Uqiyyah

The uqiyyah (Arabic: أُوقِيَّة), sometimes spelled awqiyyah, is the name for a historical unit of weight that varies between regions, as listed below. 1 uqiyyah= 40 dirham. 1 dirham= 0.7 dinar.[citation needed]

It corresponds to the historical unit ounce and was defined in Iraq as one twelfth of a ratl[1] or in parts of Egypt as one eighth of a ratl.[2] As the ratl varied so did the uqiyyah as its part.

The same unit, pronounced okka (uqqa) in Turkish, was used in the Ottoman Empire until the early 20th century. The standard Istanbul okka equaled 128.3 g.

The ouguiya, the currency of Mauritania, takes its name from the Hassaniya Arabic pronunciation of uqiyyah.

References

  1. ^ Lane, Edward William (1863). Arabic–English Lexicon. Williams & Norgate, London 1863. p. 1102. entry رطل
  2. ^ al-Warrāq, al-Muẓaffar Ibn Naṣr Ibn Sayyār (2007-11-26). Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayy?r Al-Warr?q's Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook. BRILL. ISBN 9789004158672.

Wehr, Hans; J M.Cowan (1994). Arabic-English Dictionary. Urbana, IL: Spoken Language Services Inc. ISBN 0-87950-003-4.


Stub icon

This standards- or measurement-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.