Toman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historical unit of currency formerly used in Persia, commonly represented as a specific number of coins
2. A traditional measurement of value in Iranian markets, often influencing local pricing and transactions
3. An important symbol of trade and economic transactions in ancient Persia, reflecting the region's rich monetary history

Etymology: The toman was a unit of account and coinage in Persia, and its name travelled a long way to get there. It comes from Mongolian "tümen," meaning ten thousand, a word that reflects the decimal military and administrative organisation of the Mongol Empire. Under the Mongols, a tümen was a unit of ten thousand troops, and the word passed into Persian as "tōman," where it came to denote a sum of money rather than a body of soldiers. Over time the value attached to the word shifted in the same direction as its meaning. In the Persian monetary system, the toman was reckoned as a large sum, and it survived as the name of a currency long after the Mongol armies that gave it that origin had gone. The word therefore moved from counting people, to counting coins, a shift from military headcount to everyday accounting.

Synonyms: currency