L’identification des réseaux d’oasis précoloniaux dans le Zab occidental (Algérie, Wilaya de Biskra) à travers le système d’irrigation traditionnel

• Main Author: Samira Haoui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de Provence 2021-09-01
• Series: Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
• Subjects: Oasis networks; Ziban; water management; population centers; urban hierarchy
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/16049

The population centers of the Western Zab reveal a form of agglomerated habitat surrounded by productive oasis areas. Subsequent analysis of literary sources has made it possible to identify an organizational network that seems to have been in effect since the 14th century. Questions remain however, regarding the components of these networks. To shed light on this, a study was made of irrigation methods and water sharing processes as determining factors in the distribution of settlements, an approach whose efficacy has been well established. Documents relating to water management, dating from the beginning of the colonial period, have been used in addition to medieval Arab sources. The analysis of military topographic surveys established during the first French incursions into the Ziban made it possible to map settlement networks, and their hierarchy in main cities and secondary agglomerations. This contribution offers an alternative to current approaches to the “reconstruction” of rural cultural areas in Algeria, especially those among the Saharan Atlas.