Habices of the Kingdom of Granada ascertained in 1528 and 1531: the Nasrid Ta'a of Órgiva (Alpujarra)

En este trabajo estudiamos las alquerías del distrito de Órgiva a finales del emirato nazarí de Granada a través, fundamentalmente, del análisis de dos memoriales inéditos de bienes habices piadosos recopilados en los años 1528 y 1531. Ofrecemos características de sus términos y áreas residenciales, junto a rasgos culturales y económicos significativos de las poblaciones musulmanas que habitaban este ámbito rural situado en la Alpujarra. Se trata de comunidades campesinas con un marcado carácter piadoso, visible en los edificios de culto religioso y en los numerosos bienes instituidos para mantenerlos. Organizadas en torno al aprovechamiento del agua, este recurso natural aparece domesticado mediante acequias y regulado con acuerdos colectivos que permiten fertilizar un paisaje de terrazas de cultivo, pequeñas y de parcelación excelsa, y contribuyen a sustentar económicamente a estas poblaciones por la práctica de una agricultura mayoritariamente irrigada, promiscua e intensiva.This study examines the alquerías (rural communities) of the Órgiva district at the end of the Nasrid emirate of Granada fundamentally through the analysis of two unpublished records of habices (pious endowments) collected in 1528 and 1531. The characteristics of their residential features and areas will be highlighted along with the significant cultural and economic issues of the Muslim population that inhabited this rural area located in the Alpujarra region. These are peasant communities with a marked pious character visible in the buildings of religious worship and in the many assets instituted to maintain them. They are organized around the use of water, a natural resource which was domesticated through irrigation canals and regulated through collective agreements which allowed for the fertilization of a landscape of cultivated terraces, with small and manifold plots. This contributed to sustain these populations economically through the practice of a mostly irrigation-based, diversified and intensive agriculture