What Are The Causes Of The Black Death

During the 13th century, three diseases collectively known as the Black Plague ran rampant throughout the civilized world of the time, including Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The plague had a remarkably high mortality rate, striking fear in the hearts of all who heard of it. Political systems crumbled in the face of this natural disaster. In this time of government turmoil, people turned to religion for hope. This united the public, and even if the religion did not serve to provide hope to the people, it consolidated people into a single group with similar mindsets. Depending on a person’s religion, their reactions and responses to the plague differed. Some saw it as having a divine origin, some saw it as being the cause of bad
habits. Although both Christians and Muslims saw the plague as being heaven-sent, Christians viewed it as punishment for their sins, while Muslims considered it a blessing to be embraced and accepted. The majority of Christians during the time in which the Black Death was running rampant through Eurasia were of the Roman Catholic denomination.
When the plague arrived in Europe, they were horrified by the effects it had on people and through this horror became convinced that the plague was a curse sent from God in order to punish them for their sins. The appalling images produced by this disease were so disturbing that many were led to believe that this plague was the end of the world. As the plague sent political systems spiraling further and further into chaos, people began to lose their morals; since they didn’t know whether they were going to die the next day, they began to release the darker aspects of their souls, completely ignoring the possibility of death and the plague and their own salvation. As human nature was the same then as it was now, all were compelled to find the cause of the plague. For some, this cause was the presence of Jews in Europe. This led to Anti-Semitic riots, known as pogroms, by Christians who truly believed that Jews were guilty of bringing the plague upon them. The Pope, who at the time was Clement VI, tried to convince his followers that the Jews were innocent, and that their accusal lacked enough ‘plausibility’ to be considered fact (Docs. 3, 6, 7,
8). Muslims experienced the plague before the Europeans, as its path of diffusion came into the Middle East before reaching Europe. They had about the same mortality as the general European population, with about a third of the common population dying in each, so both religions were hit relatively evenly. Muslims had a very different viewpoint from the Christians; although those who were lucky enough to be spared were terrified at the multitude of the dead, they viewed the sickness as a blessing from God and so should be devoutly accepted (Docs. 1, 2, 3, 4). Muslims and Christians were not the only ones present during the plague; there were also several other groups at the time.
As such, several non-religious viewpoints are available in history. There were many different opinions as to the cause of the plague, such as miasma carrying germs (which at the time was blamed as stench) from Mongol bodies in Crimea. They also had some creative preventions for plague, stretching as far as to drink Armenian clay. Travelers were at the most risk from the plague as they made contact with many areas, any of which could hide their infection. One of these such travelers was Ibn Battuta, a Muslim who traveled from the kingdom of Mali to Mecca on his hajj. He said that the people who wished not to be struck with plague assembled in the Great mosque and spent the night there in prayers, demonstrating that, even from a non-religious viewpoint, people were driven towards religion as a chance at salvation. This is why religion remained stable while governments collapsed, as there was no dissent among religion, no messianic movements in the Islamic society (Docs. 5, 9,
10). Although Christianity and Islam are relatively similar, their reactions to the emergence of the Black Death were very different. Both saw it as a message from God, although Christians saw it in a bad way while Muslims accepted it as it was. A Jewish viewpoint would have been useful in this study; even though they were affected just as much as other, and probably wouldn’t provide much of a different viewpoint towards the plague, they were persecuted by Christians for supposedly being the causes of the plague. A reaction to this persecution would have proved not only insightful but also have helped to fully understand the state of society under the effect of the rampant disease.