Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 62

groups by settling them in the vicinity.
In any event, some nomadic groups had
already been occupied for some time in
growing rice in the flooded lands, and
sought to retain this profitable source of
income for themselves. In Rumeli, some
nomadic groups were simply registered as
čeltük ¡ i . Thus the concern of the state in
converting flooded lands into rice-growing
fields by preparing irrigation canals gave
rise to groups whose status was quite dif-
ferent from that of the rural population of
the Ottoman Empire in general.
When the conduits or ¶ ar s of har-
nessed waters were assigned as tīmār to
members of the military class, they were
entitled to get a tithe of the rice produc-
tion. But in addition, many of them,
imitating the state system, took half of
the rice production when they supplied
the seed and other expenses for irriga-
tion. Since this widespread practice often
caused abuse of the peasant's labour, and
shortages in the limited water supply, the
state tried to regulate and control this
kind of cultivation.
Also, rice cultivation and connected
irrigation works were extensively applied
in the mawāt lands reclaimed by members
of the ruling class and waf founders, both
large and small. The state, granting abso-
lute proprietary rights, encouraged such
land reclamation projects, which mostly
involved the discovery and harnessing of
water sources. In such cases, the ¶ ar s
were made the property of the individual.
But all such projects had to be submitted
and approved by the sultan, not only in
order to comply with the ª arī law, but
also for such practical considerations as the
protection of the reāyā against exploitation
of their labour and of their water sources.
The large-scale irrigation projects initiated
by the members of the ruling class in the
abandoned flooded areas in the Sakarya

river valley are particularly interesting in
this respect. In one such project, the pro-
moters proposed and asked the approval
of the sultan for constructing a dam on
the Sakarya river, and to excavate canals
17,000 £ irās (11.65 km) in length, and
estimated that the irrigated land would
take 75 mud (approx. 38.5 tons) of seed
to plant. The labour was expected to be
supplied by the free peasants of the area
in exchange for a half-share in the har-
vest, excluding the tithe due to the tīmār
holders. Cotton and other crops were also
expected to be cultivated on the reclaimed
land. Apart from the tithe to be paid to
the tīmār holders, and the profit accruing
to the reāyā , the promoters promised to
undertake the expenses of repairing the
caravan highway passing through this
flooded area and to construct a caravan-
serai and five fountains. The sultan gave
his approval to this project, subject to the
willingness of the reāyā of the area to work
on the reclaimed land.
We find numerous examples of such
irrigation and land reclamation projects
in the Ottoman empire, always made
subject to the approval of the sultan, and
made conditional on the consent of the
local population and tīmār holders to co-
operate. Such projects, with large poten-
tial yields, were almost always proposed
and realised as waf endowments. This
method was the predominant form of
land reclamation and irrigation in the
Ottoman Empire. Except for rice cultiva-
tion, the state seldom took a direct part in
organising such irrigation projects. Such
irrigation projects were undertaken more
extensively in the period of the rise of the
ayān and the local dynasties in the 18th
century. Under the impact of European
commercial expansion during the period,
they made efforts to put into cultivation
previously unused swampy lands.