammad is the Messenger of God”). ‘Abd-al-Malik withdrew the pre-Islamic coins altogether.

They were eventually purified (melted down) and (re-)engraved with a legend, so that (in their original form) they became non-existent. This is the inescapable truth.

Later on, officials of the mint in the various dynasties deliberately disregarded the legal value of dinar and dirham. Their value became different in the different regions.

The people reverted to a theoretical knowledge of (the legal dinar and dirham), as had been the case at the beginning of Islam.

The inhabitants of every region calculated the legal tariffs in their own coinage, according to the relationship that they knew existed between the (actual) value of (dirhams and dinars in their coinage) and the legal value.

The weight (in gold) of the dinar is seventy-two averagesized grains of wheat.

This is reported by thorough scholars and is the general consensus from which only Ibn Hazm deviates. Ibn Hazm thought that the weight of the dinar is 84 grains.

This was reported as Ibn Hazm’s opinion by Judge ‘Abd-al-Haqq. 580 Thorough scholars have refuted (Ibn Hazm’s opinion). They considered it an unfounded assumption or an error, and rightly so. “God causes the truth to come true in His words.”

The legal ounce is not the one which is commonly used among the people. This is because the commonly-used ounce differs according to the various regions, while the legal ounce is a theoretical unit which admits of no differences.