Qanat
Cultural references

In an August 21, 1906, letter written from Tehran, Florence Khanum, the American wife of Persian diplomat Ali Kuli Khan, described the use of qanats for the garden at the home of her brother-in-law, General Husayn Kalantar, January 1, 1913

"The air is the most marvellous I ever was in, in any city. Mountain air, so sweet, dry and "preserving", delicious and life-giving.' She told of running streams, and fresh water bubbling up in the gardens. (This omnipresence of water, which doubtless spread from Persia to Baghdad and from there to Spain during its Muslim days, has given Spanish many a water-word: aljibe, for example, is Persian jub, brook; cano or pipe, is Arabic qanat—reed, canal. Thus J. T. Shipley, Dictionary of Word Origins)."

An old tradition in Iran was to hold symbolic wedding ceremonies between widows and qanats in which the widow became the "wife" of the qanat. This was believed to help ensure the continued flow of water.
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