&Dz;鴡Ī, term used from the mid-15th century for a gold coin first minted in Mamluk Egypt in 810/1407-08; the name probably refers to the Mamluk sultan Ašraf Barsbay (r. 825-41/1422-38). The original coin weighed about 3.45 gm and corresponded in standard and fineness to the Venetian ducat (zecchino) or Florentine fiorino. The Italian coins had gained favor because of their constant weight and fineness, and so equivalent issues came to be struck in the Islamic world. The Egyptian &Dz;ī was clearly distinguishable from the usual gold coin, the dinar, and was disseminated to the Islamic east along with the ducat; the new coin quickly penetrated the small Turkmen states of eastern Anatolia, northern Syria, and northern Mesopotamia, which had close relations with the Mamluks. Farther east the &Dz;ī had to compete with the gold tanga-ye ṭelā (or tangača-ye ṭelā), based on an Indian standard, which was widely circulated under the Timurids. The Timurid gold tanga weighed 4.6 to 4.7 gm, and it served as the dominant standard for gold issues of the eastern Turkmen princes. However, early &Dz;ī issues may be discerned in a 3.9 gm coin of Jahānšāh Qara Qoyunlū (841-72/1438-67) and the 3.4 gm gold coins of the Āq Qoyunlūs.
Under the Safavid Shah Esmāʿīl I (907-30/1501-24) &Dz;ī coins of 3.52 gm were minted, and quarter-&Dz;īs on the same standard. Safavid gold issues of the 10th/16th century still somewhat reflect the standard of the tangača-ye ṭelā, but by ca. 1600 the &Dz;ī had completely replaced the gold tanga. (The Timurid coin survived in the Transoxanian khanates, however, without significant change, until the end of the 19th century.) From ca. 1600 to 1737 the &Dz;ī provided the dominant standard for Iranian gold coins, the ʿī issues were of less importance. The ducat and the fiorino were known to be the prototypes of the &Dz;ī as late as ca. 1700; the Italian coins were called &Dz;ī-e dobotī (lit. &Dz;ī with two idols) into the post-Safavid period (Taḏkerat al-molūk, p. 59). The weight of the &Dz;ī remained constant; the coin of 1718 (3.498 gm, 54 grains) scarcely differs from that of Shah Esmāʿīl. But the nominal value of the coin in terms of silver dinars changed greatly, due to the devaluation of the latter, in 1552 an &Dz;ī was worth about 200 dinars; in 1718, 1,800 dinars.
Nāder Shah Afšār (1148-60/1736-47) introduced into Iran in 1737 the mohr-e &Dz;ī, following exactly the standard of the Mughal gold mohr minted in India since 970/1562-63 at 11.016 gm (171 grains). Half and quarter denominations of the mohr-e &Dz;ī also were issued. Nāder Shah and his successors, notably Karīm Khan Zand (1163-93/1750-79), struck the older &Dz;ī of 3.498 gm only sparingly, and it stood in a ratio of about 1:3 to the mohr-e &Dz;ī. In the second half of the 18th century the abundant quarter mohr-e &Dz;ī (2.768 gm, 42.75 grains) was called in popular usage &Dz;ī-e ī-ḵānī, ī-ḵānī, or simply &Dz;ī.
In 1768 the mohr &Dz;ī of 11.016 gm was valued at 10,000 silver dinars and thus was made equivalent to a ū. But the dinar suffered further devaluation, and from 1786 a shift is found to an issue of 2.915 gm (45 grains) valued at 3,000 dinars; this coin reflected a standard of 9.72 gm (150 grains) for a gold ū. In effect, the mohr-e &Dz;ī and its fractions were superseded, and thereafter they were rarely minted. In place of the traditional &Dz;ī and of the mohr-e &Dz;ī were issued gold ūs (and fractional denominations) whose weights decreased over time in proportion to the devaluation of the dinar. The term &Dz;ī continued, however, to be popularly applied to gold coins.
In 1830-34, late in the reign of the Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah Qāǰār, the standard of the old 54-grain &Dz;ī reappeared, valued at 10,000 dinars and thus identical with the ū. But the continued decline of the dinar caused a lightening of the ū coins, and the &Dz;ī issue was abandoned for good. The name &Dz;ī was applied to gold coins worth one ū from 1834 into the 20th century. But in 1926-27 the traditional ū was replaced by a new gold coin one-third lighter, the 貹ī of 1.92 gm. The 貹ī soon was transformed into an 8.134 gm issue, and the designation &Dz;ī finally became obsolete.
In the 16th century &Dz;īs corresponding to the ducat were also issued by the Portuguese in control of Hormoz. This &Dz;ī (called xerafim by the Portuguese) was valued at 2,000 local dinars in the first quarter of the century. The local gold (i.e., worth 1,000 dinars) therefore was called also nīm-&Dz;ī (half-&Dz;ī). But by the mid-16th century, the had been converted to silver because of the dinar’s devaluation. Two s were equivalent to a gold pardão worth 2,000 dinars, but the latter had only two-thirds the weight of the traditional &Dz;ī. The contemporary Hormoz &Dz;ī (or xerafim, sarafino) then weighed 71 percent of a ducat, and in 1580 the coin was reduced to 62.6 of the ducat’s weight. This special issue ended with the Safavid annexation of Hormoz in 1622.
Bibliography:
See also J. L. Bacharach, “The Dinar Versus the Ducat,” IJMES 4, 1973, pp. 77-96.
A. Dīānat, “Ašrafī,” ĀⲹԻ岹 9/3-4, 1362 Š./1983, pp. 177-83.
B. Fragner, “Social and Internal Economic Affairs,” Camb. Hist. Iran VI, pp. 491-567.
W. Hinz, “Die spätmittelalterlichen Währungen im Bereich des Persischen Golfes,” in Iran and Islam, ed. C. E. Bosworth, Edinburgh, 1971, pp. 303-14.
Idem, “The Value of the Toman in the Middle Ages,” in Yād-nāma-ye Īrānī-e Minorsky, ed. M. Mīnovī and Ī. Āfšār, Tehran, 1348 Š./ 1969, pp. 90-95.
ʿA. Mostawfī, Šarḥ-e zendagānī-e man yātārīḵ-eeǰtemāʿī o edārī-e dawra-ye qāǰārīya I, Tehran, 1321 Š./1942, p. 28.
F. H. Rabino di Borgomale, Coins, Medals, and Seals of the Shâhs of Irân 1500-1941, Hertford, 1945.
Idem, “Coins of the Jalāʿir, Ḳara Koyūnlū, Mushʿshʿ, and Āḳ Ḳoyūnlū Dynasties,” The Numismatic Chronicle, 6th series, 10, 1950, pp. 94-139.
Idem, “Coins of the Shahs of Persia,” The Numismatic Chronicle, 4th series, 8, 1908, pp. 357-73; 11, 1911, pp. 176-96; 15, 1915, pp. 243-48, 351-56.
F. von Schroetter, Wörterbuch der Münzkunde, Leipzig, 1930 (s.v. ʿAbbāsī, Ashrafī, Muhr, Muhr-Ashrāfī, Tillā, Tōmān).
R. Vasmer, “Zur Münzkunde der persischen Schahe,” Islamica 6, 1933-34, pp. 137-81.
Search terms:
| &Բ;اشرفی | ashrafi | ashrafy |
(B. Fragner)
Originally Published: December 15, 1987
Last Updated: August 17, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. II, Fasc. 8, pp. 797-798
