Tāʿūn and Wabāʾ Conceptions of Plague and Pestilence in Early Islam
Lawrence I. Conrad
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 25, No. 3 (1982), pp. 268-307
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632188A mortality rate of up to 70 and 100 percent made bubonic and pneumonic plague the deadliest of epidemic diseases. [p268]
In classical Arabic the term ta'un is usually assumed to mean "plague", while waba' is considered a more general term for "epidemic" or "pestilence". But no attempt has been made to determine how precisely such terms were employed by early medieval authors. [p271]
In his plague treatise, Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani (d. 852/I449) complains that earlier writers not only have failed to distinguish between different diseases, but have even included natural disasters such as floods, famines, and droughts in their lists of "plagues". [p272]
There is a famous tradition (
hadith) in which the Prophet
(Muhammed (SAW)) warns the Muslims that if the ta'un breaks out in a country when they are not there, they should not enter it; there are numerous versions of this hadith, and one isolated but suspicious variant substitutes waba' for the word ta'un. [p273 - hadith source not mentioned! Here it is: Sahih Muslim, Book 26, Number 5495: Usama reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Plague is a calamity which was inflicted on those who were before you, or upon Bani Isra'il. So when it has broken out in a land, don't run out of it, and when it has spread in a land, then don't enter it.]
Waba' is more commonly defined as a "quickness, and commonness, of death among men", as "a corruption happening to the substance of the air", as "a change affected in the air", and as "an unwholesomeness in the air, in consequence of which disease becomes common among men". [p274]
Public health centered around the problem of "corrupted" air. People were advised to take into account the quality of the air before choosing a residence, and to avoid living too close to industries that corrupted the air, such as lime kilns, furnaces, and smelting works, or in cities with narrow streets and tall buildings, where evil vapors would not dissipate properly. In times of pestilence it was believed that the use of spices and incense would restore the quality of the air and thus afford security from infection. [p276]
At one point he goes so far as to state that the fine breezes, humors, and waters of Iraq are responsible for the virtuous character of its people [p277 - Ibn Khurradadhbih on the Iraqi people - makes me proud to be Iraqi, lol]
For al-Jahiz, such natural forces (
environment - air, water, land) are so powerful that their influence can even be discerned in racial characteristics and in wildlife. He expounds on this in a famous passage on the origins of black skin, which he claims is the result of environment (al-balad). The proof of this is to be found in a stony region of black basalt in the northern Najd
(in Saudi Arabia). The people who live there are black, and newcomers who settle there become black after no more than three generations; for this area "is so unusual that its gazelles and ostriches, its insects and flies, its foxes, sheep and asses, its horses and its birds are all black. Blackness and whiteness are in fact caused by the properties of the region, as well as by the God-given nature of water and soil and by the proximity or remoteness of the sun and the intensity or mildness of its heat" [p278 - al-Jahiz on Najd's environment affecting phenotype - blackening skin/fur/feather color]
The Prophet Muhammad is said to have warned the believers to cover their vessels and tie shut their water-skins, for one night each year there comes a waba' that will pass by no uncovered vessel or untied skin without some of that waba' dropping into it [p282 -I found it: Sahih Muslim - Book 23, Number 5000: Jabir b. 'Abdullah reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Cover the vessels and tie the waterskin, for there is a night in a year when pestilence descends, and it does not pass an uncovered vessel or an untied waterskin but some of that pestilence descending into it.]
Al-Ya'qfbi castigates Syria for its pestilential (waba') air, and Egypt for its erratic weather and many pestilences, which he links to the proximity of the Nile, "a damp putrid river full of vile fumes that engender diseases and cause food to spoil". Al-Muqaddasi vows that he has seen pestilential countries (buldan wabiya) before, but none as awful as Sughar, a town in southern Syria. Its climate is deadly to strangers, its water is unpalatable, and the town itself is as hot as Hell. "If anyone feels that the Angel of Death has tarried in claiming him, let him come to Sughar", he advises, "for in all Islam I know of no place to equal it in this respect" [p283 - ouch! That must have hurt Egyptian/Syrian pride - I've been to Syria quite a lot and I must admit it is a disease infested place more so than normal, sorry but that's my experience - stay clear of street food however enticing the shawarma seems ;) . As for the Nile, I didn't see it as being that bad in modern Egypt but those damn mosquitos... grrrr...]
Hasba (measles), sull (consumption), birsam and mum (pleuracy?), and humaa (fever). Judham (leporacy). 'Adasa (smallpox) || waram (pl. awram, "swellings"), qurha (pl. qurha, "purulent pustules"), or khuraj (pl. khurajat, "eruptions") [p283-4 || p292]
In Mecca, we are told, the threat of waba' was such that in Muhammad's infancy his wet-nurse (
Halima) expressed fears for his safety [p284 - Ibn Hisham, I, i, 105 - Often, Muslims are taught that the Prophet was put in the care of countryside bedouin wet nurses like Halima al-Saadiyyah to make sure he grew strong and healthy in the clean air and environment of the countryside rather that the smoggy and dirty towns. It was Arab tradition to send children to stay in the care of a wet nurse until they were about 5 or 6. It now seems they did it for fear of death of the infant by a form of plague or other illness - clever people]
Whatever the case may have been, the point of prime interest to us here is that the same literature that repeatedly mentions the waba' in Mecca and Medina maintains just as vigorously that the same two cities do not suffer from outbreaks of tii'n. Al- Jahiz tells us that no ta'un has ever broken out in Medina. [p285 - Kitab al-bulddn, p. 286. That the pestilences of Medina did not include plague is suggested by another report, attributed to this same era, in which a man from Medina tells the caliph al-Ma 'mun that although there is much pestilence in the city, it is not life-threatening.]
Two centuries later al-Tha'alabi assures us that this is still the case (
that there has been no outbreak of plague in Madinah). [p286]
In hadith, the security of the Haramayn from the ta'un is interpreted as an indication of divine favor. There are a number of well-known prophetic traditions in which it is stated that the ta'un, Christ, and the Anti-Christ will never enter Medina. The immunity of the Holy Cities also appears to be the source of a tradition, included in none (
*mistake - it's meant to say 'one'*) of the six authoritative collections, according to which Muhammad sends the ta'un away to Syria, the region most heavily affected by outbreaks of the disease in Umayyad times. [p286 - good riddance, may Allah curse the Umayyads. The hadiths from Sahih Muslim are: Book 7, Number 3186: Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: There are at the approaches of Medina angels so that plague and the Dajjal shall not penetrate into it. || Book 7, Number 3187: Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Dajjal will come from the eastern side with the intention of attacking Medina until he will get down behind Uhud. Then the angels will turn his face towards Syria and there he will perish.]
Such immunity is problematic. Indeed, we should at first expect the opposite, for with multitudes of pilgrims annually converging on the Holy Cities, it is hard to believe that for hundreds of years no ta'un occurring elsewhere ever spread to Mecca or Medina [p286 - subhanallah!]
In this same epidemic, Medina remained secure from infection by the ta'un (here definitely bubonic plague), even though Mecca suffered considerably [p287 - Mekkah probably had one big outbreak during the Ummayyad time, may Allah curse bani Ummayyah. Other times the outbreaks were minor like the one in 1815. But it never spread to Madinah subhanallah!]
Al-Mada'ini claims that the ta'un dissipated with the establishment of the 'Abbasid caliphate. Al-Jahiz too speaks of the disappearance of the ta'in with the fall of the Umayyads. He maintains that as an indication of divine favor... [p288 - initially the Abbassids were rather good so the curse of plague was lifted from them when they removed the Ummayyads]
Commenting on al-Mada'ini's observations, he says that there were no further tawa'in until the reign of the caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 295-320/907-32) [p289 - It hit Baghdad first in 301]
"Tawa'in are inflamed swellings which appear in the groin and axillae and kill within four to five days. The worst kind of ta'un is the black. The red ta'un is less malevolent, although it sometimes does kill. But hardly anyone survives the black or green" [p294 - Alexandrian physician and priest Ahrun (fl. 6th or 7th c. A.D.) describes the bubonic plague - the ancients considered the black purulent pustles to be "black bile", although we know today no such thing exists]
The ta'fin consists of purulent pustules (quruh) that erupt on the body. These appear in the groin 104), or in the axillae, or on the hands, or on the fingers and elsewhere on the body, accompanied by swelling and intense pain. The eruption of these tumors is accompanied by a fiery inflammation; the surrounding area blackens, and darkens or reddens into a dingy purple; and with this there also occurs palpitation of the heartbeat and nausea. [p297 - Imam al-Nawawi describes bubonic plague in his commentary on Sahih Muslim]
One curious feature seems to stand out from the rest of the above description. Both Ibn Sina (
Avicenna) and al-Nawawi mention the appearance of swellings or pustules not only in the areas of the body where inflamed lymph glands cause the characteristic buboes, but also in places, like the fingers and hands, where ta'un cannot possibly refer to actual plague buboes. [p298]
Our oldest and most important evidence on the identity of the ta'un involves an extremely old Arabic proverb which appears in several contexts comparing the ta'un to the ghudda, a deadly disease of camels characterized by swellings similar to those of bubonic plague. In one set of reports, ''Amir ibn al-Tufayl, a great poet and chieftain of the Bani Sa'sa', comes to the Prophet and asks what his reward will be if he embraces Islam. Upon finding that he can expect no special privileges, he threatens Muhammad and leaves with his men. The Prophet appeals for divine assistance, and as 'Amir is on his way home to his own territory, God causes him to be stricken "in the neck by the ta'un". With his tongue lolling out of his mouth from the agony, 'Amir staggers into the house of a woman from the Banu Salul, a clan scorned by the other bedouin tribes as vile and despicable. Seeing that he is not even to be granted a respectable place to die, he bitterly utters a phrase that was to become proverbial for two simultaneous disasters, one even worse than the other: "A ghudda like that of the camel, and death in the house of a Saluli woman". [p298-299 - the closest hadith I found in Sahih Bukhari is in volume 5, #417 (5.417):
Narrated Anas: That the Prophet sent his uncle, the brother of Um Sulaim at the head of seventy riders. The chief of the pagans, 'Amir bin at-Tufail proposed three suggestions (to the Prophet ) saying, "Choose one of three alternatives: (1) that the bedouins will be under your command and the townspeople will be under my command; (2) or that I will be your successor, (3) or otherwise I will attack you with two thousand from Bani Ghatafan." But 'Amir was infected with plague in the House of Um so-and-so. He said, "Shall I stay in the house of a lady from the family of so-and-so after having a (swelled) gland like that she-camel? Get me my horse." So he died on the back of his horse. Then Haram, the brother of Um Sulaim and a lame man along with another man from so-and-so (tribe) went towards the pagans (i.e. the tribe of 'Amir). Haram said (to his companions), "Stay near to me, for I will go to them. If they (i.e. infidels) should give me protection, you will be near to me, and if they should kill me, then you should go back to your companions. Then Haram went to them and said, "Will you give me protection so as to convey the message of Allah's Apostle ?" So, he started talking to them' but they signalled to a man (to kill him) and he went behind him and stabbed him (with a spear). He (i.e. Haram) said, "Allahu Akbar! I have succeeded, by the Lord of the Ka`ba!" The companion of Haram was pursued by the infidels, and then they (i.e. Haram's companions) were all killed except the lame man twho was at the top of a mountain. Then Allah revealed to us a verse that was among the cancelled ones later on. It was: 'We have met our Lord and He is pleased with us and has made us pleased.' (After this event) the Prophet invoked evil on the infidels every morning for 30 days. He invoked evil upon the (tribes of) Ril, Dhakwan, Bani Lihyan and Usaiya who disobeyed Allah and His Apostle.]
Conversions to Islam and the spread of Arabic not only diminished the ranks of the Christian communities, but also sapped the vitality of their literary traditions. [p303 - the author here is talking about lingual descriptions of the plague. The Arabs/Persians may not have had the same accuracy in describing the disease due to a decreased number of words. Either way, the descriptions did not help them]
Here's an interesting hadith I found concerning plague while I was researching the sources of this paper:
Sahih Muslim, Book 20, Number 4705:
It has been narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira that the, Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: While a man walks along a path, finds a thorny twig lying on the way and puts it aside, Allah would appreciate it and forgive him The Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) said: The martyrs are of five kinds: one who dies of plague; one who dies of diarrhoea (or cholera) ; one who is drowned; one who is buried under debris and one who dies fighting in the way of Allah.
