[217] The lexicon of irrigation in eastern Spain is characterized by two general features: semantic fluidity and regional variation. Definitions are often not strict and meanings frequently are vague. One word can apply to differing phenomena and, conversely, a single thing can be described by a variety of words. ⁽¹⁾ Regional variation is a logical corollary to semantic fluidity: words vary in meaning from place to place. But within each locale irrigation terms are both semantically and chronologically stable.

Students of Spanish and Islamic irrigation terms alike have remarked the multiplicity of words describing canals. "The medieval texts of Spain abound in words and expressions relating to water carriers," wrote the philologist Eero Neuvonen. "It is often very difficult to establish a significant difference between one word and another." ⁽²⁾ In the texts studied by Neuvonen words such as canal, calze, acueducto, and conducto de agua are used alternately with each other indiscriminately. In like manner Etore Rossi reported that "in the region of Raimah (Yemen), water-courses are indicated with many synonyms: gail, nahr, 'ain al-mâ'." ⁽³⁾

Medieval Valencian canal terminology was the poet's delight, as seen in Jaume Roig's description of the water flowing "per rius, braçals, conduyts, canals e çequioles, rolls e filloles." ⁽⁴⁾ Roig's catalog of canals is a mixture of literary terms of a general nature (for example, conduyt, conduit) and the specific terms of everyday irrigation practice in the Valencian huerta. The braçal was a major branch canal, second in size to the "mother canal" (cequia mare) from which it was derived. Next in size and order [218] was the fila, then the fillola, and finally the cequiola, usually a small ditch within the bounds of an individual field and the property of its owner. The roll, an opening or conduit diverting water from the man canal into a secondary channel, is analogous to the boquera, or field turn-out, the opening or gate through which the cultivator diverts water from the irrigation system onto his own field.

The same or related terms may have different values in different places. In Gandia the hilo (the etymological equivalent of the Valencian fila, as mentioned above) is the functional equivalent of the Valencian braçal. One sizable channel (serving numerous irrigators) in medieval Castellón was called The Cequiol, hardly the equivalent of the insignificant cequiola of Valencia. The hijuela (etymological equivalent of fillola) of Onhuela is the same as the hila in the system of Alfeitami and the regadera of Murcia; ⁽⁵⁾ yet, all three systems draw water from the Segura River and are regulated by similar institutions.

The Segura vega is extraordinarily rich in irrigation vocabulary, particularly in terms for channels, owing to the double system of delivery and drainage canals. The former system (that of aguas vivas) is arranged from largest to smallest: acequia madre (or mayor), then acequia menor (or arroba), then brazal, and finally hijuela or regadera. The drainage (aguas muertas) hierarchy runs from azarbe (or landrona or merancho), the largest channel, to its diminutive, azarbeta, to escorredor, the smallest. ⁽⁶⁾ Thus the meaning of the terms is rarely generic, but depends upon the configuration of the particular system, the size of the canal and its place in the hierarchical network from main canal down to field, and the function of the system, whether for delivery or drainage. ⁽⁷⁾

A similar pattern is evident in the words used to describe hydraulic wheels. Strictly speaking, a noria is a wheel moved by the force of the current alone, while a sinia is one moved by human or animal power: but only in Murcian usage is this distinction correctly made. In Catalonia and Valencia sinia displaced noria completely and was used to describe all hydraulic [219] wheels. In other parts of Spain the common word for diversion dam, azud (and its variant azuda), came to be applied to the current wheel. ⁽⁸⁾

At the base of this fluidity is regional variation in irrigation customs along ethnic lines. Terminology varied principally as the ethnic composition of the original Muslim irrigators and the Christian settlers varied. The place of arabisms in the picture is crucial. The fact that there were not enough terms in the Romance tongues of the conquerors to replace the multiplicity of definitions in a highly developed irrigation system made this sector of the lexicon particularly susceptible to linguistic borrowing; the fact that Arabic was unintelligible to most of the new settlers ensured that the borrowing would be loosely structured. Thus many areas of human thought and industry were described by two sets of terms. The Romance tongue of the Christians, together with Latin expressions of long acceptance in Catalonia and Castile, coexisted with words acquired from the Arabs. Irrigation was one of those areas of culture (warfare was another) where the arabisms tended to predominate.

That many of the concepts of irrigation were new to the Christians is indicated by the intrusion of vernacular arabisms into Latin documents in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. This phenomenon is indicative of the lack of consensus concerning a given term (evidence of entrenched regional variation, in other words), and the lack of a Latin or Romance tradition to guide the scribe. ⁽⁹⁾
 

Most of the arabisms common throughout eastern Spain were present either in Castilian or Catalan by the thirteenth century. Sinia and safareig, both specialized hydraulic devices, were among the earliest peninsular arabisms, dating from the epoch of Islamic expansion (711 to the mid-eleventh century). Cequia and açut, the most common and typical of Valencian irrigation arabisms, date from the epoch of the great Christian conquests (mid-[220]eleventh to the end of the twelfth century) and were therefore already in the language when the Valencian region was taken from the Muslims. Alcaduf, aljub, azumbre, çabacequies, and marjal are arabisms which passed into the Romance vernaculars in the course of the thirteenth century. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Most of the localized arabisms as well must have passed into the Christian vernacular in the late thirteenth century during the post-Conquest process of learning local customs from Muslim irrigators.

The lists that follow include all the important regional arabisms and most of the significant local ones; the contents of the lists are summarized in Tables 22 and 23.

1) açut (çut, azut), "diversion dam," Arabic al-sudd; the most common and widest spread arabism besides cequia. The Romance equivalent, resclosa, retains the sense of the original Arabic sadda, to close. The word has been used consistently throughout eastern Spain from the Reconquest to the present, and the Castilian form, azud, dates from the period of the great Christian conquests (1050 to the end of the twelfth century). Both the word sudd and the technology are typical of southern Arabia. ⁽¹¹⁾

2) albellon, "sewer, drain," Arabic al-bâlû'a. Usually an urban term in medieval Valencian documents, typically associated with vall, "sewer, moat." In Murcia, however, its oldest meaning was that of a permanent opening in a channel, and other references corroborate its association with irrigation. ⁽¹²⁾

3) alcaduf, "bucket of a water wheel," Arabic al-qâdûs: a very common term in Islamic irrigation, originally referring to the buckets of the Persian water wheel, by extension a measure of water and even (in Spain) a conduit. The qâdûs is the common instrument for measuring water in the Saharan oases. ⁽¹³⁾

4) aljup (aljub), "cistern," Arabic al-jubb. ⁽¹⁴⁾

5) almenara, "return ditch," Arabic al-manâhir, pl. of manhar, "canal." ⁽¹⁵⁾[221]

6) çabacequies (çabacequia and, through influence of cequier, çabacequier), "master of the canals" (an irrigation official), Arabic sâhib al-sâqiya. ⁽¹⁶⁾

7) cequia, "irrigation canal," Arabic sâqiya; the most characteristic and widespread irrigation arabism. In thirteenthcentury Castilian documents (Castilian acequia) it frequently has the meaning of a canal that supplies a mill, but in Valencia it means any kind of irrigation canal. ⁽¹⁷⁾Sâqiya is the common word for irrigation canal throughout the Islamic world.

8) marjal (almarjal, almargal), "swamp," Arabic marj, "meadow." In Valencian documents it has no synonyms. ⁽¹⁸⁾

9) noria, "hydraulic wheel," Arabic nâ'ûra (from na'ara, to grunt); one of the earliest hydraulic arabisms in Spanish. The addition of the i to the primitive form nora, annora, is possibly explained by the influence of acenia (sinia) and acequia. The first document is of the twelfth century. ⁽¹⁹⁾

l0) safareig, "cistern," Arabic sahrîj. ⁽²⁰⁾

11) sinia (Medieval Valencian cenia), "Persian wheel," Arabic sâniya; Castilian-Murcian acenia, aceña. In the Catalan zone sinia is understood as synonymous with noria, also an arabism. But strictly speaking a sâniya is driven by animal power, while the nâ'ûra is moved by force of water alone. One of the earliest of irrigation arabisms, first documented in 945. ⁽²¹⁾

12) tanda, "irrigation turn." Corominas suggests that an Arabic derivation from *tanzîm (the root means to put in order) is preferable to one from the Latin tanta. The first appearance is in thirteenth-century Catalonia as the standard word for "irrigation turn," although in Valencia and Murcia some local variants (all arabisms) occur. ⁽²²⁾

13) tarquim, "silt." Corominas suggests a derivation from the Arabic *tarkîm, from the root meaning "to pile up." ⁽²³⁾
 

1) açarb, "drainage canal" (Murcia), Arabic al-zarb. ⁽²⁴⁾

2) ador, "turn" (Gandia), Arabic al-daur. A feminine form [222] of daur is a common word for "turn" in modern Yemen. ⁽²⁵⁾

3) albala, "water-ticket" (Alicante), Arabic al-barâ'a. The albala is a ticket representing a certain number of minutes of water on sale at the water auction at Alicante. ⁽²⁶⁾

4) almahacen, "water that remains unapportioned, for communal use" (Lorca), Arabic al-mahzan (storehouse, deposit). ⁽²⁷⁾

5) almatzem, "divisor" (Gandia), Arabic al-miqsam. Not a common term in Spain but of wide diffusion in Islam, as far east as Persia. ⁽²⁸⁾

6) azumbre, a water measure (Novelda, Elche), Arabic al-thumn, "one-eighth." ⁽²⁹⁾

7) dula, "turn" (Gandia, Elche); also a water measure synonymous with hila (Alicante), Arabic daula. Another term found both in the Yemen and the Sahara. ⁽³⁰⁾

8) jarique, noun, or verb jaricar, "to unite various hilas of water" bought at auction in order to irrigate with a greater body of water and to transport it over a long distance with minimal loss (Lorca); Arabic sharîk, "a partner." An important reminiscence of communal irrigation practices among Muslim irrigators. ⁽³¹⁾

9) jarro, a water measure (Lorca, Jumilla), Arabic jarra, "jug." In Lorca and Jumilla the jarro is equal to one-half hour of water. It takes its name from the clepsydra (water clock), a vessel with a hole in the bottom which was the standard time measure for irrigation in the North African oases and in southern Spain. The word is frequently found in thirteenth-century Romance texts, indicating its adoption after the conquest of Lorca and the Murcian region. ⁽³²⁾

10) martava, "turn" (Alicante, Novelda), Arabic martaba. ⁽³³⁾

11) merancho, "drainage ditch" (Murcia), Arabic marj. ⁽³⁴⁾ The connection between drainage and marjals is clear. Drainage of marshland was an operation described largely in arabisms.

12) rafa, "canal check" (Murcia), Arabic raf', "raising up." ⁽³⁵⁾ An interesting example of an arabism that describes a function different from that expressed by its common [223] Romance synonym, parada. The canal check (often simply a board placed across a canal) serves both to stop the flow (the meaning of parada, from panarse, to stop) in order to divert water and to raise the level (the meaning of rafa).

13) sistar, "divisor" (Vall de Segó). Corominas has suggested a derivation from the Latin sistere (to stop); ⁽³⁶⁾ but this must be questioned because irrigation terms are usually precise as to function, and a sistar divides water (its more usual synonym is partidor) rather than stopping it. Since the Vall de Segó had a substantial Muslim population, it seems proper to seek a derivation from the Arabic root sh-t-r, "to divide into two equal parts."

14) tahulla, a measure of land (Murcia) but also a measure of water equivalent to one hour (Lorca), Arabic tahwila, "field."⁽³⁷⁾
 

The foregoing data permit several generalizations concerning the frequency and function of arabisms in the technical vocabulary of medieval irrigation: 1) The Arabic word and the arabism usually have the same meaning. ⁽³⁸⁾ Agricultural terms especially are conservative by nature and tend to retain the original meaning so long as the use of the object is the same. 2) Romance synonyms are likely to be literal translations of the original Arabic meaning: thus resclosa is the equivalent of açut, from sadda, "to close"; partidor is the synonym of almatzem, from qasama, "to divide." 3) When all the synonyms describing a single phenomenon are arabisms, there is a strong presumption that the concept or technique was unknown or undeveloped outside of the Islamic orbit or, at any rate, was very intimately associated with the Islamic style of irrigating: for example, the words for turn (dula, ador, martava), for return ditch (almenara, azarbe, merancho), for cistern (safareig, aljup), and for water wheel (sinia, noria).

If these generalizations are applied to words of presumed but unproven Arabic etymology, it is possible to make some guesses merely on the basis of whether the concept was developed outside [226] the Islamic framework. Thus tanda, in spite of phonetic difficulties in Corominas' derivation, is probably an arabism. ⁽³⁹⁾ Tanda and tanta do not mean the same thing; tanzim comes much closer. ⁽⁴⁰⁾ The fact that all of its synonyms (dula, ador, martava) are arabisms suggests that the concept of the turn was unknown or not highly developed among Christians. Likewise sistar from shatara, in spite of the infrequently found change from sh to s, is attractive because it means the same as partidor. Almatzem, the local variant for partidor in Gandia, provides a parallel case. (Vall de Segó and Gandia were among the relatively few irrigated areas in the medieval kingdom of Valencia where there were significant numbers of Muslim irrigators.)
 

The expressions for the typical irrigation land-use patterns, huerta and vega, both seem to bear the Islamic imprint. It is probable that huerta is a translation of the Arabic, bustân, both words meaning "garden." ⁽⁴¹⁾ Vega is of uncertain origin, but Arnald Steiger believes it to be an arabism. ⁽⁴²⁾

The irrigation system of Lorca preserves two interesting measures, casa de agua and tiempo de agua, both probably of Islamic ancestry. A royal privilege of September 23, 1268, provides that the water of Lorca is to be divided "communally, by days and by times" ("comunamente por dias y por tiempos"). The concept of a "time" of water recalls the Arabic waqt, used in the same way (as a unit of water) in Iraq. ⁽⁴³⁾ Also in Lorca, a casa (house) is said to be twelve hours of water, each day being divided into two "houses." If this expression is in fact medieval it seems quite clearly to be a translation of dâr, "house," which, in this case, is a dialectal pronunciation of daur, "turn." In the Saharan oasis of El Outaïa a dâr is, similarly, twelve hours of water. ⁽⁴⁴⁾

The term expressing the standard unit of water measure in most of the kingdom of Valencia -- the fila or hilo, "thread," of water -- has proven enigmatic to generations of scholars: they have neither understood the rationale of the measurement nor [227] have they explained what a "thread" has to do with water. The term "thread of water" was known in Andalusí Arabic. In a document of 1223 (619 H.) describing a water dispute between two towns near Morvedre, the measurement unit is the khait, or thread. ⁽⁴⁵⁾ The only other pre-modern source known to me that corroborates this usage is Pedro de Alcalá's translation of kait min mi (thread of water) as corriente venaje de agua (source-current of water). ⁽⁴⁶⁾ A modern Arabic-French dictionary published in Algiers, and thus reflecting Magribi usage, defines khait as "saignée a un canal d'irrigation, rigole d'arrosement" ⁽⁴⁷⁾ that is, not a measure, but the ditch itself. This usage corresponds to an alternative use of fila in Valencia with the meaning of ditch or canal, synonymous with cequia but perhaps connoting a smaller channel.

There is another example of the same term expressing both a liquid measure and a channel. In thirteenth-century Murcia arrova, usually a liquid measure (of olive oil, for example) also had the sense of a channel. Alfonso X of Castile ordered the sobrecequiero of Orihuela to look to the cleaning of the cequias, filas, arnouas, and azarbes. ⁽⁴⁸⁾

The medieval documentation, especially that of Castellón, provides numerous examples of important canals called filas: for example, "la fila dels dos hulls," the "files de la doberia" (that is, adobenia, tannery), and "les files de Na Orellana." ⁽⁴⁹⁾ That the Arabic equivalent khait was used in the same way is clear from two toponyms previously misunderstood. In the town limits of Alberic there is a canal named Alfait with its origin in the same springs that give rise to the Riu dels Ulls. ⁽⁵⁰⁾ Miguel Asín Palacios derived Alfait from al-faid, "stream," from the verb "to overflow," so called because the head is augmented in times when run-off water infiltrates into it. ⁽⁵¹⁾ In view of the literalism displayed by medieval Spaniards -- Arabs and Christians alike -- in irrigation terminology, it is much simpler to derive Alfait from al-khait, "thread" (in the sense of fila, "ditch"). ⁽⁵²⁾ Naming a canal "The Canal" was by no means uncommon in the Valencian region. ⁽⁵³⁾ An analogous development is the name of Faitanar, one of the main canals of the Valencian huerta; it is quite clearly [228] derivable from Arabic, khait al-nahr ("thread of the river" in the sense of a canal diverted from the river), in spite of contrived efforts to find a Romance derivation for it. ⁽⁵⁴⁾

Several passages of the Repartimiento of Murcia allude to "irrigation of alfayt" (that is, "riego de çequia et dalffayat, se reguen dalfayt" ⁽⁵⁵⁾). The editor, possibly following Asín in associating alfayt with al-faid, understands the term to be flood irrigation (crecida). ⁽⁵⁶⁾ For reasons already indicated, a derivation from faid is much less likely than from khait; therefore "riego de equia et dalffayat" most likely means, simply, irrigation from a large channel and a smaller, secondary one.
 

Many of the arabisms discussed above also appear in place names. I shall not attempt to present a complete description of all toponyms having to do with irrigation; enumeration here is limited largely to arabisms as names of hydraulic appurtenances, such as canals and divisors, in order to give a graphic illustration of the Islamic imprint on irrigation.

Of the main canals of the huerta of Valencia two, in addition to Faitanar, are named with arabisms bearing hydraulic allusions. The Favara Canal derives its name from al-fawwâra, "spring." Nicolau Primitiu, basing his argument on a single variant, Alfara (which he believes is a shortened form of Alfafar) posits a Germanic derivation. ⁽⁵⁷⁾

This is highly dubious reasoning, and the Arabic etymology gains further support from the presence of the form Favara in the Repartimiento and from the appearance of the primitive Arabic article Alfavara in a document of 1430. ⁽⁵⁸⁾ Rascanya is also an arabism, from râs, "head," and canya (from canna, canal). Here, though, the canal takes its name from the place it irrigates, called Rascayna (cayna, the diminutive of canna) in the Repartimiento. ⁽⁵⁹⁾

A repeated canal name in the Valencian region is Algirós (also spelled Aljiros, Algeros, Algiroz). It is the name of one of the three major branches of the Mestalla system in Valencia and of [229] an important canal near Alcira. Perhaps, too, the canal in Elche called Algorós is related etymologically. ⁽⁶⁰⁾ The derivation is from al-zurûb, the plural of zarb (from zariba, to flow). But in spite of the plural form it has a singular meaning, "the canal," just as almenara is derived from the plural form al-manâhir, "the canals." Even though the canals in question are not now drainage channels, they are related etymologically to azarbe (from al-zarb) and may originally have served that purpose. ⁽⁶¹⁾

Canals also take their names from other hydraulic expressions. One canal in Gandia is called Ador (turn), and a secondary channel of the Aljufia system in Murcia is called Zarahiche (cistern). ⁽⁶²⁾ Similarly named are the divisors of Elche called Aljupet (little cistern) and El Albellon (drain). ⁽⁶³⁾ Mills, too, frequently bear hydraulic names. The mill of Calduf (from alcaduf, by metathesis) on the Vernisa Canal in Gandia derived its name from the buckets of a water wheel. ⁽⁶⁴⁾ The Murcian mill called Tarquin ⁽⁶⁵⁾ must have been so named for good hydraulic reasons. Mills create backwaters, causing a silt deposit through a lowering in the velocity of the current.

The diversion dam and the canal -- the two most important visible symbols of irrigation -- lent their names to toponyms. Thus a place near Cullera was called El Azut, and the village of Burjassot (tower of the dam) in the Valencian huerta on the Moncada Canal similarly took its name from a dam. ⁽⁶⁶⁾ The canal lent its name to a river, the Guadasequies (river of the canals). ⁽⁶⁷⁾ The river Cenia, the northern boundary of the kingdom of Valencia, took its name from the sâniya, always a popular device in the province of Castellón. ⁽⁶⁸⁾ Numerous other hydraulic arabisms, notably those derived from springs ('ayn, al-hama) and wells (b'ir) dot the Spanish countryside. ⁽⁶⁹⁾ One such, of more than passing interest, is Titaguas, a Valencian village near Chelva that takes its name from the Berber tit, "spring," plural titduàn or titaguan, easily becoming confused with aguas, which was added as a reinforcement. ⁽⁷⁰⁾

1. See Caro Baroja, "Norias, azudas, aceñas," pp. 60-61.

2. Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 85. Ramifications of the multiplicity of channel terms are endless: Neuvonen quotes a line of Arabic which mentions a "canal which is called sâniya and which in Romance is called calicin [i.e., cauces]." He lists reguera, regadera, and aguaducho as additional synonyms.

3. Rossi, "Irrigazione nel Yemen," p 356.

4. Jaume Roig, Spill, 11. 14779-14782.

5. José Latour Brotons, Antecedentes de la primitiva Ley de Aguas (Madrid, 1955), p. 45.

6. Ibid., p. 45; Ruiz-Funes, Derecho consuetudinario de Murcia, p. 140; Diaz Cassou, Ordenanzas y costumbres, p. 63.

7. The assigning of a different name to each gradation of canal in a hierarchical distributory system has been standard in Mediterranean irrigation systems since Akkadian and Babylonian times. See Jorgen Laessoe, "The irrigation system at Ulhu, 8th century B.C.," Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 5 (1951), 25-26, on the variety and hierarchy of canal names: "Hirîtu seems to be a main canal from which smaller and narrower ditches branch off. iku, palgu, and atappu all seem to belong in this second category". In Babylonia, the larger canals were called narû, i.e. river, cf. Arabic nahr (R. J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology, II, 21). In Iraq today -- to cite but one example drawn from the Islamic world -- the main canal is called jadwal; the primary and secondary feeders bada and naharân; still smaller channels 'umud; followed by the equivalent of a Valencian cequiola, the mirriyân, which runs only the length of a plot, finally there is the sharûgh, or irrigation furrow (Fernea, Shaykh and Effendi, p 122). Three thousand years of continuity in irrigations terminology indicated by Babylonian naru, Arabic nahr, naharân, and Valencian almenara, from the same root (see below, nn. 15, 54) is truly impressive.

8. Caro Baroja, "Norias, azudas, aceñas," pp. 52-59.

9. F. W. Maitland described the instability of agrarian terminology in Norman England whereby Anglo-Saxon, French, and Latin terms were "rudely intermixed" during the transitional period following the Conquest and finally emerged as an organic whole as some synonyms perished and others survived; Domesday Book and Beyond (London, 1897), pp. 8-9. A similar situation was produced in Valencia after the Reconquest, with the difference that no kingdomwide standardized irrigation terminology ever evolved. Frequently Latin documents included both the arabism and the Romance equivalent in such phrases as "azutum sive resclosa" or "cequia sive aqueductus." But in the majority of Valencian documents the arabism was preferred to the Romance form; see documents of 1270 and 1318, where açut is declined in Latin (azutorum, azulo cequiae, azuta) -- Branchat, Tratado de derechos, III, pp 196, 202. The use of arabisms to describe institutions or artifacts of long establishment in Christian Spanish culture is perplexing to Neuvonen (Arabismos, p. 307). The problem, really, is not one simply of the long existence of a given object but of the relative value ascribed to it by each culture. See Bellver and Cacho's comments on the use of "cequia" for all open water-conducting ditches beside the continued use of the Latin canalis (in the derived forms canal, canalat) but only in the restricted sense of a roof gutter (Influencia, p. 45).

10. See Neuvonen, Arabismos, esp. intro, chap summaries, and concl., pp. 28-33, 81-83, 135-137, 257-260, 300-310. The percentage of agricultural (including irrigation) terms passing into Spanish in the three periods considered is constant: 13.2 percent (711 to mid-eleventh century), 9.6 percent (mid-eleventh to end of twelfth), and 10.1 percent (thirteenth century). Note also the lag between the generalization of a phenomenon in Al-Andalus and the diffusion of the arabism into the Romance vernaculars. Rice was grown in Spain from the eighth century on, but the use of the arabism arroz in Romance became commonly only after the great conquests, in the thirteenth century (ibid., p 164).

11. On açut see Neuvonen, Arabismos, pp. 132--133; Corominas, Diccionario, I, 352; Alcover, Diccionari, II, 87. Cf. the Granadan term maglaca (control gate?) from the Arabic ghalaqa, to close, cut off (Franquet y Bertrán, Ensayo, II, 178). Sadd is the common word for dam in modern Yemen (Rossi, "Irrigazione nel Yemen," p. 349).

12. On albellon, Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 253, the Castilian form, albollón, passed into that language through Aragonese. Also see Diaz Cassou, Huerta de Murcia, p. 226 n.1, and Ordenanzas y costumbres, p. 67, n.1. For use of this word in the context of irrigation, see ARV, Gobernación. 2214, 7th hand, fol. 46v (Mar. 26, 1416): "los albellons qui de present hi son per a obs de regar les dites terres" (re. Rabana Canal, in Játiva).

13. On alcaduf, Corominas, Diccionario, 1, 250-251; Neuvonen, Arabismos, 145--146; Alcover, Diccionari, I, 437; G. S Cohn, "La noria marocaine," p. 29 n. 1; Glick, "Medieval irrigation clocks," p. 426.

14. On aljup, Corominas, Diccionario, I, 137; Alcover, Diccionari, I, 505--506; Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 150.

15. On almenara, Corominas, Diccionario, I, 148; Dozy, Supplément, II, 728 (citing Makkarî's use of manâhir, meaning "canals").

16. Çabacequies, Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 245.

17. Cequia, Neuvonen, Arabismos, pp. 84-85, Corominas, Diccionario, I, 21; Alcover, Diccionari, IX, 851-852.

18. Marjal, Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 252; Alcover, Diccionari, VII, 254.

19. Noria, Corominas, Diccionario, III, 522--523; Neuvonen, Arabismos, pp. 131--132; Steiger, Contribución, p. 287; R. Dozy and W. H. Englemann, Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais derivés de l'arabe (Leiden, 1869), p. 195; Leopoldo de Eguílaz y Yanguas, Glosario etimológico de las palabras españolas de origen oriental (Granada, 1886), p. 465.

20. Safareig, Neuvonen, Arabismos, pp. 44-45; Corominas, Diccionario, IV, 791; Alcover, Diccionari, VII, 254.

21. Sinia, Neuvonen, Arabismos, pp. 34-35; Corominas, Diccionario, I, 21.

22. Tanda, Corominas, Diccionario, IV, 365-369. A word marked with an asterisk means that it is a hypothetical, but probable, form which has never been documented.

23. Tarquim, ibid., 387

24. Açarb, Corominas, Diccionario, I, 348, Alcover, Diccionari, I, 110; Dozy, Supplément, 1, 644; F Valls Taberner, Los privilegios de Alfonso X a la ciudad de Murcia (Barcelona, 1923), p. 59 (Apr. 8, 1272). See n. 62, below.

25. Ador, Chabas, Distribución de las aguas en 1244, p. 6; Corominas, Diccionario, 1, 41 (Aragon). In Yemen (Wadi Dahr), dauriyah is the modern word for turn (Rossi, "Irrigatione nel Yemen," p. 354).

26. Albala, Corominas, Diccionario, I, 81-82; Alcover, Diccionari, 1, 412; Altamira, "Mercado de agua," p. 150. Albalá is more typically the Castilian form; the Catalan variant albará was the common medieval term for a payment voucher.

27. Almahacen, Musso y Fontes, Riegos de Lorca, p 30, see also Corominas, Diccionario, I, 138-139.

28. Almatzem, Chabas, Distribución de las aguas en 1244, p. 6 The term was still in use 2 centuries later, in an inventory of divisors in Gandia (e g., "hun almatzem o partidor"): ARV, Gobernación, 2287, 14th hand, fol 2r, July 10, 1456. Maqsam is still a common term for divisor in Iran (Kerman); see Hans E. Wulff, The Traditional Crafts of Persia (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1966), p. 255. Compare the south Arabian expression maqâsim al-mâ', in the sense of diversion channels (Serjeant, "Some Irrigation Systems in Hadramawt," p 37). The other meaning of partidor -- an official in charge of dividing water -- is also found in southern Arabia in a word from the same root. For the muqassim al-dayri or "divider of the water" of Wâdi Dahr, Yemen, see Thomas J. Abercrombie, "Behind the Veil of Troubled Yemen," National Geographic Magazine, 125 (1964), 427.

29. Azumbre, Neuvonen, Arabismos, pp. 205-206, Corominas, Diccionario, I, 354; Rafael Altamira, Derecho consuetudinario y economía popular de la provincia de Alicante (Madrid, 1905), p. 80, Compare the forms tumen (1435) and tomin (1461) from Elche (Ibarra y Ruiz, Riego de Elche, pp 242, 238) and açumen (i 173) from Veruela (Aragon) (González Palencia, "Riegos de Veruela," p. 84).

30. Dula, Chabas, Distribución de las aguas en 1244, p. 7; Corominas, Diccionario, II, 206-207; Ibarra y Ruiz, Riego de Elche, p. 206. In modern Yemen (Sho' ûb) the turn is called daulah (Rossi, "Irrigazione nel Yemen," pp. 352, 354), the expression used by the eleventh-century geographer al-Bakrî to describe the irrigation turn at the oasis of Touzer (now in Tunisia); Dikr bilâd Ifrîqîya w'al-Magrib, M. de Slane, cd., 2nd ed. (Paris, 1913), p. 48. Dula means "turn" in the Canary Islands (Oliver Asín, Historia del nombre "Madrid," p. 200 n. 1). As a synonym of hila, see Altamira, "Mercado de agua," p. 149. Dula as a measurement was also used in colonial San Antonio, Texas, whose irrigators had emigrated from the Canaries in the eighteenth century, see Memorandum on the Spanish and Mexican Irrigation System of San Antonio (Austin, 1959), a pub. of the Water Division, Office of the Attorney General of Texas.

31. Jarique, Musso, Riegos de Lorca, pp. 57, 82. Jarique is related to the Medieval Castilian exarich, sharecropper (Neuvonen, Arabismos, pp. 128-129). For this social class see Eduardo de Hinajosa, "Mezquinos y exaricos," in Homenaje a Don Francisco Codera (Zaragoza, 1904), pp. 523-531, and González Palencia, "Riegos de Veruela," p. 83. Eguílaz (Glosario, p. 312, under axarique) cites an irrigation turn of the Oznar Canal (Granada) in 1575 providing that: "El tercer Domingo es de Benamohat y de los axariques. El cuarto Domingo es para Beni Muzahe y sus xariques." Benamohat and Beni Muzahe appear to be either place names or branch canals named, as in Murcia, for tribal groups. It may be, therefore, that in this case xarique is not a sharecropper but a sharer of water.

32. Jarro, Musso, Riegos de Lorca, p. 36; Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 171. In Yecla the official who times the turns is called the jarrero, i. e. the man in charge of the jarro. The jarrero uses a watch now, but his title recalls the original water clock. The jarro of Jumilla is divided into twelve horteras (from the Latin fortera, cup, bowl), a measure that also recalls the clepsydra, which usually emptied in 3-7 minutes (Ruiz-Funes, Derecho consuetudinario, pp 188, 190-191) See Glick, "Medieval irrigation clocks," p. 426.

33. Martava, Altamira, "Mercado de riego," p. 149. Martavero, an official, is the practical equivalent of acequiero, but literally it has the same meaning as atandador (from tanda), one in charge of regulating turns See also Alcover, Diccionari, VII, 268, and (for Novelda) Markham, Report, pp. 57-- 58. Markham observed (ibid., p. 58n.) that "the word is also used in Persian and Turkish to signify a time or turn, and in India."

34. Merancho, Diaz Cassou, Ordenanzas y costumbres, p. 56 n. 3.

35. Rafa, ibid., p 64, n. 2.

36. Sistar, in Cueco Adrián, La Font de la Vall de Segó, p. 42, n. 7.

37. Tahulla, Musso, Riegos de Lorca, p. 36; Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 250; Corominas. Diccionario, IV, 342. It was not unusual for a land measurement unit to be converted into a water unit, inasmuch as water was supposedly apportioned according to the superficies of land irrigated. Thus in Libnilla (Murcia) the water unit is the caballeria, the equivalent of a day's water (Ruiz-Funes, Derecho consuetudinario, pp. 178-179); as a measure of land it was the amount of land granted to a knight (cabellero).

38. Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 305. Measures, of which tahwila -- tahulla -- is an example, comprise 1 of the 2 categories of general exceptions to this rule (Arabismos, p. 306, n. 1)

39. The interior z was, in fact, pronounced as d in Andalusí Arabic, but the transition im to a is hard to explain (Corominas, Diccionario, IV, 368).

40. A more basic problem of tanzim into tanda is a conceptual one. The only form of n-z-m even remotely connected with irrigation is naztm, a series of wells dug in a line. Nazama, to put in order or arrange in a series, has a linear sense, whereas most of the other commonly used words for turn in Arabic -- daula daur, nûba ('addân, from 'adda, "to count," is an exception) -- have the sense of rotation, of returning to the same point in the cycle.

41. Markham (Report, p. 14) says that Makkarî called Murcia "al-Bostan." Compare references to the gardens (basâtîn) of Valencia in the Rawd al-mi'târ, Arabic text p. 47. See also the use of bustân in such expressions as shaykh al-bâsatîn (officer of the gardens) in the Ghûta of Damascus.

42. Contribución, p. 290; Steiger derives it, through a metathesis, from wâqi', place (?).

43. Musso, Riegos de Lorca, p. 30. In Iraq the waqt (pl. 'awqât), "time," is the period from sunrise to sunset, i.e., 12 hours (Fernea, Shaykh and Effendi, p. 125).

44. Musso, Riegos de Lorca, pp 35-36; Brunhes, L'Irrigation, p. 261, n. 3.

45. ARV, Procesos de Madrid, Letra S, 429.

46. Pedro de Alcalá, Vocabulario, ed. Paul de Lagarde (Gottingen, 1883), p. 157.

47. Marcelain Beaussier, Dictionnaire pratique arabe-français (Algiers, 1958) see under khait,

48. Martínez Morellá, Cartas de los reyes de Castilla a Orihuela, p. 58 (May 14, 1275). "E por fazer su oficio a todas las otras cosas que ouieron a fazer e que fagan limpiar las çequias e las filas e arrouas e los açarbes cada anyo de aquella acequia do fuere acequiero."

49. Regarding "fila de dos hulls" see ARV, Gobernación, 2297, 11th hand, fol. 18v (in the rubric it is also called "cequia de dos hulls"); also AMC, Libres de Consell, Nov. 22, 25, 1460. For "files de la doberia" see AMC, Libres de Consell, 35 (Nov. 25, 1436), and for "files de Na Orellana" AMC, Libres de Consell for Feb. 21, 1473. Fila in this usage appears to be more typical of Castellón than of Valencia.

50. Pascual Madoz é Ibañez, Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de España, 16 vols (Madrid, 1845--1850), I, 535. Regarding Riu dels Ulls: ulls, Castilian ojos (eyes), is a calc on the Arabic 'ayn, meaning both eye and spring; see Oliver Asín, Historia del nombre "Madrid," p. 172.

51. Asín Palacios, Contribución a la toponimia árabe de España (Madrid, 1944), p. 58.

52. With regard to the initial f and final t of  fait: compare riego dalffayat, dalfayt with the forms of "tailor" in the Repartimiento de Murcia (e.g., Johan Perez, alffayate, p. 163). A derivation from faid is less likely because Arabic final d almost always changes to d (and rarely to ç) but never to t (Steiger, Conrtibución, p. 164).

53. Compare the toponyms, Almaguer (from al-maghîd) in Alginet, and Alcanar (Novelda), both meaning "The Canal"; Manuel Sanchis Guarner, Introducció a la história lingüística de Valencia (Valencia, 1950), p. 90, and Asín Palacios, Toponimia árabe, p. 66).

54. There are no phonetic problems in this proposed etymology. See Steiger, Contribución, p 272, for the loss of the interior ha (his illustration is from the same root, manhar into almenara). Nicolau Primitiu ("Salterio toponímico: Paiporta y Faitanar," Almanaque "Las Provincias" [1925], p. 201) proposed a derivation from a collective form (ending in ar) of faitana (parallel semantically to Castilian hacienda) in the sense of a country house. The derived form would be parallel to campanar, quintanar, etc. But faitana (which he should have written *faitana) is apparently just a conjecture of Primitiu's (it does not appear in Alcover, Diccionari). The Murcian toponym Alfeitami (name of a diversion dam), could be a parallel case. It seems most likely a personal name (perhaps al-Fâtimi, "The Fatimid," or its diminutive), but could be a form of khait al-mi, thread of water (cf. Pedro de Alcala, n 46 above), which would be a close parallel to khait al-nahr.

55. Repartimiento de Murcia, pp. 55, 157.

56. Juan Torres Fontes, Medidas de superificie y de valoración en el Repartimiento de Murcia (Murcia, 1959), pp. 18--19.

57. "Molinería valenciana mijeval," pp. 702--704; the particle var, far, he explains, means watercourse. In reality Alfafara, which he thinks a related toponym, is an indisputable arabism meaning place where pottery is made (Asín Palacios, Toponimia árabe, p. 58).

58. On Favara, "Repartimiento de Valencia," p. 269 (A.D. 1240); Alfavara, ARV, Gobernación, 2241, 9th hand, fol. 34r (Aug. 11, 1430): "los cequiers de muncada de alfavara e de les altres cequies." Compare the Magribi toponym El Faouar, "The Spring"; Pierre Moreau, Le pays des Nefzaouas (Tunis, 1947), pl. 7, opp. p. 100).

59. Rascanya: qanâ or qanâya, Arabic for "canal"; e.g., Pedro de Alcalá, p. 137, canná, pl. canaguát, as in canná quibura, "canal maestre" (apparently without the connotation of irrigation, in contradistinction to çáguia, pl. çaguiát, "regadura," p. 377). Rascayna: Repartimiento de Valencia, pp.154 (A.D. 1237), 266 (AD. 1240). Rascanya is parallel to another common toponym, ras al-'ayn (fountainhead; Latin, caput aquae), as in Rasalany (Valencia; see Sanchis Guarner, Introducció, p. 90) and Ras-el-ain (Tunisia; see Moreau, Pays des Nefzaouas, pp. 141, 146).

60. The canal and the district it waters frequently have the same name. Algirós (in Valencia and Alcira, both) is well documented. For Algorós see Ibarra y Ruiz, Riego de Elche, p. 255,

61. Initial z into j is one of the few examples of this change (Steiger, Contribución, p. 145 n. 1). The final b loses its sonority and changes first to f (e.g., Aljarof, the form in the Repartimiento de Valencia, p. 480; Steiger, Contribución, p. 110) and then to s. The commentators have ignored this toponym, concentrating on the Portuguese forms algeroz, algiroz, aljaroz, meaning gutter. See Eguílaz, Glosario, p. 180; also Dozy and Engelmann (Glossaire, p. 125), who remark that mizrâb was the current expression for gutter in North Africa and cite Freytag's definition of zarb as "canalis aquae."

62. On Ador, Jaubert de Passa, Canales de riego, II, 165. On Zarahiche, i.e., zafariche to zahariche to zarahiche, by metathesis, Diaz Cassou, Ordenanzas y costumbres, p. 58.

63. On Aljupet, Ibarra y Ruiz, Riego de Elche, p 209. Cisterns were important landmarks and gave rise to numerous toponyms. See ibid., p 10 (Port d'Aljup) and Asín Palacios, Toponimia árabe, p. 62, Algibe On El Albellon, Ibarra y Ruiz, Riego de Elche, p 295.

64. On Calduf, Riegos de Alcoy: ordenanzas (Gandia, 1927), p. 2. Compare Asín Palacios, Toponimia árabe, p. ,51, Alcadoz

65. On Tarqumn, Diaz Cassou, Ordenanzas y costumbres, p. 82.

66. On El Azut, Archivo de la Corona de Aragon, reg. 64, fol 125v. On Burjassot. literally "the tower of the dam," see Asín Palacios, Toponimia árabe, p. 98. The burj was not necessarily a defense tower but, like torre in modern usage, also meant a country house, cf. the toponym in Islamic Córdoba, Fahs al-Sudd, field of the dam (Torres Balbás, "Contornos de las ciudades hispanomusulmanas," pp. 453, 485). The burj of Burjassot may be that which gave its name to the Alborg Canal, which was apparently within the limits of the village of Burjassot (ARV, Gobernación, 2268, 4th hand, fol, 8r. May 1, 1442). The açut in question may in reality have been only a divisor or a permanent canal check, inasmuch as Burjassot is not located on the river.

67. Asín Palacios, Toponimia árabe, p 111.

68. Ibid., p. 103

69. See Sanchis Guariler, Introducció, p. 90; Asín Palacios, Toponimia árabe, p. 94, Biar.

70. Julian Ribera, "Influencias berberiscas en el Reino de Valencia," El archivo, 1 (1886-1887), 171. Compare the name of the Moroccan town Tetuan.