Made in Arabic
carat
القِيراط
Small glass weights stamped with Arabic in Kufic script, used to test the weight of dinars and dirhams – glass cannot be filed down or faked. This one weighs a mithqal, the weight of a gold dinar. The qīrāṭ was a small fraction of the mithqal, at root the Greek word for a carob seed; Europe took it from Arabic as carat, the weight of gems, and karat, the fineness of gold.
- Instrument
- a glass coin weight, Egypt, about 808–810
- Written on it in Arabic
- In the centre: «weight of a dinar, full»; round the edge: «of what the amir al-Hasan ibn Bahbah ordered», governor of Egypt (translation Stefan Heidemann, 2011, on the Met's record).
The path between languageskeration → qīrāṭ → carat
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ملكٌ عامّ
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