Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.s2.t1.18

c19.s2.t1.18

⁵ The word dinár is from the Latin denarius (a silver coin worth 10 oz. of brass) through the Greek δηνάριον. It is a Kuránic word, the ancient Arabic equivalent being مثقال mithkál. The dinár sequin or ducat varied in value in different times. In Abu Hanifah's (the greatest of the four Sunni Jurisconsults) time (A.D. 749) its value ranged from 10 to 12 dirhams. Then from 20 to 25 dirhams or drachmas. As a weight it represented a drachma and a half. Though generally fluctuating, its value may be assessed at 9s. or 10 francs to half a sovereign. For an elaborate article on the Dinár see Yule's Cathay, II. 439; Burton's Alf Lailah, I. 32. The word Dirham is used in Arabic in the sense of "silver" (vulg. siller) the Greek δραχμή and the drachmana of Plautus. This silver piece was 9d. and as a weight 66½ grains. Sir Henry Elliot does not speak more at length of the dinár and the dirham than to say (History of India, I. 401) that they were introduced in Sindh in the reign of Abdul Malik (A.D. 685) and Elliot, VIII. 31) that the dinár was a Rúm and the dirham a Persian coin. The value of the dinár in modern Indian currency may be said to be Rs. 5 and that of the dirham nearly annas 4.