Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 54

and channels ( ¡ adāwil ) which belonged
to them, according to established cus-
tom. He was to see that the water of the
Zāyanda Rūd reached all the districts
round Ifahān which had a water right
( a āba ) in turn and according to the
share customarily allocated to them from
ancient times. The appointment and
dismissal of those in charge of the mādī s
( mādīsālār s) was his responsibility. He was
also charged with the decision of disputes
and claims concerning the water of the
river, though certain disputes of a general
nature affecting all the landowners and
peasants were referred, according to the
royal order, to the wazīr of the supreme
dīwān ; in such cases, the kalāntar, mustawfī
and wazīr of Ifahān would go with the
mīrāb and the wazīr of the supreme dīwān
to the districts, examine the mādī s, canals,
channels and runnels and decide the
a āba of each district on the basis of
the dīwān registers and settle any claims
according to common sense, custom and
the practice of former years. In accor-
dance with this practice, many orders and
decrees ( arām wa akām ) had apparently
been issued and had become customary
practice. Apart from the customary dues
( rusūm ) which the mīhrāb received in each
district on account of the first water given
to wheat ( ¶ āk āb ) and the water given to
wheat when it was nearly ripe ( dūn āb ),
a small amount ( adrī ) was allocated to
him by the ¶ āa administration ( sarkār-i
¶ āa-i ª arīfa ) in cash and kind, which he
received annually. The accounts of Euro-
pean travellers who visited the afawid
court also show the mīrāb to have been an
important official. Tavernier states that
his office was one of the best offices of the
court and much sought after, and he who
obtained it was obliged to give large pres-
ents. Chardin writes that his emoluments
amount to 4,000 tūmāns per annum.
Apart from the great rivers, water man-
agement was carried out by small-scale

local efforts. In the case of the lesser rivers,
anāts and springs, the administration and
control of the water was normally in the
hands of the users. They might or might
not appoint a mīrāb , who might also have
assistants whose duty was to supervise the
allocation of the water to the users served
by the individual canals. In some districts,
a mīrāb was appointed only when water
was abnormally scarce. He and his assis-
tants were paid by dues collected locally
or sometimes by a share of the crop.

Irrigation and society
Although it is difficult to generalise on
the subject of irrigation in Persia, some
few observations can be made on the
influence which irrigation has had on
society. It was possible through irrigation
to introduce new crops and to intensify
and diversify agriculture. This agricul-
tural specialisation became the basis of
the flourishing civilisations which devel-
oped at different periods in the history of
Persia. But this process was not uniform
over the whole country. Generally speak-
ing, the exploitation of water resources
on the plateau would seem to have been
more intensive than in the periphery or in
regions with a concentration of nomadic
or semi-nomadic tribes. The early centu-
ries of Islam were marked by the growth
of cities and towns, round which there
was, in many cases, an expanding area of
irrigated land, the agricultural surplus of
which provisioned the cities and towns.
The list of the crops grown in the 3rd/9th
and 4th/10th centuries given in the work
of the Muslim geographers bears witness
to a highly-developed agriculture, which
depended on irrigation. In the later centu-
ries also, agriculture flourished from time
to time, though seldom over the whole
of the country at the same time. Periods
of expansion alternated with periods of
recession, which were the result of natural
calamities or political vicissitudes. With the