1348-05-31-Gaza
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| Date startStart date of the disease. | 1348-05-31 Friday | + |
| Date endEnd date of the disease. | 1348-09 | + |
| SeasonSeason (spring, summer, fall or winter) | Autumn, Summer | |
| Date otherOther mentioned dates. | ||
| PlacePlace(s), city or location of the disease. | Aleppo, Damascus, Gaza, Jerusalem, ʿAjlūn, Ḥoms | |
| RegionHistorical region(s) | ||
| CountryCurrent country | ||
| RiverMentioned river(s) | ||
| Natural eventMentioned natural event(s) | ||
| PersonMentioned persons(s) | ||
| GroupGroup(s) of people mentioned | ||
| VictimIndication of victims | 1000 + 300 + 2400 absolute | + |
| AnimalMentioned animal(s) | ||
| DiseaseMentioned disease(s) | Plague, Wabāʾ | |
| Epidemic waveAssociated epidemic wave | Black Death | |
| Social responseSocial response that happened in reaction to the disease | ||
| LanguageLanguage of the original text | Arabic | |
| KeywordFurther keyword(s) | Epidemics, Fasting, Mortality, Prayers | |
| last edited | 23. 12. 2025 by EpiMedDat-Bot. |
In the beginning of Rabīʿ I, 749 H (the month began on May 31, 1348) news about the Black Death in Gaza reached Aleppo while the author stayed there. The daily death toll had reportedly amounted to more than 1,000. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa then traveled on to Ḥoms which had already been affected by the plague; ca. 300 people died on the day of his arrival. He went on to Damascus whose inhabitants had fasted for three days [July 22 to 24] and on Friday set out for the Mosque of the Footprints (Aqdām). God subsequently reduced the burden of plague lasting on them. The daily death toll in the city had amounted to 2,400. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa traveled on to ʿAjlūn, and then to Jerusalem where the plague wave had already come to an end.
Text originalOriginal text
Text translationEnglish translation of the text
In the first days of the month of Rabīʿ I in the year forty-nine news reached us in Aleppo that plague had broken out in Ghazza and that the number of dead there exceeded thousand a day. I went to Ḥims and found that the plague had already struck there; about three hundred persons died on the day of my arrival. I went to Damascus and arrived on a Thursday; the people had been fasting for three days. On Friday they went to the Mosque of the Footprints, as we have related in the first book. God alleviated their plague. The number of deaths among them had risen to two thousand four hundred a day. Then I went to ʿAjlūn, and then to Bait al-Muqaddas [Jerusalem], where I found the plague had ceased.
