Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
early 11th/17th century are the result of
efforts to solve this problem.
In the 11th/17th and 12th/18th cen-
turies the most important change in agri-
cultural conditions was brought about by
the spread of the systems of muāaa and
iltizām . There arose a new class of a a s,
ayān and derebeys in Rūmeli and Ana-
tolia who, holding possession of the land
for life, became in practice great land-
owners. Although Mamūd II succeeded,
after 1227/1812, in putting down the
great ayān s and derebeys, the village a a s
and the lesser ayān maintained themselves
as the ruling class in the social sphere. In
many areas the peasant had now sunk to
the position of tenant or share-cropper on
the lands held as muāaa by the a a s: in
this state of affairs is to be found the basic
reason for the peasant risings in the Bal-
kans in the 19th century.
Difficulties of communication meant
that agricultural products were in general
disposed of in local markets. Cereals were
distributed further afield only in areas
near the coasts or in the vicinity of cities
or along the great military routes. In the
8th/14th and 9th/15th centuries Venice
bought large quantities of cereals from
Western Anatolia, Thrace and Thessaly.
In the same period cotton and dried fruits
were exported from Western Anatolia to
countries in the north. From the 9th/16th
century onwards increased trade with
Western Europe led to an increase in the
export of the cotton and cotton goods of
Western Anatolia. In the 19th century,
the agricultural methods of the peas-
antry were dictated entirely by tradition.
In this field ethnographical observations
can be supplemented from the ānūns for
san ¡ as and notes in the registers con-
cerning agriculture and irrigation. The
mufaal defterler contain much material
on the crops grown in various areas and
their productivity; the various agricultural
implements are to be found listed in the
āī s' registers of effects ( metrūkāt ). The
Anatolian peasant divided his land into
three or two sections, and followed the
principle of leaving each fallow for two
years or one year. Important details on
the irrigation methods employed in the
Il ānid period in Anatolia are found in
the letters of Ra ª īd Dīn. In the Ottoman
period, in arid districts like Central Ana-
tolia and Diyārbakr there was a special
régime for irrigation.
The Ottomans were naturally
acquainted with Muslim works on ilm
al-filāa . The K. al-Filāa of · ay Abū
Zakariyyā Yayā b. al-Awwām was
translated into Turkish in 998/1599
by Muafa b. Luf Allāh. Two works
by Ottoman authors were well-known:
Rawna-i būstān by ā ¡¡ Ibrāhīm b.
Meemmed, and fi arsnāme by Kemānī,
composed in 1047/1637. Both these works
are concerned with the growing of fruit
trees, and contain chapters on the soil,
planting, pruning, grafting, the diseases
of trees and their treatment. The author
of the Rawna-i būstān discussed in a final
section the gathering and keeping of fruit;
he had himself, he says, made an orchard
near Edirne and added to the data of
topics on filāa what he had learned from
experience.
(H. İnalcık)
v.—India
This section offers a survey of agricul-
ture in India during the mediaeval period,
i.e. , from the time of the arrival of the
Muslims to the British conquest.
1.— Agriculture
The natural setting of agriculture in
India, despite various important varia-
tions, displays a surprising degree of uni-
formity. The larger part of the country
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