Al
Teifashi then proceeds to describe a pearl of the first quality; it
must be "perfectly round in all its parts, colorless and gifted with a
fine water. When a pearl possesses these requisites and weighs one
miskal [24 carats or 96 grains] it is worth 300 dinars [$750]. If,
however, a match is found for this pearl and each one weighs one miskal
and has the same form, the two pearls together cost 700 dinars
[$1750]." This writer also mentions that in the shops of the Arab
jewelers, the pearl which exceeded the weight of a drachma (12 carats
or 48 grains) even by one grain, was called dorr a, while the name johar was used for that which did not reach the above weight.
In
1838, Feuchtwanger gave the price of a one-carat pearl as five dollars,
and used this amount as the multiplier of the square of the weight ;
therefore, a four-carat pearl would cost four times four multiplied by
five dollars, the value of the first carat; that is to say, a six-teen-grain (four-carat) pearl would have been worth eighty dollars in 1838, according to this computation.
1
"Fior di Pensieri sulle Piètre Preziose di Ahmed al Teifascite," text
and translation by Antonio Raineri, Florence, 1818, pp. 8, 9.
