Fasting

For Fasting, a total of 11 epidemic events are known so far. It is a keyword.

Table

Table

Page	DateStart date of the disease.	SummarySummary of the disease event	OriginalOriginal text	TranslationEnglish translation of the text	ReferenceReference(s) to literature	Reference translationReference(s) to the translation
1217-03-00-Cairo 002	March 1217 JL	A letter mentions that a disease raged in Cairo, dated on March 17, 1217.	לקד כאן קלובנא ועיוננא מתטלעה אלי אללה סובחאנה ותעאלי באלציאם וגירה ואלדעא אן יפרג' ען ישראל מן אלדבר אלדי כאן ענדכם וכנא נדעו אלי אללה אלא יעדמנא גאה סיידנא ולא נט'רה לאן סיידנא אליום נר ישראל עלי אלחקיקה ולא ארתפע שאננא גמיעא אלא בסיידנא	A letter to Avraham Maimonides (d. 1237), the head of the Jews in Egypt (nagid), in Cairo, written by the teacher, cantor, and clerk Yehuda b. al-ʿAmmānī in Alexandria. Yehuda mentions that the Jewish community in Alexandria had been fasting and supplicating on behalf of the addressee's health and for God to lift the disease (Hebr. dever) that raged in Cairo and had afflicted Avraham, too. The letter is dated to the end of Adar 1528 Seleucid era (the month ended on March 17, 1217).	Princeton Geniza Project (PGP), T-S 16.305, lines 24-31 verso, ed. by Miriam Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent. The Leading Elite in the Jewish Community of Alexandria in the Middle Ages (in Hebrew), Jerusalem 2006 PGP	Translation by Undine Ott
1340-00-00-Klettgau	1340 JL	Plague with high mortality in Klettgau, Tiengen, Kaiserstuhl and Klingnau in period of fasting	Hoc eciam tempore in quadragesima in Kleggow pestilencia hominum grandis et satis prevalida orta est, ita quod citra Tuͥengen et Keiserstůl et Klingnow certatim morerentur et multi periculose infirmarentur.	At this time also, during Lent, a great and quite prevalent pestilence of humans arose in Klettgau, so that without exception around Tiengen, Kaiserstuhl, and Klingnau, people were dying in droves and many were dangerously falling ill.	Template:Johannes von Winterthur, p. 173.	Translation by DeepL
1347-02-00-Avignon	February 1347 JL	Famine and afterwards mortality in Avignon (fasting period until Whitsun).	Anno Domini MCCCXLVII in quadragesima et inter pascha et pentecosten circa Avionem propter gwerrarum rabiosam inundacionem circumquaque exortam fames exicialis et prevalida facta est, propter quam innumerabiles populi morte repentina extincti dicebantur. In tantum eciam mortalitas famem horrendam subsecuta seviebat, quod in plateis, vicis et in sterquiliniis prostrati miserabiliter iacuerunt.	In the year of our Lord 1347, during Lent and between Easter and Pentecost, near Avignon, due to the violent outbreak of war, a devastating famine arose everywhere, causing countless people to be struck down by sudden death. Such a terrible mortality ensued from the famine that people were said to be dying innumerable deaths. To such an extent did the deadly famine rage, that people miserably lay prostrate in the streets, alleys, and dung heaps.	Johannes von Winterthur, p. 270.	Translation by DeepL
1348-05-31-Gaza	31 May 1348 JL	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.	Ibn Baṭṭūṭa - Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār 1853-1859, vol. 4 (1858), pp. 319-320.	None
1348-06-29-Damascus	29 June 1348 JL	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.			Ibn Kathīr - Al-Bidāya wa-l-nihāya 1997-1999, vol. 18 (1998), pp. 503-504	Translation needed
1348-07-00-Damascus	July 1348 JL	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.	Ibn Baṭṭūṭa - Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār 1853-1859, vol. 1 (1853), pp. 227-229	None
1349-00-00-Norway 001	1349 JL	Arrival of the Black Death to Norway in 1349.	Drepsotinn kom fyrst i Babilon a Serklandi sidan for hon til Iorsala lannz ok eyddi Iorsala borg þa for hon yfir hafid ok higat til pafa garz. þa uar Clemens sextus hann uigdi ana Rodanum ok uoru þar a bornir daudir menn er eigi matti iarda sidan for hon um Franz ok Saxland sua nordr um sio til Einglannz ok eyddi þar sua at eigi uar fleira manna i borginni Lunndun en xiiij. Þa vigldi .i. kuggr til Biorguiniar ok uard eiqi ruddr ok do af allt folkid en þegar gozid kom upp i bæinn þa do þegar folkid. for þa drepsottin um allan Noreg. fioldi skipa sock nidr med farmi ok urdu eigi rudd. Sidan for hon um Hialtland Orkneyar Sudureyar Færeyar. Þat uar kyn sottarinnar at menn lifdu iij dægr med hardan stinga þa toku menn blodspyu ok for þar med onndin. fyrr nefndr pafi setti moti þersi drepsott messo er sua byriaz recordare domine et cet. ok gaf þar med pardun rietskriftudum .cc. ok .Ix. daga. þar med dictadi hann eina bæn er sua hefr benediccio dei patris. ok med i uppgiof .dc. daga ok iiij karinur.	The deadly plague appeared first in Babylon in Serkland, then it went to Palestine and desolated Jerusalem. Then, it went over the sea hither to the papal city [= Avignon]. Clement VI consecrated the river Rhône and dead people, who could not be buried, were thrown into it. Then, the disease went across all France and Saxony northwards to England and raged there so heavily that not more than fourteen people survived in the city of London. Then, a cog sailed to Bergen, was not cleared, and all the people [on the ship] died. As soon as the goods were brought into the town, the townspeople died. Then, the disease swept all over Norway. The ship sank with its cargo, and was not cleared. After that, the disease spread across the Shetlands, Orkneys, Hebrides and Faroes. That was the sort of disease that people did not live more than three days with heavy pangs of pain. Then, they began to vomit blood, and then the spirit left them. The aforesaid pope set a mass against this plague that begins with recordare domine etc., and gave a written indulgence of 200 and 60 days. Then he also authored a prayer that starts benediccio dei patris, with the remission of sins for 600 days and four times 40 days of fasting.	Annálarbrót frá Skálholti. In: Gustav Storm: Islandske Annaler indtil 1578. Kristiania, 1888, p. 223.	Translation by Carina Damm
1360-00-00-Pleskov	1360 JL	The second wave of the plague (Black Death?) in Pskov	Того же лѣта [6868] <a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a> бысть моръ силенъ въ Плесковѣ, и прислаша послове плесковици къ владыцѣ с молбою и челобитьемъ, чтобы, ѣхавши, благословилъ бы еси нас, своих дѣтеи, и владыка, ѣхавъ, благослови их и городъ Пьсковъ съ кресты обходи, и литургии три совръши, прииха в Новъград, а плесковицамъ оттолѣ нача лучши бывати милость божиа, и преста моръ.	The same year [6868] there was a great plague in Pleskov, and the men of Pleskov sent envoys to the Vladyka with prayer and beating of the forehead, that, having come, thou mightest bless us, thy children. And the Vladyka went and blessed them; and went round the town of Pskov with crosses and performed three liturgies and returned to Novgorod; and thenceforward the men of Pleskov were better deserving of God's mercy, and the plague ceased.	Новгородская первая летопись младшего изводa (Комиссионный список), in: Полное Cобрание Pусских Летописей, т. III, Mocвa: Языки Pyccкoй Kyльтypы, 2000, p. 367.	None
1374-05-00-Pisa	May 1374 JL	Outbreak of the plague in Pisa with a high mortality, as a consequence several processions.	Del mese di maggio anno preditto incominciò la morìa nella cità di Pisa, morendone alcuno per dì d'anguinaia, tincone, di soditelli, di faoni e d'alti sozzi mali. E poi di giugno cominciava a crescere, e facevasi per la cità dimolte precessione. E poi a dì 30 d'agosto, per comandamento dell'arcivescovo, si fece precissione generale cinque mattine, tenendo li fondachi serrati e digiunando, portando molte reliquie di santi et il sangue di sam Piero. E la ditta morìa durò per la cità e contado di Pisa sine a (p. 258) settembre anni Domini milletrecentosettantaicinque e molti ne morinno, de' cinque li quattro. E del mese di settembre restò altutto.	In the month of May, in the previous year, death began in the city of Pisa, with some dying each day of eels, tincone, soditelli, faoni and other ills. And then in June it began to grow, and there were many precessions in the city. And then on the 30th of August, at the Archbishop's commandment, there was a general precession on five mornings, keeping the docks closed and fasting, carrying many relics of saints and the blood of Saint Piero. And this death lasted for the city and countryside of Pisa until (p. 258) September anni Domini one thousand three hundred and seventy-five and many died, of the five the four. And of the month of September remained all.	Template:Cronica di Pisa 2005, pp. 258–259.	Translation by DeepL
1402-00-00-Iceland	1402 JL	Great plague in Iceland in 1402	Jtem kom ut Hual einar Heriolfs son med flat skip er hann atti sialfur. kom þar ut j suo micil brada sott. at menn lagv daudir innan þriggia natta. Þar til er heitid uar þrimur lofmessvm med sæmeligv bæna halldi oc lios bruna. Jtem var lofad þurfostv fyrir kyndil messo. enn vatnfasta fyrir iol æuenliga. feingv sidan flestir skriptab mal adur enn lietust. Geck sotten um haustid fyrir sunnan land. med suo mickille ogn ad aleyddi bæi vida. enn folkid uar ecki sialfbiarga þat eptir lifde i morgum stodum. Sera Ali Svarthofda son deydi fyrst af kenne monnum um haustid. oc þar (!) brodir Grimur kirkiu prestur j Skalholti. sidan hver eptir annan heima presta. Sera Hoskulldur radsmadur a iola daginn sialfvann. Aleyddi þa þegar stadinn at lærdvm monnum oc leikvm. fyrir utan byskupinn sialfann oc ij leikmenn.	Then Hval-Einar Herjólfsson sailed out with the ship he had himself. A sudden and severe disease broke out there, so that people lay dead within three nights until three masses were sung with the appropriate prayers and burning candles. Likewise, fasting without water was vowed at Candlemas and fasting with water always before Christmas. Then, most could make their confessions before they died. In autumn, the plague raged in the south of the country with so much terror that villages died out almost entirely. And people were not able to safe themselves in many places. The first priest to die in the autumn was Father Áli Svarthöfðason, followed by Brother Grímur, parish priest in Skálholt, and then one resident priest after the other, the counsellor, Father Höskuldur, exactly on Christmas Day. Thus the episcopate (Skálholtsstaður) was emptied of learned men and lay people, save for the bishop himself and two lay people.	Lögmannsannáll. In: Gustav Storm: Islandske Annaler indtil 1578. Kristiania 1888, p. 286	Translation by Carina Damm
1418-10-05-Paris	5 October 1418 JL	A procession is organized at the church of Saint-Victor of Paris against the mortality that reigns in the city and other places of the Kingdom.	Furent au conseil maistres J. de Longueil et J. Rapiout, presidens (et huit conseillers) lesquelz se departirent assez tost de la Chambre de Parlement pour aler, ceulz qui vouldroient aler à Saint-Victor leiz Paris en la procession générale qui avoit esté ordonnée estre faicte pour occasion des guerres et grant mortalité estans en ce royaume. Et fu ce jour generalement à Paris faicte abstinence de cher par le commandement de l'evesque de Paris ou ses vicaires.	Those who were present at the coucil this day, J. de Longueil and J. Rapiout with 8 consultants, went out earlier that usual in order to go to the procession that was held at the church of Saint-Victor of Paris. This procession has been decided because of the war and the epidemic that ravage the Kingdom. For this day, the bishop of Paris promoted a fasting.	Journal de Clément de Fauquemberge, vol. 1, p. 179-180	Translation by Thomas Labbé

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