Fulus and Paper-Money

From,”Mamluk Economics: A Study and Translation of Al-Maqrizi’s Ighatha”, Adel Allouche, pages 55-76.

From the Chapter: Currency [Islamic Currency], section four of the translation of Al-Maqrizi’s “Ighatha”;

“The third cause [of this situation (the many problems that be set the Circasian Mamluks of Egypt)] is the circulation of fulus. Know – may God grant you toward every good an easy path, and on every grace a sign and a guide – that has always been God’s custom toward His creatures and His continuous want from the Creation to the occurrence of of these events and the perpetration of the crimes that we have mentioned, in all corners of the earth and among every nation, that the currency that has been used to determine prices of goods and costs of labour consists only of gold and silver. [This is true of] the Persians, Byzantines, Israelites, Greek, Ancient Egyptians, even the Nabateans and the Tubba` who were the princelings of Yemen, the native Arabs and the Arabized. This continued following the rise of Islam among the various dynasties, which took it upon themselves to advocate its mission and to adhere to its law, including the Umayyads in Syria and in Spain, the Abbasid in the East, the `Alawis [or `Alids] in Tabaristan, the Maghrib, and the lands of Egypt, Syria and the Yemen. [This was also the case with] the Turkish dynasty of the Saljuqs, the state of Daylam, the Mongols in the Orient, and the Kurdish dynasty in Egypt, Syria and Diya Bakr, then under the Turkish rulers of Egypt. According to all reports, either valid or invalid, no nation or group of people is ever known to have paid for goods or remunerated for works in ancient or recent times in a currency other than that of gold and silver. In fact, it is said that the first to mint the dinar and dirham was Adam :as:, who said that life is not enjoyable without these two currencies. This was related by al-Hafiz ibn `Asakir (d. 571/1176) in his Tarikh Dimashq.

I shall narrate to you some reports in this regard to illustrate the veracity of what I have pointed out. I say – seeking the help of God my Lord, indeed He is the only Protector – know – may God increase your knowledge and grant you intelligence and comprehension – that the dirham was, and still is the currency of mankind at all times, so that it is said that the first to mint dinars and dirhams and make jewelry out of gold and silver was Faligh son of Ghabir son of Shalikh son of Arfakhshad son of Sam son of Noah, since whose time people have [always] used currency. The latest dirhams [of these ancient times] were of two types: the black of full weight and the old tabaris. These were the currencies of widest use. There are also dirhams called jawrafis.

The currency that was in circulation among the Arabs in pre-Islamic times consisted of gold and silver only. From other countries the Arabs received gold dinars, among which were the imperial dinars from the Byzantine empire, and silver dirhams of two types: black of full weight and old tabaris. The respective weights of the dinar and dirham in pre-Islamic times were double their weight in Islamic times. The mithqal was called either a dirham or a dinar. In pre-Islamic times neither was used as a currency by the inhabitants of Mecca, who adopted in their transactions the mithqal, a weight for the dirhams and dinars. They also used for buying and selling weights that they had adopted among themselves. These were the ratl, equivalent to twelve uqiyahs, and the uqiyah, equivalent to forty dirhams. Thus the ratl [of Mecca] would be equivalent to four hundred and eighty dirhams. Today in Egypt the ratl is equivalent to twelve uqiyahs, and one uqiyah is equivalent to twelve dirhams. Thus, one [Egyptian] ratl equals one hundred and fourty-four dirhams. One ratl of Damascus is now equivalent to twelve uqiyahs, and one uqiyah is fifty dirhams. Thus, one ratl is six hundred dirhams.

[In pre-Islamic Mecca] one nish (originally nisf [meaning half] of which the s has been transformed into sh and thus pronounced nish), which was one-half of one uqiyah, was equivalent to twenty dirhams, and one nawat was five dirhams. The dirhams were of two sorts: the tabaris, each weighing eight danaqs, although it was also said four; the baghlis, each weighing four danaqs, although it was also said [that they weighed] eight. The weight of the jawrafi dirham was four and a half danaqs, and that of the danaq was eight and two-fifths average unshelled habbahs [i.e., grains] of barley, of which the extremities had been cut. The baghli dirham was called “of full weight” and weighed the same as the dinar: this was the weight of the dirhams of Persia. As for the jawaz dirhams, each ten of them weighed three less than the baghlis, so that every seven baghlis would weigh ten jawaz dirhams. The dinar was called dinar because of its weight, but it was [also] a coin. The weight of every ten dirhams was six mithqals. The weight of one mithqal was twenty-two qirats minus one habbah, and it also weighed seventy-two habbahs of the [size] already mentioned.

It is said that [the weight of] has not varied since it was established, neither in pre-Islamic nor in Islamic times. It is also said that the one who invented weight in ancient times began by inventing the mithqal and made it [equivalent to the weight of] sixty habbahs, each habbah being the weight of one hundred grains of wild mustard seeds of average size. He made a weight equivalent to one hundred grains of mustard, then he made a weight equivalent to the first weight plus [another] one hundred grains [of mustard], then a third weight, until [he made] a weight equivalent to five weights [i.e., five hundred grains of mustard]. This [last] weight became the equivalent of one-twelfth of a mithaqal. He then doubled it for a weight of [one-sixth, then] one-third of a mithqal, then he composed [another multiple]: one-half of a mithqal, then one, five, ten mithqals, and [other] multiples. Accordingly, the weight of one mithqal would be six-thousand grains [of mustard]. The balance-type scales were used for weighing.

When God sent fourth His prophet Muhammad , [the Prophet] confirmed all these [weights] used by the inhabitants of Mecca and said: “The weight is that of Mecca,” and according to another version [he said]: “The weight is that of Medina.” The Messenger of God prescribed the zakat on money accordingly: for every five uqiyahs of pure unadulterated silver he imposed [zakat of] five dirhams, i.e., the equivalent of one nawat, and for every twenty dinars he imposed half a dinar.

This system was adopted without the slightest alteration by Abu Bakr (11-13/632-34) during his tenure as caliph, following [] the Messenger of God. When `Umar ibn al-Khattab became caliph, he kept the currencies as they were and did not alter them until the year 18/639-40, during the sixth year of his caliphate, when deputations came to him, among which one arrived from Basrah and included [among its members] al-Ahnaf ibn Qays. The latter spoke to `Umar about matters that concered the people of Basrah. `Umar dispatched Ma`qil ibn Yasar to Basrah, where he dug the Ma`qil river canal for the inhabitants, established the jarib, and imposed two Sasanian dirhams a month.

`Umar [ibn al-Khattab] issued dirhams after the Sasanian fashion and of the same shape but added on some of them “Praise be to God,” on others ‘The Messenger of God,” on others “There is no god but He alone,” and “`Umar” on others. The effigy [represented on the coin] was that of the [Sasanian] King, not that of `Umar. This caliph also set the weight of every ten dirhams at six mithqals. When `Uthman [ibn `Affan] (23-35/644-56) was invested with the caliphate, he issued dirhams on which was engraved “God is Great.”

When Mu`awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (41-60/661-80) [the first Umayyad caliph] held the reigns of power, he placed Basra and Kufah under the authority of Ziyad ibn Abih. The latter said to Mu`awiyah: “O Commander of the Faithful, the pious servant [of God] and Commander of the Faithful `Umar ibn al-Khattab reduced the [weight of the] dirham and increased the [volume of the] qafiz, which became the basis of the tax levied for the stipends of the army and upon which depended the subsistence of [their] offspring. He did all this in the spirit of generosity towards his subjects. If you establish a [weight] standard that will be less than that [of the dirham struck by `Umar], it will ease the conditions of the population further and increase your reputation for pious conduct.” Therefore, Mu`awiyah struck black dirhams, each weighing slightly less than six danaqs, i.e., fifteen qirats minus one or two habbahs. Ziyad [ibn Abih] struck dirhams accordingly. He ordered that they would be handled as if ten weighed seven mithqals and engraved on them [“In the name of God, my Lord.”] These were used as if they had the weight of dirhams. Mu`awiyah also struck dinars embossed with his effigy girt with a sword. A dinar of low quality fell into the hands of an old soldier. He brought it to Mu`awiyah, threw it in front of him, and said: “O Mu`awiyah, your coinage is the worst we have ever seen!” Mu`awiyah answered him: “I shall deprive you of your pay and clothe you with a camels blanket.”

When `Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (d. 73/692) assumed power in Mecca, he struck round dirhams. Indeed, he was the first to strike round dirhams. Previously, dirhams had been crude, without impression, and clipped. `Abd Allah made them round and engraved on one side “Muhammad is the Messenger of God” and on the other “God commands equity and justice.” His brother Mus`ab ibn al-Zubayr (d. 72/691) struck dirhams in Iraq and set [the weight] of every ten of them at seven mithqals and used them to pat the soldiery. When al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi (d. 95/714) arrived in Iraq [to administer it] on behalf of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (65-86/685-705), he said: “We must not retain anything that has been initiated by the hypocrite,” and changed the currency.

When `Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan consolidated his power following the execution of `Abd Allah and Mus`ab, the two sons of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, he enquired about the currency, weights, and measures and struck dinars and dirhams in the year 76/695-96. The cause of this was as follows: he used to begin his letters to the Byzantines with the heading: “Say: He is God the One,” along with mention of the name of the Prophet and the date. The king of the Byzantines wrote him, saying: “You have made such-and-such innovations. Renounce them! Otherwise we will engrave offensive inscriptions about your Prophet on our dinars.” `Abd al-Malik was troubled by this response. He spoke to Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mu`awiyah, who advised him to do away with Byzantine dinars, prohibit their use, and strike for the people dirhams and dinars on which there would be mention of God. Thus, `Abd al-Malik struck the dinar and the dirham: he set the weight of the dinar at twenty-two Syrian qirats minus one habbah, and that of the dirham at exactly fifteen qirats, one qirat being equal to four habbahs, and one danaq at two and a half qirats. He wrote to al-Hajjaj in Iraq and ordered him to mint them there. Al-Hajjaj struch the dirhams and had engraved on them: “Say: He is God the One,” and forbade anyone else to mint coins. When, therefore, a Jew by the name of Sumayr minted dirhams, al-Hajjaj placed him under arrest with the intention of putting him to death. Sumayr said to him: “The alloy of my dirhams is superior to yours, so why do you wish to out me to death?” However, al-Hajjaj still resolved on putting him to death. Thereupon, Sumayr devised standard weights for the people in the hope of being set free, but al-Hajjaj did not do so. Previously, people had no knowledge of standard weights, but weighed one dirham against another. Thus, after Sumayr devised standard weights, some people renounced the former practice. These dirhams reached Medina of the Messenger of God where a group of the Companions still lived. They objected to the engraving, because it included and effigy. In fact, Sa`id ibn al-Musayyib used them for buying and selling and found nothing defective about them.

During the reign of al-Thahir Barquq (784-801/ 1295-97), the Ustadar Mahmud ibn `Ali was entrusted with the supervision of the royal treasury…Among his evil deeds was a large increase of fulus: he dispatched [his men] to Europe to import copper and secured the mint for himself…Under his administration fulus were minted in the Cairo mint. He also opened a mint in Alexandria for the pupose of striking fulus. Extremely large quantities of fulus came into the hands of the people and they circulated so widely that they became the dominant currency in the country. [Silver] dirhams then became scarce…”