The “mitkál” (or the weight of a “deenár”) is a dirhem and a half;—from 717୵16 to 72 English grains.
The “ukeeyeh,” or “wukeeyeh” (the ounce), is 12 dirhems, or the 12th part of a ratl;—from 571½ to 576 English grains.
The “ratl” (or pound), being 144 dirhems, or 12 ukeeyehs, is from 1 lb. 2 oz. 5ã dwt. to about 1 lb. 2 oz. 8 dwt., Troy; or from 15 oz. 10 dr. 221୵16 grains to nearly 15 oz. 13 dr., Avoirdupois.
The “ukkah,” or “wukkah,” is 400 dirhems (or 2 ratls and seven-ninths);—from 3 lb. 3 oz. 13¾ dwt. to 3 lb. 4 oz., Troy; or from 2 lb. 11 oz. 8 dr. 18¾ grains to about, or nearly, 2 lb. 12 oz., or 2 lb. and three-quarters, Avoirdupois.
The “kantár” (or hundred-weight, i.e. 100 ratls) is from 98 lb. minus 200 grains to about 98 lb. and three-quarters, Avoirdupois.
Moneys.
The pound sterling is now, and is likely to continue for some years, equivalent to 100 Egyptian piasters: it has risen, in two years, from 72 piasters; which was the rate of exchange for several preceding years.
A “faddah” is the smallest Egyptian coin. It is called, in the singular, “nuss” (a corruption of “nusf,” which signifies “half”) or “nuss faddah:” it is also called “meyyedee,” or “meiyedee” (an abbreviation of “mu-eiyadee”). These names were originally given to the half-dirhems which were coined in the reign of the Sultán El-Mu-eiyad, in the early part of the ninth century of the Flight, or of the fifteenth of our era. The Turks call it “párah.” The faddah is made of a mixture of silver and copper (its name signifies “silver”); and is the fortieth part of a piaster; consequently equivalent to six twenty-fifths, or nearly a quarter, of a farthing.
There are pieces of 5, 10, and 20 faddahs, “khamseh faddah,” “’asharah faddah,” and “’eshreen faddah” (so called for “khamset ansáf faddah,” etc.), or “kat’ah bi-khamseh,” “kat’ah bi-’asharah,” and “kat’ah bi-’eshreen” (i.e. “pieces of five,” etc.): the last is also called “nus kirsh” (or “half a piaster”). These pieces, which are equivalent respectively to a farthing and one-fifth, two farthings and two-fifths, and a penny and one-fifth, are of the same composition as the single faddahs.
The “kirsh,” or Egyptian piaster, has already been shown to be equivalent to the hundredth part of a pound sterling, or the fifth of a shilling; that is, two pence and two-fifths. It is of the same composition as the pieces above mentioned, and an inch and one-eighth in diameter. On one face it bears the Sultán’s cypher; and on the other, in Arabic, “duriba fee Misr” (“coined in Misr,” commonly called Masr, i.e. Cairo), with the date of the present Básha’s accession to the government below (1223 of the Flight, or 1808-9 of our era), and the year of his government in which it was coined above. The inscriptions of the other coins are almost exactly similar.