Open Mithqal Dirham/Dinar System

             presented by Prof. Tariq Kahn

Man and metals Process Metallurgy is one of the oldest

applied sciences. Its history can be traced back to 6000 BC. Admittedly, its form at that time was rudimentary, but, to gain a perspective in Process Metallurgy, it is worthwhile to spend a little time studying the initiation of mankind's association with metals.

Currently there are 86 known metals. Before the 19th century only 24 of these metals had been discovered and, of these 24 metals, 12 were discovered in the 18th century. Therefore, from the discovery of the first metals - gold and copper until the end of the 17th century, some 7700 years, only 12 metals were known.

Four of these metals, arsenic, antimony , zinc and bismuth , were discovered in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, while platinum was discovered in the 16th century. The other seven metals, known as the Metals of Antiquity, were the metals upon which ancient civilisation was based.

These seven metals were: (1) Gold (ca) 6000BC (2) Copper,(ca) 4200BC (3) Silver,(ca) 4000BC (4) Lead, (ca) 3500BC (5) Tin, (ca) 1750BC (6) Iron,smelted, (ca) 1500BC (7) Mercury, (ca) 750BC

These metals were known to the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and the Romans. Of the seven metals, five can be found in their native states, e.g., gold, silver, copper, iron (from meteors) and mercury. However, the occurrence of these metals was not abundant and the first two metals to be used widely were gold and copper. And, of course, the history of metals is closely linked to that of coins and gemstones

Thus we find the first problem in process metallurgy : The metal deposit must be identified. In the case of the first metals color was the most important factor as it allowed the metal to be recognized in surrounding rock, stones, gravel and dirt (gangue) and separated. Clearly, after recognition, separation is next problem followed by concentration.

These three steps are very important and the economics of these steps usually define whether it is viable to produce the metal from a set deposit. In the early days all three steps were carried out simultaneously. Gold is widely dispersed throughout the earths crust (0.005 ppm) at a very small level, therefore, it is very important to find naturally occurring concentrations. The scarcity of gold and its value, due to mankinds fascination with its color, have lead to gold being the one of the more important metals in daily life alongside silver, which was often associated with it.

The karat scale

Gold Quality: Gold's purity is measured in karats. The

term "karat" harks back to the ancient bazaars where "carob" beans were used to weigh precious metals. 24 karat is pure gold, but its purity means it is more expensive and less durable than gold that is alloyed with other metals. Different alloys are used in jewelry for greater strength, durability and color range.

The karatage of the jewelry will tell you what percentage of gold it contains: 24 karat is 100 percent, 18 karat is 75 percent, and 14 karat is 58 percent gold. When comparing gold jewelry, the higher the number of karats, the greater the value.

Thus 1 karat = 4.16% of Gold Karat is therefore a measure of purity,

not weight, although there is a obvious relation.

Silver Although silver was found freely in nature, its

occurrence was rare. Silver is the most chemically active of the noble metals, is harder than gold but softer than copper. It ranks second in ductility and malleability to gold. It is normally stable in pure air and water but tarnishes when exposed to ozone, hydrogen sulfide or sulfur. Due to its softness, pure silver was used for ornaments, jewelry and as a measure of wealth. In a manner similar to gold, native silver can easily be formed. Silver's symbol is Ag from the latin argentum.

Another development in metal processing was the discovery that if bone ash was added to lead oxide, the lead oxide would be adsorbed and a large amount of material containing silver could be processed. By 2500 BC the cupellation process was the normal mode of silver manufacture.

Ancient African Kindoms and Gold and Silver trade Ibn al-Faquh, an Iranian scholar compiling material for an encyclopedia

of the Muslim world, wrote the following CE. 900: “It is said that beyond the source of the Nile is darkness and beyond

the darkness are waters, which make the gold grow…to the town of Ghana is a three months’ journey through deserts”.

Al-Bakri, a historian in Cardob3, later used travelers’ and traders’ reports to describe the Kingdom of Ghana in his Book of Roads and Kingdoms, CE 1068. He wrote:

“Ghana…is a title given to their kings; the name of the region in Awkar, and their present king, who came to the throne in 1063, is Tunka Manin. He rules an enormous kingdom, and has great power…When he calls up his army he can put 200,000 men in the field, more than 40,000 of them archers” (Davidson, 1984,p. 90).

MITKAL

Also romanized as mitgal and mithkal. From pre-Islamic times to the present, an Arabic unit of mass for gold and precious stones.

In Africa, 13th – 20th centuries, the principal unit of mass in the trade in gold dust between West and North Africa, = 1/6th of the North African trade ounce, about 4.5 grams. The trade ounce was descended from the Roman ounce, which had been similarly divided into 6 sextarii.

According to Garrard (1980),  the eastern part of the Akan area, in what is now Ghana, tended to use a weight series based on this mitkal, while to the west, in present-day Ivory Coast, a series based on the trade ounce was more common. He explains the difference by the difference in predominant trade items: Ghana produced more gold dust, while the future Ivoriens traded ivory and other more massive items.

 

In North Africa and the Sahel, for coined gold the mitkal (or dinar) was reckoned at 6 2/3 mitkals to the ounce, so the mitkal was about 4.5 grams.

In Mande, a language often used in trade in West Africa, the word was metikale.

In the Sudan, a unit of mass = 40 habba. The mitgal equals 40 habba of gold, and the kirat 10 habba (i.e., 1 mitgal = 4 kirats), One mitqal is thus about= 1½ dirhem, about 4.4 to 4.68 grams (72.22 grains –of barley cut to uncut)

In the Umdatus Salik ala Madhab Imam Shafi’I, Imam Nawawi is related on Zakaat.

Imam Nawawi states the amount for Zakaat Nisab, interestingly, related to the Mithqal and not the dinar, and relates the dirham to the mithqal.

He says: Wa nisabu al-dhahabi ashroona

mithqallan wa zakaatu nasf mithqallin. “the nisaab for zakaat on Gold is 20

mithqals and the zakaat payable is ½ a mithqal”

Again when it comes to silver, he says: Wa zakaatu hamsatu dirhama “the zakaat on nisab of silver is 5

dirhams.”

In the Umdatus Salik ala Madhab Imam Malik, Imam AbulHasan Shadhili says:

“ fa nisaabi adh-dhahabi ashroona dinaran”

Here clearly, even in the textual usage the dinar is estblished as ONE mithqal between the comparison of the texts of the Maliki’s and the Shafi’is

Thus historically the two terms have been used interchangebly, the dinar refering to currency, and the mithqal to the weight factor.

The weight and the measure is crucial to the establishment of the currency of the Muslims as this affects the honesty of trade and exchange, as well as the matter of nisaab in Zakaat.

Now we know the traditional rate of equivalence according to the Sharia rulings in all the classical deductions, is

10 dirhams = 1 dinar Thus according to the nisaab ruling of

0.5 mithqal = 5 dirhams verifies the 10 x ruling in terms of nisaab equivalence.

NOTE the difference. The weight ratio is 1 ½ dirham by

weight = 1 mithqal (dinar) by weight. This is weight NOT value! The exchange rate is determined by

the nisaab ruling during the classical period of 0.5 mithqal = 5 dirhams in VALUE. The metals have different value.

It leads us however to a tricky problem. We the Muslims are NO LONGER IN CHARGE OF THE CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE FOR GOLD AND SILVER! Thus we have to start somewhere in the process where we can cost effectively return to the sunnah currency, as silver is undervalued at times by 72 times below gold.

This setting of the GOLD price, in London, known as the London FIXING, traditionally by a Rothchild, shows clearly how the Judification of value and the transvaluation of values have occurred on a global scale.

The London fixing, or any gold valuation based in London and attached to this terror mechanism SHOULD BE REJECTED by Muslims working towards the estblishment of bi-metal currencies.

The best option to start the minting of OPEN SOURCE currency, would then be to make use of the low value of SILVER, and to start minting our REAL SHARIA COMPLIANT CURRENCY, in Dirhams, based of the weight factors described above.

72 grains of barley, have been found to accord, statistically, to about 4.4 -4.5 grams,

Making the minimum nisab at around 88 to 90grams of gold.

The general ruling in Sharia is to be precautious, not stingy.

On the mithqal equivalency by WEIGHT, the nisaab for SILVER DIRHAM or otherwise, is then determined as 587 to 600 grams of silver. This allows a weight factor variation of 2.93 to 3.01grams to the coin. Again the higher the better in terms of being open handed rather than closed fisted.

Coin Forgeries Very difficult traditionally unless pure

gold is not the object under discussion, and very expensive even today, when rare metals, such as tantallum in alloys prove unstable.

If electrum and white gold is in use, then of course the nature of the forgery is enhanced. Similarly with silver, unless pure silver is used.

Typical forged coin vs real (left)

a fake "Gold coin" dating from 1775, made of a ternary alloy Au (30%), Ag (21%), Cu (49%) and gilded by mercury process. The selection of such a costly alloy was observed and it is shown that this derives neither from technical imperatives, nor from cost considerations. The cost of these forgeries was in that time a useless financial exercise and was quickly halted.

Development of an locally reproducible industrial process for minting an Open Mithqal standard type intrinsic value coin

This part of the presentation introduces a technology for localized minting of intrinsic value bimetallic coins. The main objective of this work is to present the theoretical and experimental results obtained during the development of the process, which are essential for producing this type of coin.

The theoretical analysis was based on the utilization of the finite-element method to characterize metal movement, to establish the process sequence and related disk geometries, and to design an appropriate geometry for the mechanical parts. The practical implementation was based on a low cost mechanical press and the blanking modules, press and dies were re-engineered to achieve the overall objective.

Experiments consisted on the coinage of several prototypes in copper in order to confirm the theoretical predictions and to validate the proposed technology, which latter can be seen as an alternative to the existing coin technology based on centralized mints and mass production in large centers away from the users of the prospective coins.

Suggestions by Ahmad Adjie The Open Mithqal Standard will have a guidance for physical

looks of the coins. Currently what we have as an advisory is: Coins must show: mint name, year struck, weight in ty oz pure

gold/silver - - - in the commonly used calendar, language and script of the community which the mint/guarantor/authority is situated and where the coins will be used - - - e.g. in English saying INM Cape Town, 2011, 1/10 oz or 3 gram fine silver.

Coins may additionally show: weight in mithqal/dirham, guarantor/authority, date struck - - - in any calendar, language and script of choice - - - e.g. in Japanese saying the japanese date, 3.5 mithqal, Abdullah Ibrahim Yamasaki

Coins may additionally show: Month and/or Date struck - - - in the common language and calendar.

It is highly recommended for prudent quality control for the coins to show a batch number/code and/or design that can be traced back to the original dates of production and logged manufacturing notes that is safely kept within each mint under the full access and knowledge of the authority/guarantor and shall be open to the public.

Any bas-relief or design of the obverse and reverse of the coins can be used by each mint, following any principle the mint uses. The art of the Muslims of the world depicting inanimately-referring forms is highly recommended. However, the first batch of each independent mint/authority must be as economically feasible and efficient for the first strikings so much so that the designs can be made simpler e.g. for the first 1,000 coins.

Any edge serrations may be used as well as edge reliefs added for thicker coins, blank is also acceptable, however, a raised ring edge is highly recommended (though not a must) protecting the center's obverse and reverse reliefs.

WIM (Wakala or World Islamic Mint) WIM was instituted by Umar Vadilo and

currently produce coins in the UAE for world distribution. The costs of the coins are however heavily influence by handling and surcharges altering the price by 25% in cases.

In my opinion this is untennable, and makes the coin a commemorative medallion.

Open Source and Free MINTS

Islamic Mint Nusantra, founded by Ahmad Adjie and Abbas Firman have been producing good quality coins and consistent low manufacturing costs.

The free Mint of Amir Abullah in the United States was another early mint that operated on a silver dirham standard, albeit a 10 dirham version.

We have successfully completed the Cape Town Mint, with the hard work and incredible perseverance of Amir Muhamad Abrahams, and with the input of Sidi Abdurahman Phillips, a jeweler of renown in the Cape.

All the details will be made availble as open source for any Amirate that may want to copy this design and mint dirhams and dinars, following the guidelines that we will provide.

Thank you Any questions?