ĀBYĀR, title of the person given official charge of the irrigation of ābī “irrigated” lands. He may be a farmer or sharecropper elected by the cultivators, in those villages where farmers work their own land (see Ḵorda-mālek, and Raʿīyat), or he may be appointed by a landlord. The ābyār’s duty is to oversee the just and equal distribution of irrigation water; he is compensated by either a share in the produce of the ābī lands or a fixed payment in money or in kind.

See also Agriculture. Mīrāb.