A ratl (رطل ) is a medieval Middle Eastern unit of measurement found in several historic recipes. The term was used to measure both liquid and weight (around a pound and a pint in 10th century

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, but anywhere from 8 ounces to 8 pounds depending on the time period and region). While there were a variety of names for different shapes of cups and mugs in use at the time, the ratl seems to have had a position roughly equivalent to a British pint in that the name of the drinking-vessel also implied a standardized measurement as opposed to merely the object's shape, in both 10th century Baghdad and 13th century Andalusia. However, those standardized measures varied both by region and by purpose: the spice-measuring ratl, the flax-measuring ratl, the oil-measuring ratl, and the quicksilver-measuring ratl all differed from each other. The ratl was a part of a sequence of measurements ranging from a grain of

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

through the dirham (used as a common point of reference in both medieval European and Middle Eastern regions) on up to the

Sa (Islamic measure) The Sāʿ ( and in spelling, and ''sa'e'' in the Latin alphabet, literally: "one") is an ancient measurement of volume from the Islamic world, with cultural and religious significance. While its exact volume is uncertain, the Arabic word ''Sāʿ ...

measurement

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= 8/6 ratl. 1 Sá = 4 mudd = 5+1/3 ratl. 1 Ratl = 128+4/7 dirham or 128 dirham or 130 dirham. 1

Uqiyyah The uqiyyah (), sometimes spelled awqiyyah, is the name for a historical unit of weight that varies between regions, as listed below. 1 uqiyyah= 40 dirham. 1 dirham= 0.7 dinar. It corresponds to the historical unit ounce and was defined in Iraq a ...

= 40 dirham. 1 Nashsh = 20 dirham. 7

mithqal Mithqāl () is a unit of mass equal to which is mostly used for measuring precious metals, such as gold, and other commodities, like saffron. The name was also applied as an alternative term for the gold dinar, a coin that was used throughout ...

= 10 dirham. 1 mithqal = 72 grains of average barely both edges cut. 1 mithqal = 20 qirat قِيراط of makkah = 21+3/7 qirat of Damascus. 1

Dirham The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Moroccan dirham, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates dirham, United Arab Emirates and Armenian dram, Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivisi ...

= 0.7 mithqal =14 qirat of makkah = 15 qirat of Damascus. 1 mil = 4000 zira. 1 wasq = 60 sá. In al-Warraq's tenth-century cookbook, different regions used some of the same terms to mean different units of measurement and the relationships between them. Some of those relationships are described below.

References

Customary units of measurement Units of measurement Cooking weights and measures {{Standards-stub