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Nile Flood Crisis in Egypt
Around 1009 CE, the Nile's water level in Egypt was abnormally low, severely affecting agricultural irrigation;…
Timeline
- 1009–1010middle and lower Nile · Nile basinInsufficient annual Nile flooding led to a shortage of irrigation water, reduced crop yields, and soaring bread prices; some bakers were flogged for selling wet bread, and social discontent rose.
- 1009–1013Cairo · CairoAl-Hakim ordered reductions of the land tax, banned price gouging and luxury entertainment during the famine, regularly dredged canals, and restricted the slaughter of healthy draft cattle; he also invited the Basra engineer Ibn al-Haytham to study improvements to the Nile flood problem.
Sources
- Reforms of al-Hakim https://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history05/history553.html
- Extreme Nile Floods and Famines in Medieval Egypt (AD 930-1500) and Their Climatic Implications — Hassan, F. A. (2007)
- The Nile: Its Role in the Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Fatimid Dynasty During its Rule of Egypt (969–1171) — Cortese, Delia (2015) https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hic3.12210