[1] The social creativity of medieval Spanish townsmen and villagers was expressed in a variety of communal institutions which have long attracted the interest of historians and social scientists. Municipal councils, herding and fishing collectives, and irrigation communities were characteristic of a society in which feudal customs had taken but shallow root. Of all these institutions the irrigation communities of eastern and southern Spain were possibly the most important, certainly the longest lived.

In the nineteenth century, foreign engineers, agronomists, and social scientists, drawn by centuries of experience in communal water use and control, made the irrigated districts -- the huertas -- of Valencia and Murcia the object of intensive study. Englishmen particularly were eager to apply the Spanish experience to the irrigation problems of British India. Sir Clements Markham, Sir Cohn Scott Moncrieff, and J. P. Roberts all had personal acquaintance with Indian irrigation systems and hydraulic problems. ⁽¹⁾ The French engineer Maurice Aymard was interested in irrigation possibilities in Algeria, and the agronomist Jaubert de Passa was intimately familiar with the irrigation economy of southern France. ⁽²⁾ The American William H. Hall, who described the irrigation systems of Valencia, Murcia, and Granada in the 1870's, was the state engineer of California, a region which underwent extensive irrigation development in the latter part of the last century. ⁽³⁾ All of these men hoped that some practical benefit to their countries might result from their studies.

In Spain itself a body of local historical and hydraulic studies steadily accumulated, and around the turn of the century Spanish and foreign scholars began at last to consider these irrigation customs in a scientific context. The French geographer Jean [2] Brunhes attempted to delineate the relation of irrigation institutions to geographical conditions, and the Spanish social thinker Joaquín Costa discussed the irrigation communities within the general framework of traditional agrarian collectivism in Spain. ⁽⁴⁾

The historians and the social scientists had different aims. The historians were concerned with discovering -- largely by conjecture -- the origins of the irrigation canals and with describing the growth of a corpus of customary irrigation law. The problem of origins, so typical of nineteenth-century historiography, was elaborated polemically by partisans of a Roman origin theory and by those who emphasized Islamic influences. ⁽⁵⁾ The social scientists, on the other hand, were only marginally interested in the past of the institutions they studied. The divergence in approaches and concerns of the different disciplines accounts for the lack of any systematic study of the social structure of medieval Spanish irrigation, a void which the present study attempts to fill.

The weakness of the nineteenth-century historical approach was owing to the lack of documentation from the Islamic period and an inability to use comparative material. A prime historiographical problem, then, is to reconstruct the irrigation institutions of Islamic Spain from indirect evidence, by working backward from the copious documentation of the Christian Middle Ages and by applying data drawn from the study of modern Islamic systems. Not only do Valencian irrigation institutions come onto the historical stage full-blown in the thirteenth century, but, further adding to the historian's dilemma, they hardly undergo any palpable change during the medieval centuries. The basic objectives of the system of distribution remained constant throughout, notwithstanding frequent -- and usually minor -- institutional and political adjustments necessary to the vitality and efficiency of the system.

Medieval patterns of water use, agricultural and irrigation techniques, the settlement patterns of the irrigated areas, and traditional modes of social control in irrigation affairs all [3]survived practically intact into modern times. Profound and far-reaching changes in the old patterns of irrigation agriculture belong largely to the nineteenth century, not (as it is all too frequently claimed in popular accounts of Spanish history) to the time of the Reconquest or the expulsion of the Moriscos. Land-use patterns of the irrigated districts manifested remarkable stability until recent times; it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the walls of Valencia were torn down and the city began to encroach upon the irrigated area. ⁽⁶⁾ The economic contours of huerta life showed considerable continuity as well, the most significant break with the past coming with the large-scale introduction of new crops and modern agricultural methods in the last century. The commitment of more and more land to the growing of orange trees and the heightened productivity of such staple crops as rice made possible by the introduction of guano diverted the economic orientation of the huerta increasingly to export markets. ⁽⁷⁾

Traditional patterns of huerta social life lasted well into the present century, as the novels of Blasco Ibañez attest. ⁽⁸⁾ However, elements of the old institutions of water control lost their effectiveness as the conditions which they were designed to serve were altered. The completion of the Generalísimo Reservoir in 1950, by assuring the Valencian huerta of the permanent availability of irrigation water, initiated the decline of the venerable Tribunal of Waters, the most salient component of the traditional system of control, whose purpose was to resolve conflicts in time of water shortage.

The long-term stability of irrigation agriculture in the Valencian Middle Ages does not by any means suggest that its institutions were stagnant or lifeless. The historian's task is to describe a dynamic society acting within an extremely stable institutional framework. Without understanding how the system functioned in the vigorous centuries following the Reconquest, it would not only be impossible to understand the relation of that system to the Islamic past, but it would also be difficult to appreciate the significance of subsequent changes.

My investigation of irrigation society describes several levels [4]of social organization. The basic water-use unit in medieval Valencia was the community of irrigators comprising all who drew water from a single canal system. The social function of these communities, whether autonomous or municipally controlled, was similar throughout southeastern Spain and was the common denominator among local systems that differed in other aspects of irrigation practice and law. The communities' objectives, expressed in their regulations and in the principle of proportional division of water, were to apportion water justly and fairly to each user and to prevent conflict among the irrigators. In spite of the fact that the regulatory system was designed as a control over all disruptions, no matter what the cause, the communal authorities were not always able to fulfill their statutory roles. Large communities often split into a number of political factions which brought pressure to bear upon the communal authorities in order to prevent the enforcement of certain regulations. Especially in disputes involving large numbers of people, the community's internal mechanisms of control sometimes proved ineffective, and the intervention of higher authorities was sought.

The irrigation communities are seen in another dimension when considered in light of their relations with higher levels of local and regional authority: the towns, the Church, and the king. Relations between local water-use communities and political rivalries within the watershed reveal a fluctuating situation in which the outcome was likely to be determined more by political pressure than by statute, in contrast to the general stability of community institutions of control.

The irrigation policies of higher authorities raise questions concerning the nature of irrigation societies. The long-recognized association of irrigation agriculture with the development of the great civilizations of antiquity (China, Egypt, the empires of the Fertile Crescent, Inca Peru, for example) has led in the past few years to the formulation of general theories of hydraulic civilizations. The best-known hypothesis, and that of most interest to historians, is that of Karl A. Wittfogel. ⁽⁹⁾ The Wittfogel theory is derived from the observation that water by its very [5] nature imposes certain economic and social necessities upon those who would control it. Large-scale water projects require capital and mass labor which can only be supplied by a powerful, centralized authority. But recent studies, made primarily by anthropologists, of irrigation systems differing widely both in structure and in level of social and economic development, suggest that political centralization in irrigation is an independent variable. Successful systems are just as likely to be cellular and decentralized as centralized. ⁽¹⁰⁾

The Valencian evidence confirms the findings of anthropologists: in the huerta of Valencia, social control has traditionally rested in the collective will and institutions of the irrigators themselves. The autonomy of local irrigation communities was accepted by all levels of the power structure and enshrined in customary law; throughout the Middle Ages, even as the system expanded, no attempt was made by the city to lessen the autonomy of the communities. But in other areas of the kingdom, such as La Plana, irrigation systems were typically controlled by the municipality. There is evidence both of towns acquiring control of previously autonomous communities and also of the opposite process -- the devolution of control from the town to the community of irrigators. Even if one can accept the general proposition that regional hydraulic development is best achieved (as modern experience would indicate) under the aegis of a central power endowed with adequate financial and planning resources, it is fruitful to consider the particular geographical and social factors which ran counter to and effectively prevented such a development in medieval Valencia.

The focal point of this study is conflict, not only because conflict stimulates community activity and molds the agencies of social control, but also because the dynamics of medieval irrigation communities are most visible to the historian in records of litigation). ⁽¹¹⁾ It has become a commonplace, especially in anthropological literature, that irrigation necessitates cooperative action. ⁽¹²⁾ But the fabric of relations inherent in any system of water distribution must also have an implicit potential for disruption. As some students of Mexican irrigation have described [6] it: "An irrigation system establishes relationships among individuals and groups which are simultaneously relationships of interdependence and potential antagonism, stemming equally from the need for and the constraint imposed by cooperation and coordination. The necessity for an ordered, predictable system of water allocation has divisive as well as cohesive potentialities." ⁽¹³⁾ All irrigation systems experience similar forms of conflict: for example, upstream versus downstream users. The principles underlying the distribution system and the values by which the society seeks to ensure its efficient and just functioning are what distinguish one style of irrigating from another.

In the present discussion the role of weather and the relation of climatic factors to institutional structure is of special significance. Recent studies have sought to distinguish conflicts arising from strains within a given social system from those produced by stresses external to the system. ⁽¹⁴⁾

The case of the highly developed administrative and legal system regulating Valencian irrigation practices does not confirm the validity of this dichotomy. No stress can be considered effectively external to the system: no climatic, hydrological, or hydraulic crisis could find the irrigators institutionally unprepared to meet it, inasmuch as the very rationale of the regulatory system was to provide solutions for the broadest possible range of problems. Climatic change and variation, however extraordinary, were accounted for in the system of control. Even the effects of such an "external" disruptive force as invasion from abroad were taken into account by the regulatory apparatus, which included procedures to be undertaken in the event of physical damage to the water system that such a disruption might cause.

The first part of this study is concerned with the dynamics of both irrigation communities and regional water-use units. The stability of local institutions allowed the practice of irrigation agriculture to proceed with little interference from the vagaries of daily political life -- in contrast to the more visible rate of change in the regional arena.

The second part is devoted to the diffusion of Islamic irrigation [7] technology in general and, more specifically, to the problem of cultural and institutional change during the transition from Islamic to Christian rule in Spain. Having first described medieval Valencian irrigation in the epoch of its fullest documentation (1238-1500), I shall examine its antecedents on the basis of Islamic survivals in medieval Christian institutions and of comparative data from other Islamic irrigation systems. This investigation raises questions of acculturation and cultural transition that extend beyond the restricted geographical and temporal bounds of the present study. For one thing, irrigation was only one of the aspects of Islamic life which the conquering Christians found worthy of emulation. For another, the experience gained by thirteenth-century Spaniards in adapting to their own life style the institutions of an alien, conquered people served as a model and an example which Spaniards of the sixteenth, century put to good use when confronted with similar institutions in the New World. It was not merely coincidental that the Law of the Indies stipulated norms for administering native American irrigation systems in terms almost identical to those found in the dispositions of James I of Aragon and Alfonso the Wise of Castile in Valencia and Murcia. Both on the peninsula and in the New World 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.

1. Clements Robert Markham (1830--1916) was selected by the Secretary of State for India to collect cinchona specimens in Peru in1860 and superintend their subsequent acclimatization and cultivation in India. This work made him aware of the desirability of irrigating previously unirrigated farmland, especially in Madura district. From 1867 to 1877 he headed the geographical department of the India office, his Report on the Irrigation of Eastern Spain (London, 1867) was printed by order of the Secretary of State for India. Sir Cohn Scott Moncrieff (1836-1916) served in the irrigation department of the northwest provinces of India and as chief engineer in Burma before being transferred to Egypt. There he was undersecretary for public works (1883-1892) and was responsible for the engineering of the New Nile Barrage. In 1901-1903 he served on the Indian Irrigation Commission. His book Irrigation in Southern Europe (London,1868) was subtitled "the report of a tour of inspection of the irrigation works of France, Spain, and Italy undertaken in 1867-1868 for the Government of India." For biographical details, see Geographical Journal, 47 (1-16), 481. Roberts' book, Irrigation in Spain (London, 1867) was likewise prefaced with an allusion to the attention which irrigation was attracting at the time "particularly in connection with our possessions in India."

2. Aymard was an Ingenieur des Ports et de Chausées stationed in Algiers, and a knight of the Legion of Honor; his book Irrigations du midi de l'Espagne was published in Paris in 1864. François-Jacques Jaubert de Passa (1785-1856) was a government functionary and scholar who specialized in the history of irrigation and the language and history of Catalonia. His observations on Spanish irrigation were recorded in Voyage en Espagne dans les années 1816, 1817,1818, 1819, ou recherches sur les arrosages, 2 vols. (Paris, 1823). (See Chapter VIII, nn 17-19, below.) Two substantial works on French and ancient irrigation complement Jaubert's work on Spain: De l'arrosage dans le département des Pyrénées-Orientales et des droits de arrosants sur les eaux (Paris, 1848) and Recherches sur les arrosages chez les peuples anciens, 4 vols. (Paris, 1846-1847). He was elected a correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences in 1824 (section of rural [282] economy). (See Nouvelle biographie générale [Paris, 1861]. XXVI,403; J. Mattes, "Notice biographique de François Jaubert de Passa," Bulletin de la Société Agricole, Scientifique et Littéraire des Pyrénées-Orientales, 11 [1858], 426-437).

3. William Hamilton Hall, Irrigation Development: History, Customs, Laws, and Administrative Systems Relating to Irrigation, Watercourses, and Waters in France, Italy, and Spain (Sacramento, 1886).

4. Jean Brunhes, L'Irrigation: ses conditions géographiques, ses modes et son organisation . . . (Paris. 1902). Joaquín Costa, Colectivismo agrario en España (Madrid, 1898).

5. This polemic is the subject of Chapter VIII.

6. The city of Valencia has now spread over about one-fifth of the traditional huerta (J. M. Houston, The Western Mediterranean World [London, 1964], p. 282). On the relation of the city and huerta in the nineteenth century, see Houston, "Urban Geography of Valencia: The Regional Development of a Huerta City," Institute of British Geographers: Transactions and Papers, 1949, p. 33, and Joan Fuster, Nosaltres, els valencians, 2nd ed. (Barcelona, 1964), pp. 197-201. A few regions having substantial numbers of Morisco irrigators were an exception to the general long-term demographic stability of huerta areas, for repercussions to the expulsion of Moriscos from the huerta of Gandia in 1609, see Adelina Bataller Bataller, "La expulsión de los moriscos: su repercusión en la propiedad y la población en la zona de los riegos del Vernisa," Saitabi (Valencia), 10 (1960), 81-100.

7. On the decline of mulberries and the introduction of new fertilizers, see José Manuel Casas Torres, La vivienda rural y los núcleos de población rurales de la huerta de Valencia (Madrid, 1944), pp. 46--48. (Hereafter cited as Huerta de Valencia.) For the orange revolution, see Fuster. Nosaltres els valencians, p. 195, and Vicente Fontavella, La huerta de Gandia (Zaragoza, 1952), pp. 187-189.

8. See especially the much-cited chap. iv of La Barraca (1898). An English translation of Batiste's trial by the Tribunal of Waters can be found in Seymour Resnick and Jeanne Pasmantle, eds., Highlights of Spanish Literature (New York: Ungar, 1963), pp. 400-405. I have used the Editorial Planeta edition (Barcelona, 1958).

9. Oriental Despotism (New Haven, 1957); and "Developmental Aspects of Hydraulic Societies" in J. H. Steward, ed., Irrigation Civilizations: A Comparative Study (Washington, D.C., 1955). A helpful summary of Wittfogel's thesis (from an anthropological point of view) can be found in Robert F. Gray, The Sonjo of Tanganyika . . . (London, 1963), pp. 2-8. A discussion of the historiographical ramifications of Wittfogel's theories is in Chapter VIII, below.

10. See René Millon, "Variations in Social Responses to the Practice of Irrigation Agriculture," in Richard B. Woodbury, ed., Civilizations in [283] Desert Lands, University of Utah Anthropological Papers, no. 62 (December 1962), pp. 56-88; findings are summarized from anthropological studies of irrigation societies in Tanganyika, Ceylon, Japan, Iraq, Bali, South Arabia, and Mexico.

11. On the positive role of conflict in communal life, see Herbert J. Gans, The Levittowners (New York: Pantheon, 1967), pp. 142-143 on the relationship of conflicts to rule-making, see Carl J. Friedrich, Man and His Government (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), chaps. xxiv and xxv.

12. See Eliot Dismore Chapple and Carleton Stevens Coon, Principles of Anthropology (New York: Holt, Rinehart, 1942), p. 185: "This business of irrigation involves cooperative action . . . because the irrigation water is shared by all men, and hence all are equally responsible for the maintenance of the system."

13. René Millon, Clara Hall, and May Díaz, "Conflict in tne Modern Teotihuacan Irrigation System," Comparative Studies in Society and History, 6 (1961-62), 513.

14. Alan R. Beals and Bernard J. Siegel, Divisiveness and Social Conflict (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966), pp. 91-93.