num_pages: 336
description: The preeminent meditation on plagues and pandemics from the Islamic world now in English for the first timeA Penguin ClassicSix hundred years ago the author of this landmark work of history and religious thoughtan esteemed judge poet and scholar in Cairosurvived the bubonic plague which took the lives of three of his children not to mention tens of millions of others throughout the medieval world. Holding up an eerie mirror to our own time he reflects on the origins of plaguesfrom those of the Prophet Muhammads era to the Black Death of his ownand what it means that such catastrophes could have been willed by God while also chronicling the fear isolation scapegoating economic tumult political failures and crises of faith that he lived through. But in considering the meaning of suffering and mass death he also offers a message of radical hope. Weaving together accounts of evil jinn religious stories medical manuals death-count registers poetry and the authors personal anecdotes Merits of the Plague is a profound reminder that with tragedy comes one of the noblest expressions of our the practice of compassion patience and care for those around us.
language: English
title: Merits of the Plague
publisher: Penguin Classics