the black death in early ottoman territories - Bilkent University

and it is suspected that the disease lingered on in local pockets of infection. The
periodicity of the outbreaks, a phenomenon that was also observed in the aftermath
of the Justinian plague, might have corresponded to the presence of a new
generation that had not acquired immunity during a previous outbreak 36 .
In less than two years, the Black Death spread quickly over large territories
of Asia Minor, Europe and the Middle East. According to Biraben, both maritime
and land transport made it possible for the disease to progress. Through maritime
shipping it quickly covered large distances, which is why the Black Death always
spread from the coast towards the interior country. Moreover, the disease moved
swifter when the season was favorable and when traveling along the major routes
or downstream. The research of Biraben also demonstrates that until the year
1670, plague would be present each year in Europe. Sometimes it would cover vast
stretches of land, other years it would erupt in only a few locations. From the year
1640 onwards, however, a steady regression could be observed and in 1720,
Marseille would be starting-point for the last wide-spread epidemic that lasted
until 1722. After that date, only very sporadically would outbreaks be signalled in
the vicinity of some ports that had been contamined by shipping from the Middle
East.
As remarked above, plague had been described by the classical physicians,
such as Galen and Hippocrates. To these, contemporary physicians added their
own observations of the pandemic. As Hirst 37 observes, it seems that in the early
period of the Black Death pandemic cases of pneumonic plague were most
36 That children were especially vulnerable to plague was well-known to the Ottomans. As late as
the 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote in a letter from Pera that "When I have asked
them (that is, Ottoman women) how they expected to provide for such a flock as they desire, they
answer that the plague will certainly kill half of them, which, indeed, generally happens..." in Lady
Mary Wortley Montagu, Turkish Embassy Letters. Malcolm Jack, ed. Athens (US): The University
of Georgia Press, 1993, 107.
37 Hirst, The Conquest of Plague, 35.
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