The Baghdad famine of 334 AH (945-946)

غلاء بغداد سنة 334هـ

between 945 and 946 CE · 334 AH

The famine that followed the war of Mu'izz al-Dawla and Nasir al-Dawla for Baghdad in 334 AH. Miskawayh describes people without any bread eating the dead, grass and carrion, houses sold for loaves, dogs eating the unburied dead, and the weak setting out for Basra to eat dates and mostly dying on the road, until the fighting ended and the new harvest brought prices down ¹.

Overview

Among the events of 334 AH in Tajarib al-umam, Miskawayh describes a severe famine that struck Baghdad after the war of Mu'izz al-Dawla and Nasir al-Dawla for the city, under the heading "The dearth made people into beasts of prey". ²

Prices during the war

The dearth began before the war ended. Mu'izz al-Dawla's camp on the west bank was cut off, and Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Harun bought him a kurr of fine flour for twenty thousand dirhams. ³ On the east bank bread was five ratls a dirham because flour came from Mosul; on the west bank a single ratl cost a dirham and a quarter, when it could be found. ⁴ Crossing between the two banks was impossible, and the people of the countryside suffered greatly because the soldiers reaped their crops and carried them off to their camp. ⁴

The famine

Miskawayh says the dearth grew so extreme that year "that people had no bread at all". They ate grass, carrion and the dead, and gathered around the dung of animals to pick out the barley in it. He records that they took psyllium seed, beat it with water, spread it on an iron plate over the fire and ate it; their bowels swelled, most of them died, and those who survived "looked like the dead". ²

Men, women and children stood by the roadside crying "Hunger, hunger!" until they fell and died. Anyone who found a little bread hid it under his clothes or it was snatched from him, and because the dead were so many that they could not all be buried, dogs ate their flesh. ⁵ Miskawayh reports cases of women caught killing and eating children, who were put to death, and says houses and estates were sold for loaves of bread, the broker taking his fee out of that same bread. ⁵

The exodus to Basra

The weak set out for Basra "in great numbers, one after another" to eat dates; most of them perished on the road, and those who arrived died a little later. ⁵

The end

Miskawayh writes: "When the strife ended and the new harvest came in, prices fell." ⁵ In his account this year leads straight on to Mu'izz al-Dawla's grants of the Sawad to his commanders and soldiers, made while prices were "extremely high because of the drought", as told in Mu'izz al-Dawla's iqta' grants. ⁶

Sources

Miskawayh, Tajarib al-umam — vol. 6 (ed. Abu al-Qasim Imami, Surush, 2000) , p. 127-128

Miskawayh, Tajarib al-umam — vol. 6 (ed. Abu al-Qasim Imami, Surush, 2000) , p.127

Miskawayh, Tajarib al-umam — vol. 6 (ed. Abu al-Qasim Imami, Surush, 2000) , p.122

Miskawayh, Tajarib al-umam — vol. 6 (ed. Abu al-Qasim Imami, Surush, 2000) , p.123

Miskawayh, Tajarib al-umam — vol. 6 (ed. Abu al-Qasim Imami, Surush, 2000) , p.128

Miskawayh, Tajarib al-umam — vol. 6 (ed. Abu al-Qasim Imami, Surush, 2000) , p.129

Abu Dawud's first journey: Baghdad, Basra and Mecca, 220/835

In his own words, reported by Abu Ubayd al-Ajurri: he prayed over 'Affan at Baghdad in 220; he entered Basra as they were saying Uthman ibn al-Haytham the mu'adhdhin had died the day before — he had died in Rajab 220 — hearing Abu 'Amr al-Darir in a single session and following 'Umar ibn Hafs ibn Ghiyath home without hearing him; and at Mecca, in the pilgrimage days of 220, he heard al-Qa'nabi, Sulayman ibn Harb and others.

The Baghdad famine of 334 AH (945-946)

At a glance

In time

In space