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almahacen undivided water for common use Lorca - al-mahzan storehouse, deposit almatzem divisor Gandia partidor al-miqsâm divider azumbre water unit Novelda - thumn 1/8 dula turn, water unit Gandia, Elche, Alicante tanda, hila daula, turn, rotation, alternation jarique sharer of water Lorca - sharîk partner jarro water measurement unit martava turn Alicante, Novelda Lorca - jarra cup, jar tanda, dula martaba rank; arrangement in regular sequence merancho drainage ditch Murcia azarbe marj meadow rafa canal check Murcia parada raf' raising up sistar divisor Vall de Segó partidor shatr, shitra (?) tahulla measure of land Murcia jovada, fanega water measurement unit Partition; division in 2 equal parts tahwila field piece of land Lorca caballeria tahwila field piece of land If these generalizations are applied to words of presumed but unproven Arabic etymology, it is possible to make some guesses merely on the basis of whether the concept was developed outside [226] the Islamic framework. Thus tanda, in spite of phonetic difficulties in Corominas' derivation, is probably an arabism. (39) Tanda and tanta do not mean the same thing; tanzim comes much closer. (40) The fact that all of its synonyms (dula, ador, martava) are arabisms suggests that the concept of the turn was unknown or not highly developed among Christians. Likewise sistar from shatara, in spite of the infrequently found change from sh to s, is attractive because it means the same as partidor. Almatzem, the local variant for partidor in Gandia, provides a parallel case. (Vall de Segó and Gandia were among the relatively few irrigated areas in the medieval kingdom of Valencia where there were significant numbers of Muslim irrigators.) ARABIC THEMES IN ROMANCE VERNACULAR The expressions for the typical irrigation land-use patterns, huerta and vega, both seem to bear the Islamic imprint. It is probable that huerta is a translation of the Arabic, bustân, both words meaning "garden." (41) Vega is of uncertain origin, but Arnald Steiger believes it to be an arabism. (42) The irrigation system of Lorca preserves two interesting measures, casa de agua and tiempo de agua, both probably of Islamic ancestry. A royal privilege of September 23, 1268, provides that the water of Lorca is to be divided "communally, by days and by times" ("comunamente por dias y por tiempos"). The concept of a "time" of water recalls the Arabic waqt, used in the same way (as a unit of water) in Iraq. (43) Also in Lorca, a casa (house) is said to be twelve hours of water, each day being divided into two "houses." If this expression is in fact medieval it seems quite clearly to be a translation of dâr, "house," which, in this case, is a dialectal pronunciation of daur, "turn." In the Saharan oasis of El
Outaïa a dâr is, similarly, twelve hours of water. (44) The term expressing the standard unit of water measure in most of the kingdom of Valencia -- the fila or hilo, "thread," of water -- has proven enigmatic to generations of scholars: they have neither understood the rationale of the measurement nor [227] have they explained what a "thread" has to do with water. The term "thread of water" was known in Andalusí Arabic. In a document of 1223 (619 H.) describing a water dispute between two towns near Morvedre, the measurement unit is the khait, or thread. (45) The only other pre-modern source known to me that corroborates this usage is Pedro de Alcalá's translation of kait min mi (thread of water) as corriente venaje de agua (source-current of water). (46) A modern Arabic-French dictionary published in Algiers, and thus reflecting Magribi usage, defines khait as "saignée a un canal d'irrigation, rigole d'arrosement" (47) that is, not a measure, but the ditch itself. This usage corresponds to an alternative use of fila in Valencia with the meaning of ditch or canal, synonymous with cequia but perhaps connoting a smaller channel. There is another example of the same term expressing both a liquid measure and a channel. In thirteenth-century Murcia arrova, usually a liquid measure (of olive oil, for example) also had the sense of a channel. Alfonso X of Castile ordered the sobrecequiero of Orihuela to look to the cleaning of the cequias, filas, arnouas, and azarbes. (48) The medieval documentation, especially that of Castellón, provides numerous examples of important canals called filas: for example, "la fila dels dos hulls," the "files de la doberia" (that is, adobenia, tannery), and "les files de Na Orellana." (49) That the Arabic equivalent khait was used in the same way is clear from two toponyms previously misunderstood. In the town limits of Alberic there is a canal named Alfait with its origin in the same springs that give rise to the Riu dels Ulls. (50) Miguel Asín Palacios derived Alfait from al-faid, "stream," from the verb "to overflow," so called because the head is augmented in times when run-off water infiltrates into it. (51) In view of the literalism displayed by medieval Spaniards -- Arabs and Christians alike -- in irrigation terminology, it is much simpler to derive Alfait from al-khait, "thread" (in the sense of fila, "ditch"). (52) Naming a canal "The Canal" was by no means uncommon in the Valencian region. (53) An analogous development is the name of Faitanar, one of the main canals of the Valencian huerta; it is quite clearly [228] derivable from Arabic, khait al-nahr ("thread of the river" in the sense of a canal diverted from the river), in spite of contrived efforts to find a Romance derivation for it. (54) Several passages of the Repartimiento of Murcia allude to "irrigation of alfayt" (that is, "riego de çequia et dalffayat, se reguen dalfayt" (55) ). The editor, possibly following Asín in associating alfayt with al-faid, understands the term to be flood irrigation (crecida). (56) For reasons already indicated, a derivation from faid is much less likely than from khait; therefore "riego de equia et dalffayat" most likely means, simply, irrigation from a large channel and a smaller, secondary one. HYDRAULIC PLACE NAMES IN VALENCIA AND MURCIA Many of the arabisms discussed above also appear in place names. I shall not attempt to present a complete description of all toponyms having to do with irrigation; enumeration here is limited largely to arabisms as names of hydraulic appurtenances, such as canals and divisors, in order to give a graphic illustration of the Islamic imprint on irrigation. Of the main canals of the huerta of Valencia two, in addition to Faitanar, are named with arabisms bearing hydraulic allusions. The Favara Canal derives its name from al-fawwâra, "spring." Nicolau Primitiu, basing his argument on a single variant, Alfara (which he believes is a shortened form of Alfafar) posits a Germanic derivation. (57)
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Page 3 and 4: 2) albellon, "sewer, drain," Arabic
Page 5: Arabism Meaning Major variants açu
Page 9 and 10: een standard in Mediterranean irrig
Page 11 and 12: "Irrigazione nel Yemen," pp. 352, 3
Page 13: 1959), pp. 18--19. 57. "Molinería

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