Anbūba is a simple instrument that has been in use during the medieval Islamic age. The Arabic term ʾAnbūba literally means the tube. The instrument was a tube devised in a particular way to determine the relative height between two lands for water transportation with the purpose of irrigating the farms and gardens. In the classic Islamic age, the description and instruction of such instruments were not generally registered in a textual format, regarding that they were a component of agricultural know-how. However, the information about ʾAnbūba has reached us in four independent treatises. This article introduces the instrument ʾAnbūba, discussing its construction and application. The article also includes the edition and translation of a fifteenth-century Persian treatise written exclusively about this instrument.
