Abu al-Munajja ibn Sha'ya
Abu al-Munajja ibn Sha'ya · Technology & Engineering
Fatimid Jewish administrator who built the great irrigation canal that still bore his name, the Bahr Abu al-Munajja
XIe siècle, Égypte fatimide — XIIe siècle, Égypte
Delta oriental du Nil, Alexandrie
Abu al-Munajja ibn Sha'ya is recognized among Jewish contributors to Technology & Engineering — Fatimid Jewish administrator who built the great irrigation canal that still bore his name, the Bahr Abu al-Munajja
Origins and early life
Abu al-Munajja ibn Sha'ya — his Hebrew name was Solomon ben Shaya, and the court granted him the honorific Sani al-Dawla — was a Jewish official of Fatimid Egypt in the early twelfth century, administrator of several districts of the eastern Delta and head of the department of agriculture.
Work and career
Between 1112 and 1118 he directed the digging of a major irrigation canal from the Nile, a work that so benefited the farmland of the region that the people named it after him: the Bahr Abu al-Munajja, the canal of Abu al-Munajja. That honor nearly destroyed him — the vizier al-Afdal, jealous that the canal did not carry his own name, let the official's enemies have him exiled to Alexandria and imprisoned without trial, until he won his release by a ruse.
Fragments from the Cairo Geniza preserve poems recounting his case and singing his praises. The Arab chronicler al-Maqrizi records him as the ancestor of the Banu al-Safir, a family of court physicians. His canal watered Egyptian fields for centuries.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/abu-al-munajja-solomon-ben-shaya
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Fatimid Jewish administrator who built the great irrigation canal that still bore his name, the Bahr Abu al-Munajja
Source: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/abu-al-munajja-solomon-ben-shaya
