Lectures on the religion of the Semites. First series, The fundamental institutions / by the late W. Robertson Smith.

  • Smith, W. Robertson (William Robertson), 1846-1894.
Date:
1894
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the religion of the Semites. First series, The fundamental institutions / by the late W. Robertson Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    119/536 (page 99)
    water-wheel, the ground is naturally fertile, and such land is “ watered by the Ba'l.” The best Arabian authorities say expressly that ba'l palm-trees are such as drink by their roots, without artificial irrigation and without rain, “ from the water which God has created beneath the earth,”1 and in an exact specification of what is liable to the full tithe the ba'l and the sky are mentioned together, not used interchangeably.2 1 Al-Asma'I and Al-Azhari in tlie Limn, s.v. ba'l. This article and the materials collected in the Glossary to De Goeje’s Beladhori give almost all the evidence. I may add a ref. to Ibn Sa'd, No. 119, compared with No. 73, and Macrlzi Kliitat, ii. 129, and in the next note I will cite some of the leading traditions, which are very inaccurately given by Sprenger in ZDMG. xviii. 2 The fullest expressions are, Bokhan, ii. 122 (Bvilac vocalised ed.), “what is watered by the sky and the fountains or is 'athari; Moivatta (Tunis ed.), p. 94, “what is watered by the sky and the fountains and the ba'l” ; ibicl. p. 95, “what is watered by the sky and the fountains or is ba'l.” Shorter phrases are, Belddh. p. 70, “what is watered by the ba'l and what is watered by the sky,” with such variants as “the surface flow [ghail, saili] and the sky” (ib. p. 71), “the fountains and the sky” (B. Hisham, 956), “the rivers and the clouds” (Moslim, ed. of A.H. 1290, i. 268). These variations are intelligible if we bear in mind the aspect of the cultivated patches in such a valley as the Batn Marr. The valley is a great water- course, but for the most part the water flows underground, breaking out in powerful springs where there is a sharp fall in the ground, and sometimes flowing for a few hundred yards in a visible stream, which is soon led off in many branches through the palms and tiny corn-fields and presently dis- appears again under the sand and stones. Where the hard bottom is level and near the surface, the palms can drink from their roots where there is no visible stream ; but where the bottom lies deep (as in the neighbourhood of Taif) cultivation is possible only by the use of the water-wheel, and then the tithe is reduced to 5 per cent. Where irrigation can be effected by gravita- tion through a pipe or channel, without pumping, the land is still regarded as naturally fertile and pays full tithe ; see Gl. Bel. and Ibn Sa'd, No. 119. According to one interpretation, the obscure word 'atliari, which I have not met with in any tradition except that cited above, means land watered by an artificial channel (athur). This may be a mere guess, for the oldest and best Arabian scholars seem to have had no clear understanding of the word ; but at least it is preferable to the view which identifies 'atliari and 'idhy. For a comparison of the traditions given above indicates that 'athari is either a synonym for ba'l or some species thereof; moreover, the oasis in W. Sirhan which Guarmani (p. 209) calls Etera, and Lady Anne Blunt (Nejd, i. 89 sqq.) writes Itheri, can hardly be anything else than 'Athari in a modern pronunciation. (Huber writes it with initial alif, but his ortho-