Chapter 12 - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

This is highly dubious reasoning, and the Arabic etymology gains further support from the presence of
the form Favara in the Repartimiento and from the appearance of the primitive Arabic article Alfavara
in a document of 1430. (58) Rascanya is also an arabism, from râs, "head," and canya (from canna,
canal). Here, though, the canal takes its name from the place it irrigates, called Rascayna (cayna, the
diminutive of canna) in the Repartimiento. (59)
A repeated canal name in the Valencian region is Algirós (also spelled Aljiros, Algeros, Algiroz). It is
the name of one of the three major branches of the Mestalla system in Valencia and of [229] an
important canal near Alcira. Perhaps, too, the canal in Elche called Algorós is related etymologically.
(60) The derivation is from al-zurûb, the plural of zarb (from zariba, to flow). But in spite of the plural
form it has a singular meaning, "the canal," just as almenara is derived from the plural form almanâhir,
"the canals." Even though the canals in question are not now drainage channels, they are
related etymologically to azarbe (from al-zarb) and may originally have served that purpose. (61)
Canals also take their names from other hydraulic expressions. One canal in Gandia is called Ador
(turn), and a secondary channel of the Aljufia system in Murcia is called Zarahiche (cistern). (62)
Similarly named are the divisors of Elche called Aljupet (little cistern) and El Albellon (drain). (63)
Mills, too, frequently bear hydraulic names. The mill of Calduf (from alcaduf, by metathesis) on the
Vernisa Canal in Gandia derived its name from the buckets of a water wheel. (64) The Murcian mill
called Tarquin (65) must have been so named for good hydraulic reasons. Mills create backwaters,
causing a silt deposit through a lowering in the velocity of the current.
The diversion dam and the canal -- the two most important visible symbols of irrigation -- lent their
names to toponyms. Thus a place near Cullera was called El Azut, and the village of Burjassot (tower
of the dam) in the Valencian huerta on the Moncada Canal similarly took its name from a dam. (66) The
canal lent its name to a river, the Guadasequies (river of the canals). (67) The river Cenia, the northern
boundary of the kingdom of Valencia, took its name from the sâniya, always a popular device in the
province of Castellón. (68) Numerous other hydraulic arabisms, notably those derived from springs
('ayn, al-hama) and wells (b'ir) dot the Spanish countryside. (69) One such, of more than passing
interest, is Titaguas, a Valencian village near Chelva that takes its name from the Berber tit, "spring,"
plural titduàn or titaguan, easily becoming confused with aguas, which was added as a reinforcement.
(70)
Notes for Chapter Twelve
1. See Caro Baroja, "Norias, azudas, aceñas," pp. 60-61.
2. Neuvonen, Arabismos, p. 85. Ramifications of the multiplicity of channel terms are endless:
Neuvonen quotes a line of Arabic which mentions a "canal which is called sâniya and which in
Romance is called calicin [i.e., cauces]." He lists reguera, regadera, and aguaducho as additional
synonyms.
3. Rossi, "Irrigazione nel Yemen," p 356.
4. Jaume Roig, Spill, 11. 14779-14782.
5. José Latour Brotons, Antecedentes de la primitiva Ley de Aguas (Madrid, 1955), p. 45.
6. Ibid., p. 45; Ruiz-Funes, Derecho consuetudinario de Murcia, p. 140; Diaz Cassou, Ordenanzas y
costumbres, p. 63.
7. The assigning of a different name to each gradation of canal in a hierarchical distributory system has