Loyal servants of the realm or swarms of locusts? Mobilisations of military and civil labour for the empires of western Afroeurasia in the aftermath of the First Plague Pandemic, 8th to 9th centuries CE Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture Series Monday, 06.03.2023 Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Institute for Medieval Research/Department of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences Outline • Introduction: the First Plague Pandemic of the 6th8th centuries CE • The end of the First Plague Pandemic in the Byzantine Empire and imperial demographic and economic politics of the second half of the 8th century • The end of the First Plague Pandemic in the Caliphate, the Abbasid revolution and the emergence of new imperial centres • An overview back in time from the Zanj rebellion (869-883 CE): a century of mobilisation of unfree civil and military labour under the early Abbasids and the emergence of a new disease ecology across Western Afro-Eurasia 2 Epidemics and pandemics (in Western Afro-Eurasia) over the last 4000 years and more Spyrou, M.A., Bos, K.I., Herbig, A. et al. Ancient pathogen genomics as an emerging tool for infectious disease research. Nat Rev Genet 20, 323–340 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-019-0119-1 3 The "Justinianic Plague" in the Mediterranean from 541/542 CE onwards 4 The paleogenetic identification of the pathogen (Yersinia pestis) 2019 122 individuals from 20 locations, 35 PCR positives from 8 locations, 5 false positives Z. Zhou et al., The EnteroBase User’s Guide, with Case Studies on Salmonella Transmissions, Yersinia pestis Phylogeny, and Escherichia Core Genomic 5 Diversity, in: Genome Research 30 (2020), 138-152. A hotspot of different variants of Yersinia pestis in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau 6 The debate on the origins and diffusion of the pathogen of the First Plague Pandemic ? From: M. Keller et al., Ancient Yersinia pestis genomes provide no evidence for the origins or spread of the 7 Justinianic Plague. bioRxiv preprint first posted online Oct. 31, 2019; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/819698 The complex ecology of Yersinia pestis Susan D. Jones et al., Living with plague: Lessons from the Soviet Union’s antiplague system, 8 https://www.pnas.org/content/116/19/9155 (2019) Climatic fluctuations and plague in Central Asia Kausrud et al.: Modeling the epidemiological history of plague in Central Asia: Palaeoclimatic forcing on a disease system over the past millennium. BMC Biology 2010 8:112. 9 The Dust Veil of 536 CE and the beginning of the "Late Antique Little Ice Age" “And this year there was a terrible omen. Because without rays, like the moon, the sun lost its shine all year round. It looked like it had mostly disappeared as its sparkle was not pure and as usual. Since this happened, neither war nor plague nor anything else that brings death left people." Procopius, Vandal wars 2, 14, 5-6 10 Climatic fluctuations and further outbreaks of the plague, 6th-8th centuries J. Luterbacher et al., Past pandemics and climate variability across the Mediterranean, Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration 5:46 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1007/s41207-020-00197-5 11 Climate and epidemic disease in the work of Gūrgis bar Gaḇriēl (died ca. 770) in Gondēšāpūr and Baghdad, transmitted in the work of ar-Rāzī (865-925) ‘If in December and January the east wind blows for several days; (if) the atmosphere is hazy; and (if) each time you think it is going to rain something like dust scatters from the sky— then, in (this) winter, the composition of the air is corrupted. If there is little rain and a bitter cold in spring; (if) the south wind blows for a few days and afterwards the atmosphere clears for about ten days; (if) it is bitterly cold at night and hot during the day; and (if) the air is misty and muggy—then putridities and smallpox [ǧadarī] spread. If it rains a lot in summer; (if) the atmosphere is hazy; (if) the trees are dustcovered; (if) it is not as hot as usual; and (if) in the middle of autumn you see fires in the sky from the west—then these are the signs of a massive plague [wabāʾ]. If the weather changes several times a day from hot to cold; (if) the sun rises clear on one day with the wind blowing from the north and it is cold and hazy, and on the next day (it rises) with the wind blowing from the south and it is hot—then these are the signs of a plague. (If any of this happens) one should avoid overeating, (too) much wine, a lot of exertion, and sex. He (whose natural disposition) is moist should be bled and purged, made to sweat in the bathhouse, smell that which is fragrant, and drink spiced wine; he who has a fever should be given julep and barley gruel, and drink Armenian bole/clay [ṭīn armanī; bolus armenicus]’. (transl. Oliver Kahl, The Sanskrit, Syriac and Persian Sources in the Comprehensive Book of Rhazes. Leiden/Boston 2015, 200-201) 12 The Debate on the demographic effects of the Justinianic Plague 2017 PNAS, 2019 13 The Black Death after 1346 and its return (The Second Plague Pandemic) until the 18th/19th centuries Aus: Benedictow, 2004 14 Keller et al. PNAS 2019, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1820447116 The „end“ of the First Plague Pandemic in the 740s and the slow transition from the „Late Antique Little Ice Age“ towards the „Medieval Climate Anomaly“ 15 The description of extreme events and narrative strategies – not just “data” • The evils that befell the Christians at the time of the impious Leo [III] both as regards the orthodox faith and civil administration, the latter in Sicily, Calabria, and Crete for reasons of dishonest gain and avarice; furthermore, the secession of Italy because of his evil doctrine, the earthquakes, famines, pestilences, and foreign insurrections (not to mention all the details) have been related in the preceding chapters. It is now proper to review in succession the lawless deeds, yea, even more sacrilegious and abhorred by God, of his most impious and altogether wretched son [Constantine V], yet to do so objectively (inasmuch as all-seeing God is observing us) for the benefit of posterity and of those wretched and wicked men who still follow the abominable heresy of that criminal, namely by recounting his impious actions from the 10th indiction, the first year of his reign, until the 14th indiction, the year of his damnation. Now this pernicious, crazed, bloodthirsty, and most savage beast, who seized power by illegal usurpation, from the very start parted company from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, His pure and all-holy Mother and all the saints. (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6232 [= 739/740 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 573, with modifications) • Zūqnīn Chronicle (775 CE) on the year 743-744 CE: All of these (prophecies) were fulfilled at this time: severe tremors, powerful earthquakes, together with armies, wars, quarrels of the Arabs among themselves on account of leadership, famine that afflicted people such a manner that all the southern and eastern peoples moved from their lands and settled in the North and in the West, and civil war along with all other evils: / shall send after them the sword, despoliation, famine and pestilence, says the prophet. All of these things happened in our days without any omission. (Harrak 169-170) 16 The „last“ outbreak of the plague in Constantinople, 747-748 ln the same year a pestilence (loimodes thanatos) that had started in Sicily and Calabria travelled like a spreading fire all through the 14th indiction to Monembasia, Hellas, and the adjoining islands, thus scourging in advance the impious Constantine and restraining his fury against the Church and the holy icons, even though he remained unrepentant like Pharaoh of old. This disease of the bubonic plague (loimike nosos tou boubonos) spread to the Imperial City in the 15th indiction. (…) In the spring of the 1st indiction [747/748 CE] the plague intensified and in the summer it flared up all at once so that entire households were completely shut up and there was no one to bury the dead. Because of extreme necessity a way was devised of placing planks upon animals saddled with four paniers each and so removing the dead or piling them likewise one upon the other in carts. When all the urban and suburban cemeteries had been filled as well as empty cisterns and ditches, and many vineyards had been dug up and even the orchards within the old walls to make room for the burial of human bodies, only then was the need satisfied. When every household had been destroyed by this calamity on account of the impious removal of the holy icons by the rulers (…). (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6238 [= 745/746 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 585-586) Sicily 17 Leaving and repopulating Constantinople [A great plague] fell upon the capital and the lands surrounding her, and wherever this death-bringing disease prevailed it consumed and entirely annihilated all humankind. Only those who fled as far away as possible from those regions were to be saved, surely by God's will [including Emperor Constantine V, who fled to Nicomedia; Nikephoros, Antirrh. 496 B]. The pestilence was particularly intense in Byzantium [Constantinople]. (…) The effects of the plague lasted for a year, after which time it disappeared for the most part and, as in the beginning it had increased, so now it slowly abated. Those who were able to think aright judged that these (misfortunes) were inflicted by God’s wrath inasmuch as the godless and impious ruler at that time and those who concurred with his lawless purpose dared to lay their hands on the holy images to the disgrace of Church of Christ. Since the City [Constantinople] thus had become almost unpopulated, [Emperor Constantine V] populated it by transferring to it a multitude of people from the lands and the islands subject to the power of the Rhomaioi. (Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History, transl. Mango 139-141, with modifications) Imperial palaces in the wider environs of Constantinople, 4th-13th centuries (J. PreiserKapeller, 2021) 18 The demography of early 8th cent. Constantinople beyond the plague: the preparations for the Arab siege in 713/714 • When this man had gone and come back, he reported to the emperor [Anastasios II. Artemios, 713-715] their great [Arab] armament of land and sea forces. (Then the emperor commanded) that each man should store provisions for himself up to a period of three years, and anyone not having the means to do so should leave the City [of Constantinople]. He appointed overseers and started building dromones, (firecarrying) biremes (and great triremes). He restored the sea walls and likewise the land walls, and set up on the towers catapults for darts and stones and other engines. Having fortified the City as much as he was able, he stored a great quantity of produce in the imperial depots and so made himself safe. (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6206 [= 713/714 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 534) • When this man had returned, he announced that the foreigners were about to launch a major attack on the Roman State with both horse and sea-borne armies. On hearing this, (the emperor commanded that) each inhabitant of the City [of Constantinople] could remain if he had provision for a period of three years, but anyone who was not so provided should depart wherever he wished. He restored carefully the walls of the City and refurbished the military engines. He also stored a great quantity of provision in the City and fortified it by such other means as befitted a hostile attack. (Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History ch. 49, transl. Mango 117) 19 The demography of early 8th cent. Constantinople beyond the plague: the siege of Constantine V against Artabasdos, 742/743 • There was a severe famine in the City, so much so that a modius of barley sold for 12 nomismata, a modius of pulse for 19, one of millet or lupins for 8, oil at 5 measures to a nomisma, and a pint of wine for a semissis. As the people were dying, Artabasdos was forced to let them leave the City, but he took note of their faces and some he prevented from leaving. For this reason, some painted their faces and put on female dress, while others donned monastic costume and garments of hair and in this guise, they were able to escape detection and leave. (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6235 [= 742/743 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 580-581) • At this juncture Constantine gained the upper hand, crossed over to Thrace, and laid siege to the City walls [of Constantinople], while preventing the introduction of necessary supplies. For this reason, the City was reduced to great distress and a severe famine racked the inhabitants of Byzantium, so that many of them died, while others were forced to throw themselves over the walls. Some, indeed, bribed the guards of the gates (to be allowed) to leave the City in secret. Constantine received them all with favor and treated them very well. (Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History ch. 66, transl. Mango 137) 20 Repopulating Constantinople and its hinterland after the plague: prisoners of war, deportees and refugees from beyond the Arab frontier and resettlers from the Southern Aegean The emperor Constantine transferred to Thrace the Syrians and Armenians whom he had brought from Theodosioupolis and Melitene and, through them, the heresy of the Paulicians spread about. Likewise in the City [of Constantinople], whose inhabitants had been reduced on account of the plague, he brought families from the islands, Hellas, and the southern parts [ton katotikon meron] and made them dwell in the City so as to increase the population. (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6247 [= 754/755 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 593-594) Armenians Syrians 21 Armenian refugees migrating to the Roman Empire in a late 8th century Armenian source, 750-788 CE (...) the king of the Greeks [Constantine V] moved from his imperial portals with a massive multitude of followers and arrived at the city called Theodosioupolis in the region of Karin. (...) Furthermore, he took the city troops and the local Saracens, along with their families, to the land of the Greeks. Many of the inhabitants of the same districts asked the king to allow them to follow him, in order to be relieved of the heavy yoke of servitude to the Arabs. Having secured permission from (Emperor Constantine V), the inhabitants of the Armenian districts prepared themselves, packed their belongings and moved, placing their trust in the power of the dominical cross and in the glory of the King. They separated themselves (from the rest), left their homeland, and went to the country of the pious king. Łewond c. 29, ed. Ezean, p. 129, transl. Arzoumanian, pp. 123–124 (on the Roman campaign to Theodosioupolis, 750 CE) Ašot Bagratuni told them: “(...) Even the Roman Empire was unable to raise its hand against this dragon (= the Arabs), and it still continues to tremble before it and has not dared to act against the dominical command. (...) you will be forced to flee from your land with your entire households (...) and live under the foreign yoke of the king of the Greeks. Łewond c. 34, ed. Ezean, pp. 142–143, transl. Arzoumanian, p. 132 (before an Armenian uprising against the Arabs in 774/775 CE) Left without property and food, naked and barefoot, (the inhabitants of Armenia) were exposed to the horrors of famine. They left their country and fled to the Greek territory to seek refuge. The mass of the population, over twelve thousand men, women, and children, as we were told, migrated from their land under the leadership of Šapuh from the house of Amatunik‛, Hamam his son, and other Armenian nobles with their cavalry. (...) As they crossed the river [Akampsis], the Greek Emperor Constantine [VI] was immediately notified. He called them unto him and gave the nobles and their cavalry high honours. (The Emperor) accommodated the bulk of the non-noble people on good fertile lands. Łewond c. 42, ed. Ezean, pp. 168–169, transl. Arzoumanian, p. 149 (on an emigration to Roman lands in 22 788 CE) Practicalities and impacts of the transfer of population within the Byzantine empire (Theophanes on the measures of Emperor Nikephoros I, 809/810 CE) In this year, after [having inflicted] the ungodly punishments with the intention of impoverishing the troops [strateumata] in every way, Nikephoros displaced Christian people from all the themata and commanded that they be transferred to the Sklaviniai, as well as their property be sold. This action was no less grievous than captivity: many [of them] out of insanity engaged in blasphemies against God and implored to be attacked by the enemy, while others lamented at the tombs of their ancestors and extolled the bliss of the dead; there were also those who killed themselves by hanging in order to be spared from these tribulations. At the same time, since their possessions were too heavy to move [dyskineta], they were unable to carry them along and witnessed the loss of property acquired by the hard work of their parents. And everyone was in complete perplexity: the needy due to the afore-mentioned circumstances and those that will be told in the following, and the wealthier because they felt sympathy for them [i.e. the needy] and as they were not able to help, they anxiously expected even graver calamities. These [measures] began in the month of September and were completed by holy Easter. (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6302 [= 809/810 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 667-668, with modifications) 23 Archives of nature: dry conditions in the 8th century Carbon isotope data record Sofular cave (Turkey), 600-1100 CE more humid conditions more arid conditions 24 Maps from Xoplaki et al., 2021, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81103-7_18 Drought (and increased demand?), the repair of the Valens aqueduct in Constantinople and the mobilisation of expert workforce (6,900) across the empire, 766-767 On 16 November of the same 5th indiction [766 CE] the eunuch Niketas, a Slav, was unlawfully ordained by the emperor's decree patriarch of Constantinople. There ensued a drought, such that even dew did not fall from heaven and water entirely disappeared from the City. Cisterns and baths were put out of commission; even those springs that in former times had gushed continuously now failed. On seeing this, the emperor set about restoring Valentinian's aqueduct, which had functioned until Herakleios and had been destroyed by the Avars [in 626 CE]. He collected artisans from different places and brought from Asia and Pontos 1,000 masons and 200 plasterers, from Hellas and the islands 500 clay-workers, and from Thrace itself 5,000 labourers and 200 brickmakers. He set taskmasters over them including one of the patricians. When the work had thus been completed, water flowed into the City. (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6258 [= 765/766 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 600-601) 25 The ransom of 2,500 Roman captives from the Sklaviniai, 768/769 As for Constantine, he sent emissaries to the chieftains of the Sklaviniai and ransomed in exchange for silken vestments the Christian captives they had taken a long time previously on the islands of Imbros, Tenedos and Samothrace, to the number of 2,500. After bringing them in his presence and giving them some small rewards, he let each man go wherever he wished. (Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History ch. 88, transl. Mango 163) Sklaviniai Byzantine silk 26 Ransom and labour in the Ekloga (741 CE) • 8.2. Anyone who ransoms a free man captured in war from the enemy, and brings them into their own house, then if [the ransomed] man has the means to pay the price agreed between them, he shall be released as a free man. But if he does not have the means, the ransomer shall keep him as a hired labourer until he has paid what was agreed, with a clearly determined amount owed each year instead of wages to the ransomed to be calculated by the adjudicating magistrates. • Cf. Codex Iustinianus 8.50.2, 20 (transl. Humphreys 2017) 27 The small body of evidence for slave trade in the 8th/early 9th century • (…) those who had bought household slaves (somata oiketika) outside [the custom station of] Abydos and especially in the Dodecanese should pay an impost of 2 nomismata per head. (Theophanes, Chronographia A. M. 6302 [809/810 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 668, on the measures of Emperor Nikephoros I) 28 Lenski 2021 Slavery in the Ekloga, 741 CE (Humphreys 2017) • Title 8: Concerning freedom and slavery • 8.1.1. Freedom is granted to a slave when publicly announced by his master, either in a church or before five friends summoned for that purpose, or if five cannot be found then before at least three, who must register and record their knowledge [of the emancipation] in a public record; or through a letter of the master signed by five or three witnesses, as said above; or freedom can be given to the slave in a written will. • 8.1.2. And also when the slave, by the will of the deceased or the agreement of the heir, wears the cap of liberty on his head when following the funeral procession. • 8.1.3. Also if a master marries his slave to a free person. • 8.1.4. And finally, if the master of a slave, or his mistress, or their children with the knowledge and permission of the parents, should sponsor the slave in holy and salvation-giving baptism, or if the slave with the knowledge and will of his master becomes a cleric or a monk. • 8.1.5. The aforementioned persons shall be given their freedom by their masters immediately or upon condition. 29 Slavery in the Farmer´s Law (Nomos georgikos, mid-8th cent. ?): a small number of individuals engaged in animal husbandry • 45. If a slave slaughters an ox [or a donkey] or a ram or a swine [a pig: a ram] in the forest, his [the slave's] owner shall replace it. • 46. If a slave drives the herd animals out of the fold with the intention of stealing them at night and they are lost or eaten by wild beasts, he shall be executed like a murderer on the phourka. • 47. If one's slave often steals livestock at night, and often drives away the herd, his owner, knowing that the slave is guilty, should make good the losses; but he is to be put to death on the phourka. • 71. If someone gives herd animals to a slave to graze without the owner's knowledge, and the slave then sells them or otherwise renders them unusable, the slave and his owner are free from any obligation to indemnify. • 72. If a slave, with the knowledge of his owner, takes possession of any kind of herd animal and eats it or otherwise renders it untraceable, the owner of the slave shall pay damages to the owner of the herd animal. 30 A rich landowner and his slaves in the late 8th cent. CE: the Vita of Philaretos (822 CE) In the land of the Paphlagonians there was a man called Philareots and this man was the most noble of the men in Pontos and the Galatian region, the son of George, a farmer as the name says. He was very rich and had many livestock: six hundred head of catlle, one hundred yoke of oxen, eight hundred mares in the pastures, eighty saddle horses and mules, twelve thousand sheep and he had forty-eight estates abounding in land, all separate, very beautiful and of great value, for in front of each one of them there was a well gushing forth from a hilltop, capable of watering everything that needed water from it in abundance. And he had many [household?] slaves (oiketai polloi) and very great possessions. (Vita of Philaretos, ed. and transl. Rydén, p. 61) 31 Cheap commodities for Constantinople (not synone/coemptio, but intensified taxation and commodification) - Constantine V and „the beginning of a revival that continued until 1204” (Magdalino 2002) • He [Constantine V] also at this time made commodities cheap in the City. For, like a new Midas, he stored away the gold and denuded the peasants who, because of the exaction of taxes, were forced to sell God’s bounty at a low price. (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6259 [= 766/767 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 611) • In the 5th indiction there was a drought. The weather became parched and dry, so that even the aerial dew disappeared and the flow of springs was interrupted. For this reason the baths remained idle, since the reservoirs were empty. Consequently Constantine decided to renew the aqueduct which had been built by Emperor Valentinian and had been destroyed by the Avars in the days of Emperor Herakleios. He collected from the Roman dominions a great number of artisans skilled in construction, on whom he lavished many allowances from the public treasury and so completed this work. Avaricious as he was, Christ´s enemy Constantine proved to be a new Midas, who stored away all the gold. As a result, the taxed people, hard pressed as they were by the exaction of imposts, sold cheaply the fruit and produce of the earth, so that 60 modii of wheat and 70 of barley could be bought for one nomisma and many (other goods) were sold for very small sums. This was considered by the senseless as a sign of the earth´s fertility and abundance of commodities, but by the wise as the result of oppression and avarice and inhuman sickness. (Nikephoros, Patriarch of Constantinople: Short History ch. 85, transl. Mango 161) [Cf. also Brandes 2002, 381-383; Salvatore Cosentino, La perception du domaine économique dans la Chronographie de Théophane, TM 19 (2015), 327-352] 32 Emperor Constantine V as „relentless tax collector“ – and the basilika kommerkia (Brandes 2002) The strict and relentless tax collector [phorologos, Constantine V] weighed down the yoke of taxpayers as much as possible with frequent and annual surcharges on taxes; he oppressed all the peasants and squeezed them out so badly in all illegal ways that one could easily have bought a man's entire property for a nomisma. I have seen people myself who got into misery because of taxes and were hung by their hands on tall and tall trees so that they dangled in the air for a long time. And they endured this bitter and severe punishment because they could not pay the taxes to the treasury. (Nikephoros, Antirrh. III. 75, PG 100, 513D-516 A; cf. Brandes 2002, 382) 33 Constantine V (left), bearded, and Leo IV (Seal) of the imperial kommerkia of Thrace and of Hexamilion (DO Seals 1, no. 54.2.; 751-775 CE) Network models of connectivity among provinces and places based on the data from the seals of the genikoi kommerkiarioi (673-728 CE; green circles and thin black lines) and from the seals of the basilika kommerkia (730-775 CE; red circles and bold black dotted lines) (data: Brandes 2002; calculations and visualisation: J. Preiser-Kapeller). 34 From a supply organised by the state to a supervision of commerce and crafts („policy of provision“) • • • • Bakers shall sell bread by weight fixed according to the price of corn as ordered by he eparch. They are to buy corn in the warehouse of the assessor by quantities corresponding to the amount upon which the tax of one gold nomisma is payable; and after grinding it and making it into fermented bread they shall calculate their remuneration at the rate of one keration plus two miliaresia per gold nomisma. The butchers shall meet the sheperds who come from out of town and trade with their herds and import them not first in Nikomedeia [Izmit] or in the city [Constantinople] but already on the other side of the Sangarios [a river in Bithynia ca. 100 km east of Constantinople] so that the sale of meat becomes cheaper. The headmen of the fishmongers shall come to the Eparch every day in the morning and indicate how big the catch of white fish was in the night, so that the sale to the townsmen takes place according to the regulation by [the Eparch]. But those who dare to act against this shall be beaten, truncated and ejected from the guild. (Book of the City Eparch, ca. 900, ed. J. Koder) From: Haldon/Rosen 2018 35 The plague of 744 in Syria (in the Zūqnīn Chronicle of 775 CE) and the model of John of Ephesus (6th cent., Wood 2011) • Zūqnīn Chronicle (775 CE) on the year 743-744 CE: Then the Destroyer struck those in positions of power, who were renowned because of their wealth, and took delight in their own greatness. Moreover, the houses of many among them remained without heir since neither servant nor master survived in them. They suddenly left their possession, wealth and fields, as well as their splendid houses to their friends! How many families, large and famous in wealth, and how many tribes perished, without leaving even one heir! Indeed, the human tongue is incapable of describing the horrors and wonders that happened in the land extending from the Euphrates to the West, and in the cities of Palestine, the North and the South and the region up to the Red Sea, as well as those of Cilicia, Lycaonia, Asia, Bithynia, Lysonia [?], Galatia and Cappadocia. This painful and bitter anguish reigned over the entire world. Just as the rain falls down on the whole earth, or as the rays of the sun spread out over everything equally, so did this plague at this time spread out over the entire world equally. Nevertheless, it was especially severe in the territories which were singled out earlier. In these territories, numerous villages and places suddenly became desolate, without people passing by them or settling in them. (Harrak 171-172) Amida • And when the poor vanished, the plague passed on to the wealthy— as long as those whom death could seize were still around—from the small to the great, and no remnant of them ever survived. Moreover, those who survived this affliction moved outside the city, as many as they were. But in the end, those who did not die were struck with a terrible disease: the swelling of the groins, some in one and some in both. This took hold of those who were dying as well as of those who survived. As soon as the swelling of the groins struck a man, at that point he gave up hope accordingly. What is more, the one who escaped from death suffered a pain worse than a cruel death; for his groins swelled, became distended and burst open, giving way to large and deep abscesses that discharged blood, pus, and water, day and night like a spring. (Harrak 173) 36 Extreme winters, famine, plague and migration from (Southern) Armenia to Syria, 750/751 Zūqnīn Chronicle (775 CE) on the year 750-751 CE: God sent several plagues against the wheat, barley and vineyards, as well as against all the livelihood of people, because of the sins and iniquities that were being committed every day. Famine grew severe in the land, especially in Armenia and in the land of the Urtians [Anzitene], because all their crops were destroyed and nothing remained for their sustenance: When He wants, He dries up with the cold, and then when He wants, He softens with the heat. Look! Here He dried up with the cold! The whole of Armenia moved away because of the famine that struck the inhabitants, and marched out to Syria, fearing they would die along with their children in the famine. But they did not escape Wrath in this way either: I will give them bitter water to drink and I will feed them with wormwood. I will scatter them among the nations whom they have not known, and I will send after them sword, captivity, famine and pestilence, until I have consumed them? [Jer 9:1516] The Spirit said these words and all of them were applied to these people. They marched out and filled the entire land: cities, monasteries, villages and fields. They sold all they possessed and bought for themselves bread, causing famine in the land. Moreover, abscesses, diarrhoea, and then ulcers overpowered them. Wherever they arrived, they used to occupy porticoes, shrines, churches, towers, and every other place. Pestilence also overpowered them and most of them died to such an extent that people were not able to bury them. Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was upon them to harm them. The affliction of famine, abscesses and ulcers overpowered the Syrians too and exterminated them. The victims of the famine were more numerous than the victims of the diseases. In this year, from our monastery of Zūqnīn, forty-two people—not counting the strangers—died of ulcers, for this disease and the pestilence prevailed everywhere. (Harrak 188). 37 The overthrow of the Umayyad caliphs by the Abbasids in 747-750 and the end of the first plague pandemic Al-Tha'alibi (961–1038): Syria has always been notorious for its plagues, and the chronicles devote considerable space to all of them. Many of these plagues have spread from Iraq and elsewhere, although the plague never broke out in the two Holy Cities. When the Abbasids came to power, there were no more plagues until the reign of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-932). Michael W. Dols, Plague in Early Islamic History. Journal of the American Oriental Society 94, No. 3 (1974), 371-383. 38 The Khazar invasions of Southern Caucasia 762/763 and the horse epidemic of 763/764 (cf. Movsēs Kałankatuacʽi and Chronicle ad a. 819 on a plague among livestock after a Khazar invasion in 725 CE) 39 • Zūqnīn Chronicle (775 CE) on the year 763-764 CE: “A severe plague among horses took place in the whole land. This plague spread throughout the whole land, starting from the borderlands of the country and then gradually moved, spreading throughout the whole land. Horses perished in the twinkling of an eye. So devastating was this destruction that, if herdsmen would drive herds of three hundred horses down to a watering place, as many as twenty or thirty of them would collapse there and die. As a result, streams, mountains, valleys and roads were filled with stinking carcasses. This epidemic was similar to the [bubonic] plague [shar´utā] that inflicted humans, for it struck its victims in the neck, and no animal could work, even for an hour, once the disease had taken hold. If a victim got the disease and remained alive for a couple of hours or half a day, it might escape death. But scarcely one in a hundred of the animals afflicted survived. Horses as well as mules and donkeys died of it, one by one. This disease spread throughout all the nations and kingdoms of the earth, to the point that people were left without horses. (…) It seemed to the wise and God-fearing ones that this severe plague was sent upon people, but God, through his mercy and abundant graces and love for humans, diverted it from people to animals.” (Harrak 200-201; cf. also Morony 2006, 71) 40 New imperial capitals and their demands: the foundation and inauguration of Baghdad by Caliph al-Manṣūr in 762 CE • „al-Manṣūr: Prices should not go high there and provisioning should not be difficult. If I settled in a place where anything could not be imported by land and sea, prices would rise, supplies would be in short supply and provisioning would be burdensome.“ (al-Tabari iii 273; transl. Kennedy) • „[The site of Baghdad] is an Island between the Tigris and Euphrates (…) and a waterfront for the world. Everything that comes on the Trigris from Wasit, al-Basrah, al-Ahwaz, Faris, Uman, al-Yamamah, al-Bahrayn and the neighboring places, can got up to it and anchor at it. In the same way whatever is carried on boats on the Tigris from Mosul, Diyar Rabi´ah, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and whatever is carried on boats on the Euphrates from Diyar Mudar, al-Raqqah, Syria, the Frontier, Egypt and al-Maghrib can come to this terminus and unload here. It can also be a meeting place for the people of alJibal and Isfahan and Kur and Khurasan.“ (alYaʿqūbī, Kitāb al-Buldāan 237; transl. Hourani) 41 Outbreaks of plague in Syria under Caliph Hišām ibn ʿAbd alMalik (724-743) and his residence: 725, 729, 732, 743/744 The reason Hišām lived in arRuṣāfa was that the caliphs and their sons retired to escape the plague. So they lived far away from the people in the desert. When Hišām wanted to go to arRuṣāfa, he was told: “Do not go away! Caliphs are not affected by the plague [tāʿūn]. It has never been heard of a caliph catching the plague.” Hišām said, “Will you try me out?” So he moved to arRuṣāfa, a desert place, and built two forts there. The history of al-Ṭabarī [839-923 n. Chr.] XXVI, A.H. 125 [742/743 n. Chr.], transl. Hillenbrand, 80-81 42 The increase of population, cultivation and taxation in the hinterland of Baghdad Robert McC. Adams, Land Behind Baghdad: A History of Settlement on the Diyala Plains, Chicago/London 1965 43 The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (Jason Ur et al., since 2011) https://scholar.harvard.edu/jasonur/pages/erbil 44 Demographic and agricultural growth in northern Mesopotamia, increased competition for land and intensified taxation, 766/767 CE Zūqnīn Chronicle (775 CE) on the year 766-767 CE: During this time, the country, particularly the Jazira and the whole North, was productive. The whole land was beautiful with green crops, vineyards and much cattle, and was full of herds of horses and flocks of goats. People possessed a quantity of the grain in such a manner that wine was added to wine and wheat to wheat. Truly Israel grew fat and kicked but did not say: Blessed be the Lord who enriched us. On the contrary, people suddenly ran after the property of the monasteries and the churches, saying: "What is the church suffering after all? We are in need because we pay the poll-tax and we have children!" Because they had many children, had become exceedingly wealthy, and had access to all good things, they became haughty, arrogant, jealous, adulterous, fornicators, drunkards, rapacious and false witnesses, to such extent that they would have committed almost all vices if he (= God) had not set over them an evil angel, who forced bad paths among them. (…) Every day members of the same village, or two villages, made lawsuits against each other concerning the boundaries of fields. The wretches did not know that soon wrath would befall them and that they would lose their vineyards, houses and fields. And these would remain desolate, with no one to pass by them or settle in them. Even the venerable monastic order went beyond due ordinance, and instead of: Take up your cross and follow me, monks owned horses, herds of oxen, and flocks of goats and sheep. Each one possessed plots which *he acquired* from the lands of the community. They went outside to own vineyards and houses in the villages and to ride horses with saddles, like the pagans. (Harrak 230). 45 A new residence for al-Mansūr´s crown prince al-Mahdī in Northern Mesopotamia: ar-Rāfiqa (next to ar-Raqqa/Kallinikon) • Zūqnīn Chronicle (775 CE) on the year 766-767 CE: When the Caliph came, he saw that the land was fertile, rich, beautiful and full of all resources, for it was the month of lyyar (May) during which all the crops were still available. After he saw all this, he observed that the land was blessed with numerous settlements. (…) Therefore, he sent for workers from all the Jazira and ordered them to lay bricks and the architects to build a wall (for al-Rafiqa, near al-Raqqa [Callinicum]). (Harrak 232-233) • Then the Caliph realised that the country was populous, he decided to conduct a census. He did not take pleasure in (showing) compassion, settlements or prosperity, but wanted to subject more people to the capitation tax, so that he might increase tribute and hardship in the country. He sent for cunning and crafty people whom he appointed as agents, and then dispatched them to the territories to enumerate all the people for the poll-tax. Then the Caliph appointed people of bitter temper over the crown property and the tithe. Because the administrator whom he appointed over the crown property was a godless and merciless Magian, he came to all the cities of the Jazira and registered the marketplaces, every place where anything was sold, and the stores in the marketplaces. Anything which was not entered in the census he made crown property, including the mills. (Harrak 234) 46 The intensification of the state´s grasp and the attempted reversal of the effects of earlier migrations for the sake of taxation through forced resettlement • Zūqnīn Chronicle (775 CE) on the year 766-767 CE: The Caliph also appointed another agent to return everyone to his country and family home. This agent in turn established agents whom he dispatched to the cities. He did not send one agent to each city but the agent designated for each city to all the other cities in turn, so that all the agents would meet in a single city—as if each city in the Jazira had one agent in charge of fugitives. (Harrak 237). • He appointed over Mardin a Persian man to bring back its fugitives and to exact the poll-tax. Because its people had fled in greater number than from anywhere else, the region had been occupied entirely by the Arabs, before whom the Syrians had fled. The man's name was Khalil son of Zedin. This man made the Arabs suffer so many ills that no one could rival him in animosity toward them, either before or after him. He sent to all the cities some of his chieftains, who removed each person from his house, village and country, even if he, his father or his grandfather was reported to have lived in Mardin as much as forty or fifty years earlier. They were brought down to Mardin. Not many were able to slip through, because he did not accept bribes nor mediation. He gathered people in this region in such a way that no place or village or ruin was available which he did not fill and crowd with people. As for the Arabs, he made them roam from one place to another, after he had confiscated all that they possessed, filled their fields and houses with Syrians, and made them sow their wheat. He also captured the wealthy among them and treated them with merciless cruelty, applying all kinds of tortures and blows. (…) Thus he used to treat them to merciless torture, killing many among them. As for the others, they fled, wandering from one place to another. (Harrak 237-238). 47 Taxation and resettlement – worse than famine, war and pestilence Zūqnīn Chronicle (775 CE) on the year 766-767 CE: Out of hardship, people suddenly fell upon the property of churches and monasteries, in such a manner that even distant churches experienced the desecration that was taking place in the glorious church of the city, which was also the first of all the churches in the region. Although the fetid stench was not smelled in them, their properties, vessels and altars were looted by their members and were given to the pagans in pledge. (Harrak 246) I stated above that the issue of the appointment of local agents was more harmful than all the preceding and following wrongs. Because the local agent was not content with his own prey alone, he sent despicable and mean couriers before him, who took away everything, not leaving even a nail in a wall, because they were as ravenous as evening wolves. They did not own anything, but now they became wealthy as a consequence of their plundering as well as that of their agent. (Harrak 296) Nor was the Roman land spared from this cruel affliction, but the leaders of both our nation and theirs fell in love with money with one consent, because the mixture in the cup was one for all nations (…) (Harrak 290) In this year Abdelas [Caliph al-Mansūr, 754-775] intensified the taxation of Christians, so much so that he laid taxes on all monks, solitaries, and stylites who led lives pleasing to God. (Theophanes the Confessor, 48 Chronicle, A.M. 6249 [= 756/757 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 595) The parallel end of „two wild beasts“ in 775 CE (cf. also Syriac and Armenian sources) Thus he [Constantine V] ended his life, polluted as he was with much Christian blood, with the invocation of demons to whom he sacrificed, with the persecution of the holy churches and of the true and immaculate faith, furthermore with the slaying of monks and the profanation of monasteries: in all manner of evil he had reached a pinnacle no less than Diocletian and the ancient tyrants. In the same month Abdelas, the ruler of the Arabs [Caliph al-Mansūr, 754-775], also died. Thus, the two wild beasts who had for a long time simultaneously devoured the human race died by God's providence, and their respective sons, Leo and Madi [al-Mahdi, 775785], acceded to power. (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A.M. 6267 [= 774/775 CE], transl. Mango/Scott 619) 49 Sugar cane in Sasanian and Arab Khusistan and Mesopotamia: Baghdad, plantation, free und unfree labour When Caliph ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb conquered al-Sawād (Iraq) in 16 AH/637 CE, ʿUthmān b. Ḥunayḥ surveyed the cultivated fields, and levied 10 dirhams on each jarīb (about 1600 m2 ) of date palms (nakhl), 10 dirhams on each jarīb of grapes (karm), 6 dirhams on each jarīb of sugarcane (qaṣab), 4 dirhams on each jarīb of wheat (burr), and 2 dirhams on each jarīb of barley (qamḥ). ʿUthmān wrote this to ʿUmar, who approved it. Al-Balādhurī, Futūḥ al-Buldān, transl. Tsugitaka Sato, Sugar in the Social Life of Medieval Islam. Leiden & Boston 2015, p. 19) 50 The Zanj rebellion, 869-883 CE:“the only mass slave uprising known in the Arab world” (Ricks 1998) & “perhaps the most successful slave rebellion of all times” (Allen 1993)? 51 The mobilisation of unfree und free military and civil labour for the Abbasid imperial centre and the complex background to the Zanj rebellion (Campbell 2016) • Ali ibn Muhammad (ArabPersian background, born in Rayy, grandmother slave girl from Sind) • Retinue from local population and Arab tribes • Followers from Eastern Iran and Central Asia (free and unfree) • Slaves from Eastern Europe • Slaves from Africa (Zanj) 52 The Abbasid “revolution” and the migrations of the Khurasanis to the West, 750-766 53 • Zūqnīn Chronicle on the year 766-767: “All the Persian and Arab forces moved and attacked the northern land. (…) Because this army was a mixture of all nations, it was called "the Caliph's clients." It included people from Sind and Allan, Khazars, Medes, Persians, people of Kufa, Arabs, people of Khorasan and Turks. Therefore, we have to say that it was made of all kinds of locusts! They also committed many sins of all kinds which could not be numbered, because of their impiety and impurity that was beyond measure. But in order not to soil the tongue of the reader and the ears of the listeners, we shall avoid them, because talking about them is filth for the mouth. (…) God brought them between the mountains of the North to strike them with various illnesses as well as with sword, pestilence [mawtānā] and famine, and to give their flesh to the animals of the steppe and to the birds of the sky. So they marched and went in the direction of the Roman territory. They found the border land magnificent and productive of fruit of all kinds—it was the season of fruit— and although the land was not inhabited, it was rich in fruit, many trees and vineyards. When these lawless people found these things, they attacked them much beyond the limits of necessity, and consumed them with gluttony. Then all of them fell victim to various sicknesses, especially dysentery and haemorrhoids, in such a manner that wherever they settled or fled, unburied corpses of people could be seen alongside roads and high places and valleys, discarded and being devoured by animals. All their beasts of burden died too, especially the camels that followed them into the land; out of fifty or sixty that accompanied a man, not even five or six—and sometimes not even one—came out. After the whole army marched in, they besieged a fortress called Qamh (Kamacha) that was located on the borders” (Harrak 206-207; cf. also Morony 2006, 68) 54 Caliph Mahdī in Rayy and the fur trade with Central Asia and Eastern Europe after 775 • “The Caliph Mahdī [r. 775–785], while staying in Rayy [in Iran], conducted an experiment to see which fur was the warmest. He took a number of water jars and stuffed them with tufts of different kinds of fur. This happened in a year of intense cold and deep snow. In the morning he had the jars brought to him. All were frozen solid except for one, which was sealed with black fox fur. That was how he learned which fur was the warmest and which was the driest.” Burtas • “Some of these furs, especially the black ones, are worth 100 dinars [gold coins] or more. The red furs are worth less. The black furs are worn by Arab and non-Arab rulers alike, who value them more than sable, ermine, and other similar furs. They make hats, kaftans and fur coats out of it. There is not a ruler who does not have a fur coat or kaftan lined with the black fox fur from the land of the Burtas.” • al-Masʿūdī (ca. 895–957), transl. Ibn Fadlān 2011, 136 55 The trade in Ṣaqāliba slaves with the Khazars, Bulgars and Rus • “The Rus raid the Ṣaqāliba and sail in their ships until they come across them. They capture them and sell them [as slaves] in the land of the Khazars and Bulgars. They have no cultivated fields and live by plundering the land of the Ṣaqāliba. (…) They earn their living by trading in sable, gray squirrel and other furs. They sell them for silver coins, which they put in belts and wear around their waists.” ibn Rusta (transl. Ibn Fadlān 2011, 126-127) • “When the boat from the Khazar territory reaches the Bolgar territory, the king goes on board and counts its contents, taking a tenth of its cargo. If the Rus or any other people come with slaves, the king of Bolgar has the right to choose one out of ten.” Ibn Faḍlān 2014, 56 239 57 From: Jankowiak 2020 58 Kovalev & Kaelin, History Compass 5 (2007):10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00376.x 59 60 Slave trade, infrastructure and the emergence of new power structures in Eastern and Central Europe (Jankowiak 2021) Handcuffs from Hedeby 61 © Archäologisches Landesmuseum Schleswig-Holstein The trade in Turkish slaves, eunuchs and mamluks “The wealth of the inhabitants [of Khorezm] comes from trading with the Turks and buying herd animals and especially slaves from the lands of the Ṣaqāliba and the Khazars and Turkish slaves from the frontier areas and furs such as mink, sable, fox, squirrel and other types of skins. These are stored by them, and the slaves are housed there too.” ibn Hauqal (transl. Ibn Fadlān 2011, 177) 62 al-Maʾmūn vs. al-Amīn, 811-813 CE, and the siege and devastation of Baghdad 63 The victory of al-Maʾmūn against the Kabul-šāh, 814/815 CE - Conversion to Islam - Annual tribute of 1.5 million dirhem and 2000 OghuzTurkic slaves From: Alram 2016 Marmor statue of Ganesha, mid-8th cent.; Hindutemple Dargha Pir Rattan Nath in Kabul (cf. Ibn Chordadhbeh; J. MARQUART, Ērānšahr nach der Geographie des Ps.Moses Xorenac‛i. Berlin 1901, 251 – cf. the baqt with Nubia 652 CE, 360 slaves per year) „From Kesar, his Majesty, the Lord, who 64 defeated the Arabs“ (738-745 CE; Alram 2016) Caliph al-Maʾmūn and his retinue from the „Far East“ in Baghdad from 819 CE onwards 65 The al-Harbiyya „the people from Balḫ, Marw, al-Chottal, Buḫārā, Isbijab, Ishtichan, the people of the Kabul-Shah and the people from Ḫwārizm“ (Al-Yaqubi, Buldan 248-249; transl. Northedge 2007) 66 Caliph al-Maʾmūn and his retinue from the „Far East“ in Baghdad from 819 CE onwards 67 from: Northedge 2007 al-Muʿtasim and the foundation of Sāmarrāʾ 836 CE “He [the Caliph] ordered to isolate the allotments of the Turks from the allotments of the people completely, and to make them segregated from them, that they should not mix with any group of those of Arab culture” al-Ya‛qūbī, Buldān, pp. 258-259; transl. Northedge É. de la Vaissière, Samarcande et Samarra. Élites d'Asie centrale dans l'empire abbasside (Paris 2007). 15 km 68 The Khurramites and the rebellion of Bābak, 816-837 Bābak´s fortress of al-Badd 69 From: Juan Signes Codoner, The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829-842. Ashgate 2014. For this man [Theophilos] was more philobarbarian (φιλοεθνὴς) than any other emperor before and had gathered together the biggest company (πλείστην συμμορίαν) of men of different tongues, whom he ordered under compulsion to marry (ζεύγνυσθαι) the daughters of the citizens and even of the inhabitants of the capital, thus ruining the favourable destiny of the Romans and bringing about a crisis for the Christians. Acta Mart. Amor., vers. Γ, 27.5–19, transl. Signes Codoñer 2014, p. 128. The Khurramites (“Persians”) under Nasr (Theophobos) in the service of Emperor Theophilos and the campaign of 837 70 The Battle of Anzes, the siege of Amorion and the clash of two entangled imperial networks, 838 From: Signes Codoñer 2014 Theophilos al-Muʿtaṣim 71 Findspots of seals, gold and silver coins and folleis of Emperor Theophilos and the routes from the Rus to Constantinople Kyiv Sarkel Cherson 72 Constantinople, the Caliphate and the North: Byzantine and Arabic coins and other objects in Gnezdovo from the 6th/7th cent. & early 9th century Natalia Eniosova & Tamara Puškina, Finds of Byzantine origin from the early urban centre Gnezdovo in the light of the contacts between Rus' and Constantinople (10th - early 11th centuries AD), in: L. Berg et al. (eds.), From 73 Goths to Varangians. Aarhus 2013, 213-256. Arab and Byzantine objects in Gnezdovo and new variants of Orthopoxvirus variolae (smallpox) and their diffusion across transregional networks between the Near East, Eastern and Northern Europe since the 8th/9th century Gnezdovo Barbara Mühlemann et al., Diverse variola virus (smallpox) strains were widespread in northern Europe in the Viking Age, in: Science 369 (2020), online: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6502/eaaw8977. 74 Smallpox and measles in the work of Gūrgis bar Gaḇriēl (died ca. 770) in Gondēšāpūr and Baghdad, transmitted in the work of the Persian physician ar-Rāzī (865-925) “Measles [ḥaṣaba] are caused by blood into which a lot of yellow bile is mingled, smallpox [ǧadarī] are caused by blood that is thick and contains a lot of moisture; therefore smallpox are associated with moisture, (whilst) measles are arid (and) dry. (Measles) appear mostly in autumn, when there is no northerly (wind) and no rain(fall)s, (when) the atmosphere is rather hazy, dusty (and) gloomy, and (when) the south wind (blows) all the time; the symptoms (of measles) are a continuous fever, headache, back pain, a heavy head, redness of the eye(s), pain in the throat and chest, dryness of the mouth, viscous saliva, an itchy and sneezy nose, the face is bloated, breathing is awkward, fainting occurs, the appetite drops, the body is tense, and sleep is disturbed—the best that can happen is a crisis and, if it should occur, a releasing nosebleed. Smallpox that are violet or black, at times visible and held back at others, come with great distress, hoarseness in the voice, and mental alteration—flee from it! Dry smallpox do not collect moisture (and) rather (resemble) warts which crack the skin, and that crack is very dry indeed; this is followed by great distress, bad breathing, mental confusion, and loss of voice—a fatal (condition)! Sometimes smallpox are large and inside there are little ones—(this kind) is called ‘doubled’. Reed roots, willow wood shavings, and white sand are (the things) that make the scar(s) disappear”. (transl. Oliver Kahl, The Sanskrit, Syriac and Persian Sources in the Comprehensive Book of Rhazes. Leiden/Boston 2015, 204). 75 Disease ecologies, host-pathogen relationships (human, fauna, flora, microbiology, landscape and climate) and their changes https://parasiteecology.wordpress.com/2015/ 03/04/the-disease-triangle-and-the-onehealth-concept/ Typhus and Polio in the USA, 1900-1955, from: Kyle Harper, Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History. Princeton – Oxford 2021. 76 Continuity and intensification of the mobility of humans, animals and microbes during and after the "First Plague Pandemic" of the 6th-9th centuries CE (Beaujard 2019) That year, death and coughing and severe pestilence spread through Baghdad and Basra. (The history of al-Ṭabarī XXVI, A.H. 167 (783-784 CE), p. 238) 77 The range and dynamics of mercantile networks: the Jewish al-Rādhāniyya merchants on land and sea routes across AfroEurasia „These merchants speak Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin, Frankish, Andalusian and Slavic. They travel from west to east, from east to west, on land and on water. From the west they export eunuchs, young girls and boys, brocades, beaver pelts, martens and other furs and swords. They sail from the Mediterranean coast of the country of the Franks and head for Farama [the ancient Pelusium] in Egypt. There they load their goods on the backs of camels and travel to Qulzum [today Suez] on the Red Sea, a distance of 25 farsakh [approx. 150 km]. They sail down the Red Sea to al-Jar, the port of Medina, and to Jeddah, the port of Mecca. Then they travel on to Sind, India and China. They return from China with musk, aloe wood, camphor, cinnamon and other eastern produce, land in Qulzum, then travel to Farama, from where they set sail again on the Mediterranean Sea. Some (...) go to the palace of the King of the Franks.“ (Ibn Chordadhbeh, ca. 850 CE, on the al-Rādhāniyya) 78 Pathways of people and objects in the late 8th-mid 9th century 79 Summary • The abatement of the First Plague Pandemic was followed by politics in the Byzantine and Arab Empires to support the (re-)emergence of imperial urban centres, including an intensified access to their rural hinterland and their workforce (also through resettlements). • The imperial capitals equally became centers of attraction of new flows of unfree and free civil and military workforce, supported by state and mercantile actions. • These new circuits of movements of people and commodities in turn may have contributed to the emergence of a modified disease ecology after the First Plague Pandemic. 80 http://rapp.univie.ac.at/ http://climatechangeandhistory.princeton.edu https://johannespreiserkapeller.academia.edu (Website) https://www.dasanderemittelalter.net/ (Blog) Herzlichen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit! 81