Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 11

ily concern by the peasant and his sons or
other members of the family; extra labour
may be required at harvest time and at
certain other seasons of the year. In some
areas three or four ploughlands are run
together as a unit ( buna ). Periodical redis-
tribution of the ploughlands among the
peasants of a village used to take place,
usually by lot, in some districts.
The main draught animal used on the
plateau is the ox. Donkeys and, especially in
‡ ūzistān, mules, and in the Persian Gulf
littoral, Miyāndoāb (in Ā £ arbāy ¡ ān),
and Mahābād (in Kurdistān), buffaloes,
and in Persian Balūčistān, the camel, are
also used. In some areas, notably Sīstān,
oxen are hired for ploughing to the culti-
vators by graziers. Where the soil is stiff
more than one pair of draught animals
may be required. Donkeys and camels
are the main pack-animals. Small bullock
carts are found in western Ā £ arbāy ¡ ān
and some of the Armenian villages in
Firaydan.
The plough ( ¶ ī ª ) used is of the hook
type having a large or small steel share.
The plough beam is linked to the yoke by
means of a rope sling. There is no mould
board and the soil is ripped open leaving
an open, coarse, cloddy tilth. There are
slight differences between the plough used
in (i) Fārs, Kirmān, and Sīstān, (ii) Ifahān,
Hamadān, Tehrān, and Ā £ arbāy ¡ ān,
and (iii) Gīlān and Māzandarān. Seed is
sown broadcast.
In addition to the plough, a kind of
harrow ( māla ) is used; it differs slightly in
shape in south and central Persia on the
one hand and north-west Persia on the
other. Two kinds of levelling board are
in use, a relatively large board drawn by
a draught animal, and a smaller board
(known in central Persia as katar ), which
is used for the preparation of irrigation
check banks, and operated by two men,
one pulling and the other pushing. Three

types of spade are used, one in Fārs,
which has a wooden cross bar, the sec-
ond in central Persia, which has a turned
footrest, and the third in Ā £ arbāy ¡ ān,
which has a rolled edge.
Grain is cut with a sickle ( dās ) which
has a plain cutting edge; scythes are used
in northern Ā £ arbāy ¡ ān, where they
were introduced from Russia at the end
of the nineteenth century. A small toothed
sickle is used for cutting grass and lucerne,
etc. Corn is tied into sheaves and left to
dry or carried straight to the threshing
floor ( ¶ armangāh ). Pod crops, such as
peas, beans, linseed, and carraway seed,
are mainly threshed by beating with rods;
and in those parts of the country where
draught animals are scarce, corn is also
threshed in this way. A threshing board,
the bottom surface of which is studded
with sharp pieces of flint stone held in
position by wooden wedges, is used to
thresh grain. It is attached by a rope to a
yoke and drawn, while a man stands on
it, in a circle by an ox or oxen or other
animal over the threshing floor. A thresh-
ing wheel or wain ( čūn,?čān ) is used, espe-
cially in north-eastern, central and south
Persia. This is a sledge-like carriage, usu-
ally drawn by two oxen with two sets of
rollers, which turn round as the sledge
beams slide over the sheaves. The rollers
carry sharp-edged steel discs, sometimes
with fine saw teeth, or have steel knives or
prongs with sharp edges, one roller having
the edges parallel to the axis, and the other
having them at right angles. In some parts
of Ā £ arbāy ¡ ān the wain has wooden
spokes. The third method of threshing is
for the grain to be trodden out by strings
of oxen, donkeys, or horses driven round
the threshing floor. Winnowing is done by
wooden forks, the grain being thrown six
or seven feet into the air. The grain drops
straight down while the chaff is carried by
the wind and settles on a separate heap.