[264] The river of the Ghûta of Damascus was divided, both physically and institutionally, in a manner similar to the Guadalaviar and others rivers of eastern Spain. As a result of an appeal from the irrigators, the Caliph Hishâm decreed a proportional division in the year 125 H.: ⁽¹⁾

Then the people of the Barada complained to Hishâm b. 'Abd al-Malik ⁽²⁾ about the insufficiency of the water. He ordered al-Qâsim b. Ziyâd ⁽³⁾ to apportion ⁽⁴⁾ the canals for them; and he apportioned them:

He allotted to the Yazîd Canal: 16 parts. ⁽⁵⁾

He allotted to al-Ghaur al-Kabîr: 10 parts.

And to al-Ghaur al-Saghîr: 5 parts.

And to the Dâriyâ Canal: 16 parts.

He allotted to the Thûra Canal 42 parts. In it at that time 14 siphons were functioning, and upon it there was not a [single] mill.

And to the Qîniyyah Canal: 11 parts.

And to the Bânâs Canal: 30 parts. One part was carried in it to Yazîd b. Abi Maryam, ⁽⁶⁾ client of Sahl b. al-Hanzaliya; and after him 3 parts were carried to al-Fadl b. Sâlih al-Hâshimî ⁽⁷⁾

And to the Majdûl Canal: 12 parts.

And to the Dâ'îya Canal: 13 parts.

And to the Hayuwa Canal -- it is (also called) the Canal of al-Zuluf(?) -- 12 parts.

And to the Upper Tûma Canal: 5 parts.

[265] And to the Lower Tûma Canal: 4 parts.

And to the Canal of al-Zâbûn: 4 parts.

And to the Canal of al-Malak: 4 parts. ⁽⁸⁾

Al-Qanawât ⁽⁹⁾ was not apportioned at that time, its 2 sides running full.

1. Ibn 'Asâkir, Tarîkh Madînat Dimashq, ed. S. Munajjid, vol II (Damascus, 1951), p. 151. A less complete version is available (ibid., p. 147), and a later version, almost identical to the one translated here, is in Ibn Shaddâd, Al-A'lâq al-Khatîra, ed. Sami Dahan (Damascus, 1963), pp. 15-17.

2. Umayyad Caliph, reigned A.D. 724-743.

3. Munajjid says he was a surveyor (sâhiib al-misâha), Ibn 'Asâkir, p. 147 n. 2.

4. Yamâzu -- tile root m-y-z means "to separate." A substantive, tamâz, (apportioning) appears on p. 152. The current word for "water divisor" in the Ghûta, mezzaz, is more probably related to this root than to mazza, "to suck" (Tresse, "L'Irrigation," p. 475), this is more in line with the literalism in irrigation terminoiogy of other Islamic systems.

5. Maskaba (alternating with masâkib, another plural of maskab) -- the root s-k-b means "to pour forth." E. W. Lane defines maskaba as "the higher, or highest, rivulet, or small channel for irrigation, from which other rivulets, or small channels, are supplied with water"; Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 vols. (New York. Ungar, 1955), I, part 4, 1389. This suggests a connotation similar to that of the Valencian fila, a continuously flowing proportional part of the river's capacity.

6. An imam of the mosque of Damascus (Ibn 'Asâkir, p. 147 n. 6).

7. The 3 versions differ somewhat, but the sense in all is that these 4 masâkib were part of the Bânâs's 30.

8. The masâkib total 184, suggesting a 2-week turn on the river if one maskaba was then (or was originally) equal to 1 hour (184 hours = 15 days 4 hours).

9. Ibn 'Asâkir, p. 151, and ibn Shaddâd read al-qanâ. But this reading, Ibn 'Asâkir, p. 147, is clearly preferable because al-Qanawât is the famous canal serving the city of Damascus.