Sultan al‑Malik al‑Ashraf Barsb;i: 833 A.H. 69
In this month the plague occurred in the provinces
of al‑Buhaira and al‑Gharbiya;
for instance, more than 5,000 deaths were counted in al‑Mahalla. The plague had fallen also on
Thursday, I Jumada 1. A proclamation was made in
I Jumada 8. A letter came from Iskandar ibn Qars
Yusuf, ruler of
[1430 A.D.]
The plague then became severe in this month, and began to increase every
day; the report came that the number of deaths recorded at an-Nabririya in Northern Egypt up to Thursday was 9,000, aside
from the very many who were not known; also that the number in Alexandria every
day was about 100, and that the plague embraced most of the region of Northern
Egypt.
In
this month there were found in the Nile and in the lakes many fish and
crocodiles floating dead on the surface of the water, and there was caught a
large fish called buniya which looked as though it
was dyed with blood because of the intensity of the redness in it. Then in the
desert between
number of gazelles and
wolves. Report came then also that the
plague had appeared in the country of the Franks.
Feb. 23 Thursday, end of the month [29thl. The
number of the dead over whom prayers were recited in the oratories of
The plague spread among the people and increased to
the degree [of virulence] that * of 18 fishermen who were in one place 14 died
in one day; the remaining four went to carry them to the graves, and as they
were walking three died; so one went to attend to them all and bring them to
the graves and he died too. Al‑Maqrizi tells
this in his history.
Then he [al‑Maqrizi
says also: "Forty men rode in a ship and went from Old Cairo toward Upper
Egypt, and all died before they had reached al‑Maimun.
And a woman left Old Cairo riding an ass and in tending to go to
I note: What I myself saw in this plague was that many houses
were left vacant of their inhabitants despite the large number of them. A
single fief would pass in succession in a short time to three troopers, and
four, and five. Of the mamluks of my father (God have
mercy on him) there died in one day four prominent intimate mamluks,
namely, Uzdamur as‑Saqi,
Muluj the armsbearer, Baibars the khassaki, and Yusuf the lancer, all of whom died in one day; we were
perplexed as to which one we should lay out and bury first, because of the
difference in their dwellings and the scarcity of coffins and coffin‑stands;
and, by God! I witnessed the funeral only of Yusuf
the lancer, and sent another to the rest of them, though each of them was
worthy for the Sultan to come down to pray over him. On the next morning Sunqur, my father's second confidential secretary, died;
he was one of the older intimate mamluks of * the
government of al‑Mu'ayyad. This was besides the wardrobe
keepers among them and the emirs' Mamluks who died. As for the mamluks, slaves, slave girls, and servants who died in our
home, they cannot be numbered. There died also of my brothers and their
children seven souls, including males and females, the oldest of them being by
brother Isma`il, for he died at the age of about
twenty; he was one of the adornments of the age.
Al‑Maqrizi says: "Then the
number of dead increased still more, and on Monday, 11 Jumada 4 [3], the number
carried out of the gates of Cairo was counted and reached 1,200, aside from the
funerals from the Hakkura, the Husainiya,
Bulaq, Cross Street, Old Cairo, the two Qarafas, and the Desert Plain quarters of Cairo, numbering
more than that. At the same time there were registered in the bureau of
escheats in
most of those who carried their
dead on these coffins failed to register the names in the bureau."
He says also: "And in those days the price of shrouds rose,
as did the price of everything which the sick required, such as sugar, purslane seed, and pears, although but few of the sick were
treated with medicines; on the contrary, some died very quickly, in an hour or
less.
The severest plague was among the Sultan's mamluks,
those living in the Citadel barracks, those whose acts of depravity and
mischief
were many, their depredation and
harm severe; in the morning 450 of them might be sick and in the course of the
day more than 50 mamluks
would die." (End of al‑Maqrizi's account.)
I say: I myself saw that one of the important emirs of the first
class died and they could not get a coffin for him, until one was taken from
the pious foundation, When my brother (God have mercy on him) went to the mercy
of God the Exalted we found a bier for him, but there were no fittings in it, so
when my brother was placed upon it, a sable coat from his own clothes was
thrown over him; though the washer had taken from what he had worn clothes
worth 10,000 dirhams,
the proprietors of the
[funeral] office did not undertake to provide the covering of his bier.
The number of the dead for whom prayers were said in the oratory
at Succor Gate on Sunday, 11 Jumada 10 [9], was 505; a large number
with inkstands and pens had come
to stand there to record this. Prayer at
the oratory was omitted; people merely stood praying in one
row from the gate of the
oratory as far as Chamberlain's Gate, the prayers being recited for forty or
fifty simultaneously, all at one time. The child of an individual in our
service named Shams ad‑Din adh Dhahabi died, and we went out
with him to the oratory; the boy was ess than seven
years old, and when we set him down to pray over him among the dead, a large
number of others were brought, until their numbers went beyond counting. Then
prayer was said over them all, and we went to take up the dead boy but found
that someone else had taken him and left to us another one of about the same
age. His family took
him up but did not become aware of it; I, however, perceived this and told a
number of others; but we did not inform his parents of it and said: Perhaps the
one who took him will give him the best interment; there is no profit in
talking about it‑there would be only an increase in grief. But when the
boy had been buried and the proprietors of the funeral office took up the bier
they cried out and said, "This is not our bier; this is an old one and its
furnishings also are worn out." I advised them to be silent, and then one
of the mamluks threatened to beat them; then they
took it and went away. This occurrence was a strange and distressing one.
During all this
the plague was increasing and growing, so that everyone was sure he would
without doubt perish. We used to go home from the Friday prayer, a number of
friends and servants having stopped [with us?]; then we would take count of
ourselves for the next Friday and there would be missing of us * a large
number, some dead and some sick. Each one had resigned himself to death and was
waiting willingly for it, having made his will, repented, and being penitent.
Most of the young men each carried a string of prayer beads in his hand, and
had no other concern than to go to the prayers for the dead, perform the five
daily prayers, weep, direct his thoughts to God the Exalted, and show his
humility.
At our house a
slave girl died who was sick only from the morning of the day until she died,
before sunset; on the next morning the servants had not been able to secure a
bier for her; her master and a number of old women took charge of the washing
of her body and they shrouded her in her best clothes in the best manner
possible, although we could not find a bier for her. It was necessary for me
to go to prayers over Grand Emir Baibugha al‑Muzaffari and Shihab ad‑Din
Ahmad, son of Emir Timraz the viceroy. I stood at the
door as the dead girl was being carried out in the hands of some of the
servants, when there passed by the funeral of a woman. I took the coffin down
by force and placed the girl beside the dead woman, and the two were carried
off on the shoulders of the men; her mother and some of the servants went along
with her until they were near to the tombs, when they took her from the bier
and buried her.
In the month of
II Juma^da^ the number over whom prayers were said in
the oratory of Succor Gate alone in one day exceeded 800 dead. On the same day
the number carried out from the rest of
Al‑Maqr'iz'i says: "In this plague strange things happened. One was
that in the large * Qar;fa
and small Qara^fa there were about 3,000 Negroes,
including men and women, young and old, and they perished in the plague until
only a few were left; these then fled to the top of the mountain and spent the
whole night awake, sleepless for the excess of their grief at the loss of
their families. They spent the entirenext day on the
mountain; when the second night came 30 of them died; before they could begin
to bury them, 18 [more] had died."
He says
also: "It happened that a fief in the standing army was transferred in a
few days to nine individuals, each of them dying. Because of the great
preoccupation with the sick and dead there was no buying and selling in the
markets. People crowded one another in search of shrouds and biers, so that the
dead were carried on planks and crates and by hand. They were unable to bury
their dead and passed the night with them at the cemeteries, while the gravediggers
spent the whole night digging; they made large trenches, the dead in each one
reaching a large number. Dogs ate the extremities of them,
while the people searched eagerly all the night for washers,
porters, and shrouds. Biers were seen in the streets as though they were files
of camels, so many they were following one on the
steps of another." (End of al‑Maqrizis
words.)
Friday, 11 Jumada 15 [14].
The Sharif Shihab ad‑Din
Ahmad, confidential secretary in Egypt, by order of the Sultan assembled forty
other descendants of the Prophet, each of
them named Muhammad; he distributed among them 5,000 dirhams
of his money, and had them sit in the Azhar Mosque
where, after the Friday prayers, they
read as much as possible of the noble Koran. Then they and the men arose to
their feet and prayed to God; the Mosque * was covered with people who continued to call upon God until the time of
afternoon prayer came. The forty Sharifs then
ascended to the roof of the Mosque, all chanted the call to prayer, came down and prayed the
afternoon prayer with the people, then dispersed. This was done at the advice
of a Persian, who said that it was done in
the East in the time of a plague which occurred there and which disappeared thereafter.
In the morning of Saturday the plague began to
decrease gradually each day until it ended; but when on 11 Jumada 18 the sun
moved to Aries, spring began, and
the plague commenced to abate, from that date death, after it had occurred at
first among children, clients, strangers, and servants, spread among the prominent
and older men, those who were famous. It spread also in
1438 A.D.
Tuesday Ramadan 1 [Sha`ban
29]. The plague appeared in
Mar. 19 Wednesday, Ramadan 23 [221. The reading of al‑Bukhari was completed in the presence of the Sultan in the
Citadel of the Mountain, the chief Qadis,
scholars, and jurists having come there according to custom. At the same time
the Sultan was filled with fear of the plague and asked the lawyers present whether the sins which men commit are
punished by God with the plague. One in the assembly said that if fornication
spreads among men, the plague
appears among them; also if the women adorn themselves and walk in the streets
by night and by day in the markets. Another one recommended that it was advisable to prevent
the women from walking in the markets; but another disputed with him and said,
"Only the women who make a display of themselves
should be restrained; old women and those who have no one to support them
should not be forbidden to engage in their affairs." They argued
about this vehemently, until
the Sultan inclined to the absolute prohibition of their going out on the
streets, thinking that if he prevented them the plague would be raised. The Sultan then bestowed robes upon
those who customarily wore robes at the conclusion of reading al‑Bukhari, and then ordered them to assemble before him on the next day.
Mar. 20 So they assembled on
Thursday, and agreed upon the measure favored by the Sultan; a proclamation was
made in Cairo, Old Cairo, and their environs
forbidding absolutely all women to leave their homes; ordering that no woman
whatever should walk in any street or market; any woman who left her house was threatened with death and all kinds of maltreatment. So all women‑young
women, old women, slave women‑refrained
entirely from going out into the roads;
and the governor of Cairo and the chamberlains searched through the streets,
beat whatever women they found, and did their utmost with
blows and threats to
restrain them. So they all refrained from going out, and widows who were employed suffered severe hardship and want.
Mar. 22 Then * on Saturday, the
26th [25th], the Sultan liberated all prisoners, even the criminals, and the prisons in
closed up. Thieves and
malefactors spread throughout the city, and those who had claims against anyone
were prevented from demanding it of him. I say: In this move al‑Malik al‑Ashraf acted as is described in the words of someone:
He sought for gain, but suffered loss
despite his aim
‑from filial love disobedience
may come.
Mar. 23 Then
on the 27th [26th] the Sultan decided to appoint as market in spector a man of action; a number were suggested to him,
but he was not satisfied with them.
Then he said, "I have in mind one who is not a Mohammedan and does
not fear God." At his command there 1438 A.D. was brought to him Daulat Khuja al‑Zahiri, who had several times previously been removed as
governor of Cairo; he was invested with the office of market inspector of Cairo
in place of Cadi Salah ad‑Din
Muhammad ibn as‑Sahib Badr
ad‑Din ibn Nasr
Allah, the confidential secretary, because of his removal.
The Sultan's desire to
appoint this Daulat Khuja
was in connection with the matter of the women, because he knew his sternness,
lack of feeling, and tyranny, and when he invested him he urged him not to
permit women to go out into the streets. This
was after a large number of the government officials had spoken with the
Sultan on the subject of the hardship that had come upon the women because of
their failure to go out. Thereupon the Sultan ordered a proclamation to be made
to permit the female slaves to go out and buy necessities for their mistresses
in the markets; but that no one of them should veil her face, rather they
should have their faces unveiled; his purpose in this was that no woman should
disguise herself as one of the slave girls and go out thus to the markets. He
ordered also that old women might go out to attend to their business, and that
women might go to the baths, but not stay in them until night. Daulat Khuja was severe with the
women, and punished a large number of them, so that all ceased going out at
all.
When the month of Shawwal
began, a Thursday," people had suffered indescribable hardships and
distress on account of the increase of the plague; and many * of the wares
usually sold to women were unsold
because they ceased to walk in the streets, and also because they were afflicted
by the death of children and relatives; it came about that a woman would lose a
child and, because she was afraid to go out on the roads, would not be able to
see his grave, and her dearest relative would die without her having visited
him in his sickness. So they were very much distressed by this together with
the increase in the plague.
I say: All this was the result of the ineptitude of
the rulers and the bad judgment of those appointed to deal with dissolute
women; surely the virtuous woman is recognized even if she is in a tavern, and
a, harlot is recognized even if she is in the Sacred House; this is not hidden
from one of sound judgment, but this and similar matters are the result of the
appointment to office of those unfitted for it. The intelligent, discerning,
and sagacious ruler, if he performs some task, does it with diligence, follows
up the stream to its sources, and holds on to what he has in view until he has
finished it in the quickest time and in the easiest circumstances; that does
not make necessary any part of the trouble in which the people now are, the
loss of the good with the bad, the innocent with the guilty, and the
administration [Thursday
was Ramadan 30 (March 27) in the standard calendar. 1438 A.D.] among Mohammedans of one
like this ignoramus, who is of the class mentioned by one who said:
“And had thy Lord so
wished" he had distinguished them by threefold mark: by horns, and tails,
and cloven hoofs.”
And how
excellent are the words of Abu Tayyib al‑Mutanabbi' on this theme:
“In nobleness to give to
liberality the place of sword is harmful as to give to sword the place of
liberality.”
During all
this the Sultan had too little appetite to eat anything, his color was yellow,
and the evidences of sickness appeared on his face, but he forced himself to
endurance; as someone has said:
Endurance I display to those rejoicing at my
misery,
to show to them I
shall not bow to aught of time's adversities.
Then on this day the Sultan invested Emir Asanbugha at‑Tayyari as second
chamberlain in place of Emir Janibak as‑Saif4i Yalbugha an
Nas;irli
known as ath‑Thaur, because of his death in
*VI, 763 Then * on Tuesday, Shawwal 6 [5],
the Sultan invested Chief Qadi Shihab
ad‑Din Ahmad ibn Hajar
to return to the cadiship after the
removal of Chief Qadi 'Alam ad‑Din Salih. Ibn Hajar
had been obligated to compensate 'Alam ad‑Din Salih for what the latter had paid to the
Sultan's treasury; for it occurred to the Sultan that
after this he should not appoint any Qadi to office for money; this was because of the
apprehension which possessed
him in regard to the intensity of the plague, and also because of the
persistence of his own sickness. And on
this day the Sultan rode down from the
Citadel of the Mountain to the Za'faran Canal and
remained in his camp there that day for recreation. At
the end of the day he rode back to the
Citadel after distributing a large sum as alms to the poor. The poor swarmed
upon the agent of the distribution and pulled at him until they threw him from his horse. The Sultan
was angry at this and summoned the "sultan of the vagabonds" and shaikh of the organization of beggars, and obligated
them to prevent the professional beggars from begging in the streets, and to
make them find employment; that any of them who begged should be seized and sent out to work at digging. So they
gave up begging, the streets were cleared of them, and the only mendicants
left were the blind, crippled, and infirm.
I say: This was one of the
greatest reform measures and was regarded as due to al‑Malik al‑Ashraf's keen
regard for the condition of the public. For most of these beggars were strong and physically 1438
A.D. sound, having an occupation which they had left, becoming partners of the
infirm who have no means of livelihood except begging, in the absence of which
they would die of hunger.
Moreover, most of the
mendicants used to sit in the streets and ask for alms, mocking the people in
the name of the prophets and the righteous, complaining of the hardheartedness
of men, and saying, "I have been repeating for so and so long a time: 'For
the love of the Prophet of God give me this small amount,' and no one has given
me"; and while he said this there would pass by him a Jew and a Christian,
and they would listen to what he said of this import. This is one of the disgraceful things which
rulers dislike, and when they heard such words they would arrest the speaker,
give him a painful beating and imprison him, and [issue] a proclamation that
the poor when begging should not use oaths, and should be put under restraint
for doing so. None of them, however, paid attention to this, until this time
something of what they were doing became apparent to the Sultan and he
restrained them. How excellent this would have been had it persisted and
continued!
In the meanwhile the Sultan
was engaged in riding and diverting himself on account of his sickness, giving
no outward evidence of it; but when Wednesday, Shawwal 7 [6], came, he had a
relapse and took Apr. 2 to his bed.
During that time Daulat Khuja, the market
inspector of Cairo, was following up the women and putting them under restraint
by punishment and chastisement, until one day he seized a woman and was about to
beat her, when from fear she went out of her mind and was in a hopeless state;
she was carried home insane, and continued so for months. Another woman wished
to go out behind the coffin of her child, and when she was restrained from
doing so threw herself down from the top of the house
and died.
Friday,
Shawwal 9 [8]. A strange thing happened: The people had rumored that men were all to
die on Friday, and the resurrection would come. Most of the populace feared
this, and when the time for prayer arrived on this Friday, and the men went to
prayers, I, too, rode to the Azhar Mosque, as men
were crowding to the baths so that they might die in a state of complete
purity. I arrived at the Mosque and took a seat in it. The muezzins chanted the
call to prayer, then the preacher came out as usual, mounted the pulpit,
preached, and explained traditions to the people; when he had finished his
first address he sat down to rest before the second sermon. He sat a long time,
and people were worried, until he arose and began the second preaching, but
before he had finished his address he sat down a second time and leaned against
the side of the pulpit a long time, like one who had fainted. [1438 A.D.] As a
result the crowd, because of the previous report that men were all to die on
Friday, was agitated; they believed the rumor was confirmed, and that death had
made the preacher the first victim. While men were in this condition someone
called out, "The preacher is dead." The Mosque was thrown into
confusion, people cried out in fear, wept with one another, and went up to the
pulpit; there was much crowding against the preacher until he recovered, rose
to his feet, came down from the pulpit, and entered the prayer niche; he
recited the prayer inaudibly, and abbreviated it until he had completed two
bows. A number of biers then arrived,
and the men prayed over them, led by one of their number. Then while they were
praying for the dead the crowd cried out that the Friday service was not valid,
since the preacher had prayed after his ritual purity, secured through ablution, had been
interrupted when he fainted. Then one of the men came forward, stood up, and
recited the noon prayer, four bows.
After the one who recited the four‑bow prayer had finished, a
number of others stood up and at their order the muezzins chanted the call to
prayer in front of the pulpit; a man mounted the pulpit, recited two sermons
according to custom, and came down to lead in prayer; but they prevented him
from advancing to the niche, and brought the prayer leader of the regular five
daily prayers, took him forward, and he led them in the Friday service a second
time. But when he had finished leading the men in prayer others rose and cried
out that this second Friday service also was not valid, and they performed the
prayer service with another man leading them in the noon prayer of four bows.
So on this day in Azhar Mosque the address from the
pulpit was given twice and the noon prayer twice also. I arose immediately, and
behold! men were auguring the Sultan's end because of
the performance of two pulpit addresses in one place in one day.
With this the Sultan's
sickness was increasing and progressing; as often as he recovered slightly he
gave robes to the physicians and the good news was announced by the playing of
the bands; but from the second ten days of Shawwal he was unable to stand. During this time there had been many deaths
among the Sultan's mamluks and then in the Sultan's
household; a number of the Sultan's children, womenfolk, and slave girls had
died.
Apr.
14 Monday, the 19th [18th]. The pilgrims left with the
emir of the pilgrimage, Aqbugha min Mamish an‑Nasiri known as
at‑Turkuman, and encamped at Pilgrims'