(2) Dīnār. [Sūrah iii. 68]: “There are those to whom, if thou entrust a dīnār, they will not restore it to thee.” It was the denarius, or a small gold coin.
(3) Dirham. [Sūrah xii. 20]: “And they sold him for a mean price, dirhams counted out.” A silver drachma. [[QINTAR], [DINAR], [DIRHAM], [WEIGHTS].]
Mr. Prinsep says: “The silver rupee (rupya, silver piece), now current in Muslim countries, was introduced, according to Abulfazel, by Sher Shah, who usurped the throne of Delhi from Humayoon in the year 1542. Previous to his time, the Arabic dirhim (silver drachma), the gold dinar (denarius auri), and the copper fuloos (follis), formed the currency of the Moghul dominions. Sher Shah’s rupee had on one side the Muḥammadan creed, on the other the emperor’s name and the date in Persian, both encircled in an annular Hindee inscription. Since ‘the same coin was revived and made more pure,’ in Akber’s reign, we may assume the original weight of the rupee, from Abulfazel’s statement, to have been 11¼ máshas. Akber’s square rupee, called from its inscription the jilály, was of the same weight and value. This coin was also called the chahár-yáree, from the four friends of the Prophet, Abubekr, Omar, Osman, Ali, whose names are inscribed on the margin. This rupee is supposed by the vulgar to have talismanic power.”
MONOGAMY. Although polygamy is sanctioned in the Qurʾān, the words, “and if ye fear that ye cannot be equitable, then only one” ([Sūrah iv. 3]), would seem to imply a leaning to monogamy, as the safest and most discreet form of matrimony. The author of the Ak͟hlāq-i-Jalālī says: “Excepting, indeed, in the case of kings, who marry to multiply offspring, and towards whom the wife has no alternative but obedience, plurality of wives is not defensible. Even in their case it were better to be cautious; for husband and wife are like heart and body, and like as one heart cannot supply life to two bodies, one man can hardly provide for the management of two homes.” (Thompson’s English Translation, p. 266.)
MONOPOLY. Arabic iḥtikār (احتكار). A monopoly of the necessaries of life (as, for example, the hoarding up of grain with the object of raising its price) is forbidden in Muḥammadan law. For the Prophet has said:—
“Whoever monopolizeth is a sinner.”
“Whosoever keepeth back grain forty days, in order to increase its price, is both a forsaker of God, and is forsaken of God.” (Mishkāt, book xii. ch. x.; Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 114.)
MONTH. Arabic shahr (شهر), pl. shuhūr. The months of the Muḥammadan year are lunar, and the first of the month is reckoned from the sunset immediately succeeding the appearance of the new moon (hilāl). The names of the months are: (1) Muḥarram محرّم; (2) Ṣafar صفر; (3) Rabīʿu ʾl-Awwal ربيع الاول; (4) Rabīʿu ʾl-Āk͟hir ربيع الاخر; (5) Jumādā ʾl-Ūlā جمادى الاولى; (6) Jumādā ʾl-Uk͟hrā جمادى الاخرى; (7) Rajab رجب; (8) Shaʿbān شعبان; (9) Ramaẓān رمضان; (10) Shawwāl شوّال; (11) Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah ذو القعدة; (12) Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah ذو الحجة.
Four of these months are held to be sacred, namely, Muḥarram, Rajab, Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, and according to the teaching of the Qurʾān ([Sūrah ix. 36]), it is not lawful for Muslims to fight during these months, except when they attack those “who join other gods with God, even as they attack you one and all.”
The names of the months seem to have been given at a time when the intercalary year was in force, although Muslim writers assume that the names were merely given to the months as they then stood at the time when they were so named. For a discussion of the formation of the Muḥammadan year, the reader is referred to that article. [[YEAR].]