পৃষ্ঠা 89: প্রথম অধ্যায়: দূরবর্তী আলামতসমূহ যা ইতিমধ্যে প্রকাশ পেয়ে অতিক্রান্ত হয়েছে

Account of the severe famine that occurred in Diyar Bakr, Mosul, and elsewhere, and what ensued as a result.

Death spread, and the inhabitants of entire villages perished, to the extent that a traveler would pass by a village and not see a single soul kindling a fire. You would find houses standing wide open with their inhabitants lying dead inside. The roads turned into fields of corpses, a banquet of human flesh for birds and predatory beasts. Free people and children were sold for a few paltry dirhams, and this calamity persisted for two years.

Abu Shamah stated in al-Dhayl: "Indeed, in this year, al-Adil al-Kabir shrouded from his own wealth, within a brief span of time, approximately two hundred and twenty thousand dead, and it was said: three hundred thousand strangers. Dogs and carrion were eaten in Egypt, and vast numbers of little children were consumed, to the extent that a father would roast his own child and eat him! This became so widespread among the people that it was no longer condemned. Then they began plotting against one another, devouring whomever they could overpower. Whenever the strong prevailed over the weak, he would slaughter him and eat him. Many physicians vanished; people would summon them pretending to treat the sick, only to slaughter and eat them." End quote.

In the year 718 AH, a terrible famine befell Diyar Bakr, Mosul, Erbil, Mardin, al-Jazira, Mayyafariqin, and other regions. The lands were laid waste, children were sold, and death multiplied among the people, to the extent that fifteen thousand people perished of starvation in Jazirat Ibn Umar alone, and approximately three thousand boys were sold. A young boy was sold for about ten dirhams or slightly more, and the Tatars bought them.

Most of the inhabitants of Mayyafariqin died, such that only six shops remained in its marketplaces. In Mosul, the famine was even more severe than in Mardin; children were sold there until the homes became utterly destitute of inhabitants, and the people consumed rotten carcasses and dead animals. A man sold his own son for twelve dirhams.

And he said: "I spent fifty dinars on his circumcision!" The buyers used to hesitate to purchase Muslim children, so a woman or girl would pose as a Christian and profess Christianity so that buyers would be willing to purchase her. The people of Erbil ate wild herbs, then tree bark, and then rotten carcasses; a swift, widespread death struck them, the survivors were displaced, and many of them perished in the snow. Al-Birzali recorded this in Dhayl al-Rawdatayn, and I have presented a summary of it.

O Allah, we seek refuge in You from hunger, for it is indeed an evil companion in bed!