PART VI: Lay Reactions in the Middle East

Oh, if you could see the nobles of Aleppo studying their inscrutable books of medicine. They multiply its remedies by eating dried and sour foods. The buboes which disturb men’s healthy lives are smeared with Armenian clay. Each man treated his humours and made life more comfortable. They perfumed their homes with ambergris [a wax-like substance from the intestines of sperm whales] and camphor [distilled from trees to treat skin], cyperus [weed used in perfumes in India] and sandal [fragrant wood]. They wore ruby rings and put onions, vinegar, and sardines together with the daily meal. They ate less broth and fruit but ate the citron and similar things….

The plague is for the Muslims a martyrdom and a reward, and for the disbelievers a punishment and a rebuke. When the Muslim endures misfortune, then patience is his worship. It has been established by our Prophet, God bless and give him peace, that the plague-stricken are martyrs…and this secret should be pleasing to the true believer.…

One man begs another to take care of his children, and one says goodbye to his neighbors.

A third perfects his work, another prepares his shroud [used for burial].

A fifth is reconciled with his enemies, and another treats his friends with kindness.

One is very generous; another makes friends with those who have betrayed him.

Another man puts aside his property; one frees his servants.

One man changes his character while another mends his ways….

It should be known to all Christian that pestilence, and every other manifestation of God’s vengeance, arises because of sin....Pestilence arises from a multitude of sins, but most especially from swearing worthless, deceitful and meaningless oaths….

If I am asked…by what means can someone save himself from [the plague]…I say that…everyone over seven should be made to vomit daily from an empty stomach, and twice a week…he should lie well wrapped up in a warm bed and drink warm ale with ginger so that he sweats copiously, and he should never touch the sheets after that until they have been cleansed of the sweat, for if the person sweating had been in contact with the pestilence a healthy man could catch the plague from the sheets unless they have been well washed. And as soon as he feels an itch or prickling in his flesh he must use a goblet or cupping horn to let blood and draw down the blood from the heart, and this should be done two or three times at intervals of one or two days at most. And if he should feel himself oppressed deep within the body, then he should let blood in the nearest veins, either in the arms or in the main veins of the feet…

Prayer for lifting the epidemic is abhorrent because plague is a blessing from God; at the least, a Muslim should devoutly accept the divine act.

Afterwards let him take the most delightful and precious medicine: the body of our lord and savior Jesus Christ…compared with this all other remedies of doctors are futile and profit little against the plague…

When you learn that epidemic disease exists in a county, do not go there; but if it breaks out in the county where you are, do not leave.

He who dies of epidemic disease is a martyr.

It is a punishment that God inflicts on whom he wills, but He has granted a modicum of clemency with respect to Believers.