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VALIDATED
WEIGHT
BY AL-WALD
BY
GEORGE C. MILES
The American
Numismatic
Society
AT15TH
BROADWAY
STREET
NEWYORK
1939
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NUMISMATIC
NOTES
AND
MONOGRAPHS
Number
87
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1939BY
COPYRIGHT
NUMISMATIC
THEAMERICAN
SOCIETY
PRINTING
CO.
INTELLIGENCER
THE
PA.
LANCASTER,
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WEIGHT
A BYZANTINE
BY AL-WALD
VALIDATED
By George C. Miles
The namesof the UmayyadCaliphs 'Abd alivialikand hisson,al-Walld,areassociatednotonly
withthespreadof Islameast and westby forceof
ofthe
armsbutalso withtheinternal
development
state and the pursuitsof peace. 'Abd al-Malik
in
reforms
especiallyis creditedwith significant
and underal-Waldthesereforms
administration,
and extended.Two innovations
of
werecontinued
introduced
character
a nationalist
duringtheperiod
A. D.)
of'Abdal-Malik'srule(65-86A. H./685-705
the creationof a purelyArab
are well-known:
coinageto supplantthe imitativeByzantine-Arab
andSasanian-Arab
issues,and,evenmoreimportant,
the changeof the languagein whichthe state
werekept fromPersianand Greekand
registers
to
Coptic Arabic.
In the matterof the coinage,both historical
evidence(thatis, the
traditionand archaeological
that the recoins themselves)are in agreement
between75 and 77
formed
coinagewas introduced
A. H.; thereafter
theold makeshift
Byzantine
types
forthedinarandfaisin theWestand theadapted
Sasaniandirhamin theEast (exceptin Tabaristn)
wereabandoned. The changewas not a difficult
and Zoroastrian
theChristian
oneto effect:
insignia
with
the
imperialByzantineand Persian
together
and theareaoccupiedby
wereeliminated,
portraits
1
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
in the imitation
thesefigures
coinagewas utilized
while marginallegends
for Islamic inscriptions,
wereadded to recordthedate,and, in thecase of
the dirham
, the mintas well. The standardsand
remained
essentiallythe same. But the
weights
reform
in thediwanwas a farmorecomlinguistic
affair. The new order
plicatedand troublesome
overnight. Even in the
could not be introduced
whocouldwriteArabichad
greatcities,secretaries
to be trainedin thewholecomplexbusinessof adand the keepingof the state records
ministration
aboutwhichtheArabsknewverylittleat
(matters
that earlyperiod),whilein mostof the provinces
a foreign
Arabicwas stillvirtually
language. It is
orderedby 'Abd alnotsurprising
thatthereform
Malik and naivelyreportedby the historiansin
termsimplying
thatthechangewas an immediate
faitaccompli,was rathera gradualprocesscarried
on duringtherestofthatCaliph'slifeand brought
to completion
onlyin theyearsof al-Wald'sreign
715 A. D.), or, in some areas,
(86-96 A. H./705evenlater.1
1Theyear81A. H. is usually
as thedateof'Abdalgiven
inSyria
order
thechange
from
Malik's
Greek
toArabic
effecting
ed.deGoeje,
P.K.
al-Buldn,
(BalSdhuri,
Fut
pg.193=transi.,
TheOrigins
N.Y 1916,
Hitti,
oftheIslamic
State,
pg.301;Mal-Ahkm
Kitb
ed.Enger,
wardi,
Bonn,
1853,
al-Sulnyah,
pp.
Thechange
from
inal-'Irq
andthe
Persian
toArabic
349-350).
Aleastern
under
mayhavebeenearlier.
provinces
al-Hajjj
inhisKitbal-Wuzar'
wo'l-Kuttb
Jahshiyri
(ed.infacsimile,
Hansv. Mik,
Bibliothek
Arabischer
undGeographen,
Historiker
fol.17a)gives
a specific
the
date,78A.H.,while
1926,
Leipzig,
historians
itwith
other
donotdatetheevent
butconnect
exactly
ofthefamous
in82or83
thedeath
ZSdhSnfarrQkh,
secretary,
=*transi.,
Ibn-KhaldQn,
text,
(BalSdhuri,
pp.300-301
pp.465-466;
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
*X)'
plain Kufic characters:
AcjJj}' JJI
the
in slightly
rossthecenter,
letters,
inscriplarger
tion is completedwith the words:
'y*'
"In thenameofGod;
The legendcan be translated:
Muhammadis the Messengerof God; Equity is
God's. This is [a weight]of two ounceswhich
1Abdullhal-Wald,2Commander
of the Faithful,
in gramhas established."Thereare severalerrors
and relativepronounsdo
mar: the demonstrative
is in the
not agree in gender,the denomination
is
statement
the
and
faultyin
principal
wrongcase,
thattheverbshouldbe followed
by a personalproacceptable
noun,but the sentenceis nevertheless
of the
and thereis no questionof theauthenticity
of
the
or
epigraphy.Alcolloquialphraseology
llhu bl-wafiis found
Wafflllhi or amara1
quite commonlyon Umayyadcoppercoins and
is of coursetheoblique
glassweights.Wuqlyatayn
in
derivedfromtheGreekoyxa,
dual of wuqyah,
turnfromLatin uncia. The formqyah(*-*?)
and in modern
in dictionaries
is actuallypreferred
spelledwuqyah
speech,but thewordis invariably
on the glass weights,and thisformis givenas a
bylexicographers.3
colloquialalternate
'Abdullah,
isinthetrue
sense
asa title
borne
byalltheCaliphs,
canbenodoubt
ofGod."I think
thatthere
thatal"Servant
a little
more
foronly
than
a
Wald
II, whoruled
I, notal-Walid
inquestion.
The
A.H./743-744
A.D.)istheCaliph
year
(125-126
thecorrectness
ofthis
tend
below
should
tocorroborate
discussion
assumption.
*E. g.,Tjal-'arils,
X,pp.396-397.
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
Petrie'
s hypothetical
those
groupsofunciaweights,
of the aurei and solidiand of the Roman trade
standard,extendingfrom411-422grains(26.6327.34 grams).5 The presentweightsof similar
piecesofcircularformpublished
by PetrieforUniCollege,London,vary,whenreducedto the
versity
one unciaunit,from25.53to 27.73grams,a wide
due to errorand wear
rangewhichis moreprobably
than to a diversityof standards. Four circular
pieces(threeofone uncia, and one of three)in the
BritishMuseumpublishedby Dalton6show26.15
to 26.70gramsfortheunciaunit. Although
I have
chosenthecircularpiecesas comparative
material,
it is verydoubtful
thattheshapeoftheweightcan
be takenas a criterion
of basicstandard,sincethe
is the same on
styleof decorationand epigraphy
numerousByzantineuncia and nomismaweights
regardlessof shape,whichis sometimescircular,
sometimes
square,sometimes
polygonal.
With regardto the weightof the Umayyad
or qyawe havetwosourcesofinformawuqyah
tion: theaccountsofArabhistorians
whotouchedon
and the glass coin weightsthat have
metrology,
survivedand are preserved
in museumsor private
collections.The immensequantityof materialon
6Petrie,
Ancient
andMeasures,
Weights
pg.26andplates
XLVI,
LU.andL1II.
O. M. Dalton,
Christian
Catalogue
ofEarly
etc.,
Antiquities,
1901,
London,
pp.95-96(nos.460,464,465,478). No.478is
illustrated
andhasa profile
similar
totheweight
under
discussion.
ofByzantine
Other
illustrations
uncia(ungia)
ofthisform
areto
inPetrie,
befound
nos.5310,
XIV-XV,
op.cit.,
plates
notably
and5376,
andplateXVI,inthetray
oftheremarkably
5319,
boxofweights.
preserved
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
Arabmetrology
fromArabicsourcesgathered
years
a factwhichis in
demonstrated
ago byH. Sauvaire7
no way surprising,
that in the matterof weight
standardstherewas a greatdivergence
throughout
theagesand in different
partsoftheMuslimworld.
severalfactswhichconcernus arealmost
However,
agreedupon: in early timesthe rati
universally
{libra)was madeupoftwelvewuqyahs
(unciae)- so
also generally
today- and thewuqyah,
althoughit
variedenormously,
was moreoftenthan not the
or tendirhams.
equivalentof aboutsevenmithqals
was to themithql
as 7 is
The weightofthedirham
was equivalentto thelegal
to 10; and themithql
of2.97
dnr, i. e., 4.25grams.8The resultant
figure
gramsforthe dirhamagreesquite well withthe
and theglasscoinweights;
weightofactualdirhams
muchunder
butourtwo-wuqyah
pieceis obviously
weightifwe acceptthestandardof 1 wuqyah= 10
29.70grams. Also the
dirhams= approximately
ratiwas generally
1284/7dirhams
,9againtoo high
to theglassweights,
forthepresent
piece. Turning
whichshouldbe morereliable,Petriehasattempted
7Matriaux
etdela
Vhistoire
dela numismatique
servir
pour
7thand8thSeries.
musulmanes
, inJournal
mtrologie
Asiatique,
thewuqlyah
Vol.3,1884,
for
Seeespecially
,8thSeries,
pp.380-397,
andVol.4,pp.301-304.
8Sauvaire
wasmistaken
8thSeries,
Vol.3,pp.439-440)
(op.cit.,
oftheEgyptian
Commission
of
inaccepting
thedirham
weight
ofthecoin,
andthus
invalidated
astheweight
1845
(3.0898
grams)
intheEncyclopaedia
allofhiscalculations
of
(cf.E. vonZambaur
der
DieNominale
s.v.Dirham).
SeealsoE. v.Bergmann,
Isim,
in
der
derChalifen
Abdulmelik,
Sitzungsberichte
phil.Mnzreform
Vol.65,1870,
derK.Ak.derW/ss.,
hist.
Classe
Wien,
pp.239-266.
Vol.
307-316.
8th
Sauvaire,
op.cit., Series, 4,pp.
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
to show10
that,as withtheRomanunciaand Byzantine ungia, therewereseveralwuqyahstandards
influenced
by variouslocal metrological
heritages.
The onlypiecesthatshouldcomeintoconsideration
in the presentcase are the early,completely
preservedglassweights
markedwiththewordwuqyah
or its fractions.11
Whilethereare some amazing
in
the
oftheknownspecimens,
divergences
weights
it appearsthat the wuqyahunit was around31
grams(thereare too fewwell preserved
piecesto
warrantthequotingofa moreexactfigure).This,
as Petriepointsout, is farhigherthanthe usual
Roman uncia, but "therewas a speciallyheavy
in Egypt,influenced
variety
bybeingan octodrachm
of the Ptolemaicor Alexandrian
system."12Some
10SirFlinders
Glass
andWeights
School
Petrie,
Stamps
(British
ofArchaeology
inEgypt,
vol.40),London,
1926,
pg.13andplate
XXVI.Hiscalculations
areperhaps
toorefined,
the
considering
relative
ofmaterial
onthewuqyah,
scarcity
and
bearing
directly
inthewuqyah
thereferences
tables
areconfusing,
ifnotincorrect
insome
particulars.
Thefollowing
are
known
tome:Stanley
wuqyah
glass
weights
Lane-Poole,
Glass
intheBritish
MuCatalogue
ofArabic
Weights
nos.18,27G,
seum,
London,
8thSeries,
1891,
35;Sauvaire,
op.cit.,
Vol.3,pg.397(cf.E. T. Rogers,
Glass
asa Material
Standard
for
inNumismatic
Coin
Weights,
Chronicle,
1873,
pg.88);P.Casanova,
despices
de verre
...
de la collection
Catalogue
Fouquet
. . . delaMission
(Mmoires
auCaire,
Archologique
franaise
Vol.VI,3efascicule),
Paris,
1893,
pg.385(four
Petrie,
specimens);
andWeights,
Glass
nos.254-256;
andfour
Stamps
inthe
specimens
Museum
oftheAmerican
Numismatic
NewYork.I have
Society,
a note
notseen
a 20-wuqyah
inAnnales
de
describing
glass
weight
l'Institut
d'tudes
delaFacult
Orientales
desLettres
del'Universit
,Vol.Ill,pp.6-18.
d'Alger
12GlassStamps
andWeights,
ofwuqiyahs
p. 10. Therange
to Petrie's
calculations
is forthemost
according
partbetween
28Kand31K grams.
roughly
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
Arabicbronze(uninscribed
listedbutnot
?) weights
describedin fullby Petriefallintoa lowerrange
around26grams,
andthese,in hisopinion,
represent
a continuation
of the Romanuncia standard;but
theyare the exceptionratherthan the rule. It
appearsthenthat in generalthe Arabicwritten
authorities
and the glassweightsare in quite fair
that
and we mustdrawtheconclusion
conformity,
the wuqyahvalidatedby al-Waldas attestedby
Mr. Newell'sweightwas nottheouncerepresented
bytheglassweights.
aboutthedate
It remainsto makea fewremarks
of the weight
and probableplace of manufacture
underdiscussion.Mr. Newelldoesnotrecallwhere
the
he acquiredthepiece. Evenifthiswereknown,
werethesameas
inference
thattheplaceofpurchase
however
theplaceoforiginwouldnotbe justifiable,
theoriginal
provenance
plausible.In all probability
thereis no concluoftheweightis Egypt,although
sive evidencethat it may not have been Syria.
Weightsofthistypeareusuallyassignedto the5th
of theGreekcrossin
thepresence
or 6thCenturies;
an earlierdating. In thisparticular
itselfprecludes
whocaused
instanceit is unlikelythattheofficial
al-Wald'snameand orderto be inscribedwould
morethan,say,fifty
havechosena weight
yearsold;
we can thenpostulate
is correct,
ifthisassumption
date of
as theapproximate
themiddle7thCentury
ofthepiece. Or,ifit be objected
themanufacture
madebeforetheArab
thattheweightwas probably
in
635,
Egyptin 641),we mayat
conquest(Syria
as a
ofthe7thCentury
leastproposethefirst
quarter
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10
A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
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A BYZANTINE WEIGHT
11
of al-Kindi16
thattheorderwas givento
authority
in EgyptintoArabicin theyear
changetherecords
87, early in al-Walld'sreign. As elsewherethe
thepapyri
changewasaccomplished
onlygradually;
into
demonstrate
thattherewasofficial
bilingualism
the beginning
of the 2nd Centuryof the Hijrah.17
Arabicedictsdated87,91,and 101
ThereareGreekA. H., and Greekand Copticwereusedin theoutuntilmuchlater.
lyingprovinces
' Arabic
'
Thisweight,
then,withits 'nationalistic'
90
about
A. D.,
datable
A.
H.
/708-709
inscription,
a
is an interesting
and valuabledocument
reflecting
which
generaltendencyand the specificreforms
werebeingintroducedwhile the great Umayyad
level.
periodwasat itshighest
ibnark,
les
UnGouverneur
, Qorra
d'aprs
Omayyade
d'gyPle
desOmayyades,
arabes
surleSicle
, intudes
Beyrouth,
papyrus
1930,
pp.305-323.
16Ed.Rhuvon
E. J.
TheGovernors
andJudges
Guest,
ofEgypt,
Memorial
Vol.XIX,Leyden,
W.Gibb
1912,
Series,
pp.58-59.
17Becker,
Bjrkman,
Beitrge
op.cit.,
pp.27-29.Cf.Walther
zurGeschichte
imislamischen
derStaatskanzlei
Hamburg,
gypten,
1928,
pp.2-3.
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