The dirham was a unit of mass used across North Africa, the Middle East, Persia and Ifat; later known as Adal, with varying values.
[3] There is currently a movement within the Islamic world to revive the dirham as a unit of mass for measuring silver, although the exact value is disputed (either 3 or 2.975 grams).
[5] The Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire lay partially in the Levant and traded with Arabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward.
The dirham is frequently mentioned in Jewish orthodox law as a unit of weight used to measure various requirements in religious functions, such as the weight in silver specie pledged in Marriage Contracts (Ketubbah), the quantity of flour requiring the separation of the dough-portion, etc.
Rabbi Shelomo Qorah (Chief Rabbi of Bnei Barak) wrote that the traditional weight used in Yemen for each dirham weighed 3.20 grams for a total of 31.5 dirhams given as the redemption of one's firstborn son (pidyon haben), or 3.36 grams for the 30 dirhams required by the Shulhan Arukh (Yoreh De'ah 305:1),[12] and which in relation to the separation of the dough-portion made for a total weight of 1 kilo and 770.72 grams.
The word drachmon (Hebrew: דרכמון), used in some translations of Maimonides' commentary of the Mishnah, has in all places the same connotation as dirham.