Chapter 12 - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

otation, of returning to the same point in the cycle.
41. Markham (Report, p. 14) says that Makkarî called Murcia "al-Bostan." Compare references to the
gardens (basâtîn) of Valencia in the Rawd al-mi'târ, Arabic text p. 47. See also the use of bustân in such
expressions as shaykh al-bâsatîn (officer of the gardens) in the Ghûta of Damascus.
42. Contribución, p. 290; Steiger derives it, through a metathesis, from wâqi', place (?).
43. Musso, Riegos de Lorca, p. 30. In Iraq the waqt (pl. 'awqât), "time," is the period from sunrise to
sunset, i.e., 12 hours (Fernea, Shaykh and Effendi, p. 125).
44. Musso, Riegos de Lorca, pp 35-36; Brunhes, L'Irrigation, p. 261, n. 3.
45. ARV, Procesos de Madrid, Letra S, 429.
46. Pedro de Alcalá, Vocabulario, ed. Paul de Lagarde (Gottingen, 1883), p. 157.
47. Marcelain Beaussier, Dictionnaire pratique arabe-français (Algiers, 1958) see under khait,
48. Martínez Morellá, Cartas de los reyes de Castilla a Orihuela, p. 58 (May 14, 1275). "E por fazer su
oficio a todas las otras cosas que ouieron a fazer e que fagan limpiar las çequias e las filas e arrouas e
los açarbes cada anyo de aquella acequia do fuere acequiero."
49. Regarding "fila de dos hulls" see ARV, Gobernación, 2297, 11th hand, fol. 18v (in the rubric it is
also called "cequia de dos hulls"); also AMC, Libres de Consell, Nov. 22, 25, 1460. For "files de la
doberia" see AMC, Libres de Consell, 35 (Nov. 25, 1436), and for "files de Na Orellana" AMC, Libres
de Consell for Feb. 21, 1473. Fila in this usage appears to be more typical of Castellón than of
Valencia.
50. Pascual Madoz é Ibañez, Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de España, 16 vols (Madrid,
1845--1850), I, 535. Regarding Riu dels Ulls: ulls, Castilian ojos (eyes), is a calc on the Arabic 'ayn,
meaning both eye and spring; see Oliver Asín, Historia del nombre "Madrid," p. 172.
51. Asín Palacios, Contribución a la toponimia árabe de España (Madrid, 1944), p. 58.
52. With regard to the initial f and final t of fait: compare riego dalffayat, dalfayt with the forms of
"tailor" in the Repartimiento de Murcia (e.g., Johan Perez, alffayate, p. 163). A derivation from faid is
less likely because Arabic final d almost always changes to d (and rarely to ç) but never to t (Steiger,
Conrtibución, p. 164).
53. Compare the toponyms, Almaguer (from al-maghîd) in Alginet, and Alcanar (Novelda), both
meaning "The Canal"; Manuel Sanchis Guarner, Introducció a la história lingüística de Valencia
(Valencia, 1950), p. 90, and Asín Palacios, Toponimia árabe, p. 66).
54. There are no phonetic problems in this proposed etymology. See Steiger, Contribución, p 272, for
the loss of the interior ha (his illustration is from the same root, manhar into almenara). Nicolau
Primitiu ("Salterio toponímico: Paiporta y Faitanar," Almanaque "Las Provincias" [1925], p. 201)
proposed a derivation from a collective form (ending in ar) of faitana (parallel semantically to
Castilian hacienda) in the sense of a country house. The derived form would be parallel to campanar,
quintanar, etc. But faitana (which he should have written *faitana) is apparently just a conjecture of
Primitiu's (it does not appear in Alcover, Diccionari). The Murcian toponym Alfeitami (name of a
diversion dam), could be a parallel case. It seems most likely a personal name (perhaps al-Fâtimi, "The
Fatimid," or its diminutive), but could be a form of khait al-mi, thread of water (cf. Pedro de Alcala, n
46 above), which would be a close parallel to khait al-nahr.
55. Repartimiento de Murcia, pp. 55, 157.
56. Juan Torres Fontes, Medidas de superificie y de valoración en el Repartimiento de Murcia (Murcia,