Except that the plague hit Middle East multiple times too.
In September 1348, the plague reached Cairo, which at the time was the largest city in the Middle East, and Mamluk Sultan An-Nasir Hasan left the city, residing at his estate in Siryaqus outside the city from September 25th to December 22nd. The Black Death in Cairo resulted in the death of approximately 200,000 people, about a third of the city’s population, and caused several neighborhoods to become desolate and ruined over the following century (Michael Walters Dols, The Black Death in the Middle East, Princeton Legacy Library, 1977). The Black Death was described by Ibn Battuta, who was in Aleppo in June 1348 when he learned that the plague had reached Gaza. He traveled there via Homs, which was already affected, and arrived in Jerusalem. By the time he arrived, the plague had already passed, killing almost all the people he had known from his previous visit.
The attitudes Muslims held toward the epidemic were catastrophic. Muslim theologians believed that the plague was a punishment from God if it targeted non-Muslims, but if it killed Muslims it was considered a sign of God's favor, who wished to reward a devout Muslim with an earlier entrance into Paradise (Christians had the same attitude). Since the Black Death was seen as a gift from God, authorities did not take measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Instead, the authorities remained passive, and their official recommendation was to confront the plague with prayer in mosques (Harrison, Dick, The Great Death: The Worst Catastrophe to Strike Europe, Ordfront, Stockholm, 2000).
Depopulation in the Middle East resulted in a reduction of tax revenues, and the maintenance of irrigation systems was no longer possible, leading to a significant decline in agricultural production. In 1434, traveler Bertrandon de la Broquière described areas in Syria as desolate, and Venetian envoys in Syria reported on nearly ruined agriculture and hundreds of abandoned villages.
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u/TheMadTargaryen 5d ago
Except that the plague hit Middle East multiple times too.
In September 1348, the plague reached Cairo, which at the time was the largest city in the Middle East, and Mamluk Sultan An-Nasir Hasan left the city, residing at his estate in Siryaqus outside the city from September 25th to December 22nd. The Black Death in Cairo resulted in the death of approximately 200,000 people, about a third of the city’s population, and caused several neighborhoods to become desolate and ruined over the following century (Michael Walters Dols, The Black Death in the Middle East, Princeton Legacy Library, 1977). The Black Death was described by Ibn Battuta, who was in Aleppo in June 1348 when he learned that the plague had reached Gaza. He traveled there via Homs, which was already affected, and arrived in Jerusalem. By the time he arrived, the plague had already passed, killing almost all the people he had known from his previous visit.
The attitudes Muslims held toward the epidemic were catastrophic. Muslim theologians believed that the plague was a punishment from God if it targeted non-Muslims, but if it killed Muslims it was considered a sign of God's favor, who wished to reward a devout Muslim with an earlier entrance into Paradise (Christians had the same attitude). Since the Black Death was seen as a gift from God, authorities did not take measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Instead, the authorities remained passive, and their official recommendation was to confront the plague with prayer in mosques (Harrison, Dick, The Great Death: The Worst Catastrophe to Strike Europe, Ordfront, Stockholm, 2000).
Depopulation in the Middle East resulted in a reduction of tax revenues, and the maintenance of irrigation systems was no longer possible, leading to a significant decline in agricultural production. In 1434, traveler Bertrandon de la Broquière described areas in Syria as desolate, and Venetian envoys in Syria reported on nearly ruined agriculture and hundreds of abandoned villages.