[Sca-cooks] Kail

Suey lordhunt at gmail.com
Tue Nov 25 07:21:36 PST 2008


Bear wrote:
> Al kail or al kayl means, in general, "standard measure."  You need the 
> context for the precise meaning.  In trade, it is a standard measure of 
> grain (also "kaila)"used in the levying of taxes.  Under Ghengis Khan, the 
> kail was roughly 8.87 kg.  Under the Turks, it was roughly 35 liters. 
> However, I suspect your usage is "dirham al-kayl" which varies by location 
> and time, but is likely to be 50.4 grains.  11 1/9 dirham al-kayl = 1 uqiyah 
> = 1/12  rotl.  "Alqueire" is an Iberian corruption of the Islamic "al-kayl" 
> and is used in some Spanish and Portuguese speaking cultures as as a large 
> volume dry measure and/or a measure of land.
>
>   
while Charles Perry wrote: 1 kail can equal from 6.5 liters to 22 
liters. The word literally means "a measure." In "Weights and Measures" 
he explains that during the 13^th C in Al-Andalus 1 ratl equaled 468.75 
gr, about one pound and that one uqiya equaled 39 grams, about 1 1/3 
ounces or 7 teaspoons.
Now I am totally confused. Sounds simpler to me if we translate kail as 
"a measure" and let the jefe make up one to suit himself.
Suey

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