Appendix 2 - Land and Water Use

Summary

Direct and circumstantial evidence exists on the uses of agricultural land; sources of irrigation (above or below ground); cultivation without irrigation (dayma, daymī; rain-fed: hence “dry farming”); and agricultural products of the Herat Quarter in the post-Mongol age. Related socio-economic data (for instance, on mining or wood crafts) can be extracted from the sources. Table A2.1 is a composite of information from Mustawfī and Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū, and includes insightful commentaries by Dorothea Krawulsky (editor of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s Geography). Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrūprovides only select data for the ten bulūks of Herat and does not specify land use. Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s data are not evidence of Kartid era land use; just suggestive.

Rashīd al-Dīn provides generic information on mulberries, cotton, and saffron, two of the three cash crops known to have been cultivated in the Herat Quarter in the Kartid period (see table below). Wheat (gandum) and barley (jū), says Rashīd al-Dīn, were farmed wherever possible (that is, subject to soil quality and availability of water). Millet (gāwars) was cultivated, along with zurrat (sorghum durra). Many species of rice were cultivated in sundry regions of Persia; the finest rice came from the Caspian Sea littoral. This information is not specific to the Herat Quarter, but the cultivation of cereals, cotton, and mulberries in the Quarter is confirmed by Mustawfī and/or Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū.

Rashīd al-Dīn gives scientific guidance on the cultivation of an assortment of fruits (e.g., apple, apricot, citrus, fig, grape, melon, peach, pear, pomegranate, quince); legumes (beans, chickpeas); vegetables (e.g., beet, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, eggplant, lettuce); and herbs (e.g., coriander, garlic, leek, onion). It is not possible to prove that these crops were cultivated in Kartid times; however, a walk through one of Herat’s thriving bazaars will reveal the abundance of these fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Doubtless, many, possibly most, were also cultivated in the Kartid era.