dirhams

Dirham is the name of the currency unit used in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The term derives from the ancient Greek drachma, via Arabic adaptations, and is cognate with other terms for money in the region. The word is used for both the monetary unit and the paper banknotes and coins issued by the respective central banks.

Today, the two most widely recognized dirhams are the United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) and the Moroccan dirham (MAD). The AED is the official currency of the United Arab Emirates. It is issued by the Central Bank of the UAE and subdivided into 100 fils. In practice, the dirham is widely used in daily transactions and is pegged to the United States dollar at a fixed rate.

The Moroccan dirham is the currency of Morocco, issued by Bank Al-Maghrib and subdivided into 100 centimes. The MAD circulates in coins and banknotes and is managed through a monetary policy designed to maintain price stability and to manage exchange-rate movements against a basket of currencies.

Historically, the dirham was a silver coin used across the Islamic world and in medieval trade networks. The name spread with Islamic commerce and remains in use in several modern currencies. In contemporary usage, the dirham as a currency unit identifies monetary systems in two nations and, by extension, in regional economies associated with the Arab world and North Africa.