The Black Death-How Different Were Christian and Muslim Responses?

This is the essay that I wrote for Geography. I noticed that I've only been blogging about what I've done, am doing, and plan on doing when I looked at some of my friend's blogs. I haven't really put up anything that I have written. I typed this up on Utah Write and got a perfect score of 30 on my first try. I was surprised with myself.

Hundreds of years ago, a plague swept over the known world. The Great Plague, Great Pestilence, and Black Death were a few of the names that it was given. In the Background Essay, it states that, "the plague killed between 25 and 45% of the populations it encountered." It was played a huge role in the history of the 14th century. There were three bacterial strains of the plague; all of them were deadly. According to Document 2, the mortality rate was 31% in Europe, 33% in England, 25-33% in Egypt, and 33% in Syria. About one third of the population in most places was killed or affected by the plague. People reacted differently to the plague. Although Europeans and Middle-Easterners both had similar beliefs, they behaved differently with the plague.
Christianity was the predominant faith in Europe. Europeans acted in "depraved" ways and were "more inclined than before to evil and wickedness". (Document 6, William Dene) The people of Europe saw the plague as the end of the world and did not care for what they did. Document 6 explains that workers rebelled and abandoned their work, priests looked for benefices where they could receive larger stipends leaving places unserved, and the people were "not thinking of death nor of the past plague nor of their own salvation..." Europeans didn't pay much attention to authority or to the law. In Strasbourg, citizens accused the Jewish population of poisoning the wells. Even though the town council of Strasbourg attempted to protect the Jews from the people, the townspeople burned many Jews alive after they (the Jews) had confessed to the sin. In Document 7, it says, "The Jews were guilty of this crime as all around was said, by poisoning wells at this same time." Gabrielle De Mussis, a "chronicler" who lived during this time period, says in Document 4, "We know that whatever we suffer is the just reward of our sins." He believed that the disease was a curse from God due to the wickedness of the people; he thought that the people could be saved if they repented of their sins.
East of Europe, in the South-West part of Asia, the population reacted to the plague by drawing closer to their religion. "Prayer for lifting the epidemic is abhorrent because the plague is a blessing from God; at the least, a Muslim should devoutly accept the divine act," states Muhammad Al-Manbiji in Document 4. Al-Manbiji saw the plague as a blessing from God; he said that praying for the end of the plague was abhorrent. The predominant faith in the Middle-East at that time was Islam which means "Submission to God". (Background Essay) The people in the Middle-East thought that they should accept the plague as the will of Allah (God). They acted in a calm manner. Micheal Dols, a scholar, wrote in the Princeton University Press, "The is no evidence for the appearance of messianic movements in Muslim society at this time that might have associated the Black Death with an apocalypse," which is found in Document 10. They might have even become even more diligent and faithful in accordance to the plague. Document 9 states, "...the people fasted for three successive days...assembled in the Great Mosque until it was overflowing... and spent the night there in prayers... they all went out together... carrying Korans in their hands." All the people of Damascus prayed together. Jews went out with Christians; there was no segregation.
Both Christians and Muslims had similar beliefs. Both religions are monotheistic and believe in the same God. Document 5 compares the non-religious explanations for causes and preventions of the Black Death. Both Europeans and Middle-Easterners thought that it was caused by miasma or astrological events such as shooting stars or the alignment of multiple planets. The both believed that building fires and drinking solutions of Armenian clay would help prevent the plague. While they had similar beliefs, the two faiths did not act similarly. You can see in Document 3 that the people of Siena, Italy (Europe) were "stupefied by seeing the pain." They abandoned family members, dug mass graves, and avoided each other all in fear of coming down with the malady. On the other hand, Middle-Easterners in Damascus were terrified. They became scared when they saw the effects of the plague. The fact that they saw so many die may have been the reason that they drew closer to their faith. The were scared, but they acted with more acceptance most Europeans. If you return to Document 4, you can see the difference. While Christians in Europe saw the plague as "the just reward of our sins", Muslims in the Middle-East accepted the plague as "a blessing from God."
As you can see, the Muslim and Christian faiths both had some similarities and differences in how they reacted to the Great Pestilence. Both had similar beliefs, but what they did in accordance differed. Europeans bluntly saw the plague as the Apocolypse and the people did what they could to avoid the plague. Muslims in the Middle-East accepted the plague as a blessing and turned towards God. The reactions of these two cultures, faiths, and areas may reflect the nature of their standards, beliefs, and thoughts.