Hydro-political organization in Iranian history
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Hydro‑political organization in Iranian history Majid Labbaf Khaneiki1 Received: 11 May 2020 / Accepted: 19 October 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This paper examines the interrelations between water resources and political organization, with a focus on Iran, and the different shapes of those relations found in river-based and qanat-based economies, from a historical point of view. At least since the Sassanian Empire, governments have had a systematic dependence on a river-based economy nourished by irrigated cultivation. Hence, governments used both bureaucratic and military tools to secure their control over water—the vital source of revenue. Nonetheless, governments’ interests were not limited to water only as source of finance, but they were also concerned about water to strengthen their political ties with their preferred territories through water allocation systems. Within their kingdoms, some hydro-social territories were given primacy in terms of water shares, through intensive hydraulic constructions and water management systems. Hydro-social borders were delineated by the political organization through water allocation based on political, religious and social priorities. Those borders altered from time to time following political changes. Such governmental interventions in water affairs could lead to inequitable water allocation, a socio-political pattern that seems to have prevailed in Iranian history. This paper also shows how water management could set the stage for collapsing political organizations, when it outgrew the governments’ internal capacities. However, in a qanat-based economy, water management was more endogenous, handled by all shareholders, which appears to have resulted in a more cohesive community. As such, a qanat-based economy may have disfavored accumulation of power and centralized governments. Keywords Hydro-political territory · Water-state relation · Hydraulic collapse · Irrigation
Introduction King Enki was God of water (Jacobsen 1987) and built the temple of Abzu to bless and patronize the Sumerian city of Eridu, near present-day Basra (Kramer 1972). This narrative is an exemplary manifestation that God-like kings could unite and stabilize societies
* Majid Labbaf Khaneiki [email protected] http://www.icqhs.org 1
International Center On Qanats and Historic Hydraulic Structures (UNESCO-ICQHS), Mojtame Edarat Complex, Daneshjou Blvd., 8916188117 Yazd, Iran
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in Mesopotamia by means of water. This article actually focuses on the Iranian plateau, but it is impossible to talk about Iranian history without including Mesopotamia, that used to house the headquarters of at least two Persian empires for centuries. Although Mesopotamia enjoys two permanent rivers, the supply of water could not keep up with the growing demand of cultivated lands (Wilkinson 2003). From 3000 BC onward, water availability steadily declined (Nissen and Heine 2009), but cultivated lands tended to expand. Dwindling water supply brought about two mai
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