Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia

Thomas F. Glick

Published by Harvard University Press 1970

Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia

Thomas F. Glick

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674281806

Overview
Contents

About this book

Of the communal institutions elaborated by medieval Spaniards, the most significant and longest-lived were the irrigation communities which the Muslims had established centuries earlier in the Valencian region.

The objective of these remarkably democratic communities was justice and equity in water distribution; and the irrigators succeeded in combining traditional rules with consensual authority to maintain their systems with a minimum of conflict. Above the community level, however, regional powers including king, nobles, church, and town all sought to derive, at each other's expense, the maximum benefit from the available water supply. The resultant interplay of power politics was a sharp contrast to the democracy of the communities.

Thomas F. Glick has drawn on original documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to present in this volume a thorough and lively study of Valencian irrigation and society. In Part One Glick describes medieval Valencian irrigation in the epoch of its fullest documentation (1238-4500), focusing on the institutional dynamics of both the local irrigation communities--those irrigating from a single main canal--and the larger regional units, the huertas. He examines the huerta environment and the administration of the irrigation communities and then discusses intracommunity conflict, the city's role in irrigation development, the search for new sources of water, and regional arrangements for irrigation.

Part Two is concerned generally with the spread of Islamic irrigation technology and, more specifically, with cultural diffusion and the persistence of cultural forms during the transition in Spain from Islamic to Christian rule. Here the author examines the antecedents of medieval Valencian irrigation on the basis of Islamic survivals in medieval Christian institutions and of comparative data from other Islamic irrigation systems. He also touches on aspects of acculturation and cultural transition that extend beyond the geographical and temporal bounds of this study, explaining that "the history of Spanish irrigation is but one example of the administrative creativity and genius for cultural synthesis which characterized Iberian culture at the dawn of the modern age."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xx
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One. The Irrigation Communities of Medieval Valencia
I. The Huerta Environment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
II. Irrigation Communities and Their Administration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
III. Intracommunity Conflict and Its Resolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
IV. The City's Role in Irrigation Development Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
V. The Search for New Sources of Water Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
VI. Regional Arrangements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
VII. The Huerta in Crisis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
Part Two. Cultural Continuity in Irrigation
VIII. Arabs, Romans, or Christians? The Historiography of Spanish Irrigation in the Nineteenth Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
IX. The Classical Inheritance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
X. Irrigation Administration in Al-Andalus: The S̩āh̩ib al-S̩āh̩iya Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
XI. Proportional Distribution and the Measuring of Water Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
XII. The Imprint of Islam upon the Terminology of Irrigation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
XIII. Image and Reality of Cultural Change Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
Appendixes. Bibliography. Notes. Index
Appendix 1. Municipal Provisions for Road Maintenance, 1396 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Appendix 2. Irrigation of Vineyards Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
Appendix 3. Crop Priorities in Time of Drought, 1376 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	248
Appendix 4. Regulations of the Water Company of Benidorm Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
Appendix 5. Rainfall and Temperature in Valencia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252
Appendix 6. Droughts and Floods in Medieval Valencia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Appendix 7. Plans for Hydraulic Wheel in Valencia to Irrigate Garden of the Lonja, 1529 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262
Appendix 8. Division of the Barada River in 125 H. (742/743 A.D.) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	264
Select Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	377

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1970
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 18
- Main content: 386
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 7
- Tables: 23
- Other: 2 charts, 3 halftones, 2 line illustrations, 7 maps, 23 tables
Keywords: HISTORY / Medieval; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Islamic Studies; Irrigation -- Spain -- Valencia (Region) -- History.; Valencia (Spain : Region) -- Social conditions.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674281806

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1970
ISBN: 9780674281790