1

The Palace and the Garden: The connection between the agricultural milieu and

power structures within Islamic Iberia.1

John Tighe (jtighe@tcd.ie)2

‘We'll lounge beneath the pomegranates, palm trees, apple trees, under every lovely, leafy thing, and walk

among the vines...wells that emitted water in streams from their mouths like rivers’-Solomon Ibn Gabirol, The

Palace and the Garden.3

The so-called ‘garden poetry’, which flourished in al-Andalus in the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries, was a testament to the ability of both the state and individual communities to

produce fertile fields in place of aridness. To do this, they incorporated the techniques of

irrigation e.g. aqueducts and canals, which the Romans had left, and expanded the system,

as Watson argued ‘‘The Islamic contribution was less in the invention of new devices than in

the application on a much wider scale of devices...’.4 The above description by the Jewish

Andalusi poet Ibn Gabirol of the gardens of the Alhambra is a realisation in literary form of

the fertility and water management systems employed in Islamic Iberia. Although it is an

integral part to this subject, it is impossible to go into the intricacies of Islamic land law and

divisions in this article.5 The focus of this article will be on the tools of the irrigation system,

the intellectual milieu and its associated physical structures which created and maintained

it.6

1 I would like to thank the Societa Friulana di Archaeolgia for allowing me to speak to their society in

Udine in June 2015. Furthermore, I would like to thank Anita Pinagli and Giulia Cesarin 2PhD candidate, Trinity College, Dublin- jtighe@tcd.ie. Academia- https://tcd.academia.edu/JohnTighe

3 Solomon Ibn Gabirol, The Palace and the Garden quoted in Menocal, Maria Rosa, Visions of al-

Andalus in Maria Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin and Michael Sells (eds.) , The literature of al-Andalus, (Cambridge: 2006 (2000), pp.1-2. 4 Watson, Andrew M., Agricultural innovation in the Early Islamic World, (Cambridge: 2008

(1983)),p.108. 5 For more information see Academia.edu,

https://www.academia.edu/9217938/Concept_of_Land_in_Islamic_Iberia_Notes_for_talk_, (Accessed 8

th November 2015); for issues of inheritance see Pearl, David, Muslim Personal Law, (London 1989

(1987)) and Schacht, Joseph, An Introduction to Islamic law, (Oxford: 1982 (1964)). Although what must be noted is that In the Muslim countries the size of land-holdings varied widely with peasant-owned lands existed side-by-side with large estates. 6 There is no space in this article to expand on the many tools used within the irrigation system,

namely the qanat and the qaria. Further information on these can be found in Rotolo, Antonio,

2

The experimentation and the ‘Green’ revolution led to an increased agricultural output. While

the effects of this were no doubt revolutionary, the term itself suggests a quick transition,

which can be countered in two ways, those being the sheer size of the Dar el-Islam, and the

fact that rural communities of farmers tend to be some of the most conservative people in

society. Due to this, it is not advantageous for them to make decisions which may impact on

their very survival.7 A further assistance in this diffusion was the fact that the caliph was

religiously obliged to promote the construction of irrigations systems for agricultural use

across the Dar-el-Islam.8 This period of cultural openness led to the transmission of ideas

from Roman and Byzantine agricultural traditions to the Islamic one. This began to go into

decline in the later part of the epoch due to ecological, but also socio-political reasons.

This expansion of irrigation practices across Iberia allowed the growth of tropical plants,

otherwise unsuited to the climate of the peninsula, including cotton and sugar. Another crop

plant, sorghum, is important as not only was it more drought resistant than many of the grain

plants grown before in Iberia, it also illustrates the interaction of the two religious

communities in convivencia. This is shown through its distribution right into Christendom.

Galloway wrote one of the main monographs on The Sugar Cane Industry: An historical

geography from its origins to 1914, which while more focused on the more modern aspects

of the industry, does provide a decent synopsis of sugar in Iberian during the Islamic epoch.9

Drainage Galleries in the Iberian Peninsula during the Islamic period, Journal of Water History, 5 (2013), pp. 7 Tighe, John, The inter-relationship of agricultural systems and power structure in Islamic Iberia,

c.AD900-1300, unpublished MPhil Thesis, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, 2014, p.51. 8 Mitteraur, Michael (translated by Gerald Chapple) Why Europe? The medieval origins of its special

path, (London: 2010), p.14. 9 Galloway, J.H., The Sugar Cane Industry; An historical geography from its origins to 1914,

(Cambridge: 1989).

3

Figure 1 Fig(Left) Image of sugar plant and (Right) Map of full extent of sugar crop growth in the Western Mediterranean.10

While it may have been introduced to the west in the century after the conquest the first

reference to sugar cane being cultivated in Iberia comes from the Calendar of Cordoba,

which denotes all the major agricultural processes for the year.11 It discussed how sugar

cane is harvested in November and February, planted in March and begins to grow in

September.12 It has been argued that this was a fiscal document, that the varying sowing

and harvest times made it difficult for the state to take its share in tax, further granting

greater autonomy to the peasant communities.13

Ibn al-Awwam talks of three sugar harvests, that of the cane itself and subsequently of two

rattoon crops.14 He goes further saying that the crop was grown as far north as Castellon,

arguably the most northerly point at which sugar has ever been grown, due to its climatic

sensitivities.15 These sensitivities include its threshold being twenty-one degrees Celsius,

with a temperature of between twenty-seven and thirty-eight degrees being optimal, while

10

Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, Ms. Arabe 2771, fol.184r; Watson, Agricultural innovation, (Cambridge: 2008 (1983)),p. 11

Galloway, The Sugar Cane, (Cambridge: 1989), p.34. 12

Calendar of Cordoba by ‘Arīb ibn Sa‘id (translation by John Brogden) in Schulz-dornburg, http://www.schulz-dornburg.info/english/Presse/Cordoba-Grafe.html (26th July 2014). Its author, Arib ibn Sa’d, was secretary fo the royal chancellery of the Umayyad caliph al-Hakam II. 13

San José, Carmen Trillo A social analysis of irrigation in Nazari Granada: (13th-15

th centuries),

Journal of Medieval History, 31 (2005), p.169. 14

Ibn al-‘Awwām Kitāb al-Filāḥa, 2 vols. Edited, with a Spanish translation by J. A. Banqueri, (Madrid:1802), Vol.1, p.392. 15

Watson, Agricultural innovation,(Cambridge: 2008 (1983)),p.28.

4

growth stops entirely between eleven and thirteen degrees, depending on the strain.16 Its

tropical background meant that in al-Andalus it had to be watered between every four and

eight days.17 Sugar was one of the few foodstuffs in the Middle Ages which needed

chemical processing, its manufacture necessitated a high level of technological competence

in its refining through different processes, and as such unlike milling, it was completely

impossible for local communities to set up, so from the very start the State played a pivotal

role in the establishment of sugar factories.18 This, once more, shows the role and interest of

the state in promoting agricultural output of the rural areas. In contrast, sugar cane became

so marginalised after the conquest that James II of Aragon (1260-1327) had to send a

delegation to Sicily to try and re-introduce the crop to Iberia, while Frederick II of Sicily

(1194-1256), recently conquered from Muslim forces, had to send to the Holy land for sugar

cane seeds and experts in efforts to re-introduce the crop but had no long-term success.19

The tradition in al-Andalus of agronomical treatises that were patronised by Islamic rulers is

critical, and as agricultural texts it is imperative to place these within the socio-agricultural

and economic life of al-Andalus. Consequently, drainage galleries may not be seen outside

of the modes of production.20 In the period of this study, particularly during the period of the

Taifa kings, at least ten books of filaha were written: the Anonymous Andalusi, Al-Zahrāwi,

Ibn Wāfid, Ibn Bassāl, Ibn Hajjāj, Abu ‘l-Khayr, Al-Tighnarī, Ibn al-‘Awwām, Ibn al-Raqqām

and Ibn Luyun.21 Many of these men were polymaths, Ibn Hajjāj was a wazīr, a

representative of the state, thus showing the importance of one to the other. Only two, Ibn

Bassal and Ibn al-‘Awwām seem to have been solely interested in husbandry.22 al-‘Awwām

gives some useful information to new landowners and farmers, in that he contended that

16

Galloway, The Sugar Cane, (Cambridge: 1989), p.14. 17

Watson, Agricultural innovation,(Cambridge: 2008 (1983)), p.103. 18

Al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. and Hill, Donald R., Islamic technology: An illustrated history, (Cambridge:1986), p.221. 19

Watson, Agricultural innovation, (Cambridge: 2008 (1983), p.66. 20

Rotolo, Antonio, Drainage Galleries in the Iberian Peninsula during the Islamic period, Journal of Water History, 5 (2013), pp.2-3 21

Fitzwilliam-Hall, Introductory survey , An Introductory survey of the the Arabic books of filaha and farming almanacs, p.5. 22

Ibid., p.6.

5

repeated sowing of beet in a saline soil will eventually remove all salinity from the soil,

allowing it to be cultivated. Furthermore, he warns against the repeated planting of grain

crops, especially wheat and grain, as they exhaust and deplete the soil of nutrients.23 This

helps when you practice the coltura promiscua, but as many Christians practices the mono-

agriculture of grain crops both for foodstuffs and fodder, it could irreparably damage the

soil’s fertility.24 However, it was not only the Christians who were capable of mismangement,

in Egypt inefficient and corrupt administration of the monopolies by the Mamluks impeded

agriculture.25

Figure 2 The distribution of centres of agronomical texts. As the Christian conquest continued, the patronage of these

intellectuals passed from city to city.

The image above shows how the distintegration of central authority and the conseqences of

the encroaching Christian “Re-conquest” had on the intellectual milieu of Islamic Iberia in the

23

Ibid.,p.25. 24

Tighe, John, The inter-relationship of agricultural systems and power structure, Unpublished MPhil Thesis, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, 2014. 25

Galloway, J.H., The Sugar Cane Industry, ( Cambridge: 1989), pp.43-44

6

the eleventh century.26 Firstly, the centre was at Cordoba as the Imperial city was at Madinat

al-Zahra, and even after the collapse of Ummayyad centrel control, it remained an important

Taifa kingdom. Toledo, the centre point of the peninsula, then took up the mantle

Fig 2 emphasized the relationship between the movement of the centres of power with a

chronology of the agronomical intellectual milieu of the period.

Figure 3 Chronology of agronomical authors through the Dar al-Islam.27

While the central power structures were important for the blossoming agronomical milieu on

Iberia, and their obligation to provide irrigation facilities helped in the short-term, at the least,

26

The term of the “Reconquista” is not used here as it is a term which views Christian ownership of Iberia as a pre-destined concept, and this was emphasized during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and academics of his age, such as Claudio Sanchez Alboronoz who stated how ‘slow-witted and barbaric Africa....twisted and distorted the future fate of Iberia’. 27

Filaha, http://filaha.org/authors_works.html#author_timeline (10th August 2014). Note the number of

Iberian-based authors on the chronology.

7

to maintain the fertile vegas which predominated within al-Andalus. However, it was not just

the central authorities who took an interest in the irrigation systems and the maintenance of

social order connected with it. The main institution which dealt with local issues of water

management, milling and agricultural disputes was the Tribunal de las Aguas, or Tribunal of

the Waters. While in its modern sense, the Valencian tribunal is little more than a tourism

oddity, now that it does not have any judicial power, the institution itself is said to stretch

back over a millennium. They meet at the Gate of the Apostles outside the cathedral,

formerly the mosque, with Giner Bora contending that its current location is due to the fact

that Muslims were barred from entering the church after it had been consecrated, the court

was moved outside so that Muslim irrigators could continue to attend.28 It is contended that

the tribunal could not have been the brainchild of a king or caliph, but that it resulted from

years of evolution and took part in the power structure between the centre and the

autonomous communities.29 This practice is also recorded in Gaudix where they council met

at the Church of Santa Ana, once again a converted mosque to decide the lease of

communal lands as well as other.30 While the longevity of the Valencian tribunal is

exceptional, its customary nature may be one of the reasons behind it not keeping written

records of its findings, which would have been a unique insight into social and economic

histories, as well as changes in the transition period between Islamic and Christian epochs,

or lack thereof.

28

Giner Bora, Vicente, El Tribunal de las Aguas de vega de Valencia, (Valencia: 1960), p.9. 29

Glick, Thomas, Irrigation and Society in medieval Valencia, (London: 1970), p.68. 30

Galan Sanchez, Angel, The Muslim organisation of the Christian Kingdom of Granada: urban oligarchies and rural communities in Maria Asenjo Gonzalaez (ed.), Studies in European urban history 19 (1100-1800): Oligarchy and Patronage in late medieval Spanish urban society, (Turnhout: 2009), p.83.

8

Figure 4 Photograph showing Tribunal de las Aguas in session today.31

Whether a decision was promulgated or imposed by central power structures or systems

which were more decentralised, the rules and findings of the judicial classes had to be

enforced, and this was done through the implementation of different physical structures,

which were developed over time. The embracing of structures based on serfdom and the

‘coercive political authority over tenants by a localised seigneurie’, sometimes called,

feudalism, is obscured in Iberia by the introduction and subsequent implementation of social,

political and economic structures and the creation of a centralised Islamic state in al-

Andalus.32 The morphology of the structures which were constructed to faciliate and exploit

this system must also be looked at. After the Islamic conquest, a network of fortified

strongpoints was created and there was an arrangement of the territory around them on a

juridicial basis.33 The development of the husun, qasbas and other fortified structures was

central to this process, allowing peasant communities to farm the land effectively while

providing either central (husun) or communal (qasba) defence depending on the period. The

architecture of al-Andlaus, while influenced by the structural methods of the Umayyads

31

Everything-everywhere, http://everything-everywhere.com/2012/03/14/the-oldest-democratic-body-in-europe-the-valencia-water-court/ (14th August 2014). 32

Boone, James L. and Benco, Nancy C., Islamic settlement in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, Annual Review of Anthropology, 28 (1999), p.59. 33

Horden, Peregrine and Purcell, Nicholas, The Corrupting Sea: A study of Mediterranean History, (Oxford: 2001),p.280.

9

Syrian ancestors tended to develop in isolation due to Iberia’s peripheral status within the

Dar al-Islam.34

Glick poses the question ‘Were Latin castra and Muslim husun both called into being in the

ninth century to assure ‘public’ control of a early phase of rural growth and settlement or do

they date to the tenth and eleventh centuries and represent a disintegration of central

power.35 The earlier Islamic husun were of a simple refuge type, like El Vacar (Fig. 5) which

is located near Cordoba. These were simple structures with no means of maintaing full-time

occupation, but the fitna of the late ninth century caused a move towards incastellamento.36

As previously hypothesized it is possible that in the first generations of the Islamic epoch that

the husun were used as a means of control of the majority Berber population by the minority

Arab population, but that after the homogenisation of Andalusian identity and the

strengthening of the central authority they may have simply become a fortified refuge and

maintained by the tribal collectives. However, although there may have been a qa’id present,

there was no implementation of the coercive examples of power indicative of feudalism.37

In al-Andalus peasants Islamic communities seem to organise themselves within a

heterogenous territory that included lands of complementary qualities, some nucleated

settlements (alquerias) and a fortified structure, the hisn-central place in front of the

periphery, refuge and symbol of each community.38 The ‘network of villages’ which the

granary was inserted explain its existence and the social organisation of the space. When

we use the term ‘network of villages’ (or ‘red de alquerias’ in Spanish Barcelo 2004, 22) we

are referring to a series of settlements (areas of residence and work areas) that are

homogenous in construction and connected by specifically designed roads. That is,

34

Hoag, John D. Western Islamic Architecture, (London: 1963), p.29. 35

Glick, Thomas F., From Muslim Fortress to Christian Castle: Social and Cultural Change in Medieval Spain, (Manchester: 2005), p.14. 36

Ibid,mp.15. 37

Boone et al., Islamic settlement, Annual Review of Anthropology, 28 (1999), p.62. Qa’id meaning lord. 38

Eiroa Rodriguez, Jorge A., Fortified granaries in SE al-Andalus in (eds.) Processing, Storage, Distribution of Food in the Medieval Rural environment, Ruralia VIII 7

th-12

th April 2009 Lorca, Spain,

(Turnhout: 2011), p.7.

10

technically articulated groups in which their spatial appearance is only understandable

through the study of the work areas. Network size is decisive because it tells about the ways

employed to manage human groups, animals and plants and the necessary actions to

maintain stability.39 Zozaya has found that the general distribution of settlements in al-

Andalus obeyed a logic of distance, with large settlements spaced 30 km apart, with alqueria

or inns every 15km, that distance that can be walked in a day.40 Al-Udhri gives figures of 148

husun and 1,079 (7.3 per km2) for the kura of Cordoba, while al-Zuhri gives figures of 33

husun and 3000 alquerias (9.1 per km2) for Sierra de Segura in Albacete.41 The size of each

alqueria varied between 72 and 90 hectares according to Torro’s study of Alcoi, and this

figure has been backed up by those from Mallorca (mean of 83.72).42 Eiroa Rodriguez

contends that the size of the network is essential in determining powers structures, as

through its constitution it relays how to manage human, animals and plants and the

necessary actions needed to maintain stability.43

While it has been argued, by Glick and Burns that the alquerias were weakly structured, the

castral territory of the hisn/alqueria was not. This can be seen as an attempt by those in

control to maximise the exploitation of land and resources. Taking the area of Valencia as an

example, in the present day province of Castelló, there appears to be no difference in

function between husun of the frontier and those of the interior. In fact the system seems to

completely disregard defensive needs, for in the early thirteenth century, the eighty kilometre

frontier with Aragon was guarded by only three husun (Culla, Ares and Morella) while the

shorter frontier with Catalonia had four.44 So if the main purpose of these structures was not

defence from external forces then what was it? Epalza argues that there would have been

few Christians in Valencia before AD711, and that those that were present, would have

39

Eiroa Rodriguez, Jorge A., Fortified granaries (eds.) Ruralia VIII 7th-12

th April 2009 Lorca, Spain,

(Turnhout: 2011), pp.1-9, p.7. 40

Glick, Thomas F., From Muslim Fortress, (Manchester: 2005),p.17. 41

Cited in Acien Almansa, Manuel Sobre la funcion in (ed.) Coloquio Hispano-Italiano de Arquelogia Medieval, (Granada: 1992), p.226. 42

Torró, Josep, Alcoi. La formació d’un espai feudal (de 1245 a 1305), (Valencia: 1992), p.45. 43

Eiroa Rodriguez, Fortified granaries in (eds.) Ruralia VIII 7th-12

th April 2009 Lorca, Spain, (Turnhout:

2011), p.7. 44

Ibid, pp.17-18.

11

disappeared through the lack of a bishopric. Thus the conversion process here would have

been completed by 800.45 This might be better illustrated by the fact that husun were

densest in the south of Castelló, where the bulk of the population resided, on the plain of

Castelló and on the Mijares and Palencia rivers. This may illustrate the internal social

structures into which husun were placed, particularly in the early centuries of the Islamic

epoch. Then the fitna of the late 9th/early 10th century led to a further development of

incastellamento.46 These later husun, were more complex in design, capable of sustaining

permanent garrisons and even a small peasant population.47 Azuar Ruiz claim that it is this

late defence –related incastellamento (tenth century) that can be seen in the region of Denia

which is in on the same stretch of coastline as Alacant. Others have contended that these

fortified structures were built to mitigate external threats from the sea. However, there is

correspondence of King Martin the Humane of Aragon in 1402 to the qa’id and the sub-qa’id

of Alicante castle, Johan Margarit and Bennat Bonivern ‘to take all the necessary

precautions to guard against an attack from the sea.’48 This may be an argument against

those who have contended the husun’s role in maritime affairs.

45

Ibid.,p.54. 46

Incastellemento was a concept devised by Pierre Toubert in Les structures du Latium Medieval: Le Latium meriondial et la Sabine de IXie siècle et la fins de XIIe siècle, (Paris: 1973). 47

Glick, From Muslim Fortress, p.15. 48

Bevia, Marius, L’Albacar Musulma del Castell d’Alacant, Sharq al-Andalus 1 (1984), p.132; Curta, Florin, The centrality of the periphery: The Archaeology of al-Andalus, Early medieval Europe, 19 (2011), p.380.

12

Figure 5 Aerial photo of El Vacar49

The hisn generally had a central redoubt called saluqiya in Arabic (celoquia in Romance)

where the qa’id resided. However it is what lay beyond the redoubt that had led to much

speculation as to the role of these structures within agricultural systems, the albacar.50 El

Vacar (‘Mountain of the Bulls) is a good example of this concept’.51 It was part of a program

of encastellation by Muslims in the region, including Trujillo, Cacéres and Toledo in the

middle of the ninth century.52 There is no evidence for a Roman foundation and the only

comparisons from this period are from the Near East.53 Collins argues that ‘Although no

proper study of it has been undertaken, these features alone would suggest that its origins

should be placed within the Umayyad Emirate. There may be evidence of this in El Vacar’s

early arrow slits. This may suggest a time of civil unrest during its construction.54 It held a

prominent position on the road leading north from Cordoba, through a valley in the Sierra

Morena, making it vital in controlling movement through the area.55 It has no equivalent in

49

Google Earth [Accessed 20th November 2013].

50 Glick, From Muslim Fortress, (Manchester: 1995), p.15

51 Collins, Roger, Spain: An Oxford archaeological guide, (Oxford: 1998).,p.128.

52 Zozaya, Juan, Fortification Building in al-Andalus in Von Zabern, Philipp (ed.), Madrider Beiträge

Band 24: Spanien und der Orient im frühen und hohen Mittelalter, (Berlin: 1996), pp.55-74. 53

Collins, Spain, (Oxford: 1998). p.128. 54

Zozaya, Fortification in Von Zabern,(ed.), Madriderr, (Berlin: 1996), pp.55-74. These are also to be seen at Banõs de la Encina. 55

Collins, Spain, (Oxford: 1998).,p.128.

13

Spain, but has parallels in Middle East, and can be compared to the plan of Roman

fortresses, the almost ‘playing-card’ shape.56

There is ample evidence for the albacars being used as refuges by Muslim peasants even

after they were captured by Christians, thus Bernat Desclot reported of the albacar at

Alacant (Alicante) during the Mudejar revolt of 1276-7 that the Muslims ‘emptied out their

villages in the plains and went up with the beasts and clothing to the feet of the castle

walls’.57 This is an allusion to the social role which the albacar played during the Islamic

period from a Christian writer. What can be ascertained from the documentary sources is the

history of the albacar, and particularly how the morphology of the albacar changed after the

conquest. The hisn itself went under a complete transformation, morphing from a refuge to a

seigniorial castle and set about dominating the landscape, rather than residing within it.58

The nature of the castle as a refuge is re-iterated in the Llibre dels Fets for when James I’s

army pitched camp at the castle of Cullera ‘all the Saracens from the farms... with all their

cows, asses and goats. And that entire slope that went down from the castle to the tower

(where they took water) was full of Saracen men, women and children.59 These accounts

help us to quantify the husun’s role within Islamic society, as they relay the perceived role of

the albacar to the local Muslim inhabitants before the Christian conquest.

From Bevia’s studying of royal letters of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

relating to Alicante, although incomplete, two things are abundantly clear, the permanent

bad state of the albacar in comparison to the castle, which could indicate that the albacar

played no functioning role in the life of the Christian castle. Furthermore, the antiquity of the

albacar can be deduced by this constant state of disrepair, indicating that they were not

contemporaneous with the Christian epoch.60 The different necessities and conceptions of

56

Ibid. 57

Glick, From Muslim Fortress, (Manchester: 1995), pp.15-17. 58

Ibid.,p.150. 59

Smith, Damian and Buffery, Helena, The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon: A translation of the Medieval Catalan Llibre dels Fets (Hampshire: 2003),.p.178. 60

Bevia, L’Albacar, Sharq al-Andalus 1 (1984), p.135.

14

the newly-imposed Christian society, seem to have left the albacar devoid of its original

function, despite retaining its old name.61

Figure 3.4 Image of 'Albacar Vell' of Alicant (Alicante) Castle according to Vespaciano Gonzaga. The albacar occupies 2.5 hectares while the celoquia occupies one hectare.62

It is important to realise that the albacar was not part of the Christian ideal of the castle and

the attributed mode of production, but what was its purpose during the Islamic epoch? De

Epalza contends that the etymology of the albacar is from the Arabic for cattle, and as such,

for him the role of the albacar was fundamentally agricultural, the location where villagers

guarded their cattle.63

Nucleated settlements associated with farming make it difficult for farmers to keep more than

a few animals locally, partly due to time constraints but also due to lack of fodder. These

farmers may have devoted their cattle to specialists to remove their animals for pasture,

particularly during the summer. It is possible that the husun and their albacars played a

pivotal role in this social function, for as Zozaya has extrapolated the system between a

61

Ibid. p.137. 62

Ibid.,p.140. 63

De Epalza, Mikel, Funciones ganaderas de los albacars en los fortalezas musulmanas, Sharq al-Andalus, 1 (1984), pp. 147-154.

15

husun and each inn or alqueria the distance that could be walked in one day.64 While it is

clear that transhumance played a reduced role in the Islamic epoch, it is clear that many of

the diverse groups inhabiting Iberia were knowledgeable in its ways. For example, the

Senhaja and Zenata, who were both Berber confederations Montagne describes, however

while the Senhaja make use of qasbahs, which will be discussed later, the Zenata did not,

but both groups were fiercely independent and both were involved in transhumance in

Morocco.65 Ibn Khaldun notes that the free autonomous spirit can be viewed in that ‘those

who live by agriculture or animal husbandry cannot avoid the call of the desert, because it

alone offers the wide fields, pastures for animals, and other things that settled areas do not

offer’.66 He also states how people have become lazy as a result of entrusting their defence

to a governor or ruler and the militia which has the task of guarding them.67 It is possible to

say that the role of the state in building husun may be a sign of interference in the

agricultural sphere and local defence, while the qasbah may be viewed as a reversal of this

process, putting the faith back in communal defence rather than in the hands of the

instruments of the state? Hobbes, author of ‘the Leviathan’, was quite dismissive of any sort

of communitarian ties as when he was writing in the seventeenth century these ties were no

longer advantageous in his opinion. Hobbes contended that the old forms of communitarian

ties, many of which had led to the creation of the unique agricultural milieu seen within al-

Andalus, should be replaced with one allegiance, that to the state. He further deplored

segmentary nationalism, where a person swore loyalty first to his family, then his clan, then

his tribe and finally to his nation (the state).68 In stark contrast, Ibn Khaldun views these

communitarian ties as a help rather than a hindrance to the state, shoring up the power of

the state as long as the state could manage its relations with them, a theory that seems to

64

Horden, et al., The Corrupting Sea, (Oxford: 2001), p.86. 65

Montagne, Robert, The Berbers (trans. and with an introduction by David Seddan), (London: 1973 (1931)), p.7. 66

Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to history (trans. and introduced by Franz Rosenthal with a new introduction by Bruce Lawrence), (Princeton: 2005 (1967)), p.91. 67

Ibid., pp.94-5. 68

Trottier, Julie, Water and Conflicts Hobbes vs. Ibn Khaldun: The real clash of civilisations in Julie Trottier and Paul Slack (eds.), Managing Water Resources Past and Present The Lucca Lectures 2002, (Oxford: 2004), p.138.

16

be borne out by the example of al-Andalus i.e. when the power of the centre was secure

enough to maintain peace and stability in the periphery.69

Regarding the form of these fortified granaries, there is very little uniformity in design, as can

be viewed both from Iberian examples, but also from ethnographical counterparts in

Morocco (as viewed below).

Figure 3.5 Diagram showing the diversity of forms of agadirs in Morocco, qasbas (or alcazaba) in Iberia.70

69

Ibid. 70

Torro, Josep and Segura, Josep M., El Castell d’Almizra y la cuestion de los graneros fortificados, Recerques del Museu D’Alcoi, 9 (2000), p.147.

17

The examples of Villavieja de Berja and Ares del Maestre show the importance of

positioning husun within an irrigated vega, but it is there the similarities of positioning stop.

Whereas Ares del Maestre is perched in a dominant location over a cultivated terraces and

an area of extensive agriculture, Berja’s position is not naturally defensible as a location,

which could dissuade those from talking of the hisn as primarily a military structure, but it

does possess a wall which surrounds an area of 7.5 hectares, that is 1,300 metres long, two

metres wide and seven metres high.71

The alcazaba is a phenomenon of the later part of the Islamic epoch in Iberia, and its

chronology is much debated. It is possible that it was an Iberian solution to an Iberian

problem and then exported to Morocco, where it survived as a structure into the modern

period. Alternatively, it was an innovation of the Berber/Arab tribes who resided in Morocco

and was brought to Iberia with the influx of the Almoravids and Almohads. Despite the

revisions being made today through Carbon-14 analysis, which may yet force us to change

many of the arguments used so far, we have no data for the construction of the Moroccan

fortified granaries before the 16th C. although the texts in the Medieval Maghreb suggest

their presence earlier.72 The Andalusian examples have produced evidence not later than

the 13th century. It appears that the fortified granaries came into play in the articulated

groups in the 11th century.73 Over time elements that would allow ‘dialogue’ between areas

of residence and agriculture might arise, and the pattern of settlement appear to become

more complex in subsequent centuries. It is through the understanding of the fortified

71

Bazzana, Andre, Guichard, Pierre and Cressier, Patrice, Chateau Ruraux D’Al-Andalus: Histoire et Archeologie des Husun de Sud-Est de l’Espagne, (Madrid: 1988),pp.17, 21. 72

Cressier, Patrice, Apuntes sobre fortification Islamica en Marruecos , I congreso internacional de fortifications en al-Andalus, Algeciras, noviembre-diciembre 1996, (Algeciras: 1998), pp.129-145.; Benhima, Yassir, L’habitat fortifié au Maroc medieval. Eléments d’un bilan et perspectives de recherché, Archéolgique Islamique, 10 (2000), pp.79-102. 73

Eiroa Rodriguez, Jorge A., Fortified granaries in SE al-Andalus in (eds.) Processing, Storage, Distibution of Food in the Medieval Rural environment, Ruralia VIII 7

th-12

th April 2009 Lorca, Spain,

(Turnhout: 2011), pp.7-8.

18

granaries as part of the societal structure that is key to understanding the system as a

whole.74

The same attitude to uncertainty that encourages people to practice crop diversity to mitigate

the factors of social and political unrest also leads these same communities to trust other

forms of social organisation besides the state.75 Where a state is weak and unreliable, for

example during the collapse of Umayyad power and the subsequent Taifa states or the

interlude between the Almoravids and Almohads, an irrigating farmer will rather trust and

obey communal structures. The morphological structure which personifies this is the qasbah,

which Despois called the ‘granary-citadel’.76 Once more Montagne encounters similar

ethnographical fortifications in Morocco, for he says that it is in the form of the fortified

storehouse that the combined individualists and collectivist genius of the Berbers triumphs.’77

While they were widespread throughout North Africa the structure was most highly

developed in Morocco, with it being called igherm by the pastoralists, and agadir in the

settled parts. In the more settled parts they are often three, four or five storeys high, and are

defensible due to their ramparts, cistern and watchtowers within which the population can

survive a siege.78 The problem of chronology hampers some comparative studies, as the

earliest examples in Andalusia date to the twelfth century, while the earliest date for their

ethnographic counterparts in Morocco is the sixteenth century, although medieval maghrebi

texts suggest their earlier presence.79 However, what is clear is that around the time the

qasba was being instigated in Iberia, there was a shift in Morocco with many Berbers

abandoning the villages after the second influx of Arab tribesman, namely the Banu Hilal.80

74

Ibid.p.8. 75

Trottier, Introduction in Julie Trottier et al. (eds.), Managing Water Resource (Oxford: 2004), pp.4-5. 76

Eiroa Rodriguez, Fortified granaries in (eds.), Ruralia VIII 7th-12

th April 2009 Lorca, Spain,

(Turnhout: 2011), p.1. 77

Montagne, The Berbers, (London: 1973 (1931)), p.53. 78

Ibid.. 79

Eiroa Rodriguez, Fortified granaries in (eds.) , Ruralia VIII 7th-12

th April 2009 Lorca, Spain,

(Turnhout: 2011), pp.7-8. 80

Lawless, The Lost Berber Villages, Man. New Series, 7 (1972), p.114

19

The use of the qasbah does not mean that individual ownership is abolished, rather each

family has their own barn within the defensive structure where they deposit their agricultural

produce and have a key to their cell. In this way the qasbahs, guarded and managed

collectively are the material expression of individual ownership.81 The circulation corridors

while allowing communication between the different sectors of the structure was primarily

there to ensure the proper conservation of the agricultural produce. There were two further

rooms where the taxes were separated from the rest of the produce. These family-owned

cells could have mitigated enmity within the community through the deliberations of the

aljama, but would also have lessened the effects of the climatic uncertainty already

mentioned by allowing the community to store their surplus to ensure survival or exchange

with other groups. These structures also generally contain other communal structures, such

as a meeting hall and a mosque, where they could deliberate any conflict regarding the

agricultural sphere of the local area, as well as other non-agricultural subjects.82 These were

ethnographical findings of Montgane and others but some contended that there were similar

structures to be found in al-Andalus, and it was Bazzana that made the case for the

existence of collective storage structures in al-Andalus.83

The first place where an alcazaba ‘fortified granary’ was identified conclusively was at

Cabezo de la Cobertera, located at the heart of the Ricote Valley in Murcia. De

Meulemeester dated it to the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, a time of great social unrest and

instability in al-Andalus, exactly a period when agrarian organisations would stop supporting

the central power structures and begin to set up more autonomous local power structures.

This fortified granary contains many of the morphological structures of its Moroccan

counterparts: various levels of approximately thirty rooms of between five and ten square

metres, a small communal space, a cistern and possibly a small oratory with mihrab.

81

Eiroa Rodriguez, Fortified granaries (eds.) Ruralia VIII 7th-12

th April 2009 Lorca, Spain, (Turnhout:

2011), pp.1-2. 82

Ibid., pp.2-3. 83

Bazzana, André, Maisons d'al-Andalus: Habitat medieval et structures du peuplement dans l'Espagne orientale, (Madrid: 1992).

20

Furthermore, to help with its defence it was only provided with one entrance and occupied

the entirety of the mountaintop.84 The problem with identification is that just like in the

Maghreb we should expect to find a diversity of design and also a different density of

structures, this could be related to the type of produce or directly proportional to the

population density, much like the distribution of the husun.85

Figure 3.9. Plan of Cabezo de la Cobertera. It covers an area of 1,000 sq.m86

84

Eiroa Rodriguez, Fortified granaries in (eds.) Ruralia VIII 7th-12

th April 2009 Lorca, Spain, (Turnhout:

2011), pp.4-5. 85

Mignot, Phillippe, Greniers collectives berberes. Une relecture entreprise sous la conducte de Johnny De Meulemeester in (eds.) Processing, Storage, Distibution of Food in the Medieval Rural environment, Ruralia VIII 7th-12th April 2009 Lorca, Spain, (Turnhout: 2011), p.61. 86

Carrahila, http://carrahila.blogspot.ie/2010/11/el-granero-fortificado-de-al-darrax.html (30th July 2014).

21

Figure 3.10 Aerial photograph showing topography of the Cabezo site..87

The defensive nature of the alcazaba is borne out by the ethnographical data as well, where

like the albacar, the alcazaba was often used as a refuge during sieges from both internal

rivalries (the term coming from communities who share a river system, rivales) i.e. other

local communities or from external ones, such as the rapidly encroaching Christian forces

from the North or the Alomarvids and Alomhads coming from North Africa. The granary of

Tazleft in Morocco was studied for not only its architecture and daily function, but also for its

relationship with the irrigation system of the village, as it overlooked the confluence of the

Awnil and Marghane rivers. The Awnila river valley was used as an ancient caravan route

that united the Draa Valley and Marrakesh.88

The interpretation of Cabezo as an alcazaba paved the way for similar structures to be

studied in Iberia. Torro and Segura raised the possibility that the Almizra could be

87

Carrahila, http://carrahila.blogspot.ie/2010/11/el-granero-fortificado-de-al-darrax.html (30th July 2014). 88

Mignot, Greniers collectives berberes in (eds.) Ruralia VIII 7th-12th April 2009 Lorca, Spain, (Turnhout: 2011), pp.63-4.

22

interpreted in a similar fashion, while Eiroa Rodriquez has argued that Puentes can be

viewed in the same milieu as the aforementioned two examples. At Almizra, Torro and

Segura pointed to the existence of cells of between two and five sq.m.89 It had a similar

chronology to those at Cabezo. At Puentes, under the direction of Pujante Martinez, other

than the cells discovered were a double cistern and three defensive towers, again

emphasizing the dual nature of the alcazaba, as both a social and military structure.90

Figure 3.11 Diagram of Puentes.91

The presence of fortified structures holding agricultural produce as storage, tax or as part of

exchange in the monetary economy, as seen in both the albacar and the qasba, appears to

be consistent with the medieval Arabic documents regarding SE al-Andalus. Al-Zuhri in the

Kitab al-Yu’rafiya possibly written in the first half of the twelfth century, remarks how the

alcazaba of Almeria: ‘unlike what happens in other places, barley is stored for sixty or

89

Torró, et al. El Castell D’Almizra Recerques del Museu D’Alcoi, 9 (2000), p.153. 90

Pujante Martinez, Ana, El Castillo, la Alquería y Maqbara De Puentes (Lorca, Murcia), Memorias de Arqueologia, 14 (1999), pp.505-560. 91

Ibid., p.511.

23

seventy years and does not rot and is still edible’.92 Further still al-Qazwini (1203-1283)

remarks how in Lorca: ‘...grain remains in silos fifty years or more without deterioration’.93

King states that ‘the originality of Islamic architecture of power would thus be less in its forms

than in the breadth of its uses’.94 It was this adaptability and diversity of form that allowed the

ubiquity of these structures throughout the peninsula in a myriad of topographical locations,

from those overlooking agricultural vegas to those used to control movement along the

communication network, like Tabernas. The fact that communal institution, such as qasbas,

could exist alongside the instruments of state emphasizes that the central power structure of

al-Andalus, particularly in the late periods, were willing to grant more autonomy to the rural

communities in exchange for agricultural output. Furthermore, the survival of a tax system

throughout this period proves, like in China, the existence of a free land-holding peasantry. It

was the small land-holding plots set up by the husun and qasbas which allowed the state to

exploit taxation, even at its weakest.95

The precarious position of the Islamic polities within Iberia, especially after the beginning in

earnest of the Christian conquest can be seen in the re-location of Elvira, an agriculturally

prosperous area, to a more defensible one, Granada. However, what must be noted is that

the water supply was one of the critical aspects taken into account when deciding on the

site.96 It is a testament to the integral nature of water and irrigation to the lifestyle of those

dwelling in al-Andalus, that even under threat of military invasion, the need for water was so

great as to be one of the main determiners in the siting of the new settlement.

92

Al-Zuhri, Kitab al-Yu’rafiya (Book of Geography) quoted in Lirola Delgado, Jorge, Almeria Andalusi y su territorio, (Almeria: 2005), p.87. 93

Al-Qazwini quoted in Eiroa Rodriguez, Jorge A., Fortified granaries in SE al-Andalus in (eds.) Processing, Storage, Distibution of Food in the Medieval Rural environment, Ruralia VIII 7

th-12

th April

2009 Lorca, Spain, (Turnhout: 2011), p.6. 94

Grabar, Oleg, Palaces, Citadels and Fortifications in George Michell (ed.) Architecture of the Islamic world: Its history and Social meaning, (London: 1978),p.79. 95

Wickham, The Uniqueness of the East, Journal of Peasant Studies, 12 (1982), p.174. 96

Wasserstein, Chris, The Rise and Fall of the Party Kings: Politics and society in Islamic Spain 1002-1086, (Princeton: 1985), pp.140-1.

24

Figure 4 Map of irrigation system surrounding Granada.97

This article began with the poetry which flourished under the auspices of the caliphs, the

tarifa kings and those whom followed, and it ends with the increasing militarisation which

Islamic society in Iberia underwent in the latter part of its existence. Through all of this the

centrality of water, agricultural growth and the intellectual milieu which created those

conditions was never at risk.98 It is phenomenal that despite that fact that ‘The cultural

achievements of al-Andalus were always built on a fragile political structure that was prone

to ethnic and tribal rivalries and eruptions of devastating violence’ that the both through the

instruments of state, as well as communal authorities, such as the Tribunal de las Aguas and

the alcazabas, the fertile nature of Iberia in the Islamic epoch was maintained.99 Watson

97

San José, A social analysis of irrigation, Journal of Medieval History, 31 (2005), p.181. 98

This could be because the stability and wealth of al-Andalus relied heavily on its agricultural output to maintain its defensive duties, for example trading with the Italian merchant cities, such as Genoa. 99

Carr, Matthew, Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, (London: 2009), p.10.

25

asserted how ‘attitudes, social structure, institutions, infrastructure, scientific progress and

economic development all played a role in the medium of diffusion’.100

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