Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 59

filled with water; when the vessel itself is
full and sinks to the bottom of the tank,
a stipulated fraction of the time-share in
the water is finished. When the water
comes from a basin with vertical sides,
one may use a rule whose length is equal
to the basin's depth and which is gradu-
ated, i.e. it bears notches whose spacing
corresponds to a given volume of water.
Other methods are still in use. When the
share of water supply, whose duration
and periodicity vary according to the dif-
fering regions and, of course, according to
the amount of water available, comes to
an end, the arrival channel is blocked up
with a mere clod of earth, or a rudimen-
tary sluice-valve, under the control of a
person responsible, who may be a child.
Given the fact that periods of persistent
drought are far from rare and often take
on catastrophic proportions when the
wells and springs become totally dried
up, the people are driven to perform a
certain number of ceremonies of a sym-
pathetic magical character in the hope of
getting rain. The most widespread, with
variations, comprises the making of a kind
of doll out of the wooden scoop normally
used for ladling water and the parading
of it round the villages suffering from
drought, whilst pronouncing incantations
and sprinkling the doll with water. In
Berber regions, the ceremony ends with a
prayer in which the name of Allāh is asso-
ciated with a personnage who may be an
ancient god, one of whose names, tl ∞ enža
(and vars.) is patently derived from that of
the scoop, a ∞ nža ; the doll is also called
taslit unzar , “the rain's bride”, with anzar
possibly the name of a male fertility god.
Numerous other studies have been made
of these rites in North Africa in general,
in which the mannikin or image carried
round the villages bears differing names.

8. Irrigation in the Ottoman
Empire
The Ottomans followed the detailed
provisions of the Islamic law according to
the anafī school, as exemplified mainly
in the Kitāb iyā al-mawāt and the ha al-
ª urb . The basic notion is that water, like
wild vegetation and fire, is mubā , that is,
open to the use of the public at large. Seas,
large-size lakes, great rivers, and subter-
ranean waters are considered to belong
absolutely to this category. Everyone is
free to make use of these waters so long
as no harm is entailed for anyone else.
In this case, the individuals had to bear
all the necessary labour and expense. But
usually the state was responsible for large-
scale waterworks on the great rivers. For
that purpose it was permitted to make use
of public revenues except for adaa . If the
state treasury was unable to finance such
works, which were considered essential to
the public good, the state could appoint a
superintendent ( nāir ), who was authorised
to employ the local population, if neces-
sary by force, to construct them.
Proprietorship was recognised over
certain types of waters which were regu-
lated and protected. Mamlūk or privately
owned waters were distinguished as either
nahr āmm , in which the waters remaining
after use by the owners were free for pub-
lic use, and nahr ¶ ā , where the water
was exclusively for the use of the own-
ers. · ufa , pre-emptive right, is in effect
in the second case. The reclamation of
waste land was legally recognised for indi-
viduals, Muslims or £ immī s, who might
dig out water-channels ( ¶ ar or ¡ adwal )
or wells, or who might find a spring or
drained flooded land. In the anafī
school, such ownership is established only
with the permission of the imām or sultan,
with the condition that the reclamation
process be completed within three years.
In the Ottoman Empire possession rights (Ed.)