the black death in early ottoman territories - Bilkent University

eing the Turkish for swelling or tumour 155 . Veba being the general term for
epidemic disease, the Turkish language used the specifying adjective hyarcıklı
veba in the case of plague. 156 Locally, different terms were in use. In Sivas, the
disease was called baba, which also meant tumour. 157
The most distinctive feature of the disease, the buboes or large swellings of
the infected lymph nodes, were given various names. In Arabic, they were also
often called khiyarah, meaning cucumber. 158 . As cited above, yumru was a
Turkish name for swelling, but the buboes were also called çıban, meaning boil, in
Turkish manuscripts. The term yumurcak was for instance used by Celâlüddin
Hızır, also known as Hacı Paşı in his medical work Müntahab-ı Şifâ, which dates
from the late fourteenth, early fifteenth century. In addition, he also described the
buboes as verem or swelling or simply as tâ'ûn. 159
155 Yeni Tarama Sözlüğü. edited by Cem Bilçin. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları, 1983.
156 Ünver, "Türkiye'de Veba (Taun) Tarihçesi Üzerine", 72.
157 Ünver, "Türkiye'de Veba (Taun) Tarihçesi Üzerine", 72.
158 Dols, Plague in the Middle East, 75.
159 Hacı Paşa, Celâlüddin Hızır. Müntahâb-ı Şifâ. edited by Zafer Önler. Türk Dil Kurumu
Yayınları: 559. Ankara: Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu, 1990, 173.
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