The Waterwheel (2)
The waterwheel: the device, the story, the engineering, and the astonishing work.
This machine opened paths of livelihood for us and left its mark on the face of modern engineering. Its gears are the same gears that carry us across the earth. We walk with you, gears of my ancestors, imagining wonder and creativity.
To enter the heart of this astonishing machine, said to have Turkish origins according to the stories, we must mention the waterwheel craftsmen in the language of our time. The remarkable thing is that most of these craftsmen came from areas where people did not work the waterwheel because their land was too narrow. Instead, they practised making waterwheels, boats, bed frames, saddles, and metalwork as a livelihood. These were free industrial schools in which inherited knowledge filled most of the seats.
The most famous craftsmen in Al-Jawqal included the Idris Haroun family, known for waterwheels, boats, and huge doors called kobid, as well as some dredging tools such as the orbr and wasoo. In Tundi, the families of Mohieddin, Abdel-Latif Nouri, and Dargham were known for the craft. In Abu Sarah were Bashir Mukhtar’s family, and in Tanri were Hamid, Abdel-Latif Himmet, and Taha Taha, who became known for saddles and kobid.
The Shawishantoud family in Artemari included Mohammed Khairi Mohammed Jawish, the grandfather of the artist Yusuf Khairi. Shawishantoud learned from craftsmen in Tundi because of the family relationship connecting them. Artemari was the only industrial area where the people also farmed with waterwheels. The Shawishantoud family was connected to the tanbur and singing; its members became known for music and song. Among the artists who mastered the waterwheel’s rhythm were Mirghani Al-Amin of Artemari, Mohammed Saad Al-Din, grandson of Idris Haroun of Jawqal, Mohammed Ali Deish, and Jaafar Nasr of Shadda. May they all rest in peace.
The word saqiya has two meanings:
First: land owned by an individual or a group. A saqiya has twelve shares, and a share is called jaree. Palm shares are also calculated on the basis of twenty-four qirat, or geerat; partners in a palm grove divide it on that basis.
Second: the saqiya as the familiar agricultural machine, called askli. Its land shares are twelve jaree, and the agricultural shares are divided on that basis.
There are three types of waterwheel.
1. The single wheel, jalio askalea, is installed directly on the water source. It is usually very large and expensive and complex to assemble because of its size. It was known in southern Artemari Dabbar. It has about twenty-four buckets, and operating it requires strong cattle because of the waterwheel’s great weight.
2. The twin waterwheel, kollotood, is a small wheel installed at the water source to raise water to the upper waterwheel basin, called farigge. The upper wheel then raises water directly for irrigation, doron adklea. This type is widespread in our areas.
3. The triple waterwheel, kollrtisscka, was not common in our areas. The lower kollotood raises water to the middle wheel. The middle wheel has two tasks: first, raising water to the third wheel; second, irrigating the land between the middle and upper wheels. The third wheel irrigates the extension lands. This type requires many cattle and more workers.
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