Status Updates From الطاعون في العصر الأموي: صف...

" يا الله ، يا الله "
الكلمات التي تخرج من لساني كلما اقرأ الارقام والمقارنة مع ارقام القرون الوسطى في اوروبا
وكما يقول الكاتب " وهذه المقارنات تجعل من بعض طواعين العصر الأموي كوارث ونكبات انسانية كبرى سقطت من ذاكرة الإنسانية

The plagues delivered their most devastating-and final-blow for the Umayyads as they faced their Abbasid cousins, the latter chose the perfect time for revolution: between the last two plagues which hit the Umayyads, giving the latter no time to recover their military or manpower. Marwan bin Muhammad refused to send what remained of his men to his wali in Khorasan; the plagues had already sealed his dynasty's fate...

The plagues' biggest political blow was in the menacing role they played in pivotal military outcomes. Starting with the clash between Ibn Al Zubayr RA and the soldiers of AbdulMalik ibn Marwan, where a recent plague weakened the manpower & position of the former, to the loss of Armenia to Justinian which was also affected by the plague of Ibn Al Zubayr in 69H & lack of human "buffers" by the borders in its wake.

We cannot look at the decline of Damascus' status in Umayyad history without seeing that this was driven by the plagues, as Umayyad rulers began turning away from the city and choosing safer areas with open, clean spaces for themselves, beginning with Hisham bin AbdulMalik who settled in Al-Rusafa (by Ar-Raqqa) & made it his new capital & ending with the final ruler Marwan ibn Muhammad residing in Harran.

A main cause of anxiety during the plagues from the eyes of the rulers was the shrinking in the population of Arabs-who were the trusted backbone of the Umayyad army-entire tribes perished & permanently ended. To try & combat this, Umar bin AbdulAziz RA renewed a policy of giving a monetary gift for newborns, to help people in economic strife & encourage child-bearing to compensate for the massive human losses.

The plagues also had a cultural-psychological effect on Umayyad society, embodied in the way people (including rulers) would flee due to natural survivor instincts even though there is a hadith prohibiting this, and those left behind would in turn judge & hold those who fled in contempt.
Marriages & divorces also became more common due to the increase of widows, and as the death toll rose, sentimentality waned.

Economic repercussions of the plagues included inflation due to the decrease in workers after the massive death tolls & the emigration of farmers running from the disease who permanently settled in mountainous areas, which reduced the revenue from agriculture & made products scarce. A reduced population in turn reduced the total jizya collected, which was a reason behind recurring decisions to tax converts to Islam.

To understand the extent of the demographic problems caused by the plagues due to the number of casualties, the plague of Muslim ibn Qutaiba can serve as one of countless examples, it was so violent that the doors of cities would not close during the day because pallbearers were constantly carrying tombs that held several corpses to leave outside of the city.

Whilst it is the bubonic plague or black death which first comes to mind when the plague is mentioned in popular culture & even academic research, for its terrifying intensity & devastating consequences on the population of Europe, the oft-forgotten plagues of the Umayyad era caused even more demographic strife when we compare the populations & ratio of survivors to deaths in each.

Unearthed letters written by survivors of the plagues who detailed their predicament & the number of people they lost allow researchers to clear some of the fog surrounding the death tolls during the plagues, on average the ratio of survivors to those perished is roughly 1:14.

We have a clear idea of the geographic spread of the final Umayyad plague. It started by hitting the towns near the Euphrates, spreading into the peninsula, Anatolia & the Levant before reaching Africa.
Sources also tell us of the myriad of scholars, muhaditheen & political figures who perished in this plague including Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin Ali Al Imam, the grandfather of the Abbasid caliphs who died in prison.

The plague reared its head one final time before the end of the Umayyad caliphate, a Sweeping One that hit in 131 hijri & became known by many names, most commonly as the plague of Muslim bin Qutaiba. More violent than its other sweeping predecessors, which lasted for days or weeks, this plague persisted for four months, its climax being in Ramadan before the people finally found release in Shawwal.

An outburst of plagues occurred between 125-6 hijri, following another series of plagues in 114 & 119 hijri. The one in 126 was so intense that bayaa was given to Al Walid bin Yazeed in the desert as it provided shelter from the infected areas. It spread to Egypt & North Africa, some historians write that this plague remained in North Africa for seven years & only lifted sporadically, during winters & summers.

Less than five years later, the plague struck again in 105 hijri, this time in Egypt shortly after Muhammad bin Abdulmalik bin Marwan bin Al Hakam (what a mouthful) had become its wali, he ran to the Saiid then returned a few days later, only to leave Egypt again for Jordan, asking the Umayyad ruler Hisham bin AbdulMalik to relieve him of his duties. His request was granted, Muhammad's wilaya scarcely lasted a month.

The later plagues of particular significance:
In the year 100 hijri, a plague hit Basra yet again & spread into Al-Sham during the reign of Umar bin AbdulAziz RA, in it his son AbdulMalik was infected & passed away. The judge Zakariya Al Ansari RH also recalls how the scholar Muhammad ibn Sirin RH lost 30 of his family & descendants, so that none remained but his son Abdullah.

In 79h., what became known as the “General Plague” (for its wide spread) hit & reached its climax in 80h., it spread into Iraq, then Egypt & soon into the Peninsula, Hijaz & probably Yemen as well. This was yet another Sweeping Plague, Al Tabri speaks of how the people of Damascus were almost completely annihilated.
The Byzantines took advantage & made their move immediately, attacking Antakia.

The Byzantines used to take advantage of plague “seasons” to raid into Arab territory knowing that defences had weakened. Indeed after the first Sweeping Plague of 69 h., they attacked Damascus in 70h. & the Umayyad ruler of the time-AbdulMalik ibn Marwan-was forced to pay a jizya of 1000 dinars weekly to keep them at bay.

The first plague in Umayyad history to receive the label "The Sweeping One" (which would later be applied to various others) was the plague of Ibn Al Zubayr in 69 hijri, its intensity was once again concentrated in Basra & its three-day climax there saw 70,000 die on each; the once bustling city became a ghost town.
Notable deaths: Abi Al Aswad Al Daw'ali, the scholar who organised the rules of Arabic grammar.

In 64 hijri, the Umayyad era saw its third plague, so intense in Basra that people often could not find pallbearers for their loved ones. Of those deceased was Hind bin Abi Hala Al Tamimi, the grandson of Khadija RA, it is said that on the day he died 70,000 had died in Basra & no one was found to carry him, so a woman shouted "what about the foster grandson of Allah's Prophetﷺ" & masses gathered round his funeral.

The first plague of the Umayyad era we get informed of by chroniclers is the plague of Al-Maghirah ibn Shu'bah, which hit Kūfa in year 49 h where Al-Maghira was its wali/ruler, he ordered the people to leave & shouted to them: "this suffering has befallen [on us], so run from it". He did leave with the city's inhabitants & returned once the plague's intensity diminished, only to instantly fall prey to it & pass away.

European researches have continuously asserted that Girolamo Fracastoro is the physician responsible for creating the medical school of thought on disease transmission & contagion, even though his work was first published in 1456, almost a century after Al Sabki's fatwa on the reality of contagion & two centuries after the letters of Ibn Khutama & Ibn Khatib on the subject.

Ibn Kuhtama Al Andalusi affirmed that contagion is a real phenomenon that has been witnessed & felt, his contemporary Ibn Al Khatib was even more firm in his assertion.
The fuqaha revised their opinion around a century later when Taj ad-Din Al Sabki (d.771 h) said that belief in the infectious nature of disease does not contradict aqeedah in God's qadr over who becomes ill.

Religious debate regarding infection was concerned with autonomy and qadr, some said that believing in infection is a form of shirk as God chooses who becomes ill & who is spared, whilst others argued that infection does not negate God's control. The issue was further complicated as two Hadiths narrated by Abu Huraira about the topic reported different things & scholars were unsure which came before the other.

Instead of bloodletting doctors tried to focus their efforts on calming the rapid heart palpitations of their patients, one of the primary symptoms of the plague. For this they used fragrant oils, such as those of citrus fruits and apples, as well as encouraging the patient to chew on sour pomegranate & smell flowers, camphor & sandalwood.

Physicians stopped bloodletting after growing hopeless of its ability to slow down or prevent the patient's inevitable death, relying on the theory that the plague is caused by a rot in the air rather than in the body. The Qadhi Zakariya Al Ansari (d.926 h) later condemned & attacked the physicians for this & the way they came to completely avoid measures like bloodletting to the point some came to consider it haram.

Most Muslim physicians surrendered to the plague's incurability, focusing instead on preventative health measures, outlined as 1) consuming food when it's hot 2) avoiding wet foods & those uneasy to digest like lentils 3) increasing bathroom usage, cleaning the home & purifiers like vinegar 4) avoiding getting full 5) avoiding intercourse. Al Shafi'i RH also wrote about the benefits of the violet flower & its oil.

On the other hand, the fuqaha relied on a Hadith narrated by Aisha RA to argue that the plagues are a harm caused by jinn, and that ruqya/dhikr is preventative, bringing up how an entire household can perish whilst those next door will not even be infected.
Further religious debate was on the paradox between those who suggested the plagues are a punishment & the Hadith on how one who dies from the plague is a martyr.

Debate raged between different physicians & the fuqaha on the origin & spread of plagues. Early physicians relied on the theory of the Greek Galenos that contaminated air & humidity is the cause, Ibn Khuldun even said that buildings in their stuffiness contain this plague-triggering rot. Ibn Sina unknowingly came close to highlighting the culprit when describing how rodents & insects spread rapidly during plagues.

Many physicians & scholars including Al-Razi & Ibn Al Qayyim rh described the plague's symptoms & development in the body, but none did so with such accuracy as Ibn Khutama (d.770 hijri) did, as he relied on his vast experience & careful observations of patients' cases.