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Christian and Muslim responses to the Black Death were vastly different. Christians believed that the Black Death was a punishment from God, while the Muslims believed Black Death was a blessing. Although vastly different there were some similarities, both believed it came from God, both believe that it was caused or carried by the wind and a prevention was to build fires and fumigate. The similarities did not compare to the contrast of these two religious group’s reactions to the Black Death. The Christian population diminished rather quickly at an astonishing rate of thirty three percent as stated in document two. In document three Chronicler Agnolo di Tura says that everyone in Italy was stupefied by all of the deaths, members of the same …show more content…
The Black Death did not differentiate one religion from another, so the plague spread throughout Europe and the Middle East like wildfire not stopping until it reached the Pacific ocean. Christians and the Muslims were both terrified by the plague not being able to see it, know where it is coming from, why it is happening, or how to rid yourself of it, this was a scary thought. The death rate of the plague was around thirty two percent as it was stated in document two. Maybe the cause of this was the beliefs about the causes and prevention of it. One similar cause was the winds carrying contaminated air, two prevention that were similar was drinking an Armenian clay tablet and building fires to fumigate. Christians and Muslims at one point in time rebelled against the king. Then all of the religions assembled together for a night of prayer in the Great mosque as talked about in document nine. Christians and Muslims were indeed vastly different in their reactions to the Black Death, backed up by many facts given throughout this paper. Hopefully the reader finds it fascinating that religion in this time period made all of the conclusions instead of fact based science which is used today, but nonetheless most importantly realizes that the Black Death failed in its attempt to take out the human
...se of the plague’s presence by delimiting impious behavior according to biblical law, and condemning displays of impropriety. Individuals who failed to adhere to religious dictates regarding frugality and matrimony were blamed for ushering in the disease. Those who ignored social conventions regarding decent dress and gender codes were also accused of inciting God’s wrath and bringing society to ruin. According to excerpts of Rosemary Horrox’s The Black Death, the religious message of 1348 states that human pain and suffering are divine punishment for decadence, licentiousness, and frivolity. It is interesting to note that religious leaders of the 21st century state much the same thing regarding catastrophic events. This leads one to conclude that standards of propriety and decorum will always remain an inherent part of any religious diagnosis for societal ailments.
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.
Both religions were terrified of the disease, but the Muslims were more accepting of it. Muslims did not blame anybody for the plague, they just accepted it as a type of holy penance and moved on. Christians, on the other hand, blamed the Jews. Many Jews in Europe were forced to convert to Christianity because of the deadly discrimination they were receiving, therefore, leading them to “convert or die”. Even some Jews that converted also died by the hands of Christians. One might think that this discrimination against the Jews during this time was like a miniature holocaust. In Document seven of the D.B.Q., the poem “Burning of the Jews” written in 1348 by Johannes Nohl is a perfect example of what happened to a lot of Jews when they crossed paths with angry
The epidemic rarely left survivors when they became infected. Many would die in less than three days. Priests in both of the two major religions now believed fully that the end of the world was eminent and the only way they could be saved was through prayer and asking God for forgiveness. There are examples of multiple prayers in the text Discovering the Global Past. All of them involve asking God to forgive the whole population and ask him many times to spare the one praying and any member of the population not yet infected. They also considered anyone who had died from the disease to be a martyr because they were killed by God punishing not them necessarily, but the whole
The Islamic world had suffered at least five major plague epidemics before the Black Death in the 14th century, yet the Black Death was far more deadly than any of the previous epidemics that had hit the Islamic world. Medieval Muslims had no scientific explanation for the disease and thus Islamic societies began to believe that the plague was of divine origin. Religious teachers declared that for the righteous Muslim death by plague was a blessing, a martyrdom like death in defense of Islam, which ensured the victim a heavenly reward. For the infidel death by plague was considered a punishment for sin that condemned one to hell. As with all acts of Allah, the pestilence seen as just, merciful, good, and could not be avoided. Since God specifically chose each victim, there could be no random spreading of the disease by contagion, nor could one escape death by flight or medication. From these views, Muslims formed three basic tenets for coping with the plague: The disease was a mercy and martyrdom from God for the faithful Muslim but a punishment for the infidel, a Muslim should neither enter nor flee a plague-stricken land, and there was ...
It's hard to imagine just how frightening life was in the Middle Ages during the Black Death. By the time the disease ran its course, it had killed a minimum of about one third of the population in Europe and there’s a good possibility that it had killed even more. It is quiet an understatement to say that the plague was very brutal. There were hundreds upon thousands of people dying each day. In rankings of how bad the Black Plague actually was, it is number one and has gone down to be the worst plague to every hit anywhere in all of the world. It caused several catastrophes over the time that it went on. Many other than just the three most crucial; population loss, loss in the church overall and economic disruption.
Relations between the Christians and Jews of medieval Europe were always influenced by their unequal social and economic statuses and the religious competition that existed between them. While the Jews served a purpose in the Christian religion, this purpose meant that the more populous Christians that had come to dominate Europe only tolerated the Jews. No premise of equality existed, and the Jews came to depend on relationships with lower-level rulers to secure their relative safety. Rumors persisted that Jews had poisoned wells, and the Jews were often the targets of violence that the Christians seemed exceedingly willing to deliver. Overall, life was better for the Christians and worse for the Jews, although this would be of no concern to the plague. When the Black Death arrived in the mid-fourteenth century, it cared little for the religious affiliation of its victims as it spread throughout Europe, causing widespread illness and death. Each faith would come to deal with the plague in its own way, actions that were both predictable and unpredictable. Word of a Jewish plot to kill Christians would sweep parts of Europe, causing Jewish communities to be swept up and killed in retaliation for the sickness that they were accused of bringing into the world. Religious overtures would be assigned to the arrival of this disease, while others would seek saintly protection and ready themselves for the end of the world. The flagellant movement would emerge among Christians, with large groups wandering the land, whipping and beating themselves in an attempt to deflect the divine wrath that had descended upon them. By and large, each culture would continue to fill their place in the pre-existing dynamic that existed between Jews...
Dols’ argument that Christians overreacted during the Black Death in comparison to the Muslims does not seem like a fair analysis. As Stearns’ argues, the Christian and Muslim societies are completely different in terms of religion, social structure and knowledge of the Black Death. Dols’ fails to take into account the major differences that may have discouraged the Muslims from reacting similarly to the Christians, which makes his argument weak in my opinion. Thus, I do not support Dols’ argument because it fails to consider why Christians reacted violently.
Christians and Muslims had different ideas on the causes of the plague. Christians thought that it was because of the sin that people committed. Muslims thought that it was caused by the wind blowing and carrying the plague with it. Neither idea was
The Black Death was a devastating disease that had killed 25 million people in 5 years. Thinking about the number of 25 million people is devastating enough. These people did not have the knowledge and technology we have today. Therefore, when people were getting sick in China, they weren’t able to communicate with those in Europe about this deadly disease heading their way. When it did finally reach Europe, they didn’t know what to do about this disease. Without the knowledge of prevention, they could have kept the disease secluded in an area, but instead, the disease spread from country to another country. Even charitable places such as monasteries tried to aid for the sickly but were quickly wiped out. That would bestow panic across Europe.
Christianity and Islam were different in The Black Death. in 1348 christianity and islam came face to face with The Black Death. Everybody responded to it differently. The cause of The Plague is still debating on today by historians. Most people believed it was caused by bacterial strains. Doctors weren't familiar with the bacteria and viruses. The strains lived in the stomach of fleas that live in the fur of rodents, most likely black rats. It wasn't the first time The Plague spread across part of the world but would be more deadly. When The Black Death hit Europe and the Middle East in the 14th century the big focus was religion's for most people especially christianity and Islam.
The Black Plague changed a large amount of people's beliefs in God. An innumerable amount of people relied heavily on prayer and blessings from priest. Priest who tried to help died because they were in contact with the infected often. Some priest ran off and hid from the general population, they are commonly known, simply as bad priest (Whipps). Many people thought since the holiest of people did not receive God's grace and were not be saved by him, there must be no God. This...
During the Middle Ages, people didn’t have scientific equipment like microscopes to examine the organisms. So they concluded causes for the Black Death with unsupported evidence. Many physicians and doctors said it was in the air. It was inevitable to catch the Black Death as they claimed. Physicians describe the plague like a ‘tide of death’ (Addison et al, 2012. Page 299). However, the Church said it was the wrath of God. The priests explained that people had sinned which included sins of greed, sins of pride, sins of thieving, sins of envy, sins of lying and sins of anger. An uncommon cause was that people thought that the movement of the stars would tell when plague struck while some places even belie...
The Black Death is estimated to have been arisen in the dry plains of Central Asia, whereupon it had spread along the Silk Road, getting to Crimea in 1346. From Crimea, it was caught by Oriental rat fleas which had been living on black rats that regularly went on merchant ships. Spreading through Europe and the Mediterranean, the Black Death has been estimated to have infected and killed about 30-60% of Europe’s population. The Black Death had made the world population go down from 450 million all the way down to 350 million thro...
Therefore, the responses of Christians and Muslims to the Black Death greatly differed from each other. Responses to this calamity are different because of faith and world perspectives. Both thinking that it was their God’s will, they accepted it, but thought it was brought upon them for varying reasons. Of course, nowadays, doctors and scientist know it is from bacterial strain, and with the increasingly advanced technology, it will hopefully be prevented if another outbreak ever occurs again.