Courses

This course examines the history of the encounter with plague of people living in the Islamic world from 610 CE to 1600 CE. Using primary and secondary sources, we will study how these societies understood the plague (scientifically and theologically), what was the impact of plague on these societies (demographically, socially and economically), and how these societies responded to repeated bouts of plague (medically, religiously, socially, institutionally and politically), and any changes therein. The course will also engage with recent research in genomics to understand the evolution and transmission of the plague bacillus. In doing so, we will discuss how the new genomic science can help improve our understanding of the history of the plague pandemics, and how studying the history of past pandemics can help our understanding of modern pandemics.