6 hundred years ago, even Hajar al-Ascalani, a highly respected judge, poet, and scholar

in Cairo, who is the most powerful legal official in Syria and Egypt, wrote a book called

Marits of the Plague.

It was a landmark work of history and religious thought, in a king directly in the wake of

a terrible outbreak of the Black Death in 1430.

He survived the Babylonic plague, but it took the lives of three of his children, not to

mention tens of millions of others throughout the medieval world.

Even Hajar reflects on the origins of plagues, from those of Muhammad's era to the Black

Death of his own, and what it means that such catastrophes can be ruled by God.

But he also describes the fear, isolation, scapegoating, political failures, and economic

collapse, and crises of faith that he lived through.

And his book really is remarkable, because as a polymath, he weaves in so many different

sources.

He might reference a medical treatise and talk about the origin of the Babylonic plague,

when he gets into moral theology and talks about the problem of suffering and God's will

for it, then he'll discuss possible treatments like rosewater.

It's like reading an article from a CDC official about social distancing, and then for a

few paragraphs he'll break into something that reads like Dostoevsky about the problem

of evil, and then you would get some wellness tips about using essential oils.

He's also surprisingly rational in the book, and says that doing things like going out

into the desert and praying in large groups to God to stop a plague, don't have any historical

support, and don't actually work, so we shouldn't do that.

...