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dirham

1

In Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, and Syria, 20ᵗʰ century, a unit of mass, approximately 3.205 grams. In Libya this value applies only to common items and drugs; for silver and silk, the dirham is approximately 3.0672 grams.

United Nations, 1966.

2

In Sudan , 20ᵗʰ century, a unit of mass, approximately 3.12 grams. Also romanized as dirhim.

United Nations, 1966.

sources

The dirhams of Persian mintage differed more or less. They used to coin a mithkâl weighing twenty carats [ḳîrâṭ] and another coin weighing twelve carats, and another coin of ten carats (i. e. half a mithḳâl) ; but when Allah brought Islam, and there was need, in order to pay the zakât, of making an average, they took twenty carats and twelve carats and ten carats; they found this [to amount to] forty-two carats. And so they made a coin weighing the third of this, i. e. fourteen carats. [Consequently] the Arab dirham weighs fourteen carats of the carats of the gold² dînâr, the weight of every ten dirhams being seven mithḳâls, i. e. one hundred and forty carats equalled seven [mithḳâls].

[on the authority of al-Ḥasn ibn-Ṣâliḥ]

Ten of some of the Persian dirhams weighed ten mithḳâls; of others ten weighed six mithḳâls; and of others ten weighed five mithḳâls. They added these together and found that it amounted to twenty-one mithḳâls. A third of this was taken, being seven mithḳâls. And [so] they struck dirhams, ten of which weighed seven mithḳâls.

The two accounts come to the same thing.

[“another authority”]

Francis Clark Murgotten.
The Origins of the Islamic State. Being a Translation from the Arabic accompanied with annotations geographic and historic notes of the
Kitâb Futûḥ Al-Buldân of
al-Imâm abu-l Abbâs Aḥmad ibn-Jâbir al-Balâdhuri.
Part II.
New York: Columbia University, 1924.
Page 262.

3

In India, ? – 19ᵗʰ century, a unit of mass, about 3.01 grams.

sources

Dirm, or Dirham, H. (A[rabic]. ) A silver coin, usually weighing from 45 to 50 grains, rather heavier than an English sixpence. As a weight, a dirham is considered to be equal to 3½ máshas, or 46½ grains. The dirm is also sometimes distinguished from the dirham, the latter being equal to ten of the former.

H. H. Wilson, 1855, page 143.