Michael Phelps

Period 7
November 12, 2008

The Black Death: Arma-geding-it-on

The Black Death is said to be the most fatal event in human history; but
obviously, it was not the end of the world. Preachers and prophets grew hoarse with
predictions of impending doom and destruction, painting a scene of redemption or
damnation. We know it to be false now, but back when an entire city may be killed off
from a seemingly unpreventable disease, the future seemed bleak. Humans are a curious
thing; like cockroaches, they are resilient and survive. One crucial part of this survival
can be attributed to the major religions at the time, Christianity and Islam. Unifying their
people, these religions brought a sense of security and stability in a collapsing society.
However, the large cultural gaps dividing them became all the more evident in their
attempts to combat and survive the plague. Through religion and religious organization,
the Pope for the Roman Catholics and the Caliphate for the Muslims and all of their
various underlings, Science, and their Geography, their beliefs were molded and shaped
and their view of the plague and the world around them changed.
God, as viewed by the Christians, is almost paradoxal; his judgment is absolute,
yet there is hope for mercy; this mercy is personified through Jesus. He is asked “…to
avert [his] gaze from [their] sins and blot out all of [their] iniquities, (Document 4). The
Holy Trinity allows God to have multiple personalities, stringent and commanding, or
understanding and merciful. God, or Allah, to the Muslims is but one being, and has but
one side. Therefore, because both religions believed that the plague was God’s work,
Christians took the approach to beg for forgiveness while the Muslims, knowing God has
but one reason and one approach, simply endured and accepted their fate.
Because of their religious organization, Muslims were far more united than their
Christian counterparts; religion and government were much closely intertwined as the
Caliphate was both a religious and political leader. Monarchs shared power with the Pope
in people’s lives, so his authority was not as absolute. It is evident, in respect to the
people’s treatment and disposition of their Jewish neighbors, that the Pope and his
followers did not always see eye to eye; this is greatly illustrated in the Strasbourg
burning, (Document 7). Of the 1,884 Jews living in Strasbourg, 900 were burned to
death. By 1351, over 350 similar massacres had taken place. This mob mentality was not
endorsed nor condoned by the Pope who said, “(the charge) that Jews have provided the
cause of the occasion for such a crime is without plausibility,” (Document 8). Despite his
words, the persecution persisted, none like the Muslim world has ever encountered. “In
no case is there a direct casual relationship to be found between the Black Death…and
the active persecution of minorities, as in Europe,” (Document 10). Because of the Jew’s
religious cleaning habits, as compared to the grotesque but practical sparingly clean
Christians, they were seen as the cause as they were far less likely to become sick.
However, Muslims seemed to understand and saw at a broad level the sickness of all
people, not just themselves.
 Neither the Christians nor the Muslims had any extensive knowledge of bacteria
and illnesses. It was traditionally believed that all sickness had a supernatural cause, not a
physical one. However, miasma (impure air) was their attempt to explain the plague
through natural means, (Document 5). However, this was practically their only shared
view. The Christians largely believed that practices and beliefs not adherent to their
religion caused the Black Plague, while Muslims believed the reverse. The conjunction of
Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars was citied as a cause of the epidemic; astrology and the planets
a largely Roman/Polytheistic tradition, gives credence to the belief that their personal
faith was not the problem, it was others. Also, it was said that excessive/outrageous
clothing brought upon God’s wrath, as it was not acceptable to wear such attire. The
Muslims saw the opposite and believed it was that of their own religion that could
explain the death. Evil jinn (fairies) and demons, traditional Islamic beliefs, were
attributed to the outbreak. Unlike the Christians, the Muslims used their own belief
system to discover a reason; Allah’s acts were not nearly as open to interpretation as the
three faced God of the Bible was.
The Black Death is traditionally viewed from a European perspective; rightly so
as the majority (1/3 to 2/3) of the deaths occurred in Europe. The question is then asked,
why? The Middle East is much closer to the Plague’s original source, Central Asia, yet it
was not hit the hardest, or first. This can be explained through the regions geography. In
the Middle East, the most obvious barrier to the Black Death would be the desert in
which it occupies, (Document 1). Those infected, or the animals harboring the infection,
would likely die in the intense heat and dehydration, far easier at least then a healthy
individual. Meanwhile, the relatively mild climate of Europe did not impede the
infection’s spread. This is the reason of the extreme measures taken by Europeans, where
the Muslims simply did not. The disease was far more fatal and so its seriousness, when
compared to the Middle Eastern view, was far greater. The Jewish persecution, while
unwarranted, is better explained as the situation was far more dire, or at least seen as so.
Costal Arab cities were still hit, but those further inland, where water travel was
unavailable, and able bodies were the only ones who could survive the trek, such as
Medina, were untouched.
The Black Plague is estimated to have caused 75 million deaths worldwide, the
single greatest epidemic in human history. The responses by the Europeans and by the
Arabs are widely different because, fundamentally, they are separated by their religions.
The Christians to the North, under monumental fatalities, were much more extreme in
their responses as the clawed to survive, and to remain in control. The Arabs, although
effected, never saw the extreme high rates of deaths that their European counterparts did,
causing their response to be far more passive. Regardless, the two groups of people were
united by their respective religions, and with this unity came strength that prevented their
societies from collapsing.