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Hydro-political Organization

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Cultural Dynamics of Water in Iranian Civilization

Abstract

In the Iranian lands, sizable cities with a considerable number of inhabitants could not be organized haphazardly. Such a population established an organic nexus of socio-economic relationships among them—necessary for their integrity—through a political body. This political body was able to sustain the population by attending to water affairs that were vital to the pervasive agricultural economy, in the shape of supplying water and protecting against floods. This political body in fact invested in water affairs whose higher efficiency resulted in better agriculture and accordingly more tax. Therefore, water systems have always been a source of income for Iranian governments whose hydraulic agenda systematically tethered the peasants to the cultivated lands. This chapter examines the interrelations between water resources and political organization from a historical–geographical point of view, which have taken different shapes in river-based and qanat-based economies over the course of history. 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 as the vital sources of revenue. However, 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 both 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, and those borders altered from time to time following political changes. Such governmental interventions in water affairs could lead to inequitable water allocation, based on a socio-political pattern that seems to have prevailed over the Iranian history. This chapter also shows how “water management” could set the stage for the collapse of those political organizations, when it outgrew the governments’ internal capacities. A systematic relationship between water and political organization suggests a historical model that helps explain the rise and fall of many Iranian dynasties.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    20 sols were equal to 1 livre in French currency. 6 livres were equal to 1 dollar in both Halifax currency and Quebec currency (Mccullogh 1983, p. 86).

  2. 2.

    In Iran Jerib was a unit of land measurement, which was equal to 1000 m2.

  3. 3.

    Chardin has converted the then local currency into French livre.

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  1. UNESCO ICQHS, Yazd, Iran

    Majid Labbaf Khaneiki

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Labbaf Khaneiki, M. (2020). Hydro-political Organization. In: Cultural Dynamics of Water in Iranian Civilization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58900-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58900-4_3

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