the black death in early ottoman territories - Bilkent University

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Recent years have seen a marked increase of interest in the Black Death, the medieval bubonic plague pandemic that arrived in Europe in 1347. Some explanation of this revival can be traced to the 9/11 attacks, which were followed by an anthrax scare and the subsequent avian influenza pandemic, both of which intensified academic interest in lethal epidemics. Both historians and scientists have produced a number of monographs and articles ranging from the academic to the spectacularly popular 1 . In the wake of this activity, some Ottoman scholars have signalled 2 the lack of studies dealing with the Black Death in the early Ottoman period. Indeed, apart from the efforts of Lowry and Schamiloğlu 3 no recent publication was exclusively devoted to plague in early Ottoman history. Both authors claim the paucity of sources to be an obstacle to the study of the disease in that period 4 . Though the absence of any systematic approach of the 1 See Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan in the Return of the Black Death - The World's Greatest Serial Killer West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2004, passim. 2 For example, see Heath Lowry, " Pushing the Stone Uphill: The Impact of Bubonic Plague on Ottoman Urban Society in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries," Osmanlı Araştırmaları XXIII (2003): 93-132. 3 Schamiloğlu, Uli "The Rise of the Ottoman Empire: The Black Death in Medieval Anatolia and its Impact on Turkish Civilization." In Neguin Yavari, Lawrence G. Potter and Jean-Marc Van Oppenheim, eds., Views from the Edge: Essays in Honor of Richard W. Bulliet. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. 4 Indeed, Schamiloğlu goes as far as to claim that "The Black Death is not mentioned in the Ottoman sources." This remark stands in odd contrast to the complaint of Babinger in Die Aufzeichnungen des Genuesen Iacopo de Promontorio - de Campis über den Osmanenstaat um 1475. Sitzungsberichte no. 8. München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1957, 5, that except for praise of the ruling dynasty and the brief mentioning of natural disasters such as plague and earthquakes, the early Ottoman chronicles offer no information on Ottoman society. 1
subject is evident, plague has been mentioned in a number of publications as a causative agent in the historical process. However, any assertions concerning the impact of plague epidemics on Ottoman history are hampered by the fact that no studies are available that try to elucidate the patterns of frequency of outbreaks and their exact localisation. In view of this apparent void, it is the aim of this thesis to bring together a number of data that illustrate the impact of the disease on the early Ottoman society from the first Black Death outbreak to the first half of the 16th century. The relative abundance of sources for the latter half of the 16th and for the 17th century and the territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire in that period would have widened the scope of this inquiry too much, and made the amount of material too unwieldy to process within the framework of a master's thesis. The Black Death was not the first pandemic to reach the region under investigation. The Justinian plague pandemic had preceded it, shaping attitudes towards it and providing local populations with some knowledge of the disease. In order to appraise this influence and to understand the interplay of human behavior and the promulgation of the disease, the first chapter and introductory section of this thesis deals with the biological fundamentals of the disease as well as with its place in general human history. The next section then focuses on the Black Death and the Ottomans specifically. Chapter two gives an overview of the historiography of the subject, as well as methodological considerations of the sources. Chapter three analyses the way the epidemic arrived and spread in the Ottoman territory and the occurrence of subsequent outbreaks with a chronology of plague outbreaks in Ottoman territory for the period under consideration. 2
Page 1 and 2: THE BLACK DEATH IN EARLY OTTOMAN TE
Page 3 and 4: ÖZET KARA ÖLÜM VE ERKEN OSMANLIL
Page 5: TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........
Page 9 and 10: also consulted. In view of this cla
Page 11 and 12: CHAPTER II A BIOLOGICAL AND HISTORI
Page 13 and 14: continents. 15 However, because of
Page 15 and 16: not. 22 Wendy Orent postulates that
Page 17 and 18: the disease. 31 During this outbrea
Page 19 and 20: common during winter, whereas the b
Page 21 and 22: CHAPTER III HISTORICAL SOURCES AND
Page 23 and 24: which will be critically examined i
Page 25 and 26: contested by Zeynep Korkmaz on the
Page 27 and 28: Ahmedi's Gazavâtname. 64 He lived
Page 29 and 30: The tarih was written as a way to p
Page 31 and 32: 'Hakk-teâlâ gayûr bir pâdişâh
Page 33 and 34: Ottoman ruler and his conquests, bu
Page 35 and 36: and 1460. 106 However, of these, al
Page 37 and 38: He was captured after Constantinopl
Page 39 and 40: Latin sources The first category of
Page 41 and 42: elatives and friends ensured him of
Page 43 and 44: period of one or more seasons, name
Page 45 and 46: Bir hastalık ki halk arasında sar
Page 47 and 48: CHAPTER IV THE OUTBREAK AND THE DIF
Page 49 and 50: that had happened in these lands, s
Page 51 and 52: "What can we not all say about flie
Page 53 and 54: of Pera in 1453, was to become of g
Page 55 and 56: as Karesi, Saruhan, Aydın, Menteş
Page 57 and 58:
A possible explanation is that no w
Page 59 and 60:
Crete. 209 That the Brachea Chronik
Page 61 and 62:
Yusuf's insistence to become a Chri
Page 63 and 64:
earthquake that destroyed much of I
Page 65 and 66:
of two carboni and a jandusa al sca
Page 67 and 68:
CHAPTER V THE RESPONSE TO PLAGUE 5.
Page 69 and 70:
Cydones obviously did not appreciat
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mention that "... Bursa şehrinde b
Page 73 and 74:
Ve dahi ol yılda Bursa'da tâ'un-
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travels also allowed him to become
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plague on several other occasions,
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epidemics, or was at the very least
Page 81 and 82:
5.2. Religious response In times of
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in Europe as a response to the epid
Page 85 and 86:
the Orthodox believers and many of
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Hak te'âlâ'nun fazlı yitişüp k
Page 89 and 90:
were implemented at one time or ano
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Islamic religious terms, a more pro
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in heaven's name not to touch the c
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"Ve dahi ol yılda Bursa'da tâ'un-
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quite a few of its regular visitors
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notables of Cairo transferred. Whil
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his people and the Genoese for thei
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death toll to 160 000 or about 1300
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suffered great losses through famin
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In the above example, the Venetians
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while later his brother. They were
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prices did occur four years before
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asis or had indeed any policy at al
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Bertrandon de la Brocquière fulfil
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as to whether the Ottomans systemat
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present as well in the period under
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surprising as both European and Ott
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Primary Sources unpublished Ottoman
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-----.Les Regestes des Actes du Pat
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Tafur, Pero. 1926. Pero Tafur: Trav
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Research Centre for Islamic History
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Columbia University Press, 2004. Sc
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APPENDIX I ENTRIES FROM THE DIARY O
Page 135 and 136:
Da Sybinicho, fo leto una lettera,
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morto do fioli da peste, pur Idio l
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61. vol. 28, col. 232 Da Constantin
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incolorò, dove la saltò la peste,
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E venuto nova il magnifico Perì Ba
Page 145 and 146:
Idem, by two slaves who escaped fro
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MDX, APRILE (April 1510) 27. vol. 1
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There is an enormous plague outbrea
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... that there, in Constantinople,
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Paragraph over the statement (made)
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a carbuncle, which is a sort of gia
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From Constantinople, from sir Piero
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