Chapter 12 - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

"Irrigazione nel Yemen," pp. 352, 354), the expression used by the eleventh-century geographer al-
Bakrî to describe the irrigation turn at the oasis of Touzer (now in Tunisia); Dikr bilâd Ifrîqîya w'al-
Magrib, M. de Slane, cd., 2nd ed. (Paris, 1913), p. 48. Dula means "turn" in the Canary Islands (Oliver
Asín, Historia del nombre "Madrid," p. 200 n. 1). As a synonym of hila, see Altamira, "Mercado de
agua," p. 149. Dula as a measurement was also used in colonial San Antonio, Texas, whose irrigators
had emigrated from the Canaries in the eighteenth century, see Memorandum on the Spanish and
Mexican Irrigation System of San Antonio (Austin, 1959), a pub. of the Water Division, Office of the
Attorney General of Texas.
31. Jarique, Musso, Riegos de Lorca, pp. 57, 82. Jarique is related to the Medieval Castilian exarich,
sharecropper (Neuvonen, Arabismos, pp. 128-129). For this social class see Eduardo de Hinajosa,
"Mezquinos y exaricos," in Homenaje a Don Francisco Codera (Zaragoza, 1904), pp. 523-531, and
González Palencia, "Riegos de Veruela," p. 83. Eguílaz (Glosario, p. 312, under axarique) cites an
irrigation turn of the Oznar Canal (Granada) in 1575 providing that: "El tercer Domingo es de
Benamohat y de los axariques. El cuarto Domingo es para Beni Muzahe y sus xariques." Benamohat
and Beni Muzahe appear to be either place names or branch canals named, as in Murcia, for tribal
groups. It may be, therefore, that in this case xarique is not a sharecropper but a sharer of water.
32. Jarro, Musso, Riegos de Lorca, p. 36; Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 171. In Yecla the official who times
the turns is called the jarrero, i. e. the man in charge of the jarro. The jarrero uses a watch now, but his
title recalls the original water clock. The jarro of Jumilla is divided into twelve horteras (from the
Latin fortera, cup, bowl), a measure that also recalls the clepsydra, which usually emptied in 3-7
minutes (Ruiz-Funes, Derecho consuetudinario, pp 188, 190-191) See Glick, "Medieval irrigation
clocks," p. 426.
33. Martava, Altamira, "Mercado de riego," p. 149. Martavero, an official, is the practical equivalent of
acequiero, but literally it has the same meaning as atandador (from tanda), one in charge of regulating
turns See also Alcover, Diccionari, VII, 268, and (for Novelda) Markham, Report, pp. 57-- 58.
Markham observed (ibid., p. 58n.) that "the word is also used in Persian and Turkish to signify a time
or turn, and in India."
34. Merancho, Diaz Cassou, Ordenanzas y costumbres, p. 56 n. 3.
35. Rafa, ibid., p 64, n. 2.
36. Sistar, in Cueco Adrián, La Font de la Vall de Segó, p. 42, n. 7.
37. Tahulla, Musso, Riegos de Lorca, p. 36; Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 250; Corominas. Diccionario, IV,
342. It was not unusual for a land measurement unit to be converted into a water unit, inasmuch as
water was supposedly apportioned according to the superficies of land irrigated. Thus in Libnilla
(Murcia) the water unit is the caballeria, the equivalent of a day's water (Ruiz-Funes, Derecho
consuetudinario, pp. 178-179); as a measure of land it was the amount of land granted to a knight
(cabellero).
38. Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 305. Measures, of which tahwila -- tahulla -- is an example, comprise 1
of the 2 categories of general exceptions to this rule (Arabismos, p. 306, n. 1)
39. The interior z was, in fact, pronounced as d in Andalusí Arabic, but the transition im to a is hard to
explain (Corominas, Diccionario, IV, 368).
40. A more basic problem of tanzim into tanda is a conceptual one. The only form of n-z-m even
remotely connected with irrigation is naztm, a series of wells dug in a line. Nazama, to put in order or
arrange in a series, has a linear sense, whereas most of the other commonly used words for turn in
Arabic -- daula daur, nûba ('addân, from 'adda, "to count," is an exception) -- have the sense of