Alexandria
From EpiMedDat
In Alexandria, a total of 6 epidemic events are known so far. It is a city in Egypt in nan. The coordinates are 31° 12' 48.60" N, 29° 55' 39.58" E.
Map of Alexandria
Table
| Disease | DateStart date of the disease. | SummarySummary of the disease event | OriginalOriginal text | TranslationEnglish translation of the text | ReferenceReference(s) to literature | Reference translationReference(s) to the translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1217-03-00-Cairo 002 | March 1217 JL | A letter mentions that a disease raged in Cairo, dated on March 17, 1217. | לקד כאן קלובנא ועיוננא מתטלעה אלי אללה סובחאנה ותעאלי | A letter to Avraham Maimonides (d. 1237), the head of the Jews in Egypt (nagid), in Cairo, written by the teacher, cantor, and clerk Yehuda b. al-ʿAmmānī in Alexandria. Yehuda mentions that the Jewish community in Alexandria had been fasting and supplicating on behalf of the addressee's health and for God to lift the disease (Hebr. dever) that raged in Cairo and had afflicted Avraham, too. The letter is dated to the end of Adar 1528 Seleucid era (the month ended on March 17, 1217). | Princeton Geniza Project (PGP), T-S 16.305, lines 24-31 verso, ed. by Miriam Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent. The Leading Elite in the Jewish Community of Alexandria in the Middle Ages (in Hebrew), Jerusalem 2006 PGP | Translation by Undine Ott |
| 1348-04-08-Perugia1 | 8 April 1348 JL | Outbreak of the Black Death in Perugia; remarkable information from Paris and all across the known world via the papal court in Avignon | Adì 8 de aprile nel dicto millesimo comenzó in Peroscia una grande mortalità de peslilenzia, de modo chi se abatteva non viveva olirà doi dì ; et era infirmila si venenosa che non se trovava frate ne prcite che glie volesse confessare ne comunicare gli infirmi , ne chi glie volesse sepellirc ; et de ciò morirono grande quantità de cinerei. Comenzó la dieta mortalità in Toscana , et maxime in Pisa , la quale remase quasi inabitata ; et la dieta mortalità fu quasi per tutto ci mondo generalmente , maxime nelle terre de la marina , et anco in Francia ; però che vennero lettere al nostro comuno de Peroscia che in Parigi, adi 13 de marzo 1348, dentro nella cita erano stati sepulti 1573 homini boni citadini, sensa numerare le donne , mammoli e povere persone , delle quale non se ne teneva conto. Per questa cagione lo re de Francia e la regina se ne fuggirò ad uno castello lontano da Parigi cinque miglia chiamato Leonis , et lì morì la dicta regina con uno suo figlio, et certe nepote et molti altri baroni. Anco in un'altra cita pure de Francia, chiamata Noydes , la quale faceva vinte milia homini, et non ce ne remascro vivi 200. Anco in Avignone erano morte cinquantaquattro milia persone. Più oltra scrissero molti grandi principi e signori al Papa , fra li quali fu ci principe de Cypri, da Maiorica, da Alexandria, da Normandya,da Schiavonya, da Capadócia e da molte altre parte , come da Armenya maiure et in Cicilia , qualmente in questi tali paesi non ce era rimasta viva quasi alcuna persona , et che le bestie silvatiche andavano per le cita ; et dice che anco era grandissima mortalità in Turchya , in Costantinopoli e per tutto lo Oriente; et per tutta la Sicilia erano quasi tutti gli pesce de l'acque venenate , et chi ne mangiava moriva. . | On the 8th of April in the said year, a great mortality due to pestilence began in Perugia, so much so that those who fell ill did not live beyond two days; and the illness was so poisonous that no friar or priest could be found who would confess or administer communion to the sick, nor anyone who would bury them; and because of this, a great number of people died without sacraments. This mortality began in Tuscany, and especially in Pisa, which was left almost uninhabited; and this mortality was generally all over the world, especially in coastal lands, and also in France; for letters came to our commune of Perugia that in Paris, on the 13th of March 1348, 1573 good citizens were buried within the city, not counting the women, children, and poor people, of whom no account was kept. For this reason, the King of France and the Queen fled to a castle five miles away from Paris called Leones, and there the said queen died with one of her sons, some nephews, and many other barons. Also, in another city in France called Noyon, which had twenty thousand inhabitants, not even two hundred remained alive. In Avignon, fifty-four thousand people died. Moreover, many great princes and lords wrote to the Pope, among whom were the prince of Cyprus, from Majorca, from Alexandria, from Normandy, from Slavonia, from Cappadocia, and from many other places, such as Greater Armenia and Sicily, stating that in these countries almost no one was left alive, and that wild animals roamed the cities; and they said that there was also a great mortality in Turkey, in Constantinople, and throughout the East; and throughout Sicily, almost all the fish in the waters were poisoned, and whoever ate them died | Cronaca di Perugia 1850, p. 148 | Translation by Martin Bauch |
| 1348-09-00-Alexandria | September 1348 JL | In September or October 1348, the Black Death had abated in Alexandria and Cairo. The maximum death toll in Alexandria had been 1,080, while it had been 21,000 in Cairo. Everyone from among the city elites Ibn Baṭṭūṭa had known in Cairo had died. |  | Then I travelled to al-Maḥalla al-Kabīra, then to Naḥrarīya, then to Abyār, then to Damanhūr, and then to Alexandria. I found the plague had abated after the number of deaths had risen to a thousand and eighty a day. Then I went to Cairo and was told that during the plague the number of deaths there had risen to twenty-one thousand a day. I found that all the shaikhs I had known were dead. May God Most High have mercy upon them! | Ibn Baṭṭūṭa - Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār 1853-1859, vol. 4 (1858), p. 323 | None |
| 1361-10-00-Egypt | October 1361 JL | A deadly disease (fanāʾ) hit Cairo, Alexandria and further places in 763 H (October 31, 1361 to October 19, 1362). Many people died. |  | "In the year 763 AH (1362-1363 AD), a plague struck Egypt, Alexandria, and other places, causing the death of many people. In the year 775 AH (1373-1374 AD), a calamity befell in Ben Saghta.
(3) In Ben: many people died. (4) In: the number increased in Ben and decreased elsewhere. (5) Among the original inhabitants, many died, and in Ben, the number increased and decreased elsewhere." | al-Nuwayrī - Kitāb al-Ilmām 1968-1976, vol. 4 (1970), p. 127. | Translation by ChatGPT-3.5 |
| 1365-10-12-Alexandria | October 1365 JL | A Muslim woman who had been taken prisoner by the Franks who had seized Alexandria in October 1365 reportedly related that after the Franks had withdrawn from the city [around October 12], an epidemic (wabāʾ) broke out among its inhabitants. The disease was caused by an odor that altered the air and by the smell emanating from the bodies of those who had been killed during the conquest and whose corpses had been lying around for too long. The maximum daily death toll exceeded 100. The woman, then, began to work as a washer of female corpses in order to earn a living. |  | al-Nuwayrī - Kitāb al-Ilmām 1968-1976, vol. 4 (1970), p. 295. | Translation needed | |
| 1374-03-16-Alexandria | March 1374 JL | Many people, mainly children, died of plague (ṭāʿūn, fanāʾ, wabāʾ) in Alexandria from Shawwāl 775 H (March 16 to April 14, 1374) to Rabīʿ I 776 H (August 10, 1374 to September 8, 1374). Up to 200 people died per day. In Shawwāl, 7,000 people perished within three days. In 775 H (1373), the Nile had failed to reach the necessary gauge (wafāʾ) during the summer flood, and many fields in Egypt could not be cultivated. Prices for grain and other foodstuffs rose in Egypt. Prices remained high also during the following year (776 H: June 13, 1374 to June 1, 1375) despite a sufficient Nile flood and the availability of grain. People became impoverished and died of hunger due to the rise in prices while grain merchants (khazzān) made huge profits. Finally, people revolted against inflation and famine. Plague came on top of famine. In Alexandria, 17,000 people reportedly died of plague, 12,000 of whom were male and female children. [...] |     | al-Nuwayrī - Kitāb al-Ilmām 1968-1976, vol. 3 (1970), pp. 253-254; vol. 4 (1970), p. 127-129; 143; vol. 6 (1973), pp. 423-425. | Translation needed |
