The plague struck various countries in the Middle East during the pandemic, leading to serious depopulation and permanent change in both economic and social structures. As it spread to western Europe, the disease entered the region from southern Russia also. By autumn 1347, the plague reached Alexandria in Egypt, probably through the port's trade with Constantinople, and ports on the Black Sea. During 1347, the disease travelled eastward to Gaza, and north along the eastern coast to cities in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, including Ashkelon, Acre, Jerusalem, Sidon, Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. In 1348–49, the disease reached Antioch. The city's residents fled to the north, most of them dying during the journey, but the infection had been spread to the people of Asia Minor.[citation needed]
Mecca became infected in 1349. During the same year, records show the city of Mawsil (Mosul) suffered a massive epidemic, and the city of Baghdad experienced a second round of the disease. In 1351, Yemen experienced an outbreak of the plague. This coincided with the return of King Mujahid of Yemen from imprisonment in Cairo. His party may have brought the disease with them from Egypt.
Figures for the death toll vary widely by area and from source to source as new research and discoveries come to light. It killed an estimated 75 million to 200 million people in the 14th century.[1][2][3] According to medieval historian Philip Daileader in 2007:
The trend of recent research is pointing to a figure more like 45 percent to 50 percent of the European population dying during a four-year period. There is a fair amount of geographic variation. In Mediterranean Europe, areas such as Italy, the south of France and Spain, where plague ran for about four years consecutively, it was probably closer to 75 percent to 80 percent of the population. In Germany and England ... it was probably closer to 20 percent.
The most widely accepted estimate for the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran and Syria, during this time, is for a death rate of about a third. The Black Death killed about 40% of Egypt's population. Half of Paris's population of 100,000 people died. In Italy, Florence's population was reduced from 110,000 or 120,000 inhabitants in 1338 to 50,000 in 1351. At least 60 percent of Hamburg's and Bremen's population perished.Before 1350, there were about 170,000 settlements in Germany, and this was reduced by nearly 40,000 by 1450. In 1348, the plague spread so rapidly that before any physicians or government authorities had time to reflect upon its origins, about a third of the European population had already perished. In crowded cities, it was not uncommon for as much as 50 percent of the population to die. Europeans living in isolated areas suffered less, whereas monks and priests were especially hard hit since they cared for the Black Death's victims
Posts: 42922 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ Interesting. Judging from this article it seems that only the Arab north was affected. Do you have any info on whether the plague reached the southern areas?
Posts: 26246 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I got this from Mike, it's just wikipedia, haven't checked books yet. It's a bit shocking
Posts: 42922 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Interesting indeed, but also shocking, as Lioness puts it. Reminds me of Egyptian New Kingdom(?) records of the ''Asiatic disease'' (their words) in the far North, which caused people to abandon entire towns and seek refuge in the direction of Upper Egypt.
Posts: 8785 | From: Discovery Channel's Mythbusters | Registered: Dec 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ You are correct about such a disease taking place during the New Kingdom. Egyptologists and scientists are not certain exactly what the disease is that New Kingdom texts refer to as "tanet aamu" or 'Asiatic sickness' only that there have been several major outbreaks of it. The first occurred among Egyptian colonies in the Levant but later outbreaks then happened in the Delta region which caused migrations to the south. What is known is that the disease might have something to do with cattle as the last outbreak, the priests made efforts to inspect cattle and meat.
I'm more curious about a disease that Herodotus describes as endemic to Egypt, especially in the south with occasional outbreaks in Asia and the eastern Mediterranean via the Delta. This disease is described as a hemorrhagic fever with people coughing up dark blood. Some people theorize this may have been an early strain of marburg or ebola.
By the way here is an excellent paper suggesting the presence of plague in Egypt to predate Medieval times going as far back as pharaonic times.
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic