PART X: The Physicians

If one asks, “How can you admit the assertion, there is infection, when the revealed word (ash-shar’) denies this?” we answer: that infection exists, is confirmed by experience, research, insight and observation and through constantly recurring accounts. These are the elements of proof. 

For him who has treated or recognized this case, it cannot remain concealed that mostly the man who has had contact with a patient infected with this disease must die, and that on the other hand, the man who has had no contact remains healthy. So it is the appearance of the illness in a house or quarter because of a garment or a vessel; even an earring can destroy him who puts it in his ear, and all the inhabitants of the house.  

The illness can first appear in a town in a single house; then, from there, it can break out among individual contacts, then among their neighbours, relatives, and especially their visitors, until the breach becomes even greater. The illness can appear in coastal towns that enjoyed good health until there lands in them a man with plague, come from across the sea, from another coast where the plague already exists, as reports tell.  The date of the appearance of the illness in the town tallies with the date of debarkation of this man. 

Many remained healthy who kept themselves strictly cut off the outside world, like the pious Ibn-Abī-Madyan in Salé. He belonged to those who believed in contagion. He had stored up provisions for a long period and bricked up his door behind him and his large family. The town succumbed but during that period, he was not deprived of a single soul. 

One had repeatedly heard that places which lie remote from highways and traffic remained untouched. But there is nothing more wonderful at this time than the prison camp of the Muslims—may God free them!—in the Arsenal of Seville: there were thousands but the plague did not touch them although it practically destroyed the town itself. The report is also correct that the itinerant nomads living in tents in North Africa and elsewhere remained healthy because there the air is not shut in and the corruption proceeded from it could only gain a slight hold.…

But it belongs to principles which one may not ignore that a proof taken from tradition (Hadīth), if observation and inspection are contrary, must be interpreted allegorically. In this matter it is essential that it should be interpreted in accordance to the views of those who hold the theory of contagion. There are numerous compassionate passages in revealed scripture, for example, the utterance of the Prophet, “an owner of sick animals should not drive these to the owner of healthy animals.” 

…we have listened to the opinions of many modern experts on astrology and medicine about the causes of the epidemic…however, because their conclusions still leave room for considerable uncertainty, we, the masters of the faculty of medicine at Paris, inspired by…our most serene lord, Philip, King of France, and our desire to achieve something of public benefit, have decided to compile, with God’s help, a brief compendium of the distant and immediate causes of the present universal epidemic…and of the wholesale remedies; drawing on the opinions of the most brilliant ancient philosophers and modern experts, astronomers as well as doctors of medicine….

CHAPTER 1…CONCERNING THE UNIVERSAL AND DISTANT CAUSE

…We say that the distant and first cause of this pestilence...is the configuration of the heavens.  In 1345, at one hour after noon on 20 March, there was a major conjunction of three planets in Aquarius….Aristotle testifies…that mortality of races, and the depopulation of kingdoms occur at the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter….

…these effects were intensified because Mars—a malevolent planet, breeding anger and wars—was in the sign of Leo…was also retrograde and therefore attracted many vapours from the earth and the sea which, when mixed with the air, corrupted its substance….

CHAPTER 2…CONCERNING THE PARTICULAR AND NEAR CAUSE

…bad air is more noxious than food or drink in that it can penetrate quickly to the heart and lungs to do its damage.  We believe that the present epidemic or plague has arisen from air corrupt by being mixed with…evil vapours….

CHAPTER 3…CONCERNING PROGNOSTICATION AND SIGNS

Unseasonable weather is a particular cause of illness. For the ancients, notably Hippocrates, are agreed that if the four seasons run awry, and do not keep their proper course, then plagues and mortal passions are engendered that year….

…in the judgement of astrologers (who follow Ptolemy on this) plagues are likely, although not inevitable, because so many exhalations and inflammations have been observed, such as a comet or shooting stars….There has also been much lightning and flashes and frequent thunder, and winds of such violence and strength that they have carried dust storms from the south.  These things, and in particular the powerful earthquakes, have…left a trail of corruption….No wonder…that we fear that we are in for an epidemic….

We must not overlook the fact that any pestilence proceeds from the divine will, and our advice can therefore only be to return humbly to God. But this does not mean forsaking doctors. For the Most High created earthly medicine, and although God alone cures the sick, he does so through the medicine which in his generosity he provided.