Plagues and epidemics in Islamic history

Some of them accelerated the conquest of Islam and the fall of the Umayyad state, and one of them killed 19,000 brides, Plagues and epidemics in Islamic history

“He descended in the east and the west in the middle of this eight hundred the sweeping plague that distorted nations and took away the people of the generation, and the urbanization of the earth was diminished by the depreciation of human beings, the cities were ruined, the ways and landmarks were studied, the homes and homes became vacant, and the nations and tribes weakened…; as if the tongue of the universe called out to the world. With lethargy and constriction, he hastened to answer... as if it were a new creation, a resumed emergence, and an updated world!!

in the above sentences; The historian Ibn Khaldun (d. 808 AH / 1406 AD) described - in the 'Introduction' - the "black plague" that swept the world of his time in the middle of the eighth century AH / 14 AD.

In a current situation that simulates that historical pandemic; People - in most countries of the world - stayed in their homes until political leaders began to speak from them in their university summits, and the employees of major institutions completed their manifold work there, and students - at different levels of education - received their lessons and training!

The world has been besieged - and is still threatened by the return of the siege - from an enemy you missed. We did not know anything about its nature and plans, nor how to confront it because we do not see it as a struggle, and we do not realize - until now - what our future will look like after his departure, if he will leave! All we know is that we must take measures to guard against him until God authorizes the full disclosure of his affliction, he and his successive mutated strains.

Perhaps the best thing the writer does - at such times - is to reassure his reader that this situation is not a historical precedent, and that humanity went through these circumstances and suffered the most severe forms of suffering, then the grief subsided and the river of life ran flowing. And proof of that; I will show you a summary of the plagues and epidemics, and the conditions of people with them in our Islamic history, and how they contributed to the lives of people, the destruction of people, and the benefit of people!

Definitions and differences

Contemporary doctors interpret the plague as a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which multiplies in the stomach of fleas and small insects such as lice and bedbugs, and is transmitted to domesticated animals such as cats, mice, dogs and livestock, and then transmitted to humans.

The way the plague occurs is that plague bacteria multiply in the stomach of fleas, for example, and then leak into their esophagus and block it, which causes them to have a thirst for blood, so they ask animals or people when they suck from them, they vomit contaminated blood, and it spreads in the body and the plague that spreads among people with infection occurs.

In terms of the difference in semantic use between plague and epidemic; The ancient scholars held that the epidemic is every spread disease, including the plague, but the latter is characterized by its own symptoms. Abu al-Walid al-Baji (d. 474 AH / 1081 AD) said about what Ibn Hajar (d. 852 AH / 1448 AD) narrated from him in his book 'Ma'on made the virtues of the plague': Their illness is the same, unlike the rest of the time, so the diseases are different.”

As for Judge Ayyad (d. 544 AH / 1149 AD) - in his explanation of 'Sahih Muslim' - he said, explaining the difference between them according to the ancients: "The origin of the plague is the sores that come out in the body, and the epidemic is a general disease; An epidemic of plague”, while Muhib al-Din al-Tabari (d. 694 AH / 1295 AD) - in 'Riyadh al-Nudayra' - suggests that "every general disease - from an abscess or other - is called a plague."

We find in their words a description of three types of plague, although they did not specify their nature: 1- Lymphatic plague : it is the swelling of the lymph nodes that give the body the ability to resist infection and recover from it if it occurs. Which is what is meant by the words of Ibn Sina (d. 428 AH / 1038 AD) - in 'The Canon of Medicine' - when describing the plague: "A toxic substance that causes a deadly tumor, it occurs in the soft and groin areas of the body, and most of it is under the armpit."

2- Pneumonic plague : begins with bronchitis, immediately followed by ascites (filling with fluid), then death occurs within three or four days. 3- Sepsis plague : Bacteria invade the bloodstream and death occurs before the manifestations of lymphatic or pulmonary plague appear. And Ibn Sina refers to it by saying: “Its cause is bad blood that tends to putrefaction and corruption. It is transformed into a toxic substance that spoils the organ and changes what follows, and leads to the heart in a bad manner, causing vomiting, nausea, fainting, and palpitations.”

in contemporary medical definitions; It came in the "Encyclopedia Britannica" that "plague was a term used to describe any widespread disease causing mass death, but it is now confined to a special type of infectious fever caused by the bacillus bacteria transmitted by rat flea." As for the epidemic, the World Health Organization defines it as: “a pandemic that spreads throughout the world, or over a very large area across international borders, and usually affects a large number of people.”

An Israeli precedent

Perhaps the first plague or general epidemic mentioned by our Islamic sources was a plague that occurred in the Children of Israel, after they refrained from complying with God's commands and changed his words. The Almighty said: {Then those who were unjust changed a word other than what was said to them, so We sent down on those who were unjust a punishment from heaven for what they were transgressing.} (Surat Al-Baqarah / Verse: 59). Al-Tabari (d. 310 AH / 922 AD) said in his interpretation: “The plague destroyed them.”

This is also evidenced by what al-Bukhari (d. 256 AH / 870 AD) narrated - in his Sahih - that Osama bin Zaid (d. 54 AH / 675 AD) asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) about the plague, and he said: “The plague is an abomination that was sent to a sect of the builders of Bani Isra’. Whoever was before you - so if you hear about it on land, do not approach it, and if it falls to land - and you are in it - do not go out fleeing from it." It can be understood from this hadith that the plague bacteria remained between two states of latency and emergence throughout the ages.

And after the advent of Islam; Apparently, plagues and epidemics broke out throughout the long ages of its history, especially during the Umayyad dynasty and the Mamluk state. This wide spread of epidemics and plagues is evidenced by the number of books written in this section.

I have seen many researchers begin to mention the one who wrote in this field by Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. 281 AH/893 AD) and his book 'The Plagues', although the Canadian philosopher (d. 254 AH/868AD) had a treatise on the air-repairing fumes of epidemics. I have counted more than 70 books in our Islamic history - beginning with the eleventh century AH and earlier - all related to epidemics and plagues.

The people of the Prophet’s biography of the plagues that occurred during the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not record for us except a plague that occurred in Persia in the year 6 AH / 628 AD, and was named after its king Sherwayh (d. 6 AH / 628 AD). Then the "Plague of Emmaus" (= a Palestinian village that was located about 28 km southeast of Jaffa and was demolished by the Jewish occupiers 1397 AH / 1967 AD) occurred in the year 18 AH / 640 AD, "the people dedicated themselves"; According to al-Tabari in his history. It was a deadly plague in which 25 thousand perished; As mentioned by Al-Waqidi (d. 207 AH/822 AD). Among the senior leaders of the Companions: Abu Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrah, Sharhabil bin Hasna, Yazid bin Abi Sufyan and Muadh bin Jabal, died there.

However, Al-Baladhuri (d. 270 AH/883 AD) refers - in 'Futuh al-Badan' - to a violent plague that preceded the plague of Emmaus that occurred around the year 16 AH / 638 AD in Persia, and its results - from a geopolitical perspective - were in the interest of Muslims who then advanced in Persia and conquered most of its metropolises. .

We find in the 'History of Damascus' by Ibn Asaker (d. 571 AH / 1175 AD) a mention of this plague, where he is quoted from Ayyub al-Sakhtiani (d. 131 AH / 750 AD) as saying: "The plague was not more severe than three plagues: the plague of Azdegerd (= Yazdegerd, a Persian king who died in 30 AH). (651AD), the plague of Emmaus, and the sweeping plague"; We will talk about the latter.

In the year 24 AH / 646 AD; A plague occurred in Egypt. We do not know about it except that he took five sons of the poet Abu Dhu’ayb al-Hudhali (d. 27 AH / 649 AD), so he gave us his wonderful elegy to them: “Does it feel safe and does it hurt?”

Ibn Battah al-Akbari (d. 387 AH / 998 AD) - in 'Al-Ibanah al-Kubra' - claimed that the source of that plague was a village called "Dab" in which the plague occurred. (654 AD) he opposed him, saying: “How can you, O Muawiyah, have your lives come?” So the plague spread to Homs and Damascus, so Muawiyah left it and the epidemic reached Egypt.

Umayyad

plagues The plagues did not stop throughout the Umayyad state; Ibn Hajar says - in his aforementioned book - illustrating the succession of the plagues in which: "[The plagues] did not stop during the Caliphate of Banu Umayyah, then the plague subsided in the Abbasid state."

And before Ibn Hajar centuries; Abu Mansour al-Thalabi (d. 429 AH / 1039 AD) - in 'The Fruits of the Hearts' - noted that "the Levant was still a lot of plagues until they became dates, and they appeared in the Levant and then extended to Iraq..., and when the Banu al-Abbas [the caliphate] took over, the plague stopped until the days of al-Muqtadir ( Died 320 AH / 932 AD). Successive plagues led to the exhaustion of the illiterate state and contributed to its downfall at the hands of the Abbasids.

The historian Ibn Taghri Bardi (d. 874 AH / 1469 AD) - in 'The Shining Stars' - quotes the historian Abu al-Hasan al-Madani (d. 225 AH / 840 AD) that he counted 15 plagues until the year 131 AH / 750 AD; But the researcher Ahmed Al-Adawi tracked - in his book 'The Plague in the Umayyad Era' - these plagues and found them to be twenty plagues, an average of one plague every four and a half years. He also clarified the consequences of these plagues in accelerating the end of the Umayyad state and the success of the Abbasid revolution against them in the year 132 AH / 751 AD.

The first feature we see in the impact of the plague on the Umayyad state is the destruction of its leaders and influential political figures, whose existence enhances the survival of the state. The plague destroyed the Emir of Kufa, al-Mughirah bin Shuba (d. 50 AH / 671 AD), as Ibn Katheer (d. 774 AH / 1372 AD) - in 'The Beginning and the End' - reported a narration stating that in the year 49 AH / 670 AD, "the plague occurred in Kufa, and al-Mughirah escaped. The plague rose (= ended), the plague returned to it, and the plague struck him and he died!!

The plague also destroyed the Emir of Iraq, Ziyad bin Abih, in the year 53 AH / 674 AD; Al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1347 AD) tells us - in 'Sir of the Nobles' Flags' - that "it was reported to Ibn Umar (d. 73 AH / 693 AD) that Ziyad wrote to Muawiyah: I have seized Iraq with my right and left empty, and asked him to take over the Hijaz. Ibn Umar said “Oh God, if you make penance for the killing, then it is death for Ibn Sumaya, not murder, so a plague came out on his finger and he died.”

Among the statesmen who died due to the plague were Crown Prince Ayoub bin Suleiman bin Abdul Malik (d. 96 AH / 716 AD), and Abdul Malik bin Omar bin Abdul Aziz (d. 101 AH / 720 AD), who served as an advisor to his father. The plagues were active in Iraq after the year 60 AH / 681 AD; In 64 AH / 685 AD - or 65 AH / 686 AD according to a narration - a plague occurred in Basra, many people perished, and people were busy burying their dead until the governor of Basra at that time, Ubaid Allah bin Muammar al-Taymi (d. about 83 AH / 703 AD) his mother died and he did not find anyone to carry her funeral “He hired four falcons for her, and they carried them to her pit.” According to al-Tabari.

Hind bin Hind bin Abi Hala, son of the stepson of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and grandson of the Mother of the Believers Khadija bint Khuwaylid (d. 3 BC. H. H./619 AD), may God be pleased with her, died in it. It is said that 70,000 people died on that day, so people occupied their funerals for his funeral Then his mourner called out: “Wahind bin Hindah, the stepson of the Messenger of God, there was no funeral left without being abandoned, and his funeral was carried out in honor of the Messenger of God (may God bless him and grant him peace).” As reported by Ayyad in 'Shifa'. Ibn Katheer reports that a man “realized the time of [this] plague, and said: We used to go around the tribes and bury the dead, and when they multiplied, we could not burial, so we entered the house - and its people died - and closed its door” on them!!

Deep effects

and five years did not pass until the "Plague of Musab bin Zubair" (d. 72 AH / 692 AD). According to Ibn Qutayba (d. 276 AH / 889 AD) in 'Al-Ma'arif'; This plague, which occurred in Basra in the year 69 AH / 689 AD, was the first "wild plague" in Islam.

This plague - with its deadly spread in Iraq and the Levant - emboldened the Romans to invade the Muslims in the Levant and threaten the state of Abd al-Malik bin Marwan (d. 86 AH / 706 AD), until he decided to reconcile with them and pay them a weekly tribute of 1000 dinars (= today approximately 170 thousand US dollars).

However, the luck of his opponent, Musab bin Al-Zubayr, was more miserable than him, as the deadly plague in the seat of his emirate in Basra was terrible. Al-Madaini narrated - in his book 'Condolences' and on his transmission by al-Nawawi (d. 676 AH / 1267 AD) in 'Sharh Sahih Muslim' - that he was killing 70 thousand per day.

Al-Tawhidi (d. after 400 AH/1010 AD) reported in 'Ammunitions and Insights' a story that reflects the extent of the impact of this plague on reshaping people's social traditions; He said: “It was said to Dawood bin Rashid (Al-Khwarizmi, Imam Al-Thiqa, who died in 239 AH/853AD): Why did people hate to enter their women in Shawwal? [Q] He said: Nineteen thousand brides died in it of the sweeping plague!! Ibn Qutayba al-Dinuri (d. 276 AH / AD) - in 'Poetry and Poets' - states that "only seven men and a woman attended Friday prayer, and when Ibn Amer asked the imam of the mosque: Where are the people? A woman replied: Under the dirt!!"

This time the plague was in the interest of the Umayyads; Where he exhausted their opponents Al-Zubayri, and prepared for Abd al-Malik to inflict a crushing defeat on Musab after the plague ate what he ate from his soldiers. Then, soon after, the plague returned to Basra in the year 80 AH / 700 AD to set off from it to the Levant, Hijaz and Yemen, and the affliction was so severe that Ibn Katheer said that he "almost destroyed people from its severity", and the Romans took advantage of the disaster and attacked Antioch.

Al-Mubarrad (d. 286 AH / 899 AD) - in his book 'Condolences and Lamentations' - mentions to us excerpts from the lethality of this sweeping plague; He says: "Seventy thousand perished in three days, every day. Anas bin Malik (d. 93 AH / 713 AD) died, having eighty-three sons..., and Abdul Rahman bin Abi Bakra (d. 96 AH / 716 AD) died. Forty sons ... and I was told that the house was becoming And it has fifty, and it becomes tomorrow and there is not one in it!

In the year 85 AH / 705 AD, a plague struck Egypt, and its ruler, Abd al-Aziz bin Marwan (d. 85 AH / 705 AD), fled to Helwan, leaving Fustat and heading to the desert, but death caught up with him and died in Upper Egypt. According to what Ibn Abd al-Hakam (d. 257 AH / 871 AD) narrated in 'Futuh Misr and its news'.

Then it was followed by the "plague of the nobles" in the year 86 AH / 706 AD in Basra, and it was called so "for the honorable people who died in it (= notables of society)"; According to Al-Nawawi in 'Adhkar'. People were complaining about the combination of the affliction of the epidemic and the cruelty of the rule of pilgrims (d. 95 AH / 715 AD), so they would say, according to Ibn Taghri Bardi’s narration in “The Blossoming Stars”: “The plague and pilgrims will not be!!”

Then it was followed by the "Plague of Girls" in the year 87 AH / 707 AD, which set out from the Levant to Iraq, and was called the girls because it began with them, and in it the family was destroyed, leaving no one of them; As mentioned by Ibn Abi Al-Dunya in Al-Itibar. People were digging their own graves in it because they despaired of being saved, so that the follower Bashir bin Kaab bin Abi Al-Hamiri dug a grave for himself and continued to recite the Qur’an in it until he died and was buried in it; As in his translation from 'The History of Damascus'.

Precautionary measures

The Umayyad Caliphs and their sons resorted to the “voluntary stone” for themselves, by the repeated waves of plague, by trying to get away from people, even by leaving their capital, Damascus, to the Badia, where there is isolation and fresh air. The Caliphs of Banu Umayyah appear (= they mean the desert) and flee from the plague, so they leave the wilderness away from the people.

Rather, the Caliph Hisham bin Abd al-Malik (d. 125 AH / 744 AD) tried to move the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from Damascus to Rusafa to escape the plagues; In this regard, al-Tabari says - in his history - that when Hisham wanted to build Rusafa to live in it instead of Damascus, he was told: “Do not go out, for the Caliphs are not stabbed (= they get plague), and we did not see a caliph stabbed. He said: Do you want to try me?! So we went down to Rusafa."

The outbreaks of the plague continued between the years 114-119 AH / 733-738 AD, during which a sweeping plague occurred in Basra. In the year 125 AH / 744 AD; An epidemic occurred in the Levant, so the House of Judgment resorted to holding the allegiance of the caliphate to Yazid ibn al-Walid (d. 126 AH / 745 AD) in the desert, and al-Dhahabi says - in 'Al-Siyar' - that he "died on the Day of Sacrifice of the plague." Some sources - including Al-Kamil fi Al-Tarikh by Ibn Al-Atheer (d. 630 AH / 1233 AD) - indicate that this epidemic lasted seven years in the Levant, Egypt and North Africa.

The Umayyad Caliphate suffered great waves of death (6 torrential plagues and 14 less devastating plagues) that decimated plowing and offspring, and changed the demographic map of the population of cities and villages, especially in Iraq. The residents of “Sawad Iraq” (= the agricultural areas in the south) turned to grazing after they dispersed in the deserts and left agriculture and urban areas exposed to pests, and this reflected on the economic resources of the state, and the attempts of Hajjaj bin Yusuf to forcibly return them and resettle them in their villages did not help.

The incomes of “Sawad Iraq” decreased by 60% compared to what they were during the caliphate of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (d. 23 AH / 645 AD), which - according to what Omar bin Abdul-Aziz and Al-Baladhuri quoted from him in “Futuh al-Buldan” - is one hundred million dirhams, and as for what The foreheads of pilgrims after the plague are forty million dirhams, but it kept decreasing until Al-Yaqubi (d. 284 AH/897 AD) said - in his history - that the pilgrims died and the amount became "twenty-five thousand thousand dirhams".

Later, the policies of the pilgrims regarding the settlement of Negroes in “Black Iraq” led to major political events, such as the devastating “Zanj Revolt,” which lasted for 15 years between 255-270 AH / 869-883 AD. As for the military level; The number of soldiers decreased dramatically in the years of the plagues, and the percentage of soldiers installed in the offices of soldiers in Iraq is estimated at only 10% of what they were during the era of Muawiyah; As noted by researcher Ahmed El-Adawy.

Hence, we understand the reasons that forced the Umayyad state to forcibly recruit farmers and dhimmis, as mentioned by the Patriarch of Antioch Dionysius Al-Talmahri (d. 230 AH / 845 AD) in his book 'History of Times'.

A historical transformation

The favorable time for Bani al-Abbas was amazing. Circumstances adapted their emerging state and helped it to destroy a great state that stretched between China and Andalusia. And just as the Muslims - after al-Qadisiyyah - took advantage of the "plague of Yazdgerd", and they went deeper into the lands of the Sassanid state, expanding the borders of their new state on the ruins of the Sassanid kingdom; The time helped the Abbasid revolutionaries when it happened to them that the announcement of their revolution would come between two terrible plagues that swept through the caliphate of Banu Umayyah: “The Plague of Ghorab” - “And a crow is a man from the Rabab [tribe],” as Ibn al-Arabi al-Maliki says (d. 543 AH / 1148 AD) in his explanation of al-Muwatta - year 127 AH. / 746 AD, and the plague of Muslim bin Qutaiba in 131 AH / 750 AD.

Al-Madaini narrated that in the plague of 131 AH / 750 AD, a thousand funerals were counted every day on the railway tracks, and the plague wiped out the residents of Basra or almost wiped them out. According to what Ibn al-Mulqin (d. 804 AH / 1399 AD) mentioned. According to a narration cited by al-Tabari in his history; The Umayyads took advantage of the plague epidemic of 131 AH / 750 AD, and they killed Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin Ali - who was the grandfather of the Caliphs of Banu al-Abbas - in their prison with them in Harran, and then announced his death with this plague.

We generally notice during the Umayyad era that the plagues that did not start from the Levant were emanating from Basra, due to their connection to the ports of India and China, and the contaminated goods and people carriers of diseases that might accompany ships coming from them.

According to a book entitled “The History of the Zouknini” written by Patriarch Dionysius Al-Telmahri; The monk of Deir Zagnin in Diyarbakir recorded the effects of a plague in the year 132 AH / 751 AD on the Umayyad state. He described - in brief sentences - the ongoing political conflict at the time, which he was receiving news of, speaking about the “disaster that turned the cities into a mill full of legs, whose residents fled without mercy Or pity, as if they were delicious grapes... Two, three, or four children were buried in one coffin... The bodies were everywhere on the sidewalks and the roads"; Then he concludes with an expressive sentence saying that despite all that: "The Arabs have never stopped quarreling and exchanging harm!"

The plagues not only led to the demise of states, but also cut the line of central figures in the Fattouh al-Islam movement; The genealogical historian Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusi (d. 456 AH / 1065 AD) informs us - in 'The Arab Genealogy Group' - that "there were many children (= children) Khalid bin Al-Walid (d. 21 AH / 634 AD) until they reached about forty men, and they were all in the Levant, then they all became extinct. In a plague that occurred, none of them had a stub left!

The outbreaks of the plagues continued to be repeated until the year 136 AH / 757 AD, when they stopped at the beginning of the Abbasid caliphate of Mansour (d. 158 AH / 779 AD). Al-Mansur was grateful to the people that God removed the plagues from them because of the blessing of the succession of his family; It came to Al-Thalabi: "Al-Mansur once said to Abu Bakr bin Ayyash (d. 193 AH/809 AD): It is our blessing that the plague has been lifted from you! He (Ibn Ayyash) said: God would not have brought you together against us and the plague!"

What Imam Ibn Ayyash refused to believe appears to have found popularity with Al-Jahiz (d. 255 AH / 869 AD), he said - in the 'Message of Nostalgia for the Homeland' - that the Abbasids: "Their first blessing was that God Almighty lifted the plagues and the sweeping death, for they were reaping a harvest after harvest!

Abbasid plagues,

then, the plague decreased at the beginning of the era of Bani al-Abbas, so this allowed them - among other factors - to consolidate their caliphate. But the plagues continued, albeit at a slower pace. Among the most important of them is a strange plague that occurred in 346 AH / 957 AD. Sudden death multiplied in it, to the extent that one of the judges put on his clothes to go out to the Judicial Council and was struck by the plague and died while wearing one of his slippers; According to Ibn Hajar in 'Ma'oon'. The plague occurred in the year 452 AH/1061 AD in the Hijaz and Yemen until many villages were destroyed and did not live after that, and whoever enters them perishes from the moment!

And Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 AD) reported - in 'Al Muntazim' within the events of 449 AH / 1058 AD - the receipt of a book / message from the city of Bukhara (which is located today in the State of Uzbekistan) with news of a plague in which 1.6 million people died until the moment of writing that book!! Then he moved to Azerbaijan, Persia and Iraq, where they bury people in mass graves. His symptoms were strange; When pieces of blood or worms come out of the mouth of the person infected with it, he dies. Children, women, and youth were dying in it, not the elderly, and only a few of the soldiers and the elderly died!! According to Ibn Hajar’s words in “Bad Al-Ma’un”

And the tribe of Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 654 AH / 1256 AD) - in “Mirror al-Zaman” - relates that the plague entered Damascus in the year 469 AH / 1077 AD and there were about five hundred thousand people in it. In 478 AH/1085 AD, a plague occurred in Iraq and then spread throughout the world, until the people of the path (= a residential neighborhood with one outlet) were dying and the path would be blocked for them!!

After the decline in the frequency of the occurrence of plagues in the first centuries of the Caliphate of Bani al-Abbas; It returned to its intensive activity in the Mamluk era in the Levant, Egypt and the Hijaz, and it was repeated at a rate of plague every 17 years. It seems to the follower of the plagues of the Middle Ages that Aleppo and Alexandria were hotbeds of the spread of epidemics and plagues, and perhaps this is due to the central position that the two cities occupied in international trade, especially with the Europeans.

Aleppo was the center of the plagues of the years: 787, 826, 841 AH / 1385, 1423, 1437 AD, and Alexandria the focus of the plagues of the years: 782, 788, 790 and 873 AH / 1380, 1386, 1388, and 1468 AD; As stated in a doctoral thesis by researcher Belkacem Tababi entitled 'Death in Egypt and the Levant in the Mamluk Era'.

This historian and poet Ibn al-Wardi (d. 749 AH / 1348 AD) describes - in his letter 'The News of the Epidemic' - the plague of 749 AH / 1348 AD in which he died, and draws for us a map of the movement of the epidemic; We find that he moves with the trade lines on the sea and land, and he mentions that the plague passed through Ma’arrat al-Nu’man, which he inhabited, and he says: “Then he entered Ma’arrat al-Nu’man and said to it: You are safe from me, Hama is enough to torture you, I do not need you:

and what does the plague do in A country ** Every day is plagued by injustice”?! How appropriate, today, for the afflicted Arab peoples, to hesitate this house in the face of the plague of Corona and the tyranny of the sultans!

Ibn al-Wardi also describes the treatments taken to confront this epidemic, including: Armenian clay, fumigating homes with amber, camphor and sandalwood, sealing with sapphires, eating beans, vinegar and tahini, and reducing leaves and fruits. Then the black plague occurred in 833 AH / 1430 AD, which Ibn Hajar was an eyewitness to. This is the plague."

Ibn Hajar - who is an expert in plagues due to what he witnessed of them and suffered from their misfortunes in his family - records that the plague of 833 AH / 1430 AD was different from the plagues before it in many things; Including the timing, where “it occurred in the winter and rose in the spring, and the plagues occurred in the spring and rose in the early summer”; Including that “most of those who die of the plague lose their minds, and this one who is being stabbed dies while he is sane”!

Doctors and jurists

beholder will find in the books that have been written about the plagues an apparent confusion in his diagnosis and seeking treatment, as he will find among some jurists reluctance to what the doctors say. And if you look at their sayings - and you are of different opinions - you will be confused by their arguments, accusing them of rigidity and ignorance, especially when some of them go to deny the infection that has become today among the established scientific facts, and I will stop you on the reasons for that, God willing.

With the succession of plagues and epidemics through the ages; Doctors tried to find an accurate diagnosis for it and to find out its causes. We found Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Nafis (d. 687 AH / 1286 AD) refer it to “corruption in the air”.

Ibn al-Nafis says in what Ibn Hajar attributes to him in “Bad al-Ma’un”: “The epidemic arises from corruption in the essence of the air due to malicious heavenly or earthly causes, such as meteors and stoning at the end of summer, and stagnant water and carrion a lot. Therefore, they hastened to reclaim the air” that is, to purify and clean it.

Thus, the Andalusian physician Muhammad al-Shaqouri (d. 776 AH / 1374 AD) begins his book on the epidemic with a chapter dealing with “reforming the air”; He says in it: “It is reclaimed by fumigating it to cut off those rotten fumes - with myrrh, mastic, cinderus, kandar and mi’ah - in cold and foggy weather.

As for the heat, serenity and dry places; Roses, sandalwood, eucalyptus and Indian agarwood” are what vaporizes the air for reclamation. Perhaps the idea of ​​reclaiming the air with incense is similar to what we see today in countries sterilizing the streets of their cities and public squares by spraying pesticides and sterilizers, with the aim of combating the Corona virus and the like.

They also relied on describing some vaccinations as a kind of medicine. They prescribed to patients “white meat from birds, apple cider vinegar, sumac and lemon vinegar, and sour grapes are very important in this regard… and whoever made sour apples and sour grapes jam and licked them in the mornings, the best medicine”; As Shaqouri says.

Ibn Sina used to say that the stabbed must be exterminated, and Zakaria al-Ansari (d. 926 AH / 1520 AD) - in “The Masterpiece of Those Who Want to Explain the Order of the Plagues” (manuscript) noted that doctors abandoned this methodology; He said: "The doctors - in our time and before it - have neglected this measure, and the severe negligence occurred from their complicity in not being exposed to the owner of the plague by expelling the blood, until it became widespread among them and became known, as their common people began to believe that it is forbidden, and this is transmitted from their president!"

But the doctors’ abandonment of the medical methodology mentioned by their “chief” Avicenna should not be understood as negligence, as occurred in the mind of the Ansari al-Faqih, and he marveled at him; Rather, it is likely that they left him due to his lack of benefit and uselessness, whose delusion made the doctors of the Umayyad Prince of Iraq Ziyad bin Abih refer to him when the plague struck his hand by cutting it off; According to al-Tabari.

Inadequate measures,

and the result is that all these treatments were throwaway in blindness, and did not give patients a cure or wellness. It is limited to: phlebotomy and vomiting, strengthening the heart by cooling and perfumery, and staying still and supplicating to calm the "irritable humors".

Since the inability of doctors to deal with this medical phenomenon; Their savvy accepted that there is no remedy for it and no motive for it except the One who created it and decreed it; According to what was reported by Al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 AD) in his book 'What was narrated by the conscious in the news of the plague' and attributed to Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH/1350 AD) in 'Zad al-Ma'ad'.

Al-Suyuti noted the absurdity of these measures; He said, as reported by Mar’i al-Karmi al-Hanbali (d. 1033 AH / 1620 AD) in his book “Talking of Suspicions in the News of the Plague”: “Most people in the plague have things that do not enrich them and things that do not concern them…, and I did not count on mentioning anything of what the doctors mentioned in what is used during the days of the plague, because There is no benefit in it, and they based what they mentioned on what they decided that the plague is caused by the corruption of the air, and the corruption of what they said has become clear.”

Indeed, some of the jurists were harsher than that with the doctors; They did not excuse them for their exhaustion, rather they accused them of ignorance, as we find in Abu al-Muzaffar al-Sarmari (d. 776 AH / 1374 AD) in the book 'Remembrance of the Epidemic and the Plague', where he describes them as "ignorant people who belong to science and are not among its people." On the “Doctrine of the People of Medicine and the Jahiliyyah”!!

When the jurists despaired of the medical profession, they were saved, and made the texts of Sharia their refuge in relying on understanding this phenomenon, and they adhered to the literal understanding of the texts in most of their cases. On this basis, they adhered to the hadiths mentioned in the plague and did not flee from it.

And due to the modesty of the medical information, the purposes of “quarantine” did not open to them; Even Ibn Abd al-Barr (d. 463 AH/1070 AD) says what Ibn Hajar reported from him in ‘Bad al-Ma’un’: “I was not informed that any of the scholars fled from the plague, except for what Al-Mada’ini mentioned [from] that Ali bin Zaid bin Jadaan fled from The plague came to Al-Siyala, meaning from Basra..., so when he gathered (= prayed Friday prayer), they shouted at him [reprimanding]: Flee from the plague!!

Perhaps the most accurate statement in capturing the significance and purpose of the hadith is what Amr ibn al-Aas (d. 43 AH 665/AD) did when he commanded the people - and he was a prince over them - to disperse in the mountains when the plague of Emmaus occurred in the Levant, and he survived and the people escaped with him. Al-Tabari narrated - in “Tahdheeb al-Athar” - that Umar preached to the people and said: “Disperse from this disgrace in the reefs, valleys, and tops of the mountains,” so that they disperse in the mountains into small groups, limiting the spread of disease among them, and preventing the transmission of infection to other areas.

And Judge Iyadh, in his explanation of Sahih Muslim, reported that Masrouq bin Al-Ajda’ (d. 63 AH / 684 AD) and Al-Aswad bin Hilal (d. 84 AH / 704 AD) - who are among the imams of the followers - believed that it was permissible to flee from the plague.

My lack of knowledge

As for the disagreement that occurred from them regarding the occurrence of infection, it is due to the failure to combine the evidence and hadiths from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in preventing disease and the sick, and their interpretation of the hadith “there is no infection” on its face, and the neglect of other clear hadiths indicating this meaning.

Their predecessor in this understanding was Abu Obaid al-Qasim bin Salam (d. 157 AH / 775 AD); According to Ibn Hajar's follow-up in 'Badh al-Ma'un'. However, we cannot attribute this dispute to stagnation and superficiality without referring to the modest volume of correct medical information in those eras.

To clarify this point; We present the model of Ibn Hajar as one of the figures in Islamic jurisprudence who denied the occurrence of infection. By understanding the backgrounds of his saying, it becomes clear to us what we decided to return the dispute to the modest medical information available to them in their time.

Ibn Hajar cites - in 'Did al-Ma'un' - the text of Taj al-Din al-Subki (d. 771 AH / 1369 AD) in proving contagion, which is "His saying (= al-Subki) in that: If two knowledgeable and just Muslim doctors testify that this - meaning mixing with the correct patient - is a reason for Harm to contacts, so refraining from mixing is permissible or more than that.”

Then he hastens in response to him by saying: “The testimony of those who testify to this is not accepted, because the senses belie him. These plagues have repeated their presence in the Egyptian and Levantine lands, and it is rare that a house is devoid of them, and there are [near] those who have been afflicted by it [a] who will rise against it from his family and his own. And their mixing with him is more severe than mixing with foreigners definitely, and many of them - rather most - are safe from that, so whoever testifies that this caused harm to the mixture is arrogant.”

Ibn Hajar infers the denial of sense to the transmission of plague by habit, as Al-Subki says, because the meaning of transmission by habit is that there is no breach of this habit. The personal experience of Ibn Hajar was the greatest witness to the lack of consistency of this law; His two daughters, Alia and Fatima, died in a plague that occurred in Egypt in 819 AH / 1416 AD, and he lost his eldest daughter Khatun in a plague in 833 AH / 1430 AD, and with him and his contact with them, he did not catch the plague, so it was proven by experience that there was no infection.

What Ibn Hajar did not notice - due to the scarcity of medical information in his days - is that the transmission of infection is not related to contact with the patient only, but also to the degree of immunity of the healthy person who has contact with him, as well as the type of infectious disease and how it is transmitted.

Perhaps the progress of the medical situation in Andalusia was more conducive to resolving the issue according to its jurists; This is Lisan al-Din Ibn al-Khatib (d. 776 AH / 1374 AD) launching the raid on the deniers of infection in his letter called “Convincing the Questioner about the Great Disease”, in which he says: “The existence of infection has been proven by experience, induction, sense, observation and frequent news, and these are the materials of proof.

And the occurrence of disease in the house, the camp, the clothes, and the vessels, even the earring damaged the one who was stuck to his ear and annihilated the entire house, and the perpetration of blasphemy in the people was the sword of the plague, and God empowered them from some of the muftis who opposed them with fatwas. And al-Muhaj is what no one knows except for those who wrote death for them…; In short, stubbornness towards such inference is blasphemy and whistleblower (= boldness) against God, and a purification for the souls of Muslims.

any way; Muslims were ahead of others in deciding the matter of contagion. The Italian physician, Girolamo Fracastoro (d. 1553 AD), who is considered the founder of the Western school of contagion as the first European to say that, wrote his book “De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis” - issued in Venice in 1546 AD - after The two letters of Ibn Khatama al-Ansari (d. 770 AH/1368 AD) and Ibn al-Khatib on the plague and their proof of infection by nearly two hundred years, and after the fatwa of al-Subki about a century; According to Ahmed El-Adawy's findings.

Behaviors and benefits

Al-Subki tells us - in “The Returner of Blessings and the Exterminator of Curses” - about people evaporating the city they inhabit if it is affected by the plague or epidemic, in accordance with the recommendations of doctors. The mosque known as the Tannour on Mount Mokattam was lit with tamarisk, frankincense and mandros “to ward off the plague on the people of Egypt.”

People were also trying to avoid crowded places in the city and go to open areas, such as the people of Cairo leaving for Al-Rawda Island. And it wasn't just the people; It was also a custom for the sultan who was leaving the mountain fortress and preferred to stay in Syracuse, and he stayed there for months that were the peak of the plague’s activity; As Ibn Taghri Bardi says.

Al-Subki refers - as stated in Belkacem al-Tababi's letter - to the distancing of the public and their preservation of "social distance" during times of plagues and epidemics, so much so that they left the visit of the challenged, and some of them even became feuding so as not to witness the funerals.

It is funny what we have come across from the stories that; Al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH / 1496 AD) translated - in “The Brilliant Light” - to one of the notables of the community named Hussein bin Muhammad Ibn Qaryluk, and he said that he isolated people inside his orchard in the “mouth of the creek” to escape the infection, and the news of his wife’s death did not leave him from his “stone.” The voluntary health care provider, and “she died, and he did not come to the witnesses to pray over her for fear of infection”!!

The general plague that occurred in 749 AH / 1348 AD reaped most of the farmers before they could harvest their crops. When the time for harvest came, the soldiers came out with their boys to him. According to Al-Tababi, on the authority of Al-Nujoum Al-Zahiriyah. The French researcher Jean-Noel Barban - in his book 'The Plague' (La peste) - refers to the destruction of 40 Egyptian villages out of a total of 2,200 villages. And in the plague of 795 AH / 1393 AD in the Levant, "the city of Aleppo and its country was deserted", and in the plague of 826 AH / 1423 AD, many villages were destroyed in the Levant.

No disaster passes without beneficiaries, as Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi states: “The misfortunes of a people bring benefits to others”! In the forefront of the beneficiaries whose benefit the history books have told us during the crises of plagues and epidemics: the funerals! In the 'Continued Al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar Al-Bishr' by Ibn Al-Wardi, the funerals were during one of the plagues, "playing and retiring from the customer" due to the abundance of demand for them!

As the profession of reading at funerals flourished, the reader began to take ten dirhams, and the porters’ livelihoods were also blessed until the porter took six dirhams, and the wages of grave diggers became fifty dirhams per grave; As stated in the 'Brilliant Stars'.

Perhaps one of the strangest types of benefit is what historians - especially Ibn Shaheen Al-Malti (d. 920 AH / 1514 AD) mention in 'Neeling Hope in the Tail of the States' - about the sultans' exploitation of the plagues, to seize the funds of the deceased who have no heirs and deposit them in a special fund for this called the "Diwan". Insect!"

Just as pharmacists benefit today from selling masks and sterilization materials; Those in charge of selling the prescribed substances as medicines for the plague were gaining traction in their trade, so the prices of sugar, cucumbers, watermelons and chickens recommended by doctors rose; Perfume and perfumery materials such as camphor, Sidr and cotton used in embalming the dead are also raised. As the demand for labor increases, its wages increase; So the water narrator gets eight dirhams, and the milling fee is fifteen dirhams, due to the scarcity of animals and humans.