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Impact of black death
Cause and effect of black death
Religious beliefs in the black death responses
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There are my many different theories to why the Black Death occurred. Religions such as Muslim and Christianity had different views on why the Black Plague happened based on what they believed. Muslims believed it was a blessing and just went along with it. Christians, however, thought this harmful disease was a curse. They prayed and begged God to make it go away.
Some people tried to outrun this plague, but failed to do so. Millions upon millions of people died due to how fast the Black Death spread. It did not matter who you were or where you came from, you were not safe. Christians knew this and it worried them. They saw the plague as a curse. It was killing everyone, even the religious people. They thought it was brought to them because of all the sins they had committed. (We know that whatever we suffer is just reward for our sins.) Christians saw no positive thing that was or could come out of encountering the plague, but Muslims had a different perspective of it all.
To Muslims, the Black Plague was a blessing. They thought anything that happened was God’s will. The way Muslims thought it was all for good
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One major difference was that the Christians went with the “golden rule,” to “treat others the way you want to be treated.” They would try to do anything and everything they could to try to help those who had been infected. This was not the smartest idea because the disease was very contagious, but Christians still tried their best. Muslims did not normally help others who had the plague, they just minded their own business and did not worry about whether they were going to catch the fatal infection or if they would make it out alive. The two are similar in the way of what they did to keep from getting the disease. They drank liquefied Armenian clay, peppermint, and rosewater as ways of prevention. Muslims and Christians did this as a of hope to keep the Black Death
The effects of the Black Death on Medieval Europe were that the economy fell, faith in religion decreased, and the demand for labor was high. The Black Death was a deadly disease that devastated Medieval Europe. This bubonic plague killed 1/3 of the European population, crippling the economy and faith in religion.
The Black Death was a dark period of human history, approximately 60% of European died. Black Death also known as the bubonic plague, it happened during 1346-1353. The plague spread during the crusades along the ships, and it was originated from a mice from Asia. It is a irremediable disease. The plague made so many negative influence on society, as well as positive effects on human population, such as social, medical and economical effects.
Many wondered what the true cause of the Black Plague was and how it spread all across the world in such a short amount of time. Throughout its time period, many medical authorities and scientists sought to give rational explanations for the reasons why the plague was spreading and believed it was caused by several factors such as: “corrupted air and water, hot and humid southerly winds, proximity of swamps, lack of purifying sunshine, excrement and other filth, putrid decomposition of dead bodies, excessive indulgence in foods (particularly fruits), God's wrath, punishment for sins, and the conjunction of stars and planets” (Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence). The confusion and lack of scientific knowledge on the harmful disease caused much panic and triggered many outbreaks among individuals. Many people began to start placing cities and ships under quarantine, burning sulfur to purify bad air, burning clothes, and even blaming and killing Jews in hope that they could solve a cure or at least stop the spread.
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.
It has been called “the greatest catastrophe ever.” That statement was made in reference to the Black Death which was one of many bubonic plague epidemics. Throughout history, the bubonic plague proved itself to be an extremely lethal disease. Outbreaks of the bubonic plague were devastating because of the stunning number of deaths in each of the populations it reached. The Black Death was the worst epidemic and disaster of the bubonic plague in all of history. The Black Death refers to a period of several years in which affected populations were decimated. The bubonic plague is a disease started by bacteria. The disease has horrible symptoms, and most of the victims die after getting the plague. The bubonic plague spread easily between different areas of people. The Black Death was not the first epidemic of the bubonic plague; there was another outbreak several hundred years before. It is important to understand the history of the bubonic plague and reflect upon the Black Death because plague outbreaks can still occur today.
Both Europeans and Islamic empires experienced the Black Death. However, regions affected by the disease reacted in various ways and differed in reasons for the cause of the disease. Muslims were peaceful, accepted the Black Death as a blessing from God, and were proactive in suggesting causes of the disease. In contrast, Europeans blamed and burned Jews for the plague, rebelled against authority, and saw the illness as a punishment for sins. Even though Christians and Muslims believe in the same God, the responses and actions of both regions toward the Black Death differed immensely.
At this time however, cold weather and rains wiped out many crops creating a shortage of food for humans. Rats also went through this shortage in food. This made them “crowd in cities, providing an optimal environment for disease”(Karin Lehnardt in 41 Catastrophic Facts about the Black Death). Before the black death spread through Europe, sanitation wasn’t very good. Living conditions were bad so when the black death came to Europe, it spread more rapidly because people were not clean and healthy. Another reason the plague spread so fast was because the dead “bodies were piled up inside and outside city walls where they lay until mass graves could be dug”(Karin Lehnardt in 41 Catastrophic Facts about the Black Death). This made the air very polluted and contributed the spread of the epidemic. In total, the black death killed about thirty million people. This was about one-third the population of Europe. Some towns were completely wiped out. Because of this, medieval people thought everyone would eventually die, although we now know that some populations did survive. Also, because people were not being saved by the church, their beliefs were questioned. Less people dedicated their lives to the church because of this. Both the poor and the rich died but more than one-half the people dead were poor. This was also a result of poor sanitation and living conditions. The Black Death initiated in China in the early 1340’s
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
However, the Christians claimed that the Jews were less affected by the black death. The fact that the Jews were less effected by the black death is not because the plague was their fault but it was due to the sanitary practices of the Jewish law. For example, the Jewish law requires one to wash his or hands several times throughout the day. They must wash before they eat, after they leave the bathroom and at least once a week the Jews bathe for Sabbath. In the medieval world one can go about half his lifetime without ever having to wash his hands. This shows how the sanitary conditions for the Jews were always far superior than the general sanitary conditions everyone else followed which explains why the Jews were less effected by the plague. Although all this makes sense to the Christians the fact that the Jews were less affected was very shocking and therefore they blamed
This affected more than just Europe, it really hurt countries in the Middle East and China. The Black Death was spread by the Mongols and passed into Europe through black rats and fleas. Ships were known to arrive in Europe with many dead bodies and only rats living. Symptoms of the Black Death included puss filled abscesses that ended up turning your whole body black. It is believed that after receiving symptoms of the deadly disease people would only survive a few days. It was feared that the entire population would be wiped out by this devastating plague. People of this age believed the plague had meaning and was related to God, there were different perceptions of why the Bubonic plague happened, although some believed God caused it, others strongly believed that it was not possible for God to commit an act that would cause so many issues to the world and its society. The population that survived the Black Death were traumatized by the events and also affected negatively economically. An effect of the plague was a shortage of labor which caused a shortage of supply and increase in demand of workers and laborers. The whole of Europe had changed because of this event and things such as revolts. Protests, and up rise started to occur in cities all over Europe. The Black Death changed the attitudes and thinking of the people of Europe
Even with the grueling pain that the dark swells and the large tumors brought with them, to the Jews, this pain was the not the worst. The Black Plague was a killer disease from 1348-1351 that spread all throughout Europe. At this time, the Jews were despised in their communities because most of them took the occupation of money-lending. This job was considered unholy and the people of Europe looked down upon the Jews because of it. The Black Plague created a more hostile environment for the Jewry of Europe because of the newly founded flagellants, the Jewish ghettos, and the increased attacks on Jews.
Imagine living in a time filled with nothing but fear. The thing you fear cannot be touched or seen but will put you to a slow miserable death. In the 1300s people were struck with a great plague, which has now been named “The Black Death”. The Black Death killed off populations with just one sweep. Historians call this the biggest tragedy of all time. The question is what caused this plague and how does something like this happen? Overtime historians have boiled it down to 2 and some may say 3 explanations, which are religion, science, and humans. With the help of a book The Black Death by Rosemary Horrox I was able to find explanations of them all. Who may know which is the correct reason for such a thing but what your think caused it is for you to decide.
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 ...
The Black Death had profound effects on Medieval Europe. Although most people did not realize it at the time, the Black Death had not only marked the end of one age but it also denoted the beginning of a new one, namely the Renaissance.
The Black Death plagues had disastrous consequences for Europe in the 14th century. After the initial outbreak in Europe, 1347, it continued for around five years and then mysteriously disappeared. However it broke out again in the 1360s and every few decades thereafter till around 1700. The European epidemic was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, which began in Asia and spread across trade routes. When it reached Europe, a path of destruction began to emerge. Medieval society was tossed into disarray, economies were fractured, the face of culture and religion changed forever. However the plagues devastation was not all chaotic, there were benefits too, such as modern labour movements, improvements in medicine and a new outlook on life. Therefore in order to analyse the impact the Black Death had on societies in the 14th century, this essay will consider the social, economic, cultural and religious factors in order to reach an overall conclusion.