the black death in early ottoman territories - Bilkent University

devastating plague outbreak in the Balkans, was discussed in detail by Lowry 119 .
The rather sardonic tone with which Doukas describes this episode can be read as
an expression of the animosity he felt for the Ottoman ruler.
We see that the Byzantine and post-Byzantine sources register plague
outbreaks more often than their Ottoman counterparts. For this, several reasons can
be mentioned. Letters, which are lacking for the Ottoman review, form an
important part of the text material. By their very nature, they reveal events that
have a direct impact on the writer's life and the devastation caused by plague
figures prominently in it. The Byzantine chroniclers, too, had a good reason not to
downplay plague, for it offered an explanation for Byzantine failure against their
enemy. 120 In contrast, the Byzantine church showed an almost total lack of interest
in the disease, if the regestes are a guideline 121 . A prayer for the deliverance from
the Barbarian invasions, the civil war, famine and plague is the only trace the
outbreaks left, mentioning the disease as the last of a depressing list of
problems. 122 Unlike the Venetians, the Byzantine writers were no Ottoman
watchers. 123 Although they had ample opportunity to observe them, they either
were indifferent to the condition of their adversaries/allies seemed to have escaped
them, or they did not care to record it.
119
Lowry, Pushing a Stone Uphill, 103-104. See also Chapter IV of this thesis, the discussion on
flight.
120
Caroline Finkel makes a similar observation for the description of earthquakes by the
Byzantines and the Ottomans. Caroline Finkel, Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire
1300-1923. London: John Murray, 2005, 16.
121
The enactments of the Patriarchate of Constantinople for the period 1310-1453 do not mention
the outbreak even once - not even indirectly, as a cause of personnel or materials shortage.
J. Darrouzès. 1979. Les regestes des actes du Patriarcat de Constantinople. Vol. I. Fasc. V, VI,
VII.
122
Les regestes des actes du Patriarcat de Constantinople. page 19.
123
Kritoboulos, although Greek, in fact became a loyal Ottoman subject himself in joining the
services of Mehmed II.
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