Greater Syria

Place

Time

Language

Disease

Animal

Keyword

Person

Nature event

River

Plague

Scribe

Social response

Victims

In Greater Syria, a total of 1 epidemic events are known so far. It is a large region east of the mediterranean.

Events

Date	Summary	Source	Translation	T

1348, April – 1349, March 22 VN: 20.000 + 1000 + 500

From April 1, 1348 to March 22, 1349), an unprecedented plague hit the Middle East, and lasted about a year, and one third of Greater Syria’s and Egypt’s population died.

'

The Black Death in the Middle East: In the year 749 H (April 1, 1348 to March 22, 1349), an unprecedented wave of plague hit the Middle East. It was the sixth plague which affected the Middle East in the Islamic period. It was called the Kinship Plague (Ṭāʿūn al-Ansāb) since the decease of a person was often followed by the death of some of his or her relatives. People developed pustules, spat yellow blood and died within 50 hours. When people started spitting blood they would bid farewell to their friends, close their shops, their burial would be prepared, and they would die in their homes. The daily death toll reached a maximum of ca. 500 in Aleppo, more than 1,000 in Damascus, and ca. 20,000 in Egypt. Mostly women, youths, poor people, and riffraff died. The plague wave lasted about a year, and ca. one third of Greater Syria’s (Shām) and Egypt’s population died. (Translation: Undine Ott)

---

References

	Cities of the Middle East and Greater Syria
Ayla • ʿAjlūn • Aleppo • Alexandria • Caffa • Cairo • Damascus • Damiette • Deir Kifa • Gaza • Hama • Ḥoms • Jazira • Jerusalem • Mecca • Tunisia

	Regions
Austria • Belgium • Byzantium • Czech • Holland • France • Germany • Hungary • Italy • Middle East • Spain • Poland • Russia • Switzerland • Scandinavia • Ukraine

This is an EpiMedDat page, and outside EpiMedDat it is a mirrored or cloned page or similar. Please note that the page may then be outdated (15.01.2026) and no longer relate to the content. The original page is or was located at http://epimeddat.net/wiki/Greater_Syria