^{page 423 note 1} Fihris Dār al-Kutub al-'Arabiya, A.H. 1308, v., p. 390.Google Scholar

^{page 423 note 2} , as-Sam'ānī, , Kitāb al-Ansāb, London, 1912, p. 241Google Scholar; cf. as-Suyūtī, , Lubb al-Lubāb, 1840, p. 112Google Scholar. For the problem of the acquiring of professional names by the Arabs, see Kremer, , Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen, Vienna, 1875–1877, ii, p. 185.Google Scholar

^{page 423 note 3} The Makers of Chemistry, Oxford, 1931, p. 77.Google Scholar

^{page 423 note 4} Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Leyden, 1937–1942, ii, p. 356.Google Scholar

^{page 423 note 5} al-Malik al-Kāmil Nāṣir ad-Dīn Abu 'l-Ma'ālī Muḥammad ruled Egypt from 7 Jumādā II, 615Google Scholar, till 22 Rajab, 635. Cf. Zambaur, , Manuel de généalogie et de chronologic pour l'histoire de l'Islam, Hanover, 1927, i, p. 97.Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 1} Ibn Ba'ra distinguishes two kinds of dirhams: nuqra and waraq (for the spelling of waraq, cf. note 6 in Ziyāda's edition of Maqrīzī', s Kitāb as-sulūk li-ma'rifat duwal al-mulūk, Cairo, 1936, i, p. 506)Google Scholar. While the former were produced of pure silver, the latter were made of an alloy of base quality. The waraq dirhams, obviously destined for the internal Egyptian market, to meet the needs of the local retail trade, were in circulation in Cairo and Alexandria. Cf. Maqrīzī, , Shu ūr al-'Uqūd, ed. L. A. Mayer, Alexandria, 1933, p. 12.Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 2} One of the essential requirements in this respect is the ascertaining of the specific gravities (indicating the standard of fineness) of Egyptian dinars issued in the period extending from the accession of al-Āmir (A.D. 1101) down to the death of al-Kāmil (A.D. 1238).

^{page 425 note 3} Dinars struck by al-Āmir. cf. Sauvaire, , ‘Matériaux pour servir à l'histoire de la numismatique et de la métrologie musulmane’, JA., xv, 1880, p. 425.Google Scholar

^{page 425 note 4} :—fo. 3r

^{page 426 note 1} MS.

^{page 426 note 2} MS.

^{page 426 note 3} MS.

^{page 426 note 4} For gold imports from Marib, see Kremer, , Culturgeschichte, i, p. 355.Google Scholar

^{page 426 note 5} cf. Abu, ‘l-Fidā’ (transl. Reinaud, M.), Géagraphie, Paris, 1848, ii, p. 220Google Scholar. Also, Description de l'Afrique septentrionale par el-Bekri, ed. De Slane, , Paris, 1911, p. 177Google Scholar; French transl. by de Slane, , Paris, 1913, p. 331.Google Scholar

^{page 426 note 6} Named after the Muwaḥḥid ruler ibn, Ya'qūb ibn Yusuf ‘Abd al-Mū’minGoogle Scholar (A.H. 558–580/A.D. 1163–1184). Cf. dinars, ya'qūbiyaGoogle Scholar, Sauvaire, , op. cit., JA., xix, 1882, p. 68.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 1} cf. Floyer, E. A., ‘The mines of the Northern Etbai or of the Northern Æthiopia’, JRAS., 1892, pp. 811 ffGoogle Scholar. For gold in Wādī 'Allaqī, see Ya'qūbī, (transl. Wiet, G.), Les Pays, Cairo, 1937, p. 190Google Scholar, and note 1 on that page. Also de Villard, Monneret, Storia della Nubia cristiana, Rome, 1938, p. 109.Google Scholar Its mines were well known to ancient writers, cf. Sabatier, , Production de l'or, de l'argent et du cuivre chez les anciens…, St. Petersburg, 1850, p. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 2} cf. Ḥudūd al-Ālam, tr. Minorsky, V., London, 1937, p. 81Google Scholar: ‘Other sands are those east of which are the Gulfs of Barbar and Ayla; south of them, the desert of Buja; west of them, the countries of Nubia and Egypt; north of them, the Qulzum Gulf. These sands are called Sands of the Mines (Ma'dan) because there is much gold, and much gold is (actually) found there’. For methods employed for recovering that gold see Idrīsī, , Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, ed. Dozy, R. et de Goeje, , Leyden, 1866, p. 31/32Google Scholar. A similar account can be found with a medieval Chinese traveller Ch'ang Te, who writes: ‘…the kingdom of Mi-Si-Ra, a very rich country. There is gold in the ground. In the night at some places a brightness can be seen. The people mark it with a feather and a charcoal. When digging in the daytime pieces as large as a jujube are brought to light’. Apud Bretschneider, , Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, London, 1910, i, pp. 141–2.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 3} Kitāb al-jamāhir fī ma'rifat al-jawāhir, ed. A.H. 1355, p. 240Google Scholar:—

^{page 427 note 4} cf. Ḥudūd al-'Ālam, p. 69Google Scholar: ‘Jabal al-Qamar possesses mines of silver and gold, and the river conies out of it’. Birūnī, , op. cit., pp. 240–1Google Scholar, states that the current of the Nile carried pellets of gold:— Also ad-Dimiqī:— (Nu bat ad-dahr fī 'ajā'ib al-barr wal-baḥr, ed. Mehren, , St. Petersburg, 1866, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1923, p. 112).Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 5} A similar description of the formation of gold from silver can be found in Dimiqī, op. cit., p. 51Google Scholar. An exponent of this theory was another 13th-century chemist al-'Irāqī, cf. Sarton, G., Introduction to the History of Science, vol. ii, part 2, p. 1045.Google Scholar

^{page 427 note 6} Fo. 3v:—

^{page 427 note 7} Terms such as ahabī. fiḍḍī, or nuḥasī were used not only with reference to colours, but as an indication of alloys. Cf. Ruska, J., Ar-Rāzī's Buck Geheimniss der Geheimnisse Berlin, 1937, p. 43.Google Scholar

^{page 428 note 1}

^{page 428 note 2} Fo. 3v:—

^{page 428 note 3}

^{page 428 note 4}

^{page 428 note 5} cf. Holmyard, E. J., ‘Maslama al-Majriti and the Rutbatu'l Hakim’, Isis, vi, 1924, pp. 304–5.Google Scholar

^{page 428 note 6} cf. Ja'far ibn 'Alī ad-Dimaqī, Al-i arah īlā maḥāsin at-tijāra, ed. A.H. 1318, p. 8Google Scholar. Also Ritter, H., ‘Ein arabisches Handbuch der Handelswissenschaft’, Der Islam, vii, 1917, p. 37Google Scholar. Also Mammātī, ibn, Kitāb Qawānīn ad-dawāwīn, Cairo, 1943, p. 332Google Scholar. Also Wuestenfeld, F., Die Geographie und Verwaltung von Ägypten, Göttingen, 1879, p. 165, note.Google Scholar

^{page 428 note 7} For the meaning of sīm as gold, see al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ, xii, p. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 1} The text reads (fo. 6v) which I take as code-name for copper, cf. Siggel, , Decknamen in der arabischen alchemistischen Literatur, Berlin, 1949, p. 35.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 2} cf. Holmyard, E. J., ‘Maslama al-Majriti and the Rutbatu'l Hakim, Isis, vi, 1924, p. 304Google Scholar; also idem, The Makers of Chemistry, p. 79.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 3} cf. E. Wiedemann, ‘Zur Chemie bei den Arabern’, Beiträge, xxiv, 43, 1911, p. 102. Also J. Ruska (transl.), Al-Razi's Buck Geheimniss der Geheimnisse, Berlin, 1937, p. 65.

^{page 429 note 4} Ibn Ba'ra says on fo. 6v: cf. the statement by ad-Dimishqī: ([sic] ṭal'am) (Nukhbat ad-dahr fī ‘ajā’ib al-barr wal-baḥr ed. cit., p. 51Google Scholar. Such rendering of the meaning of the word ṭal am may be the answer to the difficulty faced by Cl. Cahen in connexion with the appearance of that term in his ‘Documents relatifs à quelques techniques iraquiennes au début du onzième siècle’, Ars Islamica, xv–xvi, 1951, pp. 23 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 5} cf. Beiträge, xxiii, 42, 1910, p. 322.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 6} cf. JA., xvii, 1861, pp. 34–5.Google Scholar

^{page 429 note 7} 'Abd ar-Raḥmān b. Naṣr a-ayzarī, Kitāb nihāyat ar-rutba fi ṭalab al-ḥisba, ed. al-'Arīnī, al-Bāz, Cairo, 1946, p. 79, note 1.Google Scholar

^{page 430 note 1} Similar regulation can be found in 14th-century text of Ibn al-Uuwwa, which is an abbreviation of the preceding book, except that the term ḥabaq is intentionally left out:

(Ma'alim al-qurba, ed. Levy, R., London, 1938, p. 148).Google Scholar

^{page 430 note 2} MS.

^{page 430 note 3} MS.

^{page 430 note 4} MS.

^{page 430 note 5} MS.

^{page 430 note 6} MS.

^{page 430 note 7} MS.

^{page 430 note 8} MS.

^{page 430 note 9} MS.

^{page 430 note 10} MS.

^{page 431 note 1} MS.

^{page 431 note 2} MS.

^{page 431 note 3} MS.

^{page 431 note 4} As Muslim weights and measures varied from town to town, and from one period to another, it is impossible to establish what and represented in Cairo during ibn Ba'ra's lifetime. H. Sauvaire mentions a great number of different types of ratḷ (op. cit., JA., Sér. viii, 4, 1884, pp. 210–240).Google Scholar He calculates the legal raṭl at 397·26 gr. and the legal qinṭār (100 raṭls) at 39kg. and 726 gr., according to one source, and 401·674 gr. and 40 kg. 167·4 gr., according to another source; ibid., 5, 1885, p. 502.

^{page 431 note 5} A special kind of bellows, for its description see Appendix.

^{page 431 note 6} For such rendering of the word 'allaqa, cf. Spiro, , Arabic-English Vocabulary, Cairo, 1923, p. 302Google Scholar: —put the meat on the fire.

^{page 431 note 7} Iqlīmīya, one of the volatile products formed in the manufacture of silver and copper. cf. H. E. Stapleton and Azo, R. F., ‘Alchemical equipment in the eleventh century A.D.’, Mem. As. Soc. Beng., 1, iv, 1905, p. 56Google Scholar, note 7. Ruska, J.: ‘wenn das Gold mit einem andcren Mineral vermengt ist… so reinigt seine Substanz und treibt sie hoch ein Stein, mit Schwarz gemischt, zum Teil auch von der Farbe des Glases… Auch dem Silber wird bei Qazwini ein ähnlicher Stein zugeschrieben. Nach Vullers soll iqlimiya die Schlacke sein’. (Al-Razi's Buch Geheimniss der Geheimnisse, p. 50).Google Scholar Also Memorandum Book of a Tenth Century Oculist…. A translation of the Tadhkirat of Ali ibn Isa of Baghdad (c. A.D. 940–1010), by Wood, Casey A., Chicago, 1936, p. 51.Google Scholar

^{page 431 note 8} While this word does not figure in any dictionary, various authorities translate it as follows: Kremer, , Culturgeschichte., i, p. 278Google Scholar -(bolus) armenische Siegelerde.

De Slane, , Les Prolégomènes d'ibn Khaldoun, Paris, 1863–1868, i, p. 364Google Scholar, -(bol d'Armenie)-terre sigillé.

Sobernheim, M., CIA., Syrie du Nord, p. 60Google Scholar, note -(al-bals)-potasse.

Règlements fiscaux ottomans: les provinces Syriennes, tr. et Sauvaget, Mantran, Beirut, 1951, p. 69Google Scholar, note -belis-cendres alcalines.

cf. az-zujāj al-būlīṣ in Mammātī, ibn's Kitāb qawānīn ad-dawāwīn, Cairo, 1943, p. 361.Google Scholar Also ad-Dimiqi, Cosmographie, tr. Mehren, , Copenhagen, 1874, p. 94.Google Scholar

^{page 432 note 1} That is to say to the refining with lead, see above, p. 429.

^{page 432 note 2} I am unable to give any satisfactory reading for this undoubtedly deformed word. In the first instance it may well be a corrupt rendering of jinzār (), which means verdigris. In that case the translation of the sentence would read: ‘ḥabaq, which has become the colour of verdigris like (that on) a vessel’. The last sentence of the chapter discussed above would not apply, therefore, to the ḥabaq itself but to the verdigris. But in the second instance this word looks more like jullanār () which was used as a code name for sulphur by Muslim chemists in the Middle Ages (cf. Siggel, , Decknamen in der arabischen alchemistischen Literatur, p. 37).Google Scholar But it may be as well a compound word, the second part of which being abār (lead——cf. Siggel, , Arabisch-Deuteches Wōrterbuch der Stoffe aus den drei Naturreichen, Berlin, 1950, p. 76).Google Scholar

^{page 432 note 3} It is interesting to notice that 16th-century writer Abū 'al-Faḍl 'Allāmī, describing the process of refining of silver with lead, says: ‘…As soon as it (silver) is hardened in the middle, they sprinkle it with water… it then forms itself into a dish, and is perfectly refined. If this dish be melted again, half a surkh in every tólah will burn away…. The ashes of the dish, which are mixed with silver and lead, form a kind of litharge….’ cf. 'Ain i Akbarī, tr. Blochmann, H., Calcutta, 1873, i, pp. 22–3.Google Scholar

^{page 433 note 1} Again this process does not differ from the corresponding one discussed by Holmyard in his article on the Rutbat al-Ḥakīm. cf. op. cit., p. 305.Google Scholar Also idem, The Makers of Chemistry, p. 80.Google Scholar

^{page 433 note 2} This is how I translate 'iyārāt. Although they differ in shape from ordinary touchneedles, their function is exactly the same.

^{page 433 note 3} MS.

^{page 433 note 4} MS.

^{page 433 note 5} MS.

^{page 433 note 6} MS.

^{page 433 note 7} Decourdemanche calculates the Egyptian mithqāl at 5·95 gr. cf. ‘Etude métrologique et numismatique sur les misqals et les dirhems arabes’, Revue Numismatique, Paris, 4^e sér., xii, 1908, pp. 232–3.Google Scholar

^{page 433 note 8} We must distinguish between the standard of gold in general and the standard of gold coinage. The standard of gold that is declared as officially accepted () by ibn Ba'ra extends from pure gold to an alloy consisting of 7 parts of pure gold and 17 parts of golden silver. An alloy containing a proportion of gold to silver of 1: 3 is declared as ‘out-of-course’ (). The lowest standard accepted at the court of the Moul emperor al-Akbar was set at 6 bán, which was the degree of the alloy consisting of 5 gold, silver, and copper. All baser compositions were rejected (cf. 'Ain i Akbarī, i, p. 19). The standard of gold coinage, on the other hand, was fixed at a certain limit. In modern England the standard of gold used for plate and jewellery consists of 9, 12, 15, 18, and 22 carats, the alloying metals being silver and copper in varying proportions. But the British standard of gold coinage is based on 22 carat gold, that is to say, consisting of 91·67 per cent gold and 8·33 per cent copper.

^{page 434 note 1} For forgeries and methods for discovering them, see Ritter, H., ‘Ein arabisches Handbuch der Handelswissenschaft’, Der Islam, vii, 1917, pp. 51 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 2} The method of assaying by means of touchstone was well known all over medieval Islamic territories, cf. 14th-century Arabic manuscript of Hadj Lahsen (describing the operations of the mint of the Marinids) transl. by M. Viala, and published in Brethes, J. D.' Contributions à l'histoire du Maroc par les recherches numismatiques, Casablanca, p. 258.Google Scholar Also 'Ain i Akbarī, i, p. 19.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 3} Ibn Ba'ra consistently uses the term al-haraja with reference to gold, and distinguishes it from Rūmī gold (—fo. 8v). Maqrīzī gives a full explanation of the term haraja as follows: (Kitāb aa-sulūk, Brit. Mus. MS. Or. 2902, fo. 22b). The explanation of M. M. Ziyāda—given in his edition of Kitāb as-sulūk, Cairo, 1942, ii, p. 393Google Scholar, note—is not only erroneous but absolutely out of place, since the quoted remark of de Sacy (Traité des mannoies musulmanes, traduit de l'arabe de Makrizi, Paris, 1799, p. 46, note 88)Google Scholar does not refer to but to cf. Maqrīzī, udhūr al-'uqūd, ed. Mayer, L. A., Alexandria, 1933, p. 13.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 4} MS.

^{page 434 note 5} MS.

^{page 434 note 6} MS.

^{page 434 note 7} This is obviously an addition made by the copyist indicating that he intended to provide his copy with the drawing of the mould, contained in the original. There is no trace of an illustration in the existing MS. and no space was left for one.

^{page 435 note 1} MS.

^{page 435 note 2} MS.

^{page 435 note 3} MS.

^{page 435 note 4} Probably ‘about the identity of the plates’, which might have been fraudulently exchanged. Ibn Ba'ra describes on fo. 9r the precautions taken by the staff of the mint in order to prevent substitution of deficient plates in the course of this operation.

^{page 435 note 5} See below.

^{page 435 note 6} Decourdemanche puts the Egyptian and the legal ḥabba (grain) at 0·08 gr. (loc. cit.).

^{page 435 note 7} Similar, though incomplete, description of the quantitative analysis is given by ibn Mammātī, , op. cit., p. 332.Google Scholar Also 'Ain i Akbari, i, p. 21.Google Scholar

^{page 436 note 1} MS.

^{page 436 note 2} ḥaif is consistently used by ibn Ba'ra in contraposition to naqṣ.

^{page 437 note 1} This is how M. Viala translates the passage from Haj Lahsen's manuscript, describing the hammering of flans: ‘La premiere operation que fait subir l'ouvrier monnayeur aux lingots d'or, est l'applatissage au marteau. II les chauffe ensuite au rouge, les brosse et les réchauffe; les tourne et les retourne jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient prêts à être débités. II les coupe pièce par pièce à la taille des dinars, les rogne au gaz (?), les calibre et les vérifie. II obtieut ainsi ce qu'on appelle des “flans”. Si ce sont des dinars, il leur donne la forme ronde à la dimension voulue, il les martelle un par un, jamais deux par deux, ni trois par trois, en vérifie le pourtour et les met en rouleaux à raison de quarante ou cinquante par rouleau. Il frappe ce rouleau sur l'enclume en le tenant entre le pouce et l'index, à trois reprises. Au cours de cette opération, il change les pièces de position, mettant celles du centre aux extrémités et celles des extrémités au centre, jusqu'à ce que leur pourtour soit bien régulier’. Cf. Brethes, J. D., op. cit., p. 260.Google Scholar See also 'Ain i Akbari, i, p. 21.Google Scholar Also Ta kirat al-mulūk, A Manual of Safavid Administration (circa 1137–1725), transl. and explained by V. Minorsky, London, 1943, p. 58, and fo. 36 a.

^{page 437 note 2} Cf. Marçais, G., ‘Un coin monétaire almoravide du Musée Stéphane Gsell’, Annales de l'Inst. d'Etud. Orientales, ii, 1936, pp. 180–8.Google Scholar Also Mayer, L. A., ‘A Fatimid Coin-Die’, QDAP., i, 1932, pp. 34–5.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 3} Cf. Smith, A., ‘Mode of Coining Hammered Money in Persia’, Num. Chronicle, 3 ser., ii, 1882, pp. 299–300.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 4} ‘Nouvelles observations sur la technique du monnayage’, BIE., xxxiii, 1950–1951, pp. 34 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 5} ibid., p. 40.

^{page 438 note 1} MS.

^{page 438 note 2} Abu';-Faḍl mentions the same process: ‘Practical men can discover from the colour of the compound which of the alloys is prevailing, whilst by filing and boring it the quality of the inside is ascertained. They also try it by beating it when hot, and then throwing it into water, when blackness denotes lead, redness copper, a white greyish colour tin, and whiteness a large proportion of silver’. 'Ain i Akbari, i, p. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 439 note 1} MS.

^{page 439 note 2} MS.

^{page 439 note 3} Decourdemanche calculates l dirham at 3·96⅔gr. and 1 Egyptian qīrāṭ at 0·24½¾ gr. (loc. cit.).

^{page 439 note 4} This passage of the manuscript is a good example of how complicated was the medieval Islamic weight system. Whereas normally 1 dirham constituted ⅔ the Egyptian miqāl (ibid.), the dirham with ibn Ba'ra equals miqāl. As ibn Ba'ra states on fo. 4v that the miqāl consists of 24 qīrāṭs, the following relationship between some of the troy weights, used in the Cairo mint, can be reconstructed:—

^{page 439 note 5} For the method of whitening nans, see Luschin von Ebengreuth, Allgemeine Münzkunde und Geldgeschichte des Mittdalters und der neueren Zeit, Berlin, 1926, p. 60. Also, Ta kirat al-mulük, p. 59, and fo. 36a.Google Scholar

^{page 440 note 1} MS.

^{page 440 note 2} Iron ladles could be used for silver and baser metals, but not for gold, for which special clay tools had to be prepared, cf. Mazerolle, F., L'Hôtel des Monnaies, Les Bâtiments—Le Musée—Les Ateliers, Paris, 1907, p. 140.Google Scholar

^{page 440 note 3} MS.

^{page 440 note 4} MS.

^{page 441 note 1} MS.

^{page 441 note 2} MS.

^{page 441 note 3} The same proportions are given by ibn Mammātī, , op. cit., p. 333.Google Scholar Also Guide de Kātib, MS. Bibl. Nat. 4441 (Sup. 1912), apud Sauvaire, , op. cit., JA., xix, 1882, p. 103.Google Scholar

^{page 441 note 4} If every 30 dirhams lose l dirham in the fire, requiring thus l additional dirham to maintain the standard, then 6,000 dirhams, losing 200 dirhams, require 200 additional dirhams.

^{page 441 note 5} As distinct from rūbās with sin or rūbā , rūbāṣ written with ṣād, seems to mean refining, cf. Dozy, , i, p. 564.Google Scholar

^{page 442 note 1} Here follows a description of the crucible and of the rūbāsh.

^{page 442 note 2} Follows a description of purification of silver by fusing it with lead, and by subsequent removal of lead.

^{page 442 note 3} cf. similar description in ibn Mammātī, loc. cit.

^{page 442 note 4} MS.

^{page 442 note 5} MS.

^{page 442 note 6} MS.

^{page 443 note 1} Marçais, G., op. cit., p. 188.Google Scholar

^{page 443 note 2} My thanks are due to Dr. D. S. Rice for his help in revising this paper.

^{page 444 note 1} cf. discussion in Ma'ālim al-qurba, p. 103.Google Scholar Also Wiedemann, , Beiträge, xxxii, p. 37.Google Scholar