Wabāʾ

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In Wabāʾ, a total of 21 epidemic events are known so far. It is an arabic term for pestilence.

Events

  Date Summary  
Source
Translation
  T
1178 – 1179 Epidemic (wabāʾ) in Syria in the year 574 H (June 19, 1178 to June 8, 1179). It had been preceeded by inflation.  
وفيها، كان بالبلاد غلاء عام وتبعه وباء عام
 [1] 		In this year (1178/1179), the country had a general shortage, followed by a general epidemic. (Translation: Thomas Wozniak)
1217, March The fragment of a letter mentions a great epidemic (al-wabāʾ al-ʿaẓīm) which has struck the different parts of Cairo and has affected the physician and head of the Jews in Egypt (nagid), Avraham Maimonides (d. 1237), and his daughter. The fragment bears no date, but see here.  

recto: ואמא חאלנא פאן אלמולי אלרייס הנגיד יג יק[
אלאכבר מריץ פי שדה אללה יעאפיה ובנתה[
איצא והו גיר קאדר עלי מלאזמתה{א} אלא מלאזם ו[ט]אה
טול אלאסבוע לא ינזל ליל ולא נהאר והו מן דלך פי שדה
עטימה אללה יומן (=ימון) [אלעאפיה] ואמס וצלני ורקה מן צהרה רבנו
חננאל הדיין הגדול דאם עזה והו יקול אן הדה אלאיאם מתל
יום הדין כל שכץ משגול בנפסה
verso: ואנמא עזימתנא וכליתנא
עלי אלכלאץ מן הדא אלובא אלעטים אלדי מא פי מצר ואלקאהרה בית מן חשובי
ישראל וגירהם אלא ופיה מריץ או מרצי ואלנאס פי שדה עטימה משאגיל

אנפסהם ען בעצהם בעץ פכפי ען גריב
[2] 		As to us, our lord, the Rayyis, the Nagid [may his] gl[ory be] in[creased], the chief [Rav] is seriously ill, may God heal him, and so is his daughter; he is unable to treat her, and confined to his bed; throughout the week he could not get up, neither at night, nor at daytime, which caused him great grief; may God grant him health. Yesterday, I received a note from his father-in-law, our master, Hananel, the chief justice, may his high position endure, saying: "These days are like the Last Judgment; everyone is occupied only with himself."

We strive to save ourselves from the great plague. In Miṣr [Fustat] and Cairo, there is no house belonging to important persons and, in fact, to anyone else, where not one or several persons are ill. People are in great trouble, occupied with themselves and unable to care for others, let alone for strangers. [3]

1258 Epidemic in Baghdad after the Mongol conquest of the city: A Mongol army under Hülegü Khan had captured Baghdad and killed the Abbasid caliph al-Mustaʿṣim bi-llāh [February 20, 1258]. Dead bodies were lying around everywhere, a bad smell developed in the city, the air changed. Many people died of the severe epidemic (wabāʾ) that followed the fighting. When the epidemic abated in Baghdad it traveled to Syria.   ' [4] (Translation needed)
1309, June – 1310, May Epidemic (wabāʾ) in Cairo and other parts of Egypt in 709 AH (June 11, 1309 - May 30, 1310). Many people died, most of them were mamluks of amirs.  
1309-06-11-Egypt.jpg
 [5] 		(Translation needed)
1310, January 4 – 1310, February 1
VN: 100 per day 		Epidemic (wabāʾ) in Cairo in Shaʿbān 709 AH (January 4 - February 1, 1310). 100 people died per day.  
1310-01-04-Cairo.jpg
 [6] 		(Translation needed)
1346, April – 1347, April
VN: 1.000 		In 747 H (April 24, 1346 to April 12, 1347), the Black Death spread in the Horde (bilād Uzbak), where many people died in villages as well as towns. Plague then arrived in Crimea where the maximum daily death toll amounted to ca. 1,000, as the author, Ibn al-Wardī, was told by a trustworthy merchant. Afterwards, plague spread to Asia Minor (Rūm) where it killed many people. An Aleppine merchant who had returned from Crimea reported to Ibn al-Wardī that the judge (qāḍī) of Crimea had said that they had counted the deceased and that the number had amounted to 85,000 known plague deaths. The plague reached Cyprus, too, and the death toll was enormously high there as well.   ' [7] (Translation needed)
1348, April News about the Black Death (wabāʾ) in other countries kept reaching Damascus in early 749 H (the year starts in April 1348): Terrible things were told about Crimea where a great number of people had reportedly died. Afterwards the plague, it was told, was transmitted to the lands of the Franks. The majority of the inhabitants of Cyprus were said to have died from the plague.  
1348-04-00-Crimea.png
 [8] 		(Translation needed)
1348, April – 1349, March The Black Death in Egypt and other countries in 749 H (April 1, 1348 to March 22, 1349): People were taken by surprise by the epidemic (wabāʾ) whose death toll was high. The odors of death met them. People died quickly of the disease after buboes had appeared at their earlobes (marrāq).  
1348-04-00-Egypt.png
...
1348-04-00-Egypt 2.png
 [9] 		(Translation needed)
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.   ' [10] 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)
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.  
1348-05-00-Levantine coast.png
 [11] 		(Translation needed)
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.  
1348-05-31-Gaza.png
 [12] 		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. [13]
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.  
1348-06-29-Damascus.png
 [14] 		(Translation needed)
1348, August – 1348, September The Black Death's death toll in Gaza   1348-08-00-Gaza.png [15] Then we went to Ghazza and found most of it deserted because of the numbers that had died during the plague. The qāḍī told me that only a quarter of the eighty notaries there were left and that the number of deaths had risen to eleven hundred a day. [16]
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.   1348-08-00-Jerusalem.png [17] 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 ... [18]
1348, September
VN: 21.000 + 1080 		In September or October 1348, the Black Death had abated in Alexandria and Cairo. The maximum death toll in Alexandria had been 1,080, while it had been 21,000 in Cairo. Everyone from among the city elites Ibn Baṭṭūṭa had known in Cairo had died.   1348-09-00-Alexandria.png [19] Then I travelled to al-Maḥalla al-Kabīra, then to Naḥrarīya, then to Abyār, then to Damanhūr, and then to Alexandria. I found the plague had abated after the number of deaths had risen to a thousand and eighty a day. Then I went to Cairo and was told that during the plague the number of deaths there had risen to twenty-one thousand a day. I found that all the shaikhs I had known were dead. May God Most High have mercy upon them! [20]
1348, September – 1348, October A pilgrimage caravan left Cairo for Mecca in Rajab 749 H (September 26 to October 24, 1348). The Black Death accompanied it until it reached the Ayla pass (ʿAqaba).  
1348-09-00-Cairo.png
 [21] 		When I arrived in Cairo I found that the Grand Qāḍī ʿIzz al-Dīn, son of the Grand Qāḍī Badr al-Dīn, son of Jamāʿa, had set out for Mecca in a huge caravan called Rajabī, because it leaves in the month of Rajab. I was told that the plague was among them until they reached the pass of Aila where it ceased. [22]
1362, October 20 – 1363, October 9
VN: 2000 		A deadly disease (wabāʾ) hit Egypt in 764 H (October 20, 1362 to October 9, 1363), the maximum daily death toll reached 2,000. The disease was then transmitted to Greater Syria.   Mortalitas magna per totum fere mundum [23] There was a great mortality in almost all of the world. (Translation: Thomas Wozniak)
1365, October A Muslim woman who had been taken prisoner by the Franks who had seized Alexandria in October 1365 reportedly related that after the Franks had withdrawn from the city [around October 12], an epidemic (wabāʾ) broke out among its inhabitants. The disease was caused by an odor that altered the air and by the smell emanating from the bodies of those who had been killed during the conquest and whose corpses had been lying around for too long. The maximum daily death toll exceeded 100. The woman, then, began to work as a washer of female corpses in order to earn a living.  
1365-10-12-Alexandria.png
 [24] 		(Translation needed)
1367, August – 1368, August
VN: 1000 		A deadly disease (wabāʾ) hit Egypt in 769 H (August 28, 1367 to August 15, 1368). It lasted about four months. The daily death toll reached 1,000 and more.   ' [25] (Translation needed)
1374, March – 1374, September
VN: 7000 + 12.000 		Many people, mainly children, died of plague (ṭāʿūn, fanāʾ, wabāʾ) in Alexandria from Shawwāl 775 H (March 16 to April 14, 1374) to Rabīʿ I 776 H (August 10, 1374 to September 8, 1374). Up to 200 people died per day. In Shawwāl, 7,000 people perished within three days. In 775 H (1373), the Nile had failed to reach the necessary gauge (wafāʾ) during the summer flood, and many fields in Egypt could not be cultivated. Prices for grain and other foodstuffs rose in Egypt. Prices remained high also during the following year (776 H: June 13, 1374 to June 1, 1375) despite a sufficient Nile flood and the availability of grain. People became impoverished and died of hunger due to the rise in prices while grain merchants (khazzān) made huge profits. Finally, people revolted against inflation and famine. Plague came on top of famine. In Alexandria, 17,000 people reportedly died of plague, 12,000 of whom were male and female children. [...]  
1374-03-16-Alexandria.png
...
1374-03-16-Alexandria 3.png
...
1374-03-16-Alexandria 4.png
...
1374-03-16-Alexandria 2.png
 [26] 		(Translation needed)

References

  1. ↑ • Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-ʿUmarī, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā: Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al-amṣār. 14 vols.. Abu Dhabi 2001–2004 , vol. 27, p. 117
  2. ↑ • Anonymus: Princeton Geniza Project (PGP). , T-S NS 321.93, lines 8-14 recto, 3-6 verso, ed. by Shelomo D. Goitein, Chief Judge R. Ḥanan'el b. Samuel, In-law of R. Moses Maimonides‎ (in Hebrew), in: Tarbiẕ 50, no. 10 (1980), pp. 371-395 PGP
  3. ↑ • Shelomo D. Goitein: A Mediterranean Society. The Jewish Communities of the World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 5 vols.. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London 1967–1988 vol. 5, p. 114; translation modified by UO
  4. ↑ • al-Nuwayrī, Muḥammad b. Qāsim al-Iskandarānī: Kitāb al-Ilmām bi-l-iʿlām fīmā jarat bihī l-aḥkām wa-l-umūr al-maqḍiyyah fī waqʿat al-Iskandariyya. 7 vols.. Hyderabad , vol. 2, p. 224
  5. ↑ • Baybars al-Manṣūrī, Rukn al-Dīn: Zubdat al-fikra fī taʾrīkh al-hijra. Beirut 1998 , p. 413
  6. ↑ • al-Birzālī, ʿAlam ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim: Al-Muqtafī ʿalā Kitāb Al-Rawḍatayn li-Abī Shāma. 4, Beirut 2006 , vol. 2, p. 432.
  7. ↑ • Ibn al-Wardī, Zayn al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar b. al-Muẓaffar: Tatimmat al-Mukhtaṣar fī akhbār al-bashar. 2 vols.. Beirut , vol. 2, p. 489
  8. ↑ • Ibn Kathīr, ʿImād al-Dīn Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar: Al-Bidāya wa-l-nihāya fī l-tārīkh. 21 vols.. Giza , vol. 18 (1998), pp. 502-503.
  9. ↑ • al-Nuwayrī, Muḥammad b. Qāsim al-Iskandarānī: Kitāb al-Ilmām bi-l-iʿlām fīmā jarat bihī l-aḥkām wa-l-umūr al-maqḍiyyah fī waqʿat al-Iskandariyya. 7 vols.. Hyderabad , vol. 4 (1970), pp. 126-127; 143.
  10. ↑ • Ibn Ḥabīb, Badr al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿUmar al-Dimashqī al-Ḥalabī: Tadhkirat al-nabīh fī ayyām al-Manṣūr wa-banīhi. 3 vols.. Cairo , vol. 3 (1986), pp. 110-112
  11. ↑ • Ibn Kathīr, ʿImād al-Dīn Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar: Al-Bidāya wa-l-nihāya fī l-tārīkh. 21 vols.. Giza , vol. 18 (1998), pp. 502-503.
  12. ↑ • Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Lawātī al-Ṭanjī: Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār fī gharāʾib al-amṣār wa-ʿajāʾib al-asfār. 5 vols.. Paris , vol. 4 (1858), pp. 319-320.
  13. ↑ Translation: H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham, The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325-1354. 5 vols., 1958-2000, vol. 4 [London 1994], p. 918
  14. ↑ • Ibn Kathīr, ʿImād al-Dīn Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar: Al-Bidāya wa-l-nihāya fī l-tārīkh. 21 vols.. Giza , vol. 18 (1998), pp. 503-504
  15. ↑ • Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Lawātī al-Ṭanjī: Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār fī gharāʾib al-amṣār wa-ʿajāʾib al-asfār. 5 vols.. Paris , vol. 4 (1858), p. 322
  16. ↑ Translation: H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham, The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325-1354. 5 vols., 1958-2000, vol. 4 [London 1994], pp. 919
  17. ↑ • Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Lawātī al-Ṭanjī: Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār fī gharāʾib al-amṣār wa-ʿajāʾib al-asfār. 5 vols.. Paris , vol. 4 (1858), pp. 320-321
  18. ↑ Translation: H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham, The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325-1354. 5 vols., 1958-2000, vol. 4 [London 1994], pp. 918-919
  19. ↑ • Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Lawātī al-Ṭanjī: Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār fī gharāʾib al-amṣār wa-ʿajāʾib al-asfār. 5 vols.. Paris , vol. 4 (1858), p. 323
  20. ↑ Translation: H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham, The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325-1354. 5 vols., 1958-2000, vol. 4 [London 1994], pp. 919-920
  21. ↑ • Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Lawātī al-Ṭanjī: Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār fī gharāʾib al-amṣār wa-ʿajāʾib al-asfār. 5 vols.. Paris , vol. 4 (1858), p. 324.
  22. ↑ Translation: H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham, The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325-1354. 5 vols., 1958-2000, vol. 4 (London 1994), p. 920
  23. ↑ • Ibn Ḥabīb, Badr al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿUmar al-Dimashqī al-Ḥalabī: Tadhkirat al-nabīh fī ayyām al-Manṣūr wa-banīhi. 3 vols.. Cairo , vol. 3 (1986), p. 259
  24. ↑ • al-Nuwayrī, Muḥammad b. Qāsim al-Iskandarānī: Kitāb al-Ilmām bi-l-iʿlām fīmā jarat bihī l-aḥkām wa-l-umūr al-maqḍiyyah fī waqʿat al-Iskandariyya. 7 vols.. Hyderabad , vol. 4 (1970), p. 295.
  25. ↑ • Ibn Ḥabīb, Badr al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿUmar al-Dimashqī al-Ḥalabī: Tadhkirat al-nabīh fī ayyām al-Manṣūr wa-banīhi. 3 vols.. Cairo , vol. 3 (1986), p. 312
  26. ↑ • al-Nuwayrī, Muḥammad b. Qāsim al-Iskandarānī: Kitāb al-Ilmām bi-l-iʿlām fīmā jarat bihī l-aḥkām wa-l-umūr al-maqḍiyyah fī waqʿat al-Iskandariyya. 7 vols.. Hyderabad , vol. 3 (1970), pp. 253-254; vol. 4 (1970), p. 127-129; 143; vol. 6 (1973), pp. 423-425.
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Amrāḍ • Appetite • Bellyache • Black Death • Blood spitting‏‎ • Carboncles • Chest pain • Cold • Cough • Dāʾ • Dearth • Disease • Ergotism • Epidemics • Fanāʾ • Fever • Glene • Headache • Heat • Influenza • Kidneyache • Korkota • Leprosy • Malaria • Mortality • Mumps • Ophthalmic disease • Pestilence • Picota • Plague • Properieulle • Rheumatism • Rubeola • Rougerieulle • Seasickness • Sleep • Smallpox • Shoulderache • Sweating sickness • Swellings‏‎ • Symptoms • Syphilis • Throat disease • Ṭāʿūn • Ulcers • Vérole • Wabāʾ • Zoonotic

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