Original: Historically, the word "dirham" is derived from the name of a Greek coin, the Drachma (); the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire controlled the Levant and traded with Arabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward.
Simplified: Historically, the word "dirham" is comes from dirhem which comes from the name of a Greek coin, the Drachm; the Byzantine Empire controlled the Levant and traded with Arabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward.