Canteros y niveladores. El problema de la transmisión de las técnicas hidráulicas andalusíes a las sociedades conquistadoras

Abstract

Despite the usual historiographical assumptions, the evidence strongly contradicts the presence of Muslim specialists in planning and directing the construction of major irriga- tion works in Valencia and other Iberian Mediterranean regions after the Christian conquest. To the contrary, those in charge of such works were always Christian masons and levellers frequently coming from areas alien to Andalusi hydraulic “heritage”. These technicians were organised in crafts which, in fact, excluded Muslims, and which responded to the require- ments of the social powers which emerged following the conquest. As a consequence, the standing ideas on the transmission of Arabo-Muslim hydraulic techniques to the irrigation practices of the new colonists need to be revised.