Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 35

and the holders of the iās under the
Ayyūbids and the Māmlūks to dig and
clean the canals and to maintain the
irrigation dams (the ¡ usūr ). The sources
provide us with ample information about
the efforts of the sultans in Egypt in dig-
ging and cleaning canals. The irrigation
dams (the ¡ usūr ), which were of para-
mount importance for the irrigation of
the fields, were classified into two types
in mediaeval Egypt: the small irrigation
dams ( al- ¡ usūr al-baladiyya ) and the great
irrigation dams ( al- ¡ usūr al-sulāniyya ). The
first were important for conveying water
from one field to another in the village.
Each mua (holder of an iā ) with his
clerks was responsible for the upkeep of
these irrigation dams within the confines
of his iā. As for the great irrigation dams
which were constructed for the benefit of
the provinces, the sultan was responsible
for them, at least in theory. In practice,
especially under the Mamlūk sultans, the
mua s assisted the sultan in the construc-
tion of this type of dam by supplying peas-
ants, oxen, harrows and tools.
Because of the importance of the great
irrigation dams, both the Ayyūbid and
the Mamlūk sultans used to select dis-
tinguished and able amīrs and officials to
supervise the work of their maintenance.
Al-Nābulusī (d. 660/1261) states in the
Kitāb Luma al-awānīn al-muiyya that
every year the Ayyūbid sultan al-Malik
al-Kāmil used to send him with 3 or 4
amīrs to the ⁄ īza province during the
flood period in order to keep the dams of
that province in good condition. It seems
that the Ayyūbid sultan sent officials
like al-Nābulusī to other Egyptian prov-
inces for the same purpose. Under the
Mamlūks there was an office called ka ª f
al- ¡ usūr (office of inspection of irrigation
dams) for each province in Egypt. The
holder of this office, called kā ª if al- ¡ usūr ,
was an amīr who was aided by assistants in

the construction and maintenance of the
irrigation dams in the province under his
charge.
Each year before the advent of the Nile
flood, not only had the canals to be dug
and the irrigation dams to be constructed
and repaired, but also the land to be cul-
tivated had to be prepared. The methods
of that preparatory work as well as the
tools used were more or less the same
traditional ones known to have been used
by the Egyptian peasants for thousands of
years. As for irrigation, al-Nuwayrī and
al-Marīzī state that when the Nile rose
during the flood period, the water cov-
ered all cultivated lands. One could only
reach the villages, which were established
on hills and mounds, by boat or on the
great irrigation dams. When the soil had
had sufficient water, the ¶ awlī s (stewards)
and the ª ay ¶ s (village headmen) super-
vised the cutting off of the irrigation dams
from specified places at certain times in
order to draw off water from the fields,
thus letting it flow benefit other places.
The crops which were cultivated after
the Nile flood season in mediaeval Egypt
did not need any more irrigation than their
inundation during the flood period. This
was the most common method of irriga-
tion, called bi 'l-say by al-Nābulusī. The
last term is still used by the contemporary
fallā to denote irrigation without artificial
implements. Crops watered in this man-
ner were called “winter crops” in order
to distinguish them from the summer ones
which the peasants began sowing during
the Coptic month Baramhāt (February-
March) and which relied on irrigation
by artificial means such as water-wheel,
shadoof.
Al-Ma ¶ zūmī and al-Marīzī distin-
guish between the winter and summer
crops when discussing the times of sowing
and harvesting. al-Ma ¶ zūmī states that
the winter crops were wheat ( am ), barley