Natural disasters in the Ottoman Empire: plague, famine, and other misfortunes

Abstract

while the Arab Muslims led by the second caliph, 'Umar ibn al-Khat t ab (d.644), were consolidating their rule in the area, having conquered Syria and Palestine in the 630s.The Plague of 'Amwas required the Muslim community ( umma ) to address the question of right behavior under such challenging circumstances.The foundations for considering the issue were laid during an earlier, smaller epidemic in Syria.'Umar and a group of his followers were on their way from Medina to Syria, when they met Abu 'Ubayda (commander of the Muslim armies and a companion of the Prophet; d. 638), who informed them that a plague was raging in Syria.After consulting his aides, 'Umar decided to return to Medina.Abu 'Ubayda challenged the caliph's decision, arguing that interrupting the mission was tantamount to running away from God. 'Umar replied that he was merely running from the will of God to the will of God.This tradition, as related by al-Bukhari, ends with a quote of the Prophet Muh ammad: If hearing that plague "is in a land, do not approach it; but if it occurs in a land while you are there, do not leave to escape it."This anecdote (its historical authenticity immaterial) established the general rule that authors of later plague treatises adopted: One should avoid entering a plague-stricken city, but should not try to l ee from it if already there . 6 Although 'Umar's decision was congruent with the Prophet's guidelines, his return to Medina inspired a centuries-long debate among Muslim authors and Christian scholars living in Muslim lands regarding the right response to plagues and other diseases, such as leprosy.Of utmost importance was the question of contagion: If a disease could be transmitted from one person to another, there should be a way to prevent it, and if so, the argument that epidemics were a divine punishment for man's sins would be hard to sustain.Muslim scholars managed to reconcile the two approaches by suggesting that, even though contagion existed, it was God's decision whether or not a person would become ill.Most works on the subject, however, argued for either the existence or nonexistence of contagion and, consequently, whether one should or should not l ee a plague-stricken area.6 Lawrence Conrad, "The plague in the early medieval Near East" (Ph.D.

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