Water Management in the Premodern Middle East: Forces from "Above" and "Below" (Middle East Environmental Histories)

This volume analyses water management in pre-1500 Middle Eastern cities.Managing access to fresh water for large numbers of people has always been great challenge.Nevertheless, premodern societies of the Middle East and North Africa were rather successful in providing water to city dwellers, pilgrims and travellers in and around large and highly populated cities such as Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Samarra, Basra, and Medina.The contributions to this volume delve into the question of how this was accomplished by examining the intersection between social institutions and the physical reality of water use.These studies analyse the identity and interactions between many different players and stakeholders in water management in cities.Who was responsible for the building, management and maintenance of different elements in premodern waters systems?Who had access to that water? The volume focuses on the sometimes fraught relationships between forces from "above"-central authorities, formal ins