The management of food shortages

The first issue requiring consideration is whether the rulers of al-Andalus ever adopted policies intended to supply food to the population for the purpose of limiting the risk of famine during periods of scarcity. The Arabic sources tend to say nothing about

10 IBN ḤAYYĀN – [Muqtabis V]. Al-Muqtabas V. Ed. Pedro Chalmeta; Federico Corriente; Mahmud Sohb. Madrid: IHAC, 1979, p. 321 (trans. María Jesús Viguera; Federico Corriente. Crónica del califa ʻAbdarraḥmān III an-Nāṣir entre los años 912 y 942: (al-Muqtabis V). Saragosse: Anubar-IHAC, 1981, pp.

241-242. Due to the wars that shook early Islam, the Muslim community was soon obliged to care for a large number of widows and orphans; hence, the exhortations in the Coran to show charity to these two categories of helpless people. See STILLMAN, Norman A. – “Charity and Social Service in Medieval Islam”. Societas 5/2 (1975), pp. 106-108.

11 IBN ʻIDHĀRĪ AL-MARRĀKUSHĪ – [Bayān IV]. Al-Bayān al-mughrib fī akhbār al-Andalus wa-l-Maghrib: Qiṭʻa min taʼrīkh al-murābiṭīn. Ed. I. Abbas. Vol. IV. Beirut: Dar al-Thaqafa, 1967, p. 147.

12 By contrast, what is called structural poverty was a more complex phenomenon, because it involves a state of prolonged deprivation caused by personal (youth, old age) or social circumstances (fluctuations in demographic or economic cycles, a lack of arable land or employment, social prejudices based on gender or race). See SINGER, Amy – Charity in Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp.

151-153.

such measures being taken. Only on rare occasions mention is made of measures adopted by the political authorities that played a crucial role in preventing a socio-economic crises. For example, the sources inform us that this occurred during the drought of 936, of which it is reported that stockpiles were sufficiently abundant that prices did not rise much and the wellbeing of the population was not greatly affected;

it is added that this situation of prosperity was due to foresight of the caliph ʻAbd al-Raḥmān III, who ordered that food supplies should be sent to al-Andalus from other lands¹³. Although this sort of initiative does not seem to have been habitual, there exists some evidence that similar actions were taken at other moments of Andalusi history. Thus, at the end of the 11th century, in response to the hardship gripping the population of the Taifa kingdom of Denia, a ship laden with seed was sent from this city to Syria and returned with provisions of food¹⁴. The converse also occurred, with food being sent from al-Andalus to other parts of the Islamic world in times of want, as happened in 1055, when a large-tonnage vessel full of relief supplies was sent to ameliorate the famine then taking place in Egypt¹⁵.

In the absence of clearly defined procedures for the prevention of shortages, it was not unusual for the entire supply system to collapse in times of agricultural crises. In this context, it is necessary to consider whether in al-Andalus the political authorities adopted measures to palliate the collective suffering of the population during periods of famine. As we shall see, only on rare occasions do we have evidence of governmental action being taken along these lines. By the same token, the official charity dispensed by the rulers in ordinary times was itself sporadic in nature rather than systematic¹⁶.

On the one hand, this aspect corroborates the notion that in mediaeval Islamic societies providing assistance to the general population was not regarded as one of government’s primary duties. Certainly, seeing to the welfare of subjects was not considered one of the obligations of institutional power, whose main functions were to collect taxes and finance an army¹⁷. In the particular case of al-Andalus, the

13 IBN ḤAYYĀN – Muqtabis V..., p. 383-384 (trans. p. 287).

14 IBN ʻIDHĀRĪ AL-MARRĀKUSHĪ – Bayān IV..., p. 146.

15 IBN ʻIDHĀRĪ AL-MARRĀKUSHĪ – [Bayān III]. Al-Bayān al-mughrib fī akhbār al-Andalus wa-l-Maghrib. Ed. Évariste Lévi-Provençal. Histoire de l’Espagne musulmane au XI^e siècle. Vol. III. Paris: Librairie Orientale Paul Geuthner, 1930, p. 228 (trans. Felipe Maíllo Salgado. La caída del Califato de Córdoba y los reyes de Taifas. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1993, p. 191).

16 On the dispensation of official charity in ordinary circumstances in al-Andalus, see CARBALLEIRA DEBASA, Ana María – “Caridad y poder político en época omeya…”, pp. 94-114; CARBALLEIRA DEBASA, Ana María − “Forms and Functions of Charity in al- Andalus”. In LEV, Yaacov; FRENKEL, Miriam (eds.) – Charity and Giving in Monotheistic Religions. Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009, pp. 207-209.

17 For this reason, official charity had a limited impact on medieval Islamic societies. Given its mandatory character in Islam, the concept of alms-giving was regarded above all as an individual responsibility and thus not incumbent on the political authorities as such. For further information on the limits of the role of authority in Islam, see IMBER, Colin – Ebu’s-Suʻud. The Islamic Legal Tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997, pp. 79-94, 156-162; LEWIS, Bernard – The Political Language of Islam. Chicago–London: The

absence of this sort of action could furthermore be justified by the fact that political authorities were obliged to channel a significant portion of its resources towards other priorities, such as military campaigns, given the endemic warfare that plagued the Peninsula.

On the other hand, it is important to take into consideration that charity dispensed by the rulers, whether under ordinary or extraordinary circumstances, was not always intended to provide only basic subsistence to the population in times of need. Though charitable practices might sometimes be the result of an altruistic impulse, they could also reflect heartfelt religious faith and a concern with personal salvation, or be used in the service of an ideology as a weapon to strengthen the reputation of the donor and to legitimize the government, thus helping to maintain the hierarchical social order¹⁸.

Whatever the motivation behind such interventions, some rulers made gestures of unquestionable benefit to cope with the ravages of shortages, but these measures had little effect overall given the enormous scale of the famines that affected al-Andalus. For one thing, as the Arab authors report, the primary beneficiaries of such donations were often the inhabitants of the capital city, even if deprivation afflicted the entire Andalusi territory. For another, the sources make abundant reference to the authorities ordering less practical measures, such as public prayers for rain to combat drought. Indicative of this lack of government initiative too is the improvised actions taken by famine victims themselves in an effort to palliate or remedy their condition. In this regard, the texts sometimes describe the mass emigration of Andalusis, fleeing the terrible effects of famine and seeking refuge in areas of the Iberian Peninsula, which had remained unscathed by the crises or even, when the situation was particularly dire, in North Africa. In addition, shortages are often reported to be accompanied by an increase in criminal behaviour, as many people resorted to theft or more serious crimes to alleviate their straitened circumstances, such acts eliciting severe punishment from the ruling authorities.

We will now examine in detail all these aspects relating to the Umayyad period, reviewing the frequency of shortages and charity under the rule of each of the sovereigns in order to evaluate more precisely the response of institutional power

University of Chicago Press, 1988, pp. 43-70. For the most part, the systematic setting up of public services in Islamic societies only began to take place in the 19^th century; see SINGER − Charity in Islamic Societies…, pp. 28, 175.

18 The use of charity for political purposes in ordinary circumstances is widely documented in the Umayyad period, the goal being to secure in power the political authority of the moment or to legitimize a new ruler; see CARBALLEIRA DEBASA, Ana María – “The Use of Charity as a Means of Political Legitimization in Umayyad al-Andalus”. Journal of the Economic and the Social History of the Orient 60/3 (2017), pp. 233-262. On the manipulation of charity as a means to legitimize power in the Nasrid period, see PELÁEZ ROVIRA, Antonio – “El Maristán de Granada al servicio del poder nazarí: el uso político de la caridad”. In CARBALLEIRA DEBASA, Ana María (ed.) – Caridad y compasión en biografías islámicas. Madrid: CSIC, 2011, pp. 133-172 (Estudios Onomástico-Biográficos de al-Andalus, 16).

when these circumstances concurred in time. At the same vein, it should be borne in mind that, although the Arabic sources note when particular Umayyad rulers undertook charitable actions during periods of scarcity, this practice tends not be documented more than once per reign, when in fact the texts reveal that famines nearly always exceeded this figure.

With regard to the three droughts that are reported to have occurred in the emirate of ʻAbd al-Raḥmān I (r. 756-788), there is no reference to any sort of official response to these events. It should not be forgotten that the first of the Andalusi Umayyad emirs was fully preoccupied with consolidating his power, having found himself obliged to fight off numerous dissidents and counter the centrifugal forces that threatened to undermine his alliances. As a result, it is likely that the internal complications faced by his government played a role in the total absence of any type of intervention during shortages. By contrast, there is evidence of his presence at a public prayer for rain¹⁹.

The reign of Muḥammad I (r. 852-886) was affected by a number of severe crises. In this regard, the textual sources not only objectively note the absence of palliative measures on the part of the ruling emir, but also, in one specific instance, take the sovereign to task for his lack of generosity in the face of a serious situation that required his attention. This was the famine of 873, which followed the crop failures of that year. In accordance with the available data, on that occasion the official responsible for the collection of tithes urged the emir to exonerate his subjects from payment of this tribute, because of the damage inflicted to them by collecting it in such a delicate economic situation. But Muḥammad I not only ignored his pleas, but even relieved the official of his duties, designating someone else in his place to levy half of the tithe with zeal and firmness. According to the chronicler, this intransigent posture on the part of the emir led the populace to dying of starvation and to raising their complaints, which angered him²⁰. It is curious that a questionable attitude that undermines the monarch’s reputation is recorded in writing, regardless of whether in the end he was forced to reduce the tithe by a half. Another anecdote related to Muḥammad I, this time contained in a biographical dictionary, confirms his harshness of character when, faced with the upsurge in criminal behaviours brought

19 DHIKR bilād al-Andalus. Una descripción anónima de al-Andalus. Ed./trans. Luis Molina. Vol. I-II.

Madrid: Instituto Miguel Asín, 1983, pp. 110/117 (Here and in similar instances hereafter, the slash separates page numbers in the Arabic text from pages numbers in the corresponding translation).

20 IBN ḤAYYĀN – [Muqtabis II/2]. Al-Muqtabis min anbā’ ahl al-Andalus. Ed. M.A. Makki. Beirut:

Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, 1973, pp. 172-173. The judges of Córdoba would sometimes allow tenants of properties belonging to Islamic pious endowments (mortmain goods) to defer payment of rents when they faced severe setbacks in their farming or commercial activities. See CARBALLEIRA DEBASA, Ana María – Legados píos y fundaciones familiares en al-Andalus (siglos IV/X-VI/XII). Madrid: CSIC, 2002, pp. 306-309; GARCÍA SANJUÁN, Alejandro – Hasta que Dios herede la tierra: Los bienes habices en al-Andalus (siglos X-XV). Huelva:

Universidad de Huelva, 2002, pp. 270-272; GARCÍA SANJUÁN, Alejandro – Till God Inherits the Earth: Pious Endowments in al-Andalus (9-15^th centuries). Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2007, pp. 313-316.

about by a shortage, he ordered judges to show no mercy to criminals, which resulted in a proliferation of death sentences and hand amputations²¹.

Under the very brief reign of al-Mundhir (r. 886–888), there is no record of any major subsistence crises; in this respect, there exists evidence of only one prayer for rain being ordered by the emir, perhaps motivated by a drought of minor importance²².

Several periods of scarcity occurred under the rule of his successor, ‘Abd Allāh (r. 888-912), but the textual sources relate no initiative on his part in response. In fact, it is only reported that on a few occasions prayers for rain took place²³. Once more, his reign was dominated by political instability, with revolts occurring in nearly all areas of al-Andalus.

By contrast, the Arabic texts do register the charitable acts of other Umayyad rulers in times of want. In such cases, the conduct of the sovereigns in these circumstances might not be exempt from a certain sense of responsibility towards his subjects.

In the year 812, during an intense famine that was most severely felt among the lower social groups, al-Ḥakam I (r. 796-822) is said to have distributed large sums of money to help the needy and the travellers. However, this aid failed to save a large number of people from dying, while many others sought relief by fleeing to the Maghreb²⁴.

A decade later, when in 822 a plague of locusts wreaked havoc on the Andalusi

21 IBN ḤĀRITH AL-KHUSHANĪ – Historia de los jueces de Córdoba. Ed./trans. Julián Ribera. Madrid:

Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas, 1914, pp. 178/220.

22 ʻIYĀḌ B. MŪSÀ – Tartīb al-madārik wa-taqrīb al-masālik li-maʻrifat aʻlām madhhab Mālik. Ed. M.

b. Sharifa et alii. Vol. V. Rabat: Wizarat al-Awqaf wa-l-Shuʻun, 1983, p. 189.

23 IBN ʻIDHĀRĪ AL-MARRĀKUSHĪ – [Bayān II]. Al-Bayān al-mughrib fī akhbār al-Andalus wa-l-Maghrib. Ed. Georges S. Colin; Évariste Lévi-Provençal. Vol. I-II. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1948-1951, p. 119 (trans. Émile Fagnan. Histoire de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne intitulée Al-bayano’l Mogrib. Algiers: s.n., 1901, p. 195); DHIKR bilād al-Andalus..., pp. 156/166; IBN ḤAYYĀN – [Muqtabis III]. Al-Muqtabis fī taʼrīkh rijāl al-Andalus. Ed. Melchor Martínez Antuña. Vol. III. Paris: Librairie Orientale Paul Geuthner 1937, p. 104 (trans. Gustavo Turienzo Veiga; Azucena del Río González; Mohammad A. Samarah al-Mazawdah – “Kitāb al-muqtabis fī tārīj riŷāl al-Andalus”, también conocido como “Al-Muqtabis min al-anbā’ ahl al-Andalus” = (“El libro de la compilación noticiosa acerca de los varones andalusíes” o “La compilación noticiosa acerca de los andalusíes”): traducción a la lengua española del fragmento de esta obra conocido como “Al-Muqtabis III”

(Crónica del emir ‘Abd Allāh I entre los años 275 H. – 888-889 d.C. y 299 H. – 912-913 d.C.). Madrid: Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos, 2017, p. 146.

24 DHIKR bilād al-Andalus..., pp. 131/139; IBN ḤAYYĀN – [Muqtabis II/1]. Muqtabis II. Anales de los emires de Córdoba Alhaquém I (180-206 H./796-822 J.C.) y Abderramán II (206-232/822-847). Ed. facsimile Joaquín Vallvé. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1999, p. 92 (trans. Federico Corriente; Mahmud Ali Makki. Crónica de los emires Alhakam I y Abdarrahman II entre los años 796 y 847 [Almuqtabis II-I]. Saragosse:

Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo, 2001, p. 12); AL-NUWAYRĪ – Nihāyat al-ʻarab fī funūn al-adab. Ed./trans. Mariano Gaspar Remiro – Historia de los musulmanes de España y África por En-Nuguairí.

Granada: Tipografía de “El Defensor”, 1917, I, pp. 37/32. Travellers constituted a specific category of legitimate alms recipients, as they were considered vulnerable individuals, lacking the support of a family network; see CONSTABLE, Olivia R. – Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, passim.

harvests, triggering a severe famine with the rise in the price of cereals, it is reported that the emir ʻAbd al-Raḥmān II (r. 822-852) ordered the handing out of food among the poor of Córdoba²⁵. However, in other years of hardship under his rule the only initiative adopted to mitigate shortage was public prayers for rain²⁶.

Several famines occurred during the long reign of the abovementioned ʻAbd al-Raḥmān III, but there exists only one record of the monarch’s action in response to the terrible famine suffered in 915 to alleviate its devastating effects. The chronicles compare the magnitude of this crises with the one that befell al-Andalus in 873. The former is said to have affected the whole of the Andalusi territories, causing price rises and leading to diseases. The poverty of the populace was worse than any within living memory and so many people starved to death that the dead were left unburied, while many of the survivors fled the country. This catastrophe made inroads too among the wealthiest strata of society, striking down members of the leading families of Córdoba. The textual sources report that, in view of the gravity of the situation, al-Nāṣir gave numerous alms to many of the poor and this generosity was imitated by his courtiers, among whom the chamberlain Badr b. Aḥmad stood out for his charity and solidarity with the needy. The chroniclers tell us that the hardships faced by the people were so terrible that year that the caliph was unable to organize military expeditions against the Christians, so he devoted himself to reinforcing the borders and containing dissidents in their fortresses²⁷. One of the most interesting aspects of this information is the involvement of members of the court in displays of beneficence. In response to the other droughts registered for this period, however, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān III limited himself to ordering the saying of public prayers for rain in Córdoba, sending warrants to the governors of other provinces to do the same²⁸.

Somewhat more prolific in his pious acts during the severe subsistence crises that shook his reign was the caliph al-Ḥakam II al-Mustanṣir (r. 961-976). In this regard, there is evidence of his intervention on a couple of occasions. Thus, on the occasion of the intense famine that struck Córdoba in 964, it is said that the caliph supplied food to the needy in the city and its suburbs²⁹. While in this specific instance we have no precise information about the quantity of these donations or the frequency with

25 IBN AL-ATHĪR – Al-Kāmil fī al-ta’rīkh. Ed. Carl J. Tornberg. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1965-1967, VI, p. 384.

(partial trans. Edmond Fagnan – Annales du Maghreb & de l’Espagne. Algiers: Typographie A. Jourdan, 1898, p. 198); IBN ḤAYYĀN – Muqtabis II/2..., p. 93; AL-NUWAYRĪ – Nihāyat al-ʻarab..., I, pp. 42/38.

26 IBN ḤAYYĀN – Muqtabis II/2..., pp. 46-47, 51; AL-NUWAYRĪ – Nihāyat al-ʻarab..., I, pp. 50/44.

27 ʻARĪB B. SAʻĪD – Mukhtaṣar Ta’rīkh al-Ṭabarī. Ed. Georges S. Colin; Évariste Lévi-Provençal.

Al-Bayān al-mughrib. Leiden: Brill, 1948-1951, pp. 167-168 (Trans. Juan Castilla – La crónica de ʻArīb sobre al-Andalus. Granada: Impredisur, 1992, p. 139); IBN ʻIDHĀRĪ AL-MARRĀKUSHĪ – Bayān II…, pp. 166-168 (trans. pp. 276-279); IBN ḤAYYĀN – Muqtabis V..., pp. 103-104, 109-110, 124 (trans. pp. 88, 92, 104).

28 ʻARĪB B. SAʻĪD – Mukhtaṣar..., pp. 192, 199 (trans. pp. 192, 209); IBN ʻIDHĀRĪ AL-MARRĀKUSHĪ – Bayān II…, p. 199 (trans. p. 330); IBN ḤAYYĀN – Muqtabis V…, pp. 205, 208, 250-251 (trans. pp. 158, 161, 190-191).

29 IBN ʻIDHĀRĪ AL-MARRĀKUSHĪ – Bayān II…, p. 236 (trans. p. 389).

which they were dispensed, in connection with a subsequent famine in the year 968 it is stated that the monarch ordered 12,000 loaves of bread to be distributed daily to the poor of Córdoba until the city returned to its previous levels of prosperity³⁰. This constitutes of the very few figures provided by the Arab authors on shortages and helps to give us some idea of the dimensions of these phenomena, at least with regard to a particular area within al-Andalus. In any case, it must be borne in mind that this type of data such apparently precise should be taken with caution.

In describing the terrible famine that occurred in 990 under the rule of al-Manṣūr (Almanzor), chamberlain of the caliph Hishām II al-Muʼayyad (r. 976-1013), the chronicles register another unusual figure. In this case, the reference in question does not mention the geographic region involved, though it can be assumed that it would be the capital and its surroundings. Thus, it is reported that al-Manṣūr ordered the baking of 22,000 loaves of bread per day to be handed out among the needy, conducting himself like no other monarch had ever done previously, since, in addition to feeding the hungry, he forgave tithes and paid for the shrouds of the dead³¹. This information is of interest in two respects: on one hand, it links charity to tax exemption and to a pious attitude towards the dead; on the other, it qualifies al-Manṣūr’s behaviour as befitting a sovereign, perhaps as a way of conferring legitimacy on his political mandate. One should remember that this character was not a blood relative of the caliph and therefore he could not justify his assumption of power in dynastic terms; hence, he was keen to legitimize the usurpation of caliphal prerogatives in the eyes of his co-religionists by other means³².

Final considerations.

The Arabic sources do not show us the full complexity of the crises of scarcity that afflicted al-Andalus. Thus, it is not possible to determine with any degree of exactitude the consequences that they provoked, nor the effectiveness of the measures adopted to relieve their devastating effects. However, the numbers of people affected and their needs must have been considerable indeed within the temporal framework covered by this study, according to the existing references to this topic in the historical and

30 DHIKR bilād al-Andalus..., pp. 173/183.

31 DHIKR bilād al-Andalus..., pp. 181-182/193.

32 Another of the main pillars of his governance was the popularity that his military victories over the Christians earned him. For further information on the character of al-Manṣūr, see BALLESTÍN, Xavier – Almansor: l’exercici del poder a l’Occident musulmà medieval. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, 2004;

BALLESTÍN, Xavier – Al-Mansur y la dawla ʻamiriya. Una dinámica de poder y legitimidad en el occidente musulmán medieval. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat, 2004; BARIANI, Laura – Almanzor. San Sebastián:

Nerea, 2003; ECHEVARRÍA, Ana – Almanzor: un califa en la sombra. Madrid: Sílex, 2011; MARTÍNEZ, Virgilio; TORREMOCHA, Antonio – Almanzor y su época. Málaga: Sarriá, 2001; SÉNAC, Philippe – Al-Mansur: le fléau de l’an mil. Paris: Perrin, 2006.

biographical sources.

Whereas there is documentary evidence of famines of varying degrees of severity occurring during the reigns of nearly all the sovereigns of the Umayyad dynasty in al-Andalus (the exception being Hishām I at the end of the 8th century), the reaction of the rulers when these circumstances arose is not always attested. In certain cases, it is likely that internal conflicts lay behind the total absence of direct intervention, as would have been the case in the emirates of ʻAbd al-Raḥmān I and ʻAbd Allāh.

Though preventive or palliative measures were not standard procedures, there are signs that some of the Umayyad rulers were not altogether insensitive to the suffering of their subjects. Nonetheless, while it cannot be denied that there sometimes existed a genuine desire to alleviate the needs of others, it is possible that the measures taken by the political authorities to prevent and mitigate the effects of famine not only responded to altruistic motives, but were also intended to serve the political, social and religious interests of the donor.

In general, the few measures adopted to face a subsistence crises were palliative in nature, consisting mainly of the distribution of money and food, though the exact nature of these gifts is not always specified. Donations in response to famine used to benefit the needy in general, since beneficence in this historical period was more focused on society as a whole rather than individuals. Although the sources do not always contain the geographic scope of a famine, the inhabitants of Córdoba tend to appear as the primary beneficiaries of official charity. Thus, the actions of the rulers in this regard seem to have been limited to urban areas.

Charity was but one of several measures taken by the Umayyad political authorities in response to drought and shortage, although it proved inadequate to tackle the full brunt of suffering brought about by such calamities. In the data reviewed there exists no evidence of a centralized and systematic official policy of assistance to the victims of subsistence crises. In this sense, there was no serious attempt to institutionalise the distribution of relief supplies in any of the famines that periodically swept al-Andalus. This disinclination to intervene on the part of the political authorities suggests that perhaps they had no interest in becoming involved in problems of a social nature unless this lack of intervention was likely to provoke an outbreak of violence or a sharp increase in collective suffering. The laconism of the Arabic sources in this regard leads one to suspect that the resources of institutional power were channelled towards achieving other objectives, such as political or territorial ones, which had a higher priority.

The responses of the Umayyad rulers to subsistence crises must be viewed in the light of status expectations and responsibilities, where the rank of the individual might presuppose the performance of beneficent deeds, although there was no real