Economic Conditions, weights and measures

Makkah was thus the chief centre of business in Arabia and its citizens were prosperous and wealthy. The caravan of the Quraysh, involved in the battle of Badr while returning from Syria, consisted of a thousand camels and carried merchandise worth 50,000 dinars.

Both Byzantine and Sasanian currencies, known as dirham and dinar, were in general use in Makkah and other parts of the Peninsula. Dirham was of two kinds: one of it was an Iranian coin known to the Arabs bagliyah and sauda’-I-damiyah, and the other was a Byzantine coin (Greek-drachme) which was called tabriyah and bazantiniyah. These were silver coins and therefore instead of using them as units of coinage, the Arabs reckoned their values according to their weights. The standard weight of dirham, according to the doctors of lslamic Shari'ah, is equal to fifty-five grains of barley and ten dirhams are equivalent in weight to seven mithqals of gold. One mithqal of pure gold is, however, according to Ibn Khaldun, equal to the weight of seventy-two grains of barley. Doctors of law unanimously agree with the weight given by Ibn Khaldun.

The coins in current use during the time of the Prophet (r) were generally silver coins. 'Ata states that the coins in general use during the period were not gold but silver coins. (Ibn Abi Sha'iba, Vol. 3, p.222)

Dinar was a gold coin familiar to the Arabs as the Roman (Byzantine) coin in circulation in Syria and Hijaz during the pre-Islamic and early Islamic period. It was minted in Byzantium with the image and name of the Emperor impressed on it as stated by Ibn 'Abd-ul-Bar in the Al-Tamhid. Old Arabic manuscripts mention the Latin denarius aureus as the Byzantine coin (synonymous with the post-Constantine sol dus) which is stated to be the name of a coin still a unit of currency in Yugoslavia. The New Testament, too, mentions denarius at several places. Dinar was considered to have the average weight of one mithqal, which, as stated above, was equivalent to seventy-two grains of barley. It is generally believed that the weight standard of the dinar was maintained from the pre-Islamic days down to the 4th century of the Hijrah. Da'iratul Ma'arif Islamiyah says that the Byzantine denarius weighed 425 grams and hence, according to the Orientalist Zambawar, the mithqal of Makkah was also of 425 grams. The ratio of weight between dirham and dinar was 7:lO and the former weighed seven-tenths of a mithqal.

The par value of the dinar, deduced from the hadeeth, fiqah and historical literature, was equivalent to ten dirhams. 'Amr b. Shuyeb, as quoted in the Sunan Abu Dawud, relates: "The blood money during the time of the Prophet (r) was 800 dinars or 8,000 dirhams, which was followed by the companions of the Prophet (y), until the entire Muslim community unanimously agreed to retain it." The authentic ahadeeth fix the nisab or the amount of property upon which Zakat is due, in terms of dirham, at 20 dinars. This rule upheld by a consensus of the doctors of law goes to show that during the earlier period of Islamic era and even before it, a dinar was deemed to have a par value of ten dirhams or other coins equivalent to them.

Imam Malik says in the Muwatta that 'the accepted rule, without any difference of opinion, is that zakat is due on 20 dinars or 200 dirhams'. The weights and measures in general use in those days were Saa', mudd, ratal, ooqiyah and mithqal to which a few more were added latter on. The Arabs also possessed knowledge of arithmetic, for, it is evident, that the Qur'aan had relied on their ability to compute the shares of the legatees in promulgating the Islamic law of inheritance.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30