Internet Medieval Sourcebook
Ibn Battuta (1304-1368/69):
The Plague (Black Death) in Damascus 1348, from Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354
The Plague of 1348
One of the celebrated sanctuaries at Damascus is the Mosque of the Footprints
(al-Aqdam), which lies two miles south of the city, alongside the main highway which leads
to the Hijaz, Jerusalem, and Egypt. It is a large mosque, very blessed, richly endowed,
and very highly venerated by the Damascenes. The footprints from which it derives its name
are certain footprints impressed upon a rock there, which are said to be the mark of
Moses' foot. In this mosque there is a small chamber containing a stone with the following
inscription "A certain pious man saw in his sleep the Chosen One [Muhammad], who said
to him 'Here is the grave of my brother Moses.'"
I saw a remarkable instance of the veneration in which the Damascenes hold this mosque
during the great pestilence on my return journey through Damascus, in the latter part of
July 1348. The viceroy Arghun Shah ordered a crier to proclaim through Damascus that all
the people should fast for three days and that no one should cook anything eatable in the
market during the daytime. For most of the people there eat no food but what has been
prepared in the market. So the people fasted for three successive days, the last of which
was a Thursday, then they assembled in the Great Mosque, amirs, sharifs, qadis,
theologians, and all the other classes of the people, until the place was filled to
overflowing, and there they spent the Thursday night in prayers and litanies. After the
dawn prayer next morning they all went out together on foot, holding Korans in their
hands, and the amirs barefooted. The procession was joined by the entire population of the
town, men and women, small and large; the Jews came with their Book of the Law and the
Christians with their Gospel, all of them with their women and children. The whole
concourse, weeping and supplicating and seeking the favour of God through His Books and
His Prophets, made their way to the Mosque of the Footprints, and there they remained in
supplication and invocation until near midday. They then returned to the city and held the
Friday service, and God lightened their affliction; for the number of deaths in a single
day at Damascus did not attain two thousand, while in Cairo and Old Cairo it reached the
figure of twenty-four thousand a day.
Source: Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354 [full text at this site]
Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, trans. and ed. H. A. R. Gibb
(London: Broadway House, 1929) PDF of 1929 edition [Internet Archive]
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© Paul Halsall, January 2023
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