Islamic Polyhedral Weights
Small commercial weights with polyhedral shapes (a.k.a. "multi-faceted" weights) are commonly found in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. The most common polyhedral weight denomination has mass about 14.7 grams and is called a "5-dirham" weight, which implies a dirham mass of c. 2.94 grams.
To the right: A small, 16-13 mm, polyhedral "5-dirham" weight of 14.75 grams (2.95 grams/dirham). This denomination often has 20 sides--two large hexagonal sides (shown face on) and 18 smaller sides in six diagonal rows of three (third photo. Or, you could think of the smaller sides as in three horizontal rows of six). This shape is common. On this example, one of the hexagonal sides has an Arabic legend, which is unusual. (Only a small fraction have any legend, but when they do it is usually the short word 'imrān, but we don't know what that word means). Sometimes ruler's names are on such weights from c. 940 AD to Saladin c. 1190 AD. I approached experts in Arabic palaeography, but they couldn't make this one out. (Some weights with legends that can be read are below.)
[All images are to scale. Click the images for enlargements of them.]
What's new? 2024, Dec. 16: A 2-dirham weight shaped like a truncated cube.
2024, Nov. 6: Two weights with legends.
2024, Oct. 22: A discoid 1-dinar weight.
2024, Sept. 14: Two "brick" shaped lighter weights, one weight on the dinar standard, and one barrel weight of uncertain culture and denomination.
Polyhedral 10-dirham weights are also common, sometimes with more sides, and tend to weigh about 29.4 grams. Other denominations, smaller or heavier, are much less common as polyhedra. There are polyhedral weights, of c. 59 grams ("20 dirhams") and even heavier, and there are lighter polyhedral weights including scarce "2-dirham" polyhedral weights of c. 5.9 grams and rare "1-dirham" polyhedral weights. Weights of 2 dirhams or less are very common--much more common than these--but usually they are small rectangular pieces of metal shaped like bricks, not like polyhedra.
A 10-dirham weight with two octagons and 18 smaller sides in six diagonal rows of three sides each.
29.47 grams. 17 mm between the octagons. 19 mm maximum. (2.947 grams/dirham)
Weights with legends. Polyhedral weights with legends are rare. Most "brick" weights do not thave legends, but some do. Holland (1986, p. 176) says that legends are (like coin devices) punched with an engraved die and therefore in relief.
A 2-dirham weight. Brick shaped.
5.70 grams (2.85 grams/dirham). 12.1 by 11.7 mm and 5.3 mm thick.
Two bird's eyes for two dirhams.
Four lines of legend:
In the name of God [la llah illa Allah]
Muhammad is the prophet of God [Mohammed rasul Allah]
Al-Qadir Billah (Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 991 to 1031)
Commander of the believers [Amir al-Mu’minin]
The first two lines are the usual two parts of the Kalima and the next two give the name and title of the caliph.
A 1-dirham weight.
2.88 grams. 9.7 by 9.7 mm and 4.1 mm thick.
One bird's eye and a three-line legend.
First line uncertain followed by
Sayf
al-Dawla ("Sword of the state" who ruled at Mosul 942-967.)
Islamic polygonal coin weights are common. Holland (1986) published a list of over 600 weights which were surface finds from the neighborhood of Caesarea Maritima (in Israel, on the coast north of Tel Aviv), most of which were lighter brick-shaped weights and 83 were polyhedral. That's just surface finds from one medium-sized city! Apparently, every medieval city in the region, which included Egypt, has weights in abundance. Until the last few decades locals just threw them away as having no value. Now some auction firms are selling them, but prices are very low. Holland wrote, in WWOCM, Chapter 8:
"Of all the different sorts of weights to be found at Caesarea Maritima, the Islamic bronze are by far the most numerous. I have examined more than two thousand, the great majority of them unmarked. The inscriptions on some of the weights (many more await decipherment) link them to the Fatimid rulers of Egypt. This would date them (roughly) to the XI – XIII centuries C.E.
"All of the weights fall (according to mass) into one or other of two series. One series is based on a unit of about 2.9 g. The unit of the other series is about 4.2 g. The two series of weights are therefore often referred to as the "dirham series" and "dinar series" respectively, even though during the period mentioned above (XI –XIII cent. C.E.), these mass-standards were no longer strictly applied to Islamic coinage. It is generally supposed that these weights were used for weighing precious metals --- bullion and/or coin. This supposition is based entirely on circumstantial evidence."
"Flinders Petrie, whose weights were acquired largely in Egypt, does not mention these small weights at all (His own remark, regarding weights in general, is that the fellahin who supplied him considered them worthless, and threw them away, until they were offered a reward --- after which he acquired more than five thousand specimens.)" [Note: This is about all weights, not just polygonal weights. Petrie's comments are from long ago--near the 1920s.]
More examples.
10-dirham weight with two octagons and 24 smaller nearly-square sides in eight vertical rows of three sides each. Each side is rounded making this weight almost a truncated sphere--a spheroid or "peeled orange."
"Bird's eye" pattern only in the octagons.
29.22 grams (2.92 grams/dirham). 13 mm between the octagons. 19 mm maximum.
Holland notes that all the "peeled orange" examples he has seen have octogons.
References: (In order of usefulness--not alphabetically by author.)
Goodwin, Tony. "Medieval Islamic Copper-Alloy Money Weights from Bilām d al-Sham" in INR 7 (2012) pages 167-180. 25 weights pictured throughout and 23 on plate 18. About half are these types of polyhedral weights.
[WWOCM] Holland, Lionel. WWOCM Chapter 8. "Islamic Bronze" 2009. [11 unnumbered pages. The best source I know of] Available on Academia.edu:
https://www.academia.edu/3596498/WWOCM_Ch_8_Islamic_Bronze
Holland, Lionel. "Islamic Bronze Weights from Caesarea Maritima," ANSMN 31 (1986) 171-201 and plates 33-36.
https://www.academia.edu/3542895/Islamic_Bronze_Weights_from_Caesarea_Maritima [Page 182 gives the numbers of each type]
(This artcle has photographs of 13 dirham weights and 4 dinar "discoid" weights shaped like these. In addtion, it has 4 (not truncated) cubes, 7 small discoid dinar weights, 5 small brick-shaped weights, and then 58 small brick-shaped weights with some inscription.)
Holland, Lionel. Weights and Weight-like Objects from Caesarea Maritima (WWOCM) 2009. Chapters 1, 2, 3. Available on Academia.edu:
https://www.academia.edu/3596231/Weights_and_Weight_like_Objects_from_Caesarea_Maritima_WWOCM_Chapters_1_2_3
Balog, Paul. "Islamic Bronze Weights from Egypt," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 1970, pp. 233-255, available on Jstor: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3595979 [27 images, mostly of barrel-shaped weights]
Hendin, David. Ancient Scale Weights. Hardcover. 239 pages. These polygonal Islamic weights on pages 225-229. [Almost all of his information cites Holland.]
On-line resources:
Rebsrock, Ulrich. "Weights and Measures in Islam," in Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-Western cultures. 2008, pages 2255-2267. Available at Academia.edu:
https://www.academia.edu/26399908/Weights_and_Measures_in_Islam?email_work_card=title
[No discussion of these polygonal weights. This is about the relationships between named units, not the physical artifacts. Most weights discussed theoretically are for dinars, that is, gold, not silver dirhams. The measures were different in different parts of the Islamic world. Maybe the locations and time-periods of these polygonal weights could be inferred if we knew the silver weight standards in various locations at various times.]
Bendall, Simon. Byzantine Weights: An Introduction. 68 pages. Paperback pamphlet. [This work does not consider Islamic polygonal weights]