Project Group B: Conflict and Control, Project B1

Nomads and Sedentary People in Times of Disaster:
Demography, Resources and Power in Egypt and Syria due to the Plague of 748/1347

Programme

In the third phase of project B1 three areas of research will be combined: research on nomadism, Mamluk history, and the history of medicine (together with E7). The study centres on the impact of the Black Death in Syria and Egypt from the mid-14th century to the early 15th century.

The Black Death was not only a danger for life and limb, but it also upset the social, economic, and political structures. When the plague broke out in 1347, Egypt and Syria experienced a severe decline of population. Indirectly, this decline effected the withdrawal of the Mamluk government from parts of the empire. Due to this, power resources became available again, over which Bedouin tribes could compete with local forces. So far, the decline of the Mamluk Sultanate has been examined as if the Black Death and the increase of Bedouin power had been separate phenomena. Project B1, however, attempts at showing their causal connection. The contention is that the impact of the plague on the state system of Egypt and Syria can only be understood on the background of the interaction between nomads and sedentary people.

The investigation deals with:

• the impacts of the Black Death on the demographic development of both nomads and sedentary people
• changes in the interaction between nomadic groups and the sedentary sphere regarding land use, migration, fiscal systems, and security due to the outbreak of the plague in 1347
• the image of the Bedouin in the context of cultural strategies of coming to terms with the plague

To this effect, Arabic plague treatises, chronicles, biographies, and administration manuals will be analysed in particular. Due to the lack of archival documents from the Mamluk period which alone would permit the reconstruction of demographic changes, the project aims at approaching historical demography in methodically new qualitative ways. Moreover, thematic maps of the Mamluk Empire and four of its regions in particular will be produced.

Regional foci are:

• the region of Qus in Upper Egypt
• the eastern and western borders of the Nile Delta (Hawf)
• the region of Bilad al-Sharah in present-day Jordan
• the area of Tadmur in the Syrian Steppe

The project’s cross-cutting question will be whether the plague caused a structural break in the relation between nomads and sedentary people. Does this relationship, being a characteristic of the region, explain why the Black Death had a much greater political impact on the Middle East than on Latin Europe?

Publications

Dr. Kurt Franz

Atlas der Beduinen unter dem Sultanat 564–734/1169–1334. Beduinische Gruppen in mittelislamischer Zeit II, Wiesbaden (Nomaden und Sesshafte). In preparation.

(with Ortrun Riha/Charlotte Schubert, eds.:) Plagues in Nomadic Contexts. Historical Impact, Medical Responses, Cultural Adaptations in Ancient to Mediaeval Eurasia, Leiden (Handbook of Oriental Studies, section 8). In press.

Well off in the Wilderness? Plagues and Bedouin Life. Ibdid. In press.

(with Wolfgang Holzwarth, eds.:) Nomadic Military Power. Iran and Adjacent Areas in the Islamic Period, Wiesbaden (Nomaden und Sesshafte). In press.

Bedouins and States. Framing the Mongol-Mamlūk Wars in Long-term History. Ibid. In press.

The Castle and the Country. Spatial Orientations of Qipchaq Mamluk Rule. In: D. Durand-Guédy (ed.): Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City-Life in Iran and the Neighbouring Countries, Leiden 2012 (Brill’s Inner Asian Library). In press.

Slavery in Islam: Legal Norms and Social Practice. In: R. Amitai/C. Cluse (eds.): Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean (12th to 15th Centuries). Turnhout 2012 (Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages Series). In press.

Articles Ämter (introduction, Emir); Emirat; Geisel; Pilgerreise; Post. In: A. Nippa (ed.): Kleines abc des Nomadischen, Hamburg 2011, 16–18, 60, 76, 160 f., 162 f.

The Bedouin in History or Bedouin History? In: Nomadic Peoples N.S. 15/1 (2011), 11–53.

(ed.): Igal Shwartz: The Bedouin in Egypt during the Mamluk Period. Working Translation. Translated from Hebrew by Leonhard Becker. Online-Ressource. 2011. http://www.nomadsed.de/b1/shwartz

(conference report with Ortrun Riha): Plagues in Nomadic Contexts. Historical Impact, Medical Responses and Cultural Adaptations in Ancient to Mediaeval Eurasia. 07.10.2010 - 09.10.2010, Leipzig. In: H-Soz-u-Kult, 14.12.2010. http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=343

Qarmaten und Zanj. Das Andere als Societas malorum. In: B. Jokisch/U. Rebstock/L. Conrad (ed.): Fremde, Feinde und Kurioses. Innen- und Außenansichten unseres muslimischen Nachbarn. Berlin 2009 (Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Orients N.F. 24), 215–252.

The Ayyubid and Mamluk Revaluation of the Hinterland and Western Historical Cartography. In: Mamluk Studies Review 12/2 (2008), 133–158.

(Conference report with Wolfgang Holzwarth): Availing of Nomadic Military Power – Stratagems and Pitfalls. Iran and Adjacent Areas in the Islamic Period. 21.02.2008–23.02.2008, Halle (Saale). In: H-Soz-u-Kult, 25.07.2008. http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/tagungsberichte/id=2193

Vom Beutezug zur Territorialherrschaft. Das lange Jahrhundert des Aufstiegs von Nomaden zur Vormacht in Syrien und Mesopotamien 286–420/899–1029. Beduinische Gruppen in mittelislamischer Zeit I. Wiesbaden 2007 (Nomaden und Sesshafte 5).

(ed.:) Mitteilungen des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 11: Verwaltete Nomaden. Mobile Viehzüchter und Dienstleister zwischen Autonomie und staatlicher Anbindung. Halle 2007.

Zur Einführung. Institutionelle Mechanismen zwischen Staat und Nomaden. Ibid., 1–13.

Resources and Organizational Power. Some Thoughts on Nomadism in History. In: S. Leder/B. Streck (ed.): Shifts and Drifts in Nomad-Sedentary Relations, Wiesbaden 2005 (Nomaden und Sesshafte 2), 55–77.

Kompilation in arabischen Chroniken. Die Überlieferung vom Aufstand der Zanǧ zwischen Geschichtlichkeit und Intertextualität vom 9. bis ins 15. Jahrhundert. Berlin 2004 (Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Orients N.F. 15).

Parousia, Political Rule and the Bedouin in the Tenth Century CE. In: Beiruter Blätter 10/11 (2002/03 [2004]), 52–68.

Das Recht der Dichtung vor der Geschichte. Zur Bewahrung von Versen des Renegaten 'Ali b. Muhammad. In: L. Behzadi (ed.): Gelehrte Dichter, dichtende Gelehrte. Göttinger Symposium über arabische Dichtung zu Ehren von Peter Bachmann. Hildesheim 2003, 70–88.

Mobilization by Charisma? Ismaili Missionaries and the Bedouin of the Syrian Steppe about 900 AD. In: Mitteilungen des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 4/1 (2003), 211–251.

Plünderungen und Logistik. Ein Subtext in at-Tabaris Bericht vom Aufstand der Zanj. In: Akten des 27. Deutschen Orientalistentages. Würzburg 2001 (Kultur, Recht und Politik in muslimischen Gesellschaften 1), 413–424.

Sarah Büssow-Schmitz, M.A. (née Schmitz)

“Freemasonry and Social Criticism in Beirut in the Middle of the Nineteenth and at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century”. In: Stefan Reichmuth et al. (ed.), Religious Dynamics under the Impact of Imperialism and Colonialism. A Sourcebook (in preparation).

“The Growing Power of Bedouins in Mamluk Egypt and the Role of the Black Death of 1348”. In: Kurt Franz, Ortrun Riha und Charlotte Schubert (eds), Plague in Nomadic Contexts, Leiden (to be published in 2012).

“Fanāʾand fasād: Perceptions and Concepts of Crises and Disasters in Fourteenth-Century Egypt”. In: Gerrit Jasper Schenk (ed.), Disasters, Risks and Cultures. A Comparative and Transcultural Survey of Historical Disaster Experiences between Asia and Europe, Heidelberg (to be published in 2012).

(with Annegret Nippa) Article “Getreide” in: ABC des Nomadischen. Hamburg: Museum für Völkerkunde (in print, to be published in 2011).

Article “Reichtum” in: ABC des Nomadischen. Hamburg: Museum für Völkerkunde (in print, to be published in 2011).

“Rules of Communication and Politics between Bedouin and Mamluk Elites in Egypt: The Case of the al-Aḥdab Revolt, c. 1353”. In: Eurasien Studies, IX/1-2 (2011), pp. 65-102.

“Der Schwarze Tod in Ägypten. Strategien der Krisenbewältigung bei nomadischen und sesshaften Bevölkerungsgruppen im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert”. In: Patrick Masius, Jana Sprenger, Eva Mackowiak (eds): Katastrophen machen Geschichte. Umweltgeschichtliche Prozesse im Spannungsfeld von Ressourcennutzung und Extremereignis, Göttingen 2010, pp. 47-62.

(with S. Leder:) Kreuzzüge als Teil des Feldzugs gegen die Welt des Islams. In: S. Leder (ed.): Feinde – Fremde – Freunde. Die Kreuzfahrer aus orientalischer Sicht. Halle 2005 (Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte 19), 23–28.

Zwischen Mut und Ehrgefühl. Frauen bei den Kreuzzügen. In: S. Leder (ed.): Feinde – Fremde – Freunde. Die Kreuzfahrer aus orientalischer Sicht. Halle 2005 (Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte 19), 67–76.

Martin Grosch, Dipl.-Ing. (FH)

[three maps of the Near East in the 10th–11th centuries]. In: Kurt Franz, Vom Beutezug zur Territorialherrschaft. Das lange Jahrhundert des Aufstiegs von Nomaden zur Vormacht in Syrien und Mesopotamien 286–420/899–1029. Beduinische Gruppen in mittelislamischer Zeit I. Wiesbaden 2007 (Nomaden und Sesshafte 5), 16 f., 110 f., 244 f.

(with Jutta Häser:) Ein archäologisches Internet-Geoinformationssystem für die Oase Ibra' in Oman. In: Baghdader Mitteilungen 35 (2004), 103–120. http://gfm14.tfh-berlin.de/Ibra2003/index.html – Maps (only Internet Explorer)