[Footnote 8: Elmacin, who dates the first coinage A. H. 76,
A.D. 695, five or six years later than the Greek historians,
has compared the weight of the best or common gold dinar to
the drachm or dirhem of Egypt, (p. 77,) which may be equal
to two pennies (48 grains) of our Troy weight, (Hooper's
Inquiry into Ancient Measures, p. 24 - 36,) and equivalent
to eight shillings of our sterling money. From the same
Elmacin and the Arabian physicians, some dinars as high as
two dirhems, as low as half a dirhem, may be deduced. The
piece of silver was the dirhem, both in value and weight;
but an old, though fair coin, struck at Waset, A. H. 88, and
preserved in the Bodleian library, wants four grains of the
Cairo standard, (see the Modern Universal History, tom. i.
p. 548 of the French translation.)
Note: Up to this time the Arabs had used the Roman or the
Persian coins or had minted others which resembled them.
Nevertheless, it has been admitted of late years, that the
Arabians, before this epoch, had caused coin to be minted,
on which, preserving the Roman or the Persian dies, they
added Arabian names or inscriptions. Some of these exist in
different collections. We learn from Makrizi, an Arabian
author of great learning and judgment, that in the year 18
of the Hegira, under the caliphate of Omar, the Arabs had
coined money of this description. The same author informs
us that the caliph Abdalmalek caused coins to be struck
representing himself with a sword by his side. These types,
so contrary to the notions of the Arabs, were disapproved by
the most influential persons of the time, and the caliph
substituted for them, after the year 76 of the Hegira, the
Mahometan coins with which we are acquainted. Consult, on
the question of Arabic numismatics, the works of Adler, of
Fraehn, of Castiglione, and of Marsden, who have treated at
length this interesting point of historic antiquities. See,
also, in the Journal Asiatique, tom. ii. p. 257, et seq., a
paper of M. Silvestre de Sacy, entitled Des Monnaies des
Khalifes avant l'An 75 de l'Hegire. See, also the
translation of a German paper on the Arabic medals of the
Chosroes, by M. Fraehn. in the same Journal Asiatique tom.
iv. p. 331 - 347. St. Martin, vol. xii. p. 19 - M.]