Batman (unit)

The batman ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}) was a unit of mass used in the Ottoman Empire and among Turkic peoples of the Russian Empire. It has also been recorded as a unit of area in Uyghur-speaking regions of Central Asia. The name is Turkic (Template:Langx; Template:Langx),<ref name="OED">Template:Citation.</ref> but was also sometimes used for the equivalent unit in Persia ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name="Hayyim">Template:Citation.</ref><ref>Template:Citation.</ref> The equivalent unit in British India was anglicized as the maund (Bengali: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and Hindustani: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). The value of the batman (or maund) varied considerably from place to place.

Origins

The man as a unit of weight is thought to be of at least Chaldean origin,<ref name="Hayyim"/> with Sir Henry Yule attributing Akkadian origins to the word.<ref name="OEDmaund">Template:Citation.</ref> The Hebrew {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) and the Ancient Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) are thought to be cognate.<ref name="OEDmaund"/><ref>Template:Citation.</ref> It was originally equal to one-ninth of the weight of an artaba of water,<ref>Template:Citation.</ref> or approximately four kilograms in modern units. İnalcık believes the ancient Persian patimāna may have come from the late Assyrian word for 'mana of the king'.<ref name="sizes.com">Template:Citation.</ref> The man or batman spread throughout Arabia and Persia: it was adopted by the Ottoman Empire, and brought to India by the Mughal Empire. The first attestation which gives a comparison to European weights was by Pegolotti in his Pratica della mercatura, written about 1340. He reported the batman as the main unit of mass in Ayasluğ ("Altoluogo di Turchia" to Pegolotti; modern Selçuk, in western Turkey), equivalent to 32 Genoese pounds ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name="sizes.com"/>

Ottoman Empire

The batman (or bateman) was first recorded in English in 1599, in Babylon (probably modern Baghdad), where it was said to be equal to "7 pound and 5 ounces English weight".<ref name="OED"/> In the central Ottoman system of weights, the batman was equal to six okas, as is attested in 1811 in Aleppo,<ref>Template:Citation.</ref> 1821 in Baghdad<ref name="Prinsep">Template:Citation.</ref> and in 1850 in Constantinople.<ref name="OED"/> At this point, the batman was equal to 16 lb 8 oz avoirdupois (7.484 kg).<ref name="Prinsep"/>

Arabia

Place <ref group="note" name="place">Modern transliterations of place names have been used where possible.</ref>	Local	Imperial			Metric kg
		lb	oz	dr
Bayt al-Faqih	Template:Frac frazil	2	0	10	0.9249
Jeddah	30 uqiyyas	2	3	Template:Frac	1.0092
Mocha	40 uqiyyas	3	5	0	1.5025
Source: Kelly's Oriental Metrology (1832)<ref name="Prinsep"/>

The mann ( مَنّ ) had doubtless formed a part of the Arabian system of weights before the arrival of the Ottomans. It was divided into uqiyyas (the number varying with the location), while ten mann made one frazil.<ref name="Prinsep"/> A still larger unit of mass was the bahar, of ten to forty frazils.<ref name="Prinsep"/> The Arabic mann was smaller than the Ottoman batman at about 2–3 lb av. (1–1½ kg), except in Basra where there were two maunds in use, both much larger than either the Arabic mann or the Ottoman batman.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref>

Turkey

The Turkish system of weights and measures was metricated in 1931. The oka was redefined as exactly one kilogram, while the batman became ten okas (10 kg).<ref name="sizes.com"/>

Central Asia

The batman was used in Central Asia up until at least the 18th century.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref> In Khiva in 1740, there were said to be two batmans (as in Persia): the "great batman" of 18 Russian pounds ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, funt; approx. 7.4 kg) and the "lesser batman" of 9¼ Russian pounds (approx. 3.8 kg).<ref name="OED"/>

In Uyghur, the batman was also a measure of land area, the area that could be sown with one batman (in mass) of seed.<ref name="sizes.com"/>

Idel-Ural

The Tatar batman is an equivalent to 4 pood or 65.5 kg.

Persia

Place <ref group="note" name="place"/>	Local	Imperial			Metric kg
		lb	oz	dr
Bandar-Abbas ("Gamron")	tabrézy	6	12	0	3.0617
	sháhy	13	8	0	6.1235
Bushehr	720 mithqals	7	10	15	3.4852
Shiraz	600 mithqals	12	10	14.4	5.7521
Tabriz	300 mithqals	6	5	7.2	2.8761
Source: Kelly's Oriental Metrology (1832)<ref name="Prinsep"/>

The two main commercial weights in Persia were the tabrézy man ( من تبریز ), literally the man of Tabriz, and the sháhy man ( من شاء ), literally the Shah's man, which was twice as large.<ref name="Hayyim"/> The sháhy man was particularly used in Shiraz and Isfahan.<ref name="Hayyim"/> Kelly also distinguishes a man used for copra and "provisions" at Gamron (modern Bandar-Abbas) of 7 lb 12 oz av. (3.5153 kg).<ref name="Prinsep"/>

The United Nations Statistical Office found a wide range of values for the man in Iran in 1966, from 3 kg to 53 kg.<ref name="UN">Template:Citation.</ref><ref name="man">Template:Citation.</ref> The man was divided into mithqals (the number depending on the locality): larger subdivisions included the abbassi and the ratl.<ref name="man"/> The term batman appears to be reserved for the tabrézy man, approximately 2.969 kg in 1966.<ref name="Hayyim"/><ref name="UN"/>

Afghanistan

The mann (Template:Langx) was and still is also used as a unit of mass in Afghanistan, but varied widely between different localities. In Kandahar it was about 8 lb av. (3½ kg), while in Peshawar it was 80 lb av. (35 kg).<ref>Template:Citation.</ref>

External links

• Sizes.com