Bubonic Plague As Viewed By Christian And Muslim Societies

The Bubonic Plague as viewed by Christian and Muslim Societies The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death was responsible for wiping out anywhere from thirty to fifty percent of Europe's population between 1300-1400 C.E. This had a large impact on many civilizations during this time era. Due to little knowledge of bacteria, and how diseases spread, different religious groups reacted differently to the plague. The Bubonic Plague began to spread to humans from contact with fleas. These fleas would then jump from rats in which they fed off of onto humans. When bitten by one of these infected fleas the plague would transfer into the bloodstream of a victim and transfer the deadly virus to the new host. Once the virus reached the lungs the

Religiously both of these groups also had very similar reactions. Within the Muslim Community many believed that the plague was god's punishment. Within source eleven Ibn al-Wardi writes, “We ask God’s forgiveness for our souls’ bad inclination; the plague is surely part of His punishment.” This quote shows that the Muslims believed that the plague was caused by god due to their bad tendencies. Within the Christian community they also believed that God had caused the plague due to their tendencies. Source twelve justifies this through by stating, “Pestilence, and every other manifestation of God’s vengeance arises from a multitude of sins.” Sins within the realm of Christian religion are just like the bad tendencies in which the Muslims blamed for the cause of the plague. The plague also had many economic effects to both of these religious groups. Salaries for workers who had to come in contacts with the plague greatly increased as a result of the Bubonic Plague. In the Christian community Source two written by Giovanni Boccaccio states, “ the greed of servants, who worked for inflated salaries without regard to the service they performed.” This quote shows

Medically the Christians often practiced a form of Purging of the body. This would take the form of vomiting, sweating and even trying to bleed the disease out of their body, as shown in Source twelve. The Muslims on the other hand believed the remedy lied within the food that they ate. They would Often eat dried fruits and sour foods in hopes to evade the Plague. Religiously there were also many different reactions to the plague. Muslims believed in the healing power of cryptograms as shown by Source ten. They had believed that the certain alignment of numbers would ward off the plague. The Christian on the other hand believed that praying to saints would help to defend them from the Plague. Within source seven, which is a prayer to St. Sebastian a Christian writes, “O St Sebastian, guard and defend me, morning and evening, every minute of every hour.” Muslims did not believe in praying to saints, but Christians relied heavily on this belief. Politically there were also many different reactions that Christians and Muslims had toward the plague. Within the Christian community civilians were being denied entry to cities if there were any signs of infliction within that person. This is shown in source seven where Giovanni Boccaccio states, “the entry of any sick person into the