Long before COVID-19 swept over the globe, the Plague of Justinian gave rise to widespread upheaval as the opening chapter of the world's first plague pandemic. From 541 to 750 C.E., the bubonic ...

Historians have traced myths about the Black Death’s rapid journey across Asia to one 14th-century poem by Ibn al-Wardi. His ...

The revelation centers on a text called a "maqāma" - an Arabic literary genre featuring traveling tricksters - written by the poet and historian Ibn al-Wardi in 1348-49 in Aleppo, according to the new ...

Thomas Jeffries does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

Mass hysteria? Ergot poisoning? Or just despair? Here’s why what started as one woman’s dance spiraled into one of history’s strangest outbreaks. Around 400 people danced for days without rest in ...