The sakk and the hawala

The sakk (cheque) and the hawala (bill of exchange) were two financial instruments in the Islamic world, as presented by Hasan Ibrahim Hasan in Tarikh al-Islam. ¹

The sakk is much like today's cheque. The author cites al-Khwarizmi in Mafatih al-ulum that it gathered the names of those entitled to payment, their number, and what each was due. The caliph, sultan, or prince then signed at its foot to authorise payment of these stipends. The word is still used in European languages. ¹

The Arabic hawala remains the origin of the word awal in Urdu. As evidence of how widely it was used, the boatmen who ferried the Seljuk sultan Malikshah and his armies across the river Jayhun received bills of exchange from his vizier Nizam al-Mulk. They collected their value from the Seljuk agent in Antioch. ¹