Saqiyah

A sāqiyah or saqiya (Arabic: ساقية), also spelled sakia or saqia) is a mechanical water lifting device. It is also called a Persian wheel, tablia, rehat, and in Latin tympanum. It is similar in function to a scoop wheel, which uses buckets, jars, or scoops fastened either directly to a vertical wheel, or to an endless belt activated by such a wheel. The vertical wheel is itself attached by a drive shaft to a horizontal wheel, which is traditionally set in motion by animal power (oxen, donkeys, etc.) Because it is not using the power of flowing water, the sāqiyah is different from a noria and any other type of water wheel.

The sāqiyah is still used in India, Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, and in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It may have been invented in Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Iran, Kush or India. The sāqiyah was mainly used for irrigation, but not exclusively, as the example of Qusayr 'Amra shows, where it was used at least in part to provide water for a royal bathhouse.

The Arabic word saqiya (Arabic: ساقية) is derived from the root verb saqa (Arabic: سقى), meaning to "give to drink" or "make (someone/something) drink". From this, the word saqiya (often transliterated as seguia in Morocco or the Maghreb) has the sense of "one that gives water" or "irrigator". Its general meaning is to denote a water channel for irrigation or for city water supplies, but by extension it applies to a device which provides water for such irrigation. Likewise, Spanish acequia, derived from the same word, is used to denote an irrigation canal or water channel in Spain. In the Maghreb and Morocco, the related word saqqaya (Arabic: سقاية) also denotes a public fountain where residents could take water (similar in function to a sabil). The English term Persian wheel is first attested in the 17th century (but in the earliest case for a water-driven wheel).

The term saqiyah or saqiya is the usual term for water-raising devices powered by animals. The term noria is commonly used for devices which use the power of moving water to turn the wheel instead. Other types of similar devices are grouped under the name of chain pumps. A noria in contrast uses the water power obtained from the flow of a river. The noria consists of a large undershot water-wheel whose rim is made up of a series of containers which lift water from the river to an aqueduct at the top of the wheel. Some famous examples are the norias of Hama in Syria or the Albolafia noria in Cordoba, Spain.

However, the names of traditional water-raising devices used in the Middle East, India, Spain and other areas are often used loosely and overlappingly, or vary depending on region. Al-Jazari's famous book on mechanical devices, for example, groups the water-driven wheel and several other types of water-lifting devices under the general term saqiya. In Spain, by contrast, the term noria is used for both types of wheels, whether powered by animals or water current.

The saqiya is a large hollow wheel, traditionally made of wood. One type has its clay pots or buckets attached directly to the periphery of the wheel, which limits the depth it can scoop water from to less than half its diameter. The modern version also known as zawaffa or jhallan is normally made of galvanized sheet steel and consists of a series of scoops. The modern type dispenses the water near the hub rather than from the top, the opposite of the traditional types. These devices were in widespread use in China, India, Pakistan, Syria and Egypt.

Saqiya wheels range in diameter from two to five metres. Though traditionally driven by draught animals, they are also attached to an engine or electric motor. While animal-driven saqiyas can rotate at 2–4 rpm, motorised ones can make as much as 8–15 rpm. Formerly hundreds of thousands were in use in the Nile valley and delta.

The historical Middle-Eastern device known in Arabic as saqiya usually had its buckets attached to a double chain, creating a so-called "pot garland". This allowed scooping water out of a much deeper well.