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The Plague, The Days, Love in the Time of Cholera and The White Castle .. nov-
els that tackled the pandemics that struck mankind in different times

However, in Italy they managed to tackle the epi-
demic gradually by quarantine (a word derived from the
number 40 in French) to keep ships and their sailors at
sea for forty days before entering the ports.

The Efforts of Arab Doctors
Muslim historians and writers disagreed over the in-
terpretation of the plague. Indeed, there were those who
realized before the Europeans that it was a contagious pan-
demic, and advised on how to avoid it and stop its spread. Dean of Arabic literature, Taha Hussein
Dr. Ahmed Abdel-Gawad, argues that the doctor and
Muslim scholar Abu Bakr Al-Razi have reported an accu-
rate description of the plague and its symptoms. He also
denotes that the Andalusian historian Lisan Al-Din Ibn
Al-Khatib identified ways to prevent it as an infectious dis-
ease “it spread from clothes, cups, water and even earring
of the deceased”
The plague continued to strike that region of the world
from time to time during the rule of the Ottomans until
the French campaign, as Napoleon and his army were not
spared the epidemic. Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk
In his book Aja’ib al-athar fi’l-tarajim wa’l-akhbar (The
Marvelous Compositions of Biographies and Events)
Al-Jabarti tells how the French began to compel the Egyp- stemmed from his fear for the army in case of epidemic
tians to new habits after the outbreak of the epidemic. outbreaks, but this project, which started building quarries
However, all these efforts did not really bear fruit except around the camps, also extended to the ports in Alexan-
during the reign of Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman governor, dria and Suez.
who is historically seen as the founder of modern Egypt. Until that time, the French and German scientists had
not determined the link with which the disease was trans-
Scientific Controversy mitted from infected mice to humans via fleas. So, the
Through an extensive Western-style quarantine efforts adopted by Muhammad
report on the Corona ep- Ali only received discontent and anger from the public
idemic published by the who denounced the orders of the pasha to put patients
BBC Arabic website, in Isolation and preventing the washing or shrouding of
Dr. Khaled Fahmy, a the dead.
professor of history Perhaps the feelings of the public will not be strange if
at Oxford University, we know that Clot Bey, the “founder of modern medicine”
argues that Muham- in Egypt, was incompatible with the theory of infection.
Nazik Al-Malaika mad Ali’s health project In a book entitled “A Glimpse of Egypt”, Clot Bey says:

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