A 14th-century Arabic account long believed to document the spread of the Black Death is now at the center of a major historical correction. Recent research argues that a misread medieval text helped shape the long-standing belief that the Black Death plague moved quickly from China to the Mediterranean in just a few years.
The study, published in the Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, focuses on the Risāla by Ibn al-Wardī, a Syrian writer who died during the Black Death in 1349. For decades, historians treated the work as a factual eyewitness report tracing the disease’s path across Asia into the Islamic world. But lead author Muhammed Omar of the University of Exeter says the Risāla was never meant as a historical account.
Omar explains that Ibn al-Wardī’s work fits the style of a maqāma, a literary genre written in rhymed prose and rich in metaphor, not a straightforward report of events. The narrative follows the plague as if it were a traveler, passing through cities from China and India to Egypt and Syria. While scholars once viewed this as documentation of the Black Death’s route, Omar argues it was a figurative device rather than a record of actual transmission.
A literary tale mistaken for medical history
The confusion, the study finds, began when 15th-century Mamluk historians treated Ibn al-Wardī’s writing as literal fact. This interpretation was later echoed in modern scholarship, particularly in the 1970s when historian Michael Dols used it to support the theory of a rapid overland spread of the plague. That theory remains dominant in both historical writing and scientific studies of the pandemic’s origin.
In 1347, the Black Death killed 50 million people (50% of Europe) in just 5 years.
It wasn’t just a plague but a nightmare that rewrote history.
Here’s how the deadliest pandemic in history changed the world forever: pic.twitter.com/Rvhn9MtCKP
— History Nerd (@_HistoryNerd) April 28, 2025
However, when placed alongside similar plague-era maqāmas by authors such as al-Ṣafadī and Ibn Abī Ḥajala, the Risāla shows clear literary features. These texts utilize poetic language, moral reflection, and personification of diseases to help communities make sense of the crisis. They were never intended to provide geographical data or serve as medical evidence.
Reassessing the Black Death’s spread through a misread medieval text
Omar’s study does not dispute the Central Asian origin of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, supported by genetic research. Instead, it challenges the assumption that a single path can be traced across the continent based on a literary source.
By correcting this misreading, the study urges historians to re-examine earlier outbreaks and explore broader patterns in disease transmission. It also opens the door to a deeper understanding of how Islamic scholars used literature not only to document loss but to cope with it through faith and creativity.
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