492 mills, wind and water
reprint, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998);
Paul J. Alexander, The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985); Norman
Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Mil-
lenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages(New
York: Oxford University Press, 1970).
mills, wind and water The first machines, mills
and presses, were built to mill grain and to press olives
and grapes. They were common in the ancient world and
became more so with the decline of slavery. They used
human, water, wind, and animal power. Because they
were expensive to build and maintain, peasants often had
to depend on and pay their lords for access to these nec-
essary agricultural machines. Lords soon sought to
reserve for themselves monopolies for access to these
indispensable tools, charging customary taxes or labor
dues. Over the Middle Ages, mills grew in complexity
and efficiency. Some were used in industrial activities, for
manufacturing cloth or metal products. Windmills were
limited to the grinding of cereals and were wide spread
from the 13th century.
See alsoBAN; MANORS AND MANORIAL LORDSHIP.
Further reading:Richard Holt, The Mills of Medieval
England(Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1988); Edward J. Kealey,
Harvesting the Air: Windmill Pioneers in Twelfth-Century
England(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987);
Lynn White, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social Change
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962).minaret The minaret is a towerlike structure that is a
recognizable sign of a Muslim presence in terms of
MOSQUESfor PRAYER. Introduced by the ABBASIDSto sig-
nify their power, they did not take on a monumental
aspect before the ninth century, when the Great Mosque
of AL-QAYRAWANwas built. Never universal, the form var-
ied throughout the Islamic world. Some dynasties did not
build them. The immense minaret with spiral ramp at
Samarra in IRAQwas built some years later in 848. In
Western ISLAM, the minarets of SEVILLE, the Giralda, and
at MARRAKECH, the Kutubiya, had square bases and grace-
ful proportions. As well, these examples had decorative
panels covered with tracery, sometimes set off by squares
of colors. In the Middle East and Asia, several great
minarets with circular or star-shaped plans were remark-
able for their monumental appearance, outstandingThe remains of a Muslim watermill on the Guadalquivir River in Córdoba in Spain (Courtesy Edward English)