Mithqal

Gold Dinar of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan minted at Damascus, Syria in AH 75 (= 697/98 CE) having weight of almost 1 mithqāl (4.25 grams).

Mithqāl (Arabic: مثقال‎‎) is a unit of mass equal to 4.25 grams and mostly used for precious metals (mostly for weighing gold and Saffron).

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

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

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

An Indian mithqāl contains 4 maashas and 3½ rata'ii.

"Mithqal" in another more modern calculation is as follows:

1 Mithqāl = 19 nākhuds

1 Mithqāl = 3.642 g = 0.117 oz

9 Mithqāls = 32.778 g = 1.054 oz

19 Mithqāls = 69.198 g = 2.225 oz

95 Mithqāls = 349.99 g = 11.125 oz

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. (Portuguese)

External links

Look up mithqal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.


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