Friday

Place

Time

Language

Disease

Animal

Keyword

Person

Nature event

River

Plague

Scribe

Social response

Victims

In Friday, a total of 12 epidemic events are known so far.

Locations and Spreading

Date	Summary	Source	Translation	T

1348, May – 1348, June

The Black Death at the Levantine coast (sawāḥil): The inhabitants of Damascus, after having heard about plague (wabāʾ) in the Levantine coastal plain and other regions, feared it might reach their city, too, and many people might die of the disease (dāʾ). For this reason, al-Bukhārī's (d. 870) hadith collection was recited in Damascus after Friday prayer on June 6, 1348. The judges and a group of people were present. Prayers of supplication were spoken, asking God to bring the pandemic to an end. On June 9, surah "Nūḥ" from the Quran was recited 3,363 times.

(Translation needed)

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1348, May 31 – 1348, September VN: 1000 + 300 + 2400

In the beginning of Rabīʿ I, 749 H (the month began on May 31, 1348) news about the Black Death in Gaza reached Aleppo while the author stayed there. The daily death toll had reportedly amounted to more than 1,000. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa then traveled on to Ḥoms which had already been affected by the plague; ca. 300 people died on the day of his arrival. He went on to Damascus whose inhabitants had fasted for three days [July 22 to 24] and on Friday set out for the Mosque of the Footprints (Aqdām). God subsequently reduced the burden of plague lasting on them. The daily death toll in the city had amounted to 2,400. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa traveled on to ʿAjlūn, and then to Jerusalem where the plague wave had already come to an end.

In the first days of the month of Rabīʿ I in the year forty-nine news reached us in Aleppo that plague had broken out in Ghazza and that the number of dead there exceeded thousand a day. I went to Ḥims and found that the plague had already struck there; about three hundred persons died on the day of my arrival. I went to Damascus and arrived on a Thursday; the people had been fasting for three days. On Friday they went to the Mosque of the Footprints, as we have related in the first book. God alleviated their plague. The number of deaths among them had risen to two thousand four hundred a day. Then I went to ʿAjlūn, and then to Bait al-Muqaddas [Jerusalem], where I found the plague had ceased.

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1348, June 29 – 1348, July 28 VN: 200 per day

The number of plague deaths in Damascus increased in the month of Rabīʿ II 749 H (June 29–July 28, 1348). More than 200 people died per day, and the removal of the dead bodies was delayed. Poor people suffered the highest losses. On July 3, 1348, the Friday preacher prescribed to recite prayers and supplications asking for the plague to abate. The abolition of taxes (ḍamān) on funeral services by the governor of Syria (nāʾib al-salṭana) Sayf al-Dīn Arghūn-Shāh al-Nāṣirī was proclaimed on July 14. On July 21, it was announced that the inhabitants of Damascus should fast for three days, and on day four abase themselves before God at the suburban Mosque of the Footprint (Qadam) and implore him to end the plague; afterwards, people set out for the desert to recite prayers of supplication, including Jews, Christians, and Samaritans, high and low, etc.

(Translation needed)

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1348, July VN: 24.000 + 2000

In the days of the Black Death, in late July 1348, the governor of Syria Arghūn-Shāh ordered the inhabitants of Damascus to fast for three days and to close the food stalls in the market. People fasted from July 22 to 24. Afterwards, the elites and the other social strata flocked to the Umayyad Mosque to recite ritual prayers, supplications and invocations of God. They spent the night there, and at dawn the morning prayer was said. Then all the inhabitants of the city – men, women and children – went out to the Mosque of the Footprints (Aqdām), the amirs on bare feet. Muslims, Jews, and Christians all took part, carrying their respective Books and imploring God. At the mosque, people abased themselves before God and supplicated him. At noon they returned to the city and the Friday prayer was said. God, then, reduced their suffering. The daily death toll in Damascus did not reach 2,000 whereas in Cairo it amounted to 24,000.

Anecdote: I witnessed at the time of the Great Plague at Damascus in the latter part of the month of Second Rabīʿ of the year 49, a remarkable instance of the veneration of the people of Damascus for this mosque. Arghun-Shah, king of the amirs and the Sultan's viceroy, ordered a crier to proclaim through Damascus that the people should fast for three days and that no one should cook in the bazaar during the daytime anything to be eaten (for most of the people there eat no food but what has been prepared in the bazaar). So the people fasted for three successive days, the last of which was a Thursday. At the end of this period the amirs, sharifs, qadis, doctors of the Law, and all other classes of the people in their several degrees, assembled in the Great Mosque, until it was filled to overflowing with them, and spent the Thursday night there in prayers and liturgies and supplications. Then, after performing the dawn prayer [on the Friday morning], they all went out together on foot carrying Qur'ans in their hands — the amirs too barefooted. The entire population of the city joined in the exodus, male and female, small and large; the Jews went out with their book of the Law and the Christians with their Gospel, their women and children with them; the whole concourse of them in tears and humble supplications, imploring the favour of God through His Books and His Prophets. They made their way to the Mosque of the Footprints and remained there in supplication and invocation until near midday, then returned to the city and held the Friday service. God Most High lightened their affliction; the number of deaths in a single day reached a maximum of two thousand, whereas the number rose in Cairo and Old Cairo to twenty-four thousand in a day.

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1348, August – 1348, September

After the Black Death had ended in Jerusalem, the Friday preacher ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Jamāʿa hosted a banquet which the author was invited to: While the plague had lasted, ʿIzz al-Dīn had vowed to host a feast when the epidemic will have abated and he will not have prayed over a deceased person for one day. Most of the notables and dignitaries (ashyākh) Ibn Baṭṭūṭa had known in Jerusalem had died during the plague.

Anecdote: The preacher ʿIzz al-Dīn gave a banquet one day and invited me among his guests. I asked him the reason for it. He told me that during the plague he had sworn he would give a banquet if the plague were to cease and a day were to pass during which he did not pray over a corpse. Then he said: 'Yesterday I did not pray over a corpse so I arranged the banquet as I had promised.' I found that some of the shaikhs I had met in al-Quds [Jerusalem] had departed to be with God Most High. May He have mercy on them! Only a few of them were left like ...

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1349

The plague was transmitted to Halland in Denmark, where it erupted in the autumn of 1349 in the port of Halmstad. King Magnus IV calls upon the population of Linköping to visit the mass, go to confession, give alms to the poor and the Church, and fast to keep the great plague away

Kong Magnus af Sverige, Norge og Skåne oppfordrer alle beboere i bispedommet i Linköping til at gå i kirke, ofre til de fattige, faste hver fredag, skrifte og give en svensk penning til ære for Gud og jomfru Marie for at holde den “stoora plago“ borte, som “staar nw omkring alt Norge oc Halland oc naakas nu hiit.”

King Magnus of Sweden, Norway and Scania calls upon all residents of the diocese of Linköping to go to church, make offerings to the poor, fast every Friday, go to confession and give a Swedish penny in honour of God and the Virgin Mary to keep away the "great plague" that "is now around all of Norway and Halland and is now present here." (Translation: Carina Damm)

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1349, January 27

On January 27, 1349, the Friday preacher Tāj al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Qazwīnī died of plague in Damascus after two days of illness. The members of his household were infected, too; his brother Ṣadr al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Karīm died soon afterwards.

(Translation needed)

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1420, June 15

Eustache de l'Aitre, chancellor of France died in Sens during an epidemic few days ago.

Ce jour, vindrent nouvelles au Palais de la mort et trespas de maistre Eustace de l'Aitre, chancelier de France, esleu evesque de Beauvès, qui, le vendredi précédent estoit trespassé, epidémié au dyocese de Sens, au service et en la compagnie du Roy.

This day, the news came at the House that Eustache de l'Aitre, chancellor of France and newly elected bishop of Beauvais died last friday in the bishopric of Sens, because of the epidemic that raged out there. (Translation: Thomas Labbé)

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1463, May

A procession because of ongoing plague in Göttingen and a plague all over Lower Saxony.

Anno domini 1463, feria 6. Ante Assensionem Domini, do ging men mit einer procession wulln und barfuß umb der pestilentz willn, so dar regerde in vilen stedten. […] Dan in diesem jare regirde auch eine grosse pestilentz in vilen enden und orten, also auch in Gottingen, das grosse hauffen absturben. Tho Brunswig, Hildesheim, Hannober, Magdeborch, Halberstadt starb es auch gleich so sehre. Dusser sterben find an in dem herbst und werete bis in den Fastelavent.

In the year of our Lord 1463, on a Friday before Ascension, a procession of barefoot people was made because of the pestilence that ruled in many cities [...] And in this year, there ruled a pestilence in many place, also in Göttingen, that killed a lot of people. In Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Hannover, Magdeburg and Halberstadt people died in the same way. This mortality started in autumn and ended during Carnival. (Translation: Martin Bauch)

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1465

In Bologna: June very humid; from July to 19 September very dry and great wheat shortage, then on 20 September a solar eclipse, then cold and in December again very warm, from 23 December snow and wind and mild and short plague

Alli 20 di settembre, il venerdì, a hore 23, fu la ecclisse del sole et fu grande carestia di frumento, perciochè la corba valse lire due et soldi 16; fu anco poco vino […] In somma questo anno per tutto il mese di giugno fu humido et tempestoso, et per questu fu si gran freddo, che gli huomini furono forzati di amicarsi il foco. Fu assai frumento e legume, ma poco vino. IL mese di luglio, di agosto et di settembre furono secchi et caldi insino alli 19 di settembre et da indi in poi il freddo se fece della statione padrone dandoci pioggia et nebbia. Il mese di dicembre fu talmente calido, che pareva esser la primavera, et così stette insino alle 23 e poi ne diede neve et venta et una leggiera et breve pestilenza et mal di punta.

On Friday the 20th of September, at 11 p.m., there was an eclipse of the sun and a great shortage of wheat, because the grain was worth two lire and 16 cents; there was also little wine [...] In sum, this year, for the whole month of June, it was humid and stormy, and for this reason it was so cold, that men were forced to love the fire. There was much wheat and legumes, but little wine. The months of July, August and September were dry and hot until the 19th of September, and from then on, the cold became the master of the weather, giving us rain and fog. The month of December was so hot, that it seemed to be spring, and so it remained until 23rd and then it gave snow and wind and a slight and brief plague and sore tip. (Translation: Thomas Wozniak)

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1483, June 20

Great mortality and famine in Thuringia's neighbouring countries and the citizens of Erfurt fear they might be affected in the future and organize a procession to prevent this.

Als man schreib noch Christi gebort vnser hern Tusent vierhundert vnnd drye vnnd achczigk, An deme fritage vor sant Johans tage baptisten, Do hatte der erßame vnnd wiße rath zu Erffort bestalt zu gehene eyne lobeliche erliche processien vmme dye stadt Erffort Vmme sunderlicher bethe willen eyns iglichen menschen, zu bethen vnnd zu loben den almechtigen ewigen got, das her de jn woner der erlichen stadt Erffort vnnd ouch andere frome luthe behute wolde vor dem gremmigen tode, ader hunger, ader pestilencien, vnnd dye fruchte uff deme feld. Sunderlichen jn disser zit ist groß sterben gewest jn fele landen vmme heer, ane jn Erffort vnnd jm lande zu Doringen alleyne. Also besorgte sich dye stad Erffort, eß mochte ouch zu on kome.

In the year of our Lord 1483, on the Friday before St. John's day, the honourable council of Erfurt decided to organize a procession around the city for extraordinary praying of all people. The Lord Almighty should be petitioned and blessed so he would protect the honest inhabitants of Erfurt and other just people from the grim reaper, or famine, or pestilence, and save the crops in the fields. In this time, there was a great mortality in all neighbouring countries, but not in Thuringie and Erfurt itself. So the city of Erfurt worried, they might be next. (Translation: Martin Bauch)

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1495, September 11

The lay brother Henrik Magnusson dies of the plague in Vadstena Abbey

Item, xi die mensis Septembris, que erat feria sexta infra octavas nativitatis Marie virginis, obiit frater Henricus Magni laicus, anno a professione sua xvi. Obiit ex pestilentia.

Furthermore, on 11 September, the Friday of the octave of the Virgin Mary's nativity [8 September], the lay brother Henrik Magnusson died in the sixteenth year after his consecration. He died of the plague. (Translation: Carina Damm)

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References

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