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Black Death Analysis

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Among countless diseases there is one that compares to nothing. Plague as a deadly disease has left a colossal imprint in the history of all mankind. In the middle of the 14th century, the plague known as Black Death spread to all corners of Europe and Asia. This terrible epidemic, which at mere mention made people terrified, erased one-third of the population from the face of the earth. Neither medieval medicine nor religion could overcome it. There was no rescue from it. In those days, the scientific rational explanation of this epidemic had less and less influence, but rather religious explanation increasingly influenced- people were looking for an explanations, for the causes of this plague in the supernatural. Drawing attention to this, Michael Dols in …show more content…

The outbreak as a plague had a very notable impact on two societies: Christian and Muslim. All of them faced one disaster, but people question: why did they react so differently to the Black Death? why did they have diverse interpretations of the plague? and what was the explanation for such differences? So Michael Dols in his work tries to give answers to such questions concerning Christian and Muslim responses. But before moving to the different responses, it should be noted that they shared some common understanding of the Black Death. According to Dols, they had common nature of the plague that it was caused by God. However, in truth, Christians and Muslims thought in quite different ways. For Christians, the plague was overwhelming punishment for their sins, for their misdeeds, while Muslims accepted it as a mercy from God. Christians associated the plague not only with God’s punishment, but also they blamed the Jews that they poisoned their food, water. Christians had a pessimistic view of the plague, that it was the end of world. Therefore, they rebelled, succumbed to evil

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