Misinformation surrounding COVID-19 is still a major problem more than five years after its emergence. Unfortunately, time doesn’t always offer clarity. Even after hundreds of years, our understanding of the Black Death (Yersinia pestis) remains clouded by false narratives.
In a study recently published in the Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, historians at the UK’s University of Exeter argue the infamous plague likely didn’t move across the continent as quickly as many experts thought. The reason for the common misconception? A 14th century literary tale recounting the dangerous exploits of a fictional, traveling trickster.
Tricked by a poet
The bubonic plague is largely remembered for the devastation it brought to Europe, but its origins remain steeped in inaccuracies. For decades, most experts believed the plague arose in China before sweeping westward in a matter of years via the Silk Road. While recent palaeogenetic reexaminations have shifted its nexus closer to central Asia, many researchers still contend it took barely a decade for the Black Death to travel as far west as the Black Sea by the 1340s. This “Quick Transit Theory” has remained one of the most popular hypotheses explaining the plague’s advancement.
The theory’s primary evidence isn’t based on genetic records. Instead, it stems from Risālat al-nabaʾ ʿan al-wabāʾ (“An Essay on the Report of the Pestilence”), a story penned by poet and historian Ibn al-Wardi in Aleppo, Syria, around 1348 CE. It’s arguably the most famous example of a maqāma, an Arabic narrative genre focusing on the misdeeds of a roving trickster character. The maqāma originated in the late 10th century, but began flourishing as a genre about two centuries later. By the 14th century, literate mamluk warriors were especially drawn to the tales, which are written to be read aloud in a single session.
Ibn al-Wardi’s maqāma focuses on an itinerant meddler’s 15-year journey that begins in an unspecified region outside China. From there, he moves into China before leaving a trail of havoc across India, central Asia, Persia, and ultimately the Black Sea and Mediterranean.
By the 15th century, Arabic and later European historians interpreted Ibn al-Wardi’s story as a fact-based parable, with al-Wardi’s trickster serving as an embodiment of the Black Death itself. The misunderstanding has skewed the plague’s true history ever since, explains the new study’s co-authors.
“All roads to the factually incorrect description of the spread of the plague lead back to this one text. It’s like it is in the center of a spider’s web of the myths about how the Black Death moved across the region,” University of Exeter historian Nahyan Fancy explained in a statement.
Fancy added that the entire accepted narrative has stemmed from this single maqāma, which remains unsubstantiated by any other contemporary accounts and even other maqāmas.
“The text was written just to highlight the fact the plague traveled and tricked people. It should not be taken literally,” said Fancy.
The maqāma remains relevant
This revision isn’t meant to diminish the maqāma’s significance or artistry. If anything, it allows us to read and examine it in its proper contexts.
“These maqāmas may not give us accurate information about how the Black Death spread. But the texts are phenomenal because they help us see how people at the time were living with this awful crisis,” said Fancy.
At the same time, Fancy says other historians can now look towards other major regional plague outbreaks, like the one in Damascus, Syria, in 1258 CE and China’s 1232-1233 outbreak in Kaifeng. Meanwhile, the need to express oneself creatively amid times of crisis remains universal.
“These writings can help us understand how creativity may have been a way to exercise some control and served as a coping mechanism at this time of widespread death, similar to the way people developed new culinary skills or artistic skills during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Fancy said.
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