Mithqal

Mithqāl (Arabic: مثقال, romanized: miṯqāl) 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.

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]

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

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]

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]

The mithqāl in another more modern calculation is as follows:

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]

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