WOH 2012 Paper #2 Assignment
For the second paper in this course, you will write about one of the major events of the
fourteenth century: the Black Death. As you can see in your reading, this was experienced
across the medieval world, in many of the locations we have discussed this semester.
As with the first paper, you are asked to focus particularly on creating a thesis statement and a
persuasive argument in your paper. Be sure to look at the comments on your first paper to
prepare for further developing your skills with the second paper.
v For the second paper, you will consider the assigned readings from Thinking Through
Sources chapter 11. In your paper, you will answer this prompt: In the fourteenth
century, the Black Death wreaked havoc across much of the world. How did religion
influence the interpretation of and response to this disease? Were religious responses
to the crisis helpful in managing the issue, or did it exacerbate the suffering associated
with the plague? Did this differ based on location? Consider at least three of the
assigned primary source readings. Make sure that you state your argument in a thesis
statement in the first paragraph of the paper.
v This should be a formal paper, with an introduction, body, and conclusion. You must
cite all information that is not your own original thought, including lecture and readings.
You should not consult any material from outside the course for this paper assignment
– base your paper only on the course materials.
What is a thesis statement?
This is a statement, usually a single sentence, that establishes the argument for the paper
and identifies what will be in the paper. It is not just a topic, but an attempt to persuade
the reader of the author’s conclusions. A good thesis statement will be one which
someone could argue either for or against.
The purpose of the body of the paper is to present and analyze the evidence for your
thesis statement. This is where you will provide the information that supports your
interpretation, including specific references to details in the images, specific quotes from
the readings, specific lectures, etc. Everything in the body of the paper should relate back
to the thesis statement and support it.
Technical Requirements: The paper should be typed in a Microsoft Word document, in 12-point,
Times New Roman font. It must be a minimum of 750 words long. The file should be titled
YOURLASTNAME_WOH2012_Paper2. Write the word count at the bottom of the document. For
this assignment, you must cite in the Chicago Manual style. If you have questions about this style,
consult the handout posted on Canvas, or email the professor or your TA.
Grading Rubric for WOH 2012 Paper #2
A Level
Thesis Statement/Argument
Essay contains a clear argument
about what the primary sources
tell us about how religion
influenced the interpretation of
and response to the Black Death
and what the effects of those
responses were.
(25 points)
Analysis/Insight
Essay contains deep analysis of
readings and reveals individual
thought.
(25 points)
Content and Evidence
Essay contains answers to the
questions posed in the prompt,
backed up with specific evidence
from the sources.
(35 points)
Writing/Mechanics
Proper sentence and paragraph
structure. No grammatical or
spelling errors. Avoids clichés and
informal language (contractions,
cursing, overt moralizing.) Shows
evidence of proofreading and
includes full and correct citations.
(15 points)
B Level
C Level
D-F Level
Makes a clear and wellsupported argument about
the source and its context.
Makes an argument about
the source and its context
that is supported by some
evidence.
Makes an argument about
the source and its context
that is weak, unclear, or
largely unsupported.
Does not
make an
argument
about the
source.
Goes beyond the familiar and
reveals individual thought and
analysis of the material.
Explains these revelations.
Suggests individual insight
but does not expand. May
summarize but not analyze
some of the material.
Favors summary or
description over analysis.
Contains too few quotes, or
too many.
Only uses
summary or
description.
Thoroughly answers the
questions, backed up with
specific and properly cited
evidence from at least three
of the primary sources.
Describes the primary
source well, and answers
the questions with some
properly cited evidence.
Describes the primary
source incompletely,
demonstrating some
misunderstanding. May
contain evidence from only
one source.
Does not
describe the
source or
answer the
questions
from the
prompt.
Proper sentence and
paragraph structure. No
grammatical or spelling
errors. Avoids clichés and
informal language. Shows
evidence of proofreading and
full and correct citations.
Good sentence and
paragraph structure. Few
grammatical or spelling
errors. No major writing
errors. Citations are given
correctly throughout.
Poor sentence and
paragraph structure. Some
grammatical or spelling
errors. Some major writing
errors. May reveal some
minor problems with
citation.
Inadequate
sentence
and
paragraph
structure.
Numerous
grammatical
or spelling
errors.
Major
writing
errors.
CHAPTER
1 1
THINKING THROUGH SOURCES / LIVING AND DYING DURING THE BLACK DEATH
135
THINKING THROUGH SOURCES
Living and Dying during the Black Death
It is a punishment that God inflicts on whom he wills, but He has
granted a modicum of clemency with respect to Believers.?
These teachings made it a matter of faith for many Muslims to trust in God
to protect them from the plague.
Questions to consider as you examine the source:
How does Ibn al-Wardi seek to explain the plague?
What does this document reveal about the range of initial responses to it?
In what ways does Islam inform Ibn al-Wardi's account of these events?
mong the most far-reaching outcomes of the Mongol moment in world
Amistos y he andere spreadlane
crates as he Middle East
, Europe and
IBN AL-WARDI
Report of the Pestilence
1348
North Africa of that deadly disease known as the plague or the Black Death.
While the Mongols certainly did not cause the plague, their empire facili-
tated the movement not only of goods and people but also of the microor-
ganisms responsible for this pestilence. Its sudden arrival in the late 1340s,
the enormity of its death toll, the social trauma it generated, the absence of
any remembered frame of reference for an event so devastating — all of this
left people everywhere bewildered, imagining the end of the world. The
sources that follow illustrate how people in various cultural settings expe-
rienced this initial phase of the catastrophe, sought to understand what was
happening, and tried to cope with it. This exercise begins with three general
accounts of the arrival of the plague - in the Islamic Middle East, Western
Europe, and the Byzantine Empire followed by five sources that focus on
more specific aspects of this hemispheric pandemic.
The plague frightened and killed. It began in the
Source 11.1
The Black Death in the Islamic World
Ibn al-Wardi was an Arab Muslim writer living in Aleppo, Syria, when the
plague struck. He wrote extensively about what he witnessed and then died
from the pestilence in 1349. As the only major contemporary account of
the Black Death to survive from the Middle East, it was widely quoted by
later Muslim writers and remains a major source for modern historians. His
account is thoroughly informed by an Islamic religious sensibility, especially
when he refers to the “noble tradition” that prohibits fleeing an outbreak of
disease. Three passages from the hadiths, sayings attributed to Muhammad,
were especially important:
When
you
learn that epidemic disease exists in a country, do not go
there, but if it breaks out in the country where you are,
do not leave.
visitor! ... China was not preserved from it. The
plague afflicted the Indians in India. ... It attacked
the Persians ... and gnawed away at the Crimea....
The plague destroyed mankind in Cairo ... the
scourge came to Jerusalem. ... It overtook those
people who fled to the al-Aqsa Mosque.
How amazingly does it pursue the people of
each house. One of them spits blood and everyone
in the household is certain of death ... after two
or three nights.
Oh God, it is acting by your command. Lift
this from us.
The pestilence caused the people of Aleppo
the same disturbance. ... Oh, if you could see the
nobles of Aleppo studying their inscrutable books
of medicine. They multiply its remedies by eat-
ing dried and sour food. ... They perfumed their
homes with ambergris and camphor. ... They
wore ruby rings and put onions, vinegar, and sar-
dines together with the daily meal.
If
you see many biers and their carriers and
hear in every quarter of Aleppo the announce-
ments of death and cries, you run from them
and refuse to stay with them. The profits of the
undertakers have greatly increased. ... Those who
sweat from carrying coffins enjoy this plague-time.
We ask God's forgiveness for our souls' bad
inclinations; the plague is surely part of His pun-
ishment.
The plague is for the Muslims a martyrdom
and a reward, and for the disbelievers a punish-
ment and a rebuke. ... It has been established by
our Prophet ... that the plague-stricken are mar-
tyrs. ... And this secret should be pleasing to the
true believer. If someone says that it causes infection
and destruction, say: God creates and recreates....
If we acknowledge the plague's devastation of the
people, it is the will of the Chosen Doer. I take
refuge in God from the yoke of the plague.
One man begs another to take care of his
children, and one says goodbye to his neighbors.
A third perfects his work, and another prepares his
shroud. A fifth is reconciled with his enemies, and
another treats his friends with kindness. ... One
man puts aside his property [in a religious endow-
ment called a waqf]; one frees his servants. One
man changes his character, while another amends
his ways. There is no protection today from it
other than His mercy, praise be to God.
Nothing prevented us from running away
from the plague, except our devotion to the noble
tradition [prohibiting flight from a plague-stricken
land). Come then, seek the aid of God Almighty
for raising the plague, for He is the best helper....
He who dies of epidemic disease is a martyr.
134
136
CHAPTER 11
THINKING THROUGH SOURCES / LIVING AND DYING DURING THE BLACK DEATH
137
reported that in Cairo, “some people appropriated for
themselves without scruple the immovable and movable
goods and cash of their former owners after their demise.
But very few lived long enough to profit thereby. "2]
We do not depend on our good health against the
plague, but on You (God).
[Somewhat later, a fifteenth-century account of the
plague in Cairo by the Egyptian scholar al-Maqrizi
reported that people received very high wages for reciting
the Quran at funerals, caring for the ill, and washing
the dead. Many trades disappeared as artisans found
more lucrative employment in plague-related occupations.
Fields went unharvested for lack of peasants to do the
work. Weddings and family feasts vanished, and even
the call to prayer was sometimes canceled. Al-Maqrizi
Source: Michael Dols, “Ibn al-Wardi's Risalah al-Naba' 'an al-
Waba', a Translation of a Major Source for the History of the
Black Death in the Middle East” in Near Eastern Numismatics, Ico-
nography, Epigraphy and History: Studies in Honor of George C. Miles,
ed. Dickran K. Kouymjian (Beirut: University of Beirut,
1974), 448–455. Reprinted by permission of the American Uni-
versity of Beirut Press.
public processions or by other means, in any way
efficacious.
Neither a doctor's advice nor the strength
of medicine could do anything to cure this ill-
ness; ... in fact, the number of doctors, other
than the well-trained, was increased by a large
number of men and women who had never had
any medical training; at any rate, few of the sick
were ever cured, and almost all died after the third
day of the appearance of the previously described
symptoms. ...
There came about such a fear and such fan-
tastic notions among those who remained alive
that almost all of them took a very cruel attitude
in the matter; that is, they completely avoided the
sick and their possessions, and in so doing, each
one believed that he was protecting his own good
health.
There were some people who thought that liv-
ing moderately and avoiding any excess might help
a great deal in resisting this disease, and so they
gathered in small groups and lived entirely apart
from everyone else. ... Allowing no one to speak
about or listen to anything said about the sick and
the dead outside, these people lived, entertaining
themselves with music and other pleasures that they
Source 11.2
The Black Death in Western Europe
Like Ibn al-Wardi in Aleppo, the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio of
Florence, Italy, was an eyewitness to the plague in his city. He recorded his
impressions of the plague, which claimed the lives of his father and step-
mother, in a preface to The Decameron, completed around 1353. That fic-
tional collection of tales was set in a villa outside Florence, where a group of
seven women and three men took turns telling stories to one another while
escaping the plague that was ravaging their city.
Questions to consider as you examine the source:
How does Boccaccio describe the social breakdown that accompanied
the plague in Florence?
What different responses to the plague does he identify?
In what
ways does Boccaccio's account overlap with that of Ibn al-
Wardi? And how does it differ?
disappeared, for, like other men, the ministers and
executors of the laws were either dead or sick....
As a result, everybody was free to do as he pleased.
Others ... maintained that there was no bet-
ter medicine against the plague than to flee from
it. ... [M]en and women in great numbers aban-
doned their city, their houses, their farms, their
relatives, and their possessions and sought other
places, going at least as far away as the Florentine
countryside. ... [B]rother abandoned brother,
uncle abandoned nephew, sister left brother, and
very often wife abandoned husband, and — even
worse, almost unbelievable fathers and mothers
neglected to tend and care for their children as if
they were not their own. ...
When a woman fell sick, no matter how
attractive or beautiful or noble she might be, she
did not mind having a manservant (whoever he
might be, no matter how young or old he was),
and she had no shame whatsoever in revealing any
part of her body to him ... when necessity of her
sickness required her to do so. This practice was,
perhaps, in the days that followed the pestilence,
the cause of looser morals in the women who sur-
vived the plague. ...
With the fury of the pestilence increasing, (tra-
ditional burial customs) for the most part died out
and other practices took [their] place ... so not
only did people die without having a number of
women around them, but there were many who
passed away without having even a single witness
present. ... And these dead bodies were not even
carried on the shoulders of honored and reputable
citizens but rather by gravediggers from the lower
classes that were called becchini. Working for pay,
they would pick up the bier and hurry it off. ...
Many ended their lives in public streets, dur-
ing the day or at night. ... The city was full of
corpses. ... So many corpses would arrive in front
of the church every day and at every hour that the
amount of holy ground for burials was certainly
insufficient for the ancient customs of giving each
body its individual place; when all the graves were
full, huge trenches were dug in all of the cemeter-
ies of the churches and into them the new arrivals
were dumped by the hundreds; and they were
could arrange.
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO
The Decameron
Mid-Fourteenth Century
Others thought the opposite: they believed
that drinking excessively, enjoying life, going
about singing and celebrating, satisfying in every
way the appetites as best one could, laughing and
making light of everything that happened was the
best medicine for such a disease; so they practiced
to the fullest what they believed by going from
one tavern to another all day and night, drinking
to excess; and they would often make merry in
private homes, doing everything that pleased or
amused them the most. This they were able to do
easily for everyone felt he was doomed to die and
as a result abandoned his property, so that most of
the houses had become common property, and
any stranger who came upon them used them as if
he were their rightful owner....
And in this great affliction and misery of our
city the revered authority of the laws, both divine
and human, had fallen and almost completely
[IFI
came
n 1348] into the distinguished city of
Florence ...
.. there a deadly pesti-
lence. ... And against this pestilence no human
wisdom or foresight was of any avail; quanti-
ties of filth were removed from the city by
officials. ... [T]he entry of any sick person into
the city was prohibited; and many directives were
issued concerning the maintenance of good health.
Nor were the humble supplications, rendered not
once but many times by the pious to God, through
138
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THINKING THROUGH SOURCES / LIVING AND DYING DURING THE BLACK DEATH
139
EMPEROR JOHN VI OF BYZANTIUM
Historarum
Mid- to Late Fourteenth Century
unharvested but also unreaped, and they were
allowed to roam where they wished. ...
So great was the cruelty of Heaven, and, per-
haps, also that of man, that from March to July of the
same year, between the fury of the pestiferous sick-
ness and the fact that many of the sick were badly
treated or abandoned in need because of the fear that
the healthy had, more than one hundred thousand
human beings are believed to have lost their lives for
certain inside the walls of the city of Florence.
UI
severely aggravating their sickness, they died at
packed in there with dirt, one on top of another,
like ship's cargo....
But ... the hostile winds blowing there did
not ... spare the surrounding countryside. ... In
the scattered villages and in the fields the poor,
miserable peasants and their families without any
medical assistance or aid of servants, died on the
roads and in their fields and homes, as many by day
as by night, and they died not like men but more
like animals. ...
When they saw that death was
upon them, completely neglecting the future fruits
of their past labors, their livestock, their property,
they did their best to consume what they already
had to hand. So it came about that oxen, donkeys,
sheep, pigs, chickens, and even dogs, man's most
faithful companion, were driven from their homes
into the fields where the wheat was left not only
once.
Source: From The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by
Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella. Copyright © 1982 by Mark Musa
and Peter Bondanella. Used by permission of W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc. This selection may not be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
(pon
arrival in Byzantium, she [the empress
Irene) found Andronikos, the youngest born,
dead from the invading plague. ... [It has] spread
throughout almost the entire world.
So incurable was the evil that neither any regu-
larity of life, nor any bodily strength could resist it.
Strong and weak bodies were all similarly carried
away and those best cared for died in the same
manner as the poor. ...
Neither did the disease
take the same course in all persons.
Great abscesses were formed on the legs or
the arms, from which, when cut, a large quantity
of foul-smelling pus flowed. ... Even many who
were seized by all the symptoms unexpectedly
recovered. There was no help from anywhere; if
someone brought to another a remedy useful to
himself, this became poison to the other patient.
Some, by treating others, became infected with
the disease.
It caused great destruction and many homes
were deserted by their inhabitants. Domestic ani-
mals died together with their masters. Most ter-
rible was the discouragement. Whenever people
felt sick there was hope left for recovery, but by
turning to despair, adding to their prostration and
No words could express the nature of the
disease. All that can be pointed out is that it had
nothing in common with the everyday evils to
which the nature of man is subject, but was some-
thing else sent by God to restore chastity. Many of
the sick turned to better things in their minds, by
being chastened, not only those who died, but also
those who overcame the disease. They abstained
from all vice during that time and they lived vir-
tuously; many divided their property among the
poor, even before they were attacked by the dis-
ease. If he ever felt himself seized, no one was so
ruthless as not to show repentance of his faults and
to appear before the judgment seat of God with
the best chance of salvation, not believing that the
soul was incurable or unhealed.
Many died in Byzantium then, and the king's
son, Andronikos, was attacked and died the third day.
Source 11.3
The Black Death in Byzantium
Source: Christos S. Bartsocas, “Two Fourteenth-Century Descrip-
tions of the 'Black Death,”” Journal of the History of Medicine and
Allied Sciences by YALE UNIVERSITY. Reproduced with per-
mission of OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS in the format reuse
in a book/e-book via Copyright Clearance Center.
In 1347, the plague struck Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire,
and quickly touched the royal family, as the young son of Emperor John VI
and Empress Irene perished from the disease. Eight years later, the emperor
abdicated his throne, retiring to a monastery, where he wrote a history of
the Byzantine Empire. That work contained a description of the plague as it
arrived in Constantinople.
Questions to consider as you examine the source:
In what larger context did Emperor John VI place the plague and his
own personal tragedy?
How did Emperor John VI describe the outcomes of the plague?
Does this account have more in common with that of Ibn al-Wardi or
Boccaccio?
Source 11.4
Religious Responses in the Islamic World
Religion permeated the worlds of both Islam and Christianity during the
fourteenth century. It is hardly surprising, then, that many people would
turn to religious practices in their efforts to understand and cope with a
catastrophe of such immense proportions. And yet for a few, the plague chal-
lenged established religious understandings. Some Islamic scholars had long
opposed the idea of contagion as an explanation for the spread of disease as
it seemed to grant human actions, rather than God's decree, the primary role
in this process. The plague, however, persuaded one Muslim scholar and
140
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THINKING THROUGH SOURCES / LIVING AND DYING DURING THE BLACK DEATH
141
Source 11.5
Religious Responses in the Christian World
2,3
physician, al-Khatib, to reject this teaching. “The existence of contagion,”
he wrote, “has been proved by experience, deduction, the senses, observa-
tion, and by unanimous reports.
Most people, however, turned to traditional religious practices to find
some sense of meaning, comfort, and protection in the face of the unimagi-
nable tragedy. Source 10.4, written by Ibn Kathir, an Islamic teacher from
Damascus, describes one such event.
Questions to consider as you examine the source:
What specific practices did the Muslims of Damascus undertake? Why
might they have chanted the Quran's account of the flood of Noah in
particular?
What assumptions underlay these practices?
What might you infer from Ibn Kathir's description of the composition
of the gathered crowd?
IBN KATHIR
The Beginning and the End: On History
ca. 1350–1351
The horrific experience of the Black Death also caused some people in the
Christian world to question fundamental teachings about the mercy and
power of God or the usefulness of religious rituals. For some, the plague
prompted an orgy of hedonism, perhaps to affirm life in the face of endless
death or simply to live to the full in what time remained to them. Most
European Christians, however, relied on familiar practices: seeking the aid
of parish priests, invoking the intercession of the Virgin Mary, participating
in religious processions and pilgrimages, attending mass regularly, increas-
ing attention to private devotion. From church leaders, the faithful heard
a message of the plague as God's punishment for sins. Accompanying such
ideas were religiously based attacks on prostitutes, homosexuals, and Jews,
people whose allegedly immoral behavior or alien beliefs had invited God's
retribution.
The most well-known movement reflecting an understanding of the
plague as God's judgment on a sinful world was that of the flagellants, whose
name derived from the Latin word flagella, meaning "whips.” The practice
of flagellation, whipping oneself or allowing oneself to be whipped, had a
long tradition within the Christian world and elsewhere as well. Flagellation
served as a penance for sin and as a means of identifying with Christ, who
was himself whipped prior to his crucifixion. It reemerged as a fairly wide-
spread practice, especially in Germany, between 1348 and 1350 in response
to the initial outbreak of the plague. Its adherents believed that perhaps the
terrible wrath of God could be averted by performing this extraordinary
act of atonement or penance. Groups of flagellants like those depicted in
Source 11.5A moved from city to city, where they called for repentance,
confessed their sins, sang hymns, and participated in ritual dances, which
climaxed in whipping themselves with knotted cords sometimes embedded
with iron points.
The initial and subsequent outbreaks of the plague in Western Europe
generated an understandable preoccupation with death and its apparently
indiscriminate occurrence. This concern, or obsession, found expression in
the Dance of Death, a ritual intended to prevent the plague or to cure the
afflicted, which began in France in 1348. During the performance, people
would periodically fall to the ground, allowing others to trample on them.
By 1400, such performances took place in a number of parish churches and
subsequently in more secular settings. The Dance of Death also received
artistic expression in a variety of poems and sketches along with paintings
like Source 11.5B.
A a
t Damascus, a reading of the Traditions
-
Muhammad] took place on June 5 of this year
[1348] after the public prayer
with the great
magistrates there assisting in the presence
of a
very
dense crowd. The ceremony continued with a
recitation of a section of the Koran, and the people
poured out their supplication that the city be spared
the plague. .
It was predicted and feared that it
would become a menace to Damascus. On the
morning of June 7, the crowd reassembled ... and
resumed the recitation of the flood of Noah. ...
During this month, the mortality increased among
the population of Damascus, until it reached a
daily average of more than 100 persons.
On Monday July 21, a proclamation made in
the city invited the population to fast for three
day; they were further asked to go on the fourth
day, a Friday, to the Mosque of the Foot in
order to humbly beseech God to take away
this
plague. ... On the morning of July 25, the inhab-
itants threw themselves [into these ceremonies] at
every opportunity. ... One saw in this multitude
Jews, Christians, Samaritans, old men, old women,
young children, poor men, emirs, notables, magis-
trates, who processed after the morning prayer, not
ceasing to chant their
prayers until daybreak. That
was a memorable ceremony.
[By October] in the environs of the capital, the
dead were innumerable, a thousand in a few days.
Source: Gaston Wiet, "La Grande Peste Noire en Syrie et en
Egypt,” Études d'Orientalisme dédiées à la memoire de Lévi Provençal,
2 vols. (Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1962), 1:381–83.
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