The original qirsh was a large, 17th century silver piece, similar to the European thalers, issued by the Ottomans.

Others, including Jordan and Sudan, adopted the qirsh as a denomination when they established their own currencies.

Some Saudi coins still bear denominations in Qirsh but this denomination is no longer commonly used.

As the Ottoman Empire broke up, several successor states retained the qirsh as a denomination.

Before 1947, the word qirsh was spelled with the initial Arabic letter غ, after which the word began with ق.

The official currency in Jordan is the Jordanian dinar and divides into 100 qirsh (also called piastres) or 1000 fils.

The Egyptian pound, known as the gineih, was introduced, replacing the Egyptian piastre (qirsh) as the chief unit of currency.

During the Second World War, brass 1 qirsh and aluminium 2 qirsh emergency coins were issued.

When the British first got involved in Egypt in the nineteenth century, Egypt was using a monetary unit known as the piastre, or Qirsh.

When Libya was a part of the Ottoman Empire, the country used the Ottoman qirsh (XOTP), issuing some coins locally until 1844.

Quraysh or Quraish (also transliterated as Quresh, Qurrish, Qurish, Qirsh, Quraysh, Qureshi, Koreish and Coreish) may refer to:

The talari, equivalent to the Maria Theresa thaler, was divided into 20 ghersh (also guerche or gersh, the name coming from the Ottoman Empire's qirsh) or 40 bessa (a small copper coin).

Thus, because the first Saudi riyal had the same specifications as the Hejaz riyal and circulated alongside Ottoman coins, it came to be worth 22 Ottoman kuruş and was consequently subdivided into 22 ghirsh when coins denominated in Qirsh were issued from 1925.