In the middle of the fourteenth century a devastating andemic of plague, commonly known in European history as the Black Death, swept through the entire Mediterranean world.1 This cataclysmic event caused a dramatic demographic decline in Muslim and Christian countries and provoked definable communal responses.2
The impact of the pandemic on Christian Europe is fairly well known since the Black Death has been the subject of considerable scholarly attention.3 This interest has led to a misconception of the Black Death as primarily a European phenomenon. Regrettably, the Black Death in the Orient has not attracted a comparable interest, but this neglect should not be interpreted as an indication of its lack of historical significance.4 The famous fourteenth-
1 This study is based, in part, upon a more extensive investigation of the transmission and impact of the Black Death on Muslim societies in the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. The effects of plague in Muslim society naturally afford further material for compariÂson with the European experience, particularly with regard to economic and demographic consequences.
2 At the outset, there is a need for caution because of the lack of research on the demographÂic history of the Middle East. It is impossible to prove that the dramatic differences in the contemporary reactions of Muslim and Christian societies were due to a marked difference in population decline. It is improbable, in my opinion, that there was a greater decline in European population which would have caused greater social tension and alarm. A general assessment of the etiological conditions for plague in the Middle East would tend to suggest the opposite.
3 The extensive literature on the European phase of the Black Death, with special atÂtention to Great Britain, has been conveniently summarized by three recent works: Philip Ziegler, The Black Death (London 1969) with a helpful bibliography, George Deaux, The Black Death 1347 (London 1969), and J. F. D. Shrewsbury, A History of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles (Cambridge 1970). On the subject of communal reaction, see especially Stephen d’Irsay, “Defense Reactions during the Black Death, 1348-1349” Annals of Medical History 9 (1927) 169-179.
4 The pertinent works on plague in the Middle East include: Gaston Wiet’s translation of three historical texts dealing with the Black Death in Egypt (“La grande peste noire en Syrie et en Egypte,” Atudes d’orientalisme d~di~es ~i la rn~moire de L~vi-Proveni~al 1 (Paris
century Muslim historian, Ibn Khaldun, who lost his parents and a number of his teachers during the Black Death in Tunis, recognized the import of the pandemic for Islamic civilization
