An inscription from the Badia: Documenting evidence for the plague in the Mameluke Period

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research addresses the study of an Arabic inscription found in the northern region of Wadi al-Ṣarār, north-east of the town of Safawi in the Jordanian north-east Badia. The significance of this inscription lies in the fact that it documents, and is contemporaneous with, the plague (Black Death) which afflicted the population in the year 1363 ce (765 ah) during the Mameluke period. An additional point of interest is that the author of the inscription has written a votive prayer and a pious poem plagiarized from another Arabic poem with some small changes in the wording.