Black Death DBQ

During the time when the Black Plague struck there were two main religions in the world, Christianity and Islam. Christianity follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, God’s son. The book of the Christian is the Bible. The religion of Islam deals with submission to God, and following the teachings of Mohammed, which are spelled out in the Koran (The DBQ Project, Background Essay). An interesting topic that one might discover of this time is, how did these two religions react to the plague. Could it be possible that they acted as everyone else did at that time, or did they hold strong to their beliefs? When they Black Plague struck, the Christians and the Muslims had similar ways of dealing and responding to it.

The life-span of many victims that were infected was about twenty-four hours and if this disease was not treated they usually died. Certain anti-bodies can be used to help the disease go away but this did not usually work. Usually people diagnosed with the plague must be isolated so that others can’t get infected and potentially cause more deaths. Without treatment, about fifty percent of people with the Black Death die. Treatment reduces the death ratio by fifty percent (Dugale). Some remedies of this disease are the vinegar and water treatment, which was that the person be put to bed and washed with vinegar and rose water. Another form of treatment was to lance the buboes, which were the large swollen lymph nodes that cause this disease, and in doing this the swellings associated should be cut open to let disease leave body, and certain stuff be put on the flesh wound. The last form of treatment was to watch the victims diet and what foods they ate because some foods enhance the disease (Cures For the Black Death). States and cities tried frantically to prevent this disease from spreading by preventing new travelers from coming in because they might carry the disease (Merriman

Christian and Muslim responses to the black death were different. They believed in different causes, different treatments, and had different views on the plague. Although this may be true, they can be similar due to both thinking it is a punishment. However, Christian and Muslim responses were mainly different. To put it another way, both Christians and Muslims were both affected hard but handled it in their own way.

In 1346 European traders began to hear reports about earthquakes, floods, locusts, famine, and plague in faraway China. They knew very little then that the plague they were hearing about would follow the same trade routes to the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe that they themselves used. (doc. 1) In five short years, the plague killed between 25 and 45% of the populations it encountered. (doc 2) So how different were the Christian and Muslim responses? In 1348 Christianity and Islam came face to face with the Black Death. (doc. 3A) In truth, Muslims and Christians responded in many different ways. Their ideas for what caused the Black Death were somewhat different from each other also. Even the way they thought they could cure the

From the depths of the Middle East during the Post-Classical period, two of the most powerful world religions emerged. Islam and Christianity, although sharing many similarities, also had their fair share of disagreements, one being their responses to the Black Death. The religion, demography, and interactions all contributed to the differentiation of Muslim and Christian reactions. Christians thought that the Black Death was sent from God as a punishment and blamed the Jews, while Muslims considered it a blessing and did not accuse any minority of initiating the outbreak.

The infamous plague, known as the Black Death, was a deadly disease which managed to spread throughout Europe and the Middle East in the 14th century. Although both the Europeans and the Empires of Islam experienced the Black Death, each region had different responses and reasons for the causes of the disease. Empires of Islam viewed the plague as a blessing from God while Europeans believed it was a punishment from Him. As a result of the Black Death, Europeans rebelled whereas Empires of Islam respected authority. Europeans used other religions as an explanation for the start of the Black Death while Islamic empires did not blame other religions, but rather had other explanations that caused the disease.

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history. The disease ravaged Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa between 1346 and 1353 (Horrox 1994). It is difficult to understand the reality of such a devastating event, especially given the fact that science during the middle ages was severely underdeveloped. No one knew about bacteria, viruses, or other microbial agents of disease (Benedictow 2004). They had no way of protecting themselves during that time and no one was safe from the effects of the plague. Those who wrote chronicles claimed that only a tenth of the population had survived, while others claimed that half to a third of the population was left alive (Horrox 1994). In 1351, agents for Pope Clement VI predicted the number of deaths in Europe to be 23,840,000 (Gottfried 1983). Obviously, not all regions experienced the same mortality rates, but modern estimates of the death rate in England give the first outbreak a mortality rate of about forty-eight percent (Horrox 1994). That is, England lost half of its population in about a year and a half. Clearly the chroniclers ' who claimed that ninety percent of the population had died were overstating the magnitude of the plague, but this overemphasis demonstrates how terrifying the pandemic was to those who experienced it (Horrox 1994). The Black Death had huge consequences on the lives of those who were impacted directly, as well as major religious and cultural effects that came afterward.

In the events of the Bubonic Plague, religions took a different response in this therefor Christians and Muslims are the two most researchers thought about during this time. This paper will guide you through what they did, how it affected them, and what they believed. Both religions thought up of some things that could prevent or get rid of the plague. Christianity thought it was a curse and Muslims said it was a blessing. Let's move on to the first point of this paper, Christianity.

The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, was a rapid infectious outbreak that swept over Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s resulting in the death of millions of people. Tentatively, this disease started in the Eastern parts of Asia, and it eventually made its way over to Europe by way of trade routes. Fever and “dark despair” characterized this plague. The highly contagious sickness displayed many flu-like symptoms, and the victim’s lymph nodes would quickly become infected. The contamination resulted in a colossal and rapid spread of the disease within one person’s body. Due to the lack of medical knowledge and physicians, there was little that people could do to save those dying all around them. Now that a better understanding of

Beginning in the mid-fourteenth century, a plague swept the world like no other. It struck in a series of waves that continued into the eighteenth century. The first wave was estimated to have killed twenty-five million people, about a third of the Western Europe population at that time. Throughout the different outbreaks, the plague, also known as the Bubonic Plague or the Black Death, caused people to react in several ways. Some people believed the plague was a medical problem that can be treated, some found themselves concerned only with their own greed, still others believed there was nothing they could do and reacted in fear, and most people believed it was a form of divine

When the plague first infected a person, it began with swellings in the groin and armpit (Document 2). Some of the swellings could be the size of an apple or an egg (ibid.)! After the first swellings appeared, the whole body would soon be covered in dark and bluish grey spots (ibid.). Soon after these spots covered the body, death would be upon the infected person within days (ibid.). Many doctors tried to cure people of these symptoms, but many failed (ibid.) This was because of the nature of the illness or the ignorance of the doctors’ (ibid.). The doctors didn’t know enough about the disease to be able to effectively treat their patients’

The black death was a pneumonic plague caused by the yersinia pestis bacteria. “It was the greatest demographic crisis of the medieval period, and in proportion to those killed, the single most calamitous epidemiological event in all of history. In my opinion, the black death has been the greatest challenge to social, political, and economic history.

The pandemic known to history as the Black Death was one of the world’s worst natural disasters in history. It was a critical time for many as the plague hit Europe and “devastated the Western world from 1347 to 1351, killing 25%-50% of Europe’s population and causing or accelerating marked political, economic, social, and cultural changes.” The plague made an unforgettable impact on the history of the West. It is believed to have originated somewhere in the steppes of central Asia in the 1330s and then spread westwards along the caravan routes. It spread over Europe like a wildfire and left a devastating mark wherever it passed. In its first few weeks in Europe, it killed between 100 and 200 people per day. Furthermore, as the weather became colder, the plague worsened, escalating the mortality rate to as high as 750 deaths per day. By the spring of 1348, the death toll may have reached 1000 a day. One of the main reasons the plague spread so quickly and had such a devastating effect on Europe was ultimately due to the lack of medical knowledge during the medieval time period.

Contrary to the popular view, Muslim scientists and physicians had a tough time believing in these tenets, the third one in particular, due to the increasing amount of evidence that a contagion actually existed. In addition, physicians usually felt it was their duty to treat those infected in any way they could; this conflicted with the theological view held by many Muslims that the Plague was a direct product of God and thus must simply be endured. Even some theologians began to have issues with these tenets when the plague hit the holy city of Mecca in 1349. The Islamic Prophet had promised that no disease would never come to either Mecca or Medina, so when the holy city was devastated by the disease, people began to doubt the disease’s proposed holy origin. Some Muslims reasoned that the Plague's presence in Mecca was a direct result of some of its inhabitants being unbelievers, while others rejoiced that it never spread to Medina. The disagreement between those who believed the Plague was the doing of God and those who did not created tension in medieval Islamic society.

In the 1300s, Europe was thriving with new innovations and huge cities that covered the country. Most of Europe was urban and very crowd with a population of 50,000 (“Middle Ages”). The 1300s was a period known as the Middle Ages, which represents the time where the Roman Empire and the Constantinople fell. During this time around 1350, infectious disease was spreading through the streets of Europe. Approximately, 20 million people died in Europe from the plague, which is roughly around one-third of the population (“Black Plague”). The Black Plague affected European civilization and how European society viewed the world. The renaissance is a prime example of how the Black Plague affected Europe. The Black Plague helped influence people