From dusk to dawn, Aynadamar filled the aljibes of Granada; from dawn to sunrise, it irrigated fields; from sunrise to noon, the vegetable gardens and houses of the Alcazaba (Arab castle), the vegetable gardens within the city and, on Friday, it even filled the city aljibes and, if they were full, the houses; from noon to afternoon it water used in the fields and adarves of the city, except on Friday, when it was used in aljibes and houses; from afternoon to dusk the ditch irrigated the fields everyday.
All this can be read in the book titled: Water, land and men in al-Andalus. Agricultural dimension of the nazari world which has just been published in the collection Ajbar, edited by the research group Toponymy, History and Archeology in the Kingdom of Granada.
According to the lecturer of the University of Granada, Antonio Malpica, author of the prologue and director of the research group Toponymy, History and Archeology in the Kingdom of Granada, Carmen Trillo´s book “is a magnificent example of the possibilities available to study al-Andalus from written sources and a watchful observation of the landscape. Carmen Trillo reveals how the kingdom of Granada can be analysed in an Andalusi historical context.”
At dusk, channel water entered the city and reached the aljibes through different branches distributed all over the urban mains of the Albayzín and the Alcazaba (castle). According to Carmen Trillo, lecturer and researcher of the University of Granada, the connection between aljibes and mosques is so high that mosques could be water reception centres, not only for the ablutions, but also to satisfy the daily needs of the inhabitants. Some of the largests cisterns of the hill date from the eleventh century and belong to the first network of the water infrastructure.”
The book is a study of the rural environment at the end of the peninsular Islam from a new perspective; Carmen Trillo San José has avoided carrying on a local history study and has tried to transcend it to take it out of its isolation.
Water plays a very important role in this work, since irrigated agriculture was extensively used. Thus, the author tackles the subject from an imaginary perspective (water in the Koran) and its daily use. “We can conclude –says Carmen Trillo–, that water is organized as the society which manages it. Irrigation times were marked by feast days in al-Andalus. Some of them, like San Juan (Ansara) were astronomical, from the pagan and Christian tradition, and was used to mark the beggining of summer turns. It is possible that this irrigation period also closed with another feast day at the beggining of autumn, maybe San Miguel, a very venerated saint in the Albáis in”.
Reference: : Professor Carmen Trillo San José
Department of Medieval History and Historiographic Sciences and Techniques.
University of Granada
Phone numbers: 958 243653
E-mail: ctrillo@platon.ugr.es
