Ratl
A ratl is a medieval Middle Eastern unit of measurement found in several historic recipes. The term was used to measure both liquid and weight.
While there were a variety of names for different shapes of cups and mugs in use at the time, the ratl seems to have had a position roughly equivalent to a British pint in that the name of the drinking-vessel also implied a standardized measurement as opposed to merely the object's shape, in both 10th century Baghdad and 13th century Andalusia. However, those standardized measures varied both by region and by purpose: the spice-measuring ratl, the flax-measuring ratl, the oil-measuring ratl, and the quicksilver-measuring ratl all differed from each other.
The ratl was a part of a sequence of measurements ranging from a grain of barley through the dirham on up to the Sa (Islamic measure).
measurement
1 Mudd = 8/6 ratl.1 Sá = 4 mudd = 5+1/3 ratl.
1 Ratl = 128+4/7 dirham or 128 dirham or 130 dirham.
1 Uqiyyah = 40 dirham.
1 Nashsh = 20 dirham.
7 mithqal = 10 dirham.
1 mithqal = 72 grains of average barely both edges cut.
1 mithqal = 20 qirat قِيراط of makkah = 21+3/7 qirat of Damascus.
1 Dirham = 0.7 mithqal =14 qirat of makkah = 15 qirat of Damascus.
1 mil = 4000 zira.
1 wasq = 60 sá.
In al-Warraq's tenth-century cookbook, different regions used some of the same terms to mean different units of measurement and the relationships between them. Some of those relationships are described below.
| Unit name | Weight | Weight in dirham |
| Dirham | 8 daniq | 7 mithqal =10 dirham |
| Uqiyyah | 40 dirhams | |
| Ratl misri or fulfuli / spice measure | 8 uqiyyahs | 144 to 150 dirhams |
| Jarwi ratl / oil measure | 312 dirhams | |
| Ratl shami | 8 Baghdadi ratls |