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JANIBEG'S LAST SIEGE OF CAFFA (1346-1347) AND THE BLACK DEATH: THE EVIDENCE AND CHRONOLOGY REVISITED1
Moshe Grinberg
The Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel levant17@mail. ru
Abstract. Research objective: to investigate historical reality behind the supposed Tatar bombardment of Caffa by the plague-infected cadavers of their comrades-in-arms, and to clarify the chronology of this and other Golden Horde's sieges of Caffa during Janibeg's reign (1342-1357), as well as of the Black Death's spread from the Jochid realm to Europe.
Research materials: the chronicle of Gabriele de Mussis, a Genoese chronicle, Venetian diplomatic documents, Franciscan travellers' accounts (more as cultural background), and rich secondary literature on these topics.
Results and novelty of the research: the event under discussion attracted much attention of historical research, especially those specialized in military history, who saw it even as the first or one of the first acts of biological warfare in the human history. Some researchers doubted this story, but without much argumentation. The novelty of the research is in an attempt to provide more detailed argumentation against the reality of this event, which is examined from different angles: source-study, chronological, cultural, and military. Additionally, the research tries to define the chronological framework of the event, which was allegedly occurred during Janibeg's last siege of Caffa, as well as to clarify the chronology and causes of the Black Death's spread from the Golden Horde to Europe. The results of the research allow to put the events under discussion in a much clearer chronological framework; to explain some of the reasons behind the rapid spread of the plague to the Eastern Mediterranean, and from there - to the
1 The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement n° 312397.
This article was originally written as part of one of the chapters of my thesis work written in English for a master's degree at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which was not eventually included in the final edition of the work. For the present publication in the form of an article, it has been significantly revised and supplemented. There is also a Russian version of this paper, which I submitted for publication, too. This version is a later one, and some small supplements were added to it.
rest of Europe; and to lend a more solid and diverse evidential base for rejecting the reality of the story of the alleged act of the Tatar1 "biological warfare" against Caffa's defenders.
Keywords: Caffa, Crimea, Black Sea, Genoa, Venice, Italy, Italian maritime republics, Golden Horde, Tatars, Janibeg, Gabriele de Mussis, Black Death, plague, siege, war, biological warfare.
In the mid-fourteenth century, the whole Eurasian continent underwent one of the largest natural catastrophes in its history: a global-scale pandemic outbreak of the plague, known as the Black Death. Since the major part of this continent was included directly or indirectly into the Pax Mongolica, the Mongol-led realms of the Pax were badly affected by this catastrophe as well2. The Golden Horde, or the Ulus of Jochi, one of these largest realms, was not an exception3.
By this period, the Golden Horde, ruled by the Jochid Khan Janibeg (r. 13421357), was at war with the Italian maritime republics - Venice and Genoa, - which had their colonies on the northern littoral of the Black and Azov Seas in that epoch. This conflict originated in the so-called "crisis of Tana" in September 1343, when in Tana4 (present-day Azov at the Don River's mouth) a Venetian noble killed one of the Tatar merchants, and this led to the pillaging and massacre of the Italians, who were in Tana. The escaping colonists fled on ships [9, pp. 75-76, 79-80; 10, p. 187; 13, pp. 122-123]. All Italians were banished from Tana for five years [28, p. 34]. This did not satisfy the Horde's authorities, who began to destroy systematically the Italian colonies in the region. By the period under discussion,
1 Here and below the ethnonym "Tatars" means all the Turkic nomadic and urban population of the Golden Horde. Not to be confused with modern nations and ethnic groups bearing the same name. Simply defined, without going into the problem of the language of the elite and the clerical language of the Ulus of Jochi (see a brief description of the different views on this subject in the article of I. Vasary [36, pp. 62-63], the word "a Tatar" is an equivalent of the word "a Turkic-speaking citizen (subject) of the Golden Horde" in this article.
2 A summary of the Black Death's development in Europe is to be found in O. Benedictow's comprehensive study [3]. For the history of the plague in the Middle East, see M. Dols' study [7].
3 The best and quite a rare summary of the Black Death in the Golden Horde is presented in U. Schamiloglu's article [27], see also his summary in Russian [25]. For more generalized study on this topic, see N.D. Russev's article [23], see also a historiographical review by T.F. Khajdarov [15]. More comprehensive and detailed studies of the subject are yet to be appeared. Most recently, another summarizing study by U. Schamiloglu appeared [26]; it examines the (negative) influence of the Black Death upon the Golden Horde. I saw it quite accidently several minutes after I had almost accomplished this paper. So, I have acquainted with it only briefly yet, but the relevant passage from his article will be mentioned below.
4 Parts of this city were occupied by Genoese and Venetian colonies in this period through the agreements with the khans of the Golden Horde.
only one major Italian colony - Genoese Caffa (present-day Feodosiya on the south-eastern coast of the Crimean Peninsula), - being both a commercial center and a stronghold, survived. It, however, experienced several sieges by numerous Tatar armies. The last of them, more correctly its most famous episode, will be explored in the present article.
This episode, mentioned only in an Italian contemporary source, which will be examined below, is connected to the appearance of the plague in the Crimea, and subsequently at the walls of Caffa in 1346. When the Black Death had arrived at this locality and struck the besieging army, the Tatars began to hurl their deceased comrades-in-arms to the city. This caused a major epidemic in Caffa, which nevertheless did not surrender. The Horde's army, boring heavy losses through the plague, was forced eventually to raise the siege1. However, the sick inhabitants of Caffa spread the infection further by sea, causing, in fact, the Black Death in Europe. This is a brief retelling of those tragic events, as they appear in the aforementioned source. Scholars' opinions of this story are divided. Some of them trust it almost unreservedly [12, p. 305; 17, pp. 202-203; 21, p. 219; 23, p. 221; 38, pp. 973-974; 39, pp. 13-15]2; others doubt, but those who doubt resort only to medical or historical-medical argumentation, ignoring other contexts [3, pp. 51-54; 8, p. 37; 30, ch. 1.3; 31, ch. 5]3. Their main reason is that such a
1 In fact, Gabriele de Mussis does not mention the lifting of the siege, but since he does not mention Tatar invasion in the city following the bombardment, we can reasonably conclude that it was not of much benefit to the besiegers, who were subsequently forced to leave. This is exactly how the sense of de Mussis' narration is conveyed by W. Heyd [10, p. 196]. This detail hints at quite incoherent, possibly compiled, content of his narrative.
2 One of these researchers, T. May, even displays great power of imagination to fill up the insufficient information in the single source and draw a picture how such a bombardment would have been looked in reality. It is better to be quoted: "It may have been a fine day for a Genoese merchant as they sat outside a tavern in Kaffa, drinking wine made from the grapes grown in region and perhaps snacking on caviar from a local sturgeon. Certainly the siege lay outside but it seemed unlikely that the Mongols would destroy the town as they reaped a tremendous amount of revenue from the trade that passed through Kaffa, although they had sacked Kaffa in 1298/9 and 1308. The fact that it was a port city meant that escape was relatively easy... Suddenly from out the clear blue sky an object falls and hits your table. Chunks of body, blood and pus from the buboes splatter over the area. It is not raining bodies but in order to dispose of the dead the Mongols decided to use them as trebuchet missiles." I am still amused by his story, but do not consider that it has any link to historical reality.
Considering the other "supporters" of de Mussis' account, M. Wheelis alone provided more or less developed, albeit brief, argumentation in defence of his source. This is the reason why he is the most mentioned object of my critical notes in this paper.
3 Additionally, there are some scholars, who preferred to avoid completely all mention of the story of the bombardment [13, p. 123; 25, p. 687; 27, p. 448]. However, U. Schamiloglu has somewhat changed this approach, judging by his aforementioned new article, in which de Mussis is cited as a source describing real events at Caffa (at least, there were not raised doubts about reliability of this chronicler's information). See [26, pp. 329-330].
bombardment by bodies could not actually contaminate the city, because the plague was transmitted in other ways. In my opinion, we can and should doubt this story, even before applying to medical specialists. Not being such a specialist, I shall try to refute de Mussis' account, basing myself mainly on additional, non-medical considerations.
The first one is relating to the source base. As mentioned, there is the only source describing those events1. Its author is Gabriele de Mussis (ca. 1280 - ca. 1356), a lawyer in Piacenza. As it was shown, yet in the 19th century, the author did not leave the city at that period and could not witness the events he described [10, p. 196, no. 1; 38, p. 972]2. Moreover, this manuscript was discovered only in 1842 in the present-day Polish city of Wroclaw (!) (at that time the former German (Prussian) city of Breslau). It is not even dated and has no references to other sources contemporary to its period, as well as it is not mentioned by them3. That means that this is an isolated source, and therefore its information needs some verification, at least, if we want to use it as an evidence base for any historical event. It should be even more suspicious, however, that such significant occurrences are mentioned in neither source else. Moreover, such terrific events usually generated legends, and Janibeg should have appeared in much darker colors in the European consciousness in this case.
The second argument is chronological. The motherland of the Genoese was attacked by the massive onslaught of the Black Death only at the beginning of 1348 [3, p. 92]. According to another Italian (Sicilian) contemporary source, written by Michele da Piazza (d. 1377), the contamination of Italy began from the Sicilian
1 This source is written in Latin and titled as follows: "Historia de Morbo sive Mortalitate quae fuit Anno Dni MCCCXLVIII" ("History of the Disease, or the [Great] Dying of the Year of our Lord 1348"). In this article, I use its complete translation into English, made by R. Horrox [11, pp. 14-26].
2 For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that O. Benedictow and R. Gottfried actually point to this fact and to the fact that the author too much trusted the stories of sailors or traders [3, p. 51; 25, p. 37]. O. Benedictow also believes that de Mussis could invent this story to explain the rampant epidemic among the faithful Christians - the inhabitants of Caffa [3, p. 52]. This version can partially claim the role of a historiographic interpretation of the source, but, in my opinion, it is still rather weak, because it again does not mention other contexts, neither analyzes the nature of the source and the circumstances of its discovery, but only emphasizes the religious identification of the chronicler. But the most vulnerable point of this version is the question why this reason did not hamper other Christian and Muslim chroniclers, who were witnesses of the pandemic of the plague, to paint its horrors among the adherents of either their (which was more frequent, as their environment where they had the opportunity to observe the events directly was usually of their own faith at that epoch) or other faiths and often explain them here and there with God's punishment.
3 For a brief information on the chronicler and his work, see [6, p. 59; 11, p. 14; 30, ch. 1.3; 38, p. 972].
port of Messina in October 1347 [1, p. 29, 11, p. 36]1. Thus, there is a significant chronological gap between the pandemic outbreak in Caffa and the plague's spread further in Europe.
Thirdly, one of the recent researchers of this issue M. Wheelis argues that such warfare, its implementations and the medical knowledge behind were quite ordinary for that time [Wheelis, 2002, p. 973]. However, he has not shown any precedent of this warfare, further still of a nomad army, further still of a Mongol army2. I consider such warfare very unusual for the nomads in general, and for the Mongols in particular. First, this kind of warfare contradicts our knowledge about the nomad behavior during the epidemics: they quit the contaminated area as soon as possible3. In addition, concerning the Mongols themselves, they were used to leave their fatally ill tribesmen alone, more than that, they marked the tent of the
1 The contemporary Florentine chroniclers, the brothers Giovanni and Matteo Villani (Giovanni died from the plague in 1348, his brother Matteo continued his chronicle up to 1363 until falling victim to another outbreak of plague in Florence), also notice that the plague began from Sicily. See [1, p. 20; 37, p. 453]. It is interesting that both Michele da Piazza and Matteo Villani record that these were Genoese galleys which brought the epidemic to this island. The former chronicler notes that the galleys numbered twelve, but does not indicate from where they came. The latter does specify that they sailed from the Black Sea, but the number of the arrived ships was four only from the total eight that were stationed in this sea. Although some features of their stories are in accordance with de Mussis' account, it is important that they mention no siege of Caffa, not to speak of any bombardment of the city. This not only casts doubt on de Mussis' story, but possibly also indicates that these Genoese galleys came to Sicily after the events described by de Mussis (i. e. after the siege of Caffa).
2 This is not his fail, as in his other article, where he depicts the origins of the bacteriological warfare, M. Wheelis points to the sole documented episode in the human history, which preceded chronologically to the Caffan events (1340, that is almost simultaneously). It occurred in France during the One Hundred Years' War, and included possibly the hurling of horse carcasses to the fortress. Another episode possibly took place in Bohemia during the Hussite wars (1422, that is one hundred years later), and this time there were indeed thrown human cadavers to the besieged city, not infected, however. The source base of both cases does not allow claiming the fact of their occurrence unequivocally. See [39, pp. 10-16]. Anyway, the Caffan event appears to remain the only described example of using infectious human corpses to spread the disease intentionally during the war throughout the Middle Ages and even later, if it indeed happened. It obviously had had no precedent. Thus, his consideration that "this was probably not the only, nor the first, instance of apparent attempts to transmit disease by hurling biological material into besieged cities" [38, p. 973] is not confirmed by his another study. In this other study, he is more careful about de Mussis' account, admitting his problematical nature, but still trusting him as a chronicler [39, p. 14].
3 Even more so, nomads used to migrate away as they detected sick rodent community nearby. Understandably, they were moved by a superstition that it brings a bad luck, but this superstition appears to have a firm rational behind. See [18, pp. 137-138].
sick pointing to others not enter in [5, p. 12]1. Moreover, the funeral rites, customs and beliefs of the Mongol and Turk nomads in that period clearly contradicted such kind of a warfare2.
Finally, the way that de Mussis describes the event raises questions as well. After the massive strike of the plague, the Tatars "lost interest in the siege" [11, p. 17]. So, hurling of the corpses of the deceased to the city we can consider as a pure revenge. The author describes the suffering of the city henceforth, because of this warfare. A part of his further story is better to be quoted [ibid., pp. 18-19]:
"As it happened, among those who escaped from Caffa by boat were a few sailors who had been infected with the poisonous disease. Some boats were bound for Genoa, others went to Venice and to other Christian areas. When the sailors reached these places and mixed with the people there, it was as if they had brought evil spirits with them: every city, every settlement, every place was poisoned by the contagious pestilence, and their inhabitants, both men and women, died suddenly."
Primarily, we see that the city was apparently much deserted. It is not so clear why the vengeful Tatars did not try to burst into this largely deserted city in order to raze it to the ground. Why did they prefer dying under the city walls, throwing the corpses over them instead of storming furiously these walls? Furthermore, we do not see any mention of Messina in Sicily, to which Genoese sailors had brought the disease before, according to another Italian source. In sum, the account of Gabriele de Mussis is very questionable, controversial at the least.
1 Moreover, as this source written by Plano Carpini testifies, "none of those who are present at his death can enter the orda of any chief or the Emperor until the new moon." Carpini's fellow traveler and also a Franciscan friar, Benedict Poliak, reports of a period of nine months for violators [20, pp. 92-93]. The prohibition is confirmed by William Rubruck, who points to one-year period as the ban's term [22, pp. 94, 219].
2 P.O. Rykin, who summarized the narrative sources of the funeral practices of the Mongols in the imperial period (13th-14th centuries), argues convincingly that the Mongols (as well as the Turks) were buried in that period, and not left in the steppe. Leaving corpses in this manner (an open inhumation) was introduced much later but prevails until nowadays (it is enough to remember the film "Urga - territory a ljubvi" ["Urga - the Country of Love"] by N.S. Mikhalkov. P.O. Rykin claims that then (in the imperial period) leaving corpses unburied meant disrespect for the dead and was negatively valued. See [24, pp. 268-269]. It is confirmed by the archaeological studies of the Golden Horde, revealing a clear picture of burials of either pagan or Muslim residents. For a summary, see Vasil'ev, [35, pp. 149-161, esp. p. 158; also 34, pp. 39-51]. Moreover, the Horde's army apparently consisted a certain number of Muslim soldiers and emirs, with their Islamic rigorous ritual of burial, a brief description of which with the local peculiarities see at [34, pp. 35-38]. One can safely conclude that the execution of the order described in de Mussis' account would have been very problematical even in probably very disciplinary Tatar troops. By the way, such an order would have been very problematical in any army of that period. It is not occasional that the other recorded order of hurling human corpses (of the besiegers) to the besieged city was delivered perhaps by a Polish prince of Lithuanian origin, who commanded foreign Czech heretical (Hussite) troops [39, pp. 15-16].
As long as it remains the only source of the Horde's "biological warfare" at Caffa's walls, we can reasonably suspect the authenticity of the event. For me, the picture of the agonizing Tatars, stubbornly staying at the city's walls and hurling thousands of cadavers of their comrades-in-arms, seems unrealistic and unreliable1.
Despite the questionable character of de Mussis' account, there is no doubt about the principal place of the Crimean Peninsula in the further spread of the plague, both to the Christian and Muslim parts of the Mediterranean world [3, pp. 60-63, 69-70; 7, pp. 51-52; 38, p. 974]. As cited, de Mussis clearly linked the spread of the plague in Europe to the Tatar siege of Caffa. This claim is refuted even by some researchers that generally support his account, such as M. Wheelis [38, p. 974]2. To clarify this, we must previously clarify the chronology of the pandemic spread. Let return to the chronology of the pandemic spread in Caffa. O. Benedictow asserts that the plague was slowly developing in the city in the early winter of 1347.3 With the weather's warming in the following spring (of 1347), the epidemic exploded, compelling many of Caffan inhabitants "to flee in panic" [3, p. 61]. One of the most famous witnesses of the plague in the Islamic world, the Syrian chronicler and poet of the Mamluk epoch, Ibn al-Wardi, informs us that the plague struck the Golden Horde in Rajab 747/October-November 1346 [7, p. 51; 27, pp. 449, 455, no. 29]. M. Dols points out that only after this pestilent disease arrived at the Crimea and Byzantium [7, p. 51]. Thereby, we should support O. Benedictow's version and conclude that the plague struck Caffa most likely in the spring of 1347.
Now we should follow of the pandemic chronology in the Mediterranean world. As mentioned, the plague appeared in Sicily in October 1347. Reasonably, it had already appeared in the Eastern Mediterranean. In July 1347, the pestilence was recorded in Constantinople [3, p. 61]4; a little later, in the early autumn of the same year the plague reached Alexandria on the southern Mediterranean coast [3, p. 63; 7, pp. 57-60], and simultaneously struck Trebizond on the southern Black Sea coast [3, p. 61; 7, p. 63]. About the same time, the disease was transmitted
1 For M. Wheelis, this is a realistic picture and he emphasizes that there "could have been involved many thousands of cadavers" [38, p. 973]. Since it is unlikely that the Horde had too many catapults (or trebuchets), it should have taken many days. All this time, the Horde's army was patiently throwing the bodies of its soldiers, not attempting to assault the hatred city, to flee from the vigorous danger, or even to revolt against the desecration and disrespect to their perished comrades-in-arms. I think it is a highly improbable picture.
2 The researcher refuted Mussis' description on the chronological grounds. Cf.J.Aberth [1, p. 13], who did not distinguish here a chronological problem.
3 S.P. Karpov also considers the beginning of that winter as the time when the plague first appeared in Caffa, adding to this city the city of Tana as well [14, p. 225].
4 Some other researchers [1, p. 13; 2, p. 394; 14, p. 225] date the Black Death's arrival at this city to the spring of 1347. That dating does not contradict Benedictow's opinion, since this opinion presumes that it took usually seven-eight weeks for epidemic development before the plague was identified.
to Cyprus [8, p. 42]. Thus, it can be argued that the contamination of the Mediterranean world began by the summer of 1347, while most of the infectious contacts took place in the early autumn of 1347.
By this period, however, the political situation in the Black Sea region was changed, since the Italian maritime republics had apparently reached armistices with the Golden Horde [4, pp. 212, 214; 10, p. 188; 19, pp. 208, 213]. It can be suggested that the trade routes from the Golden Horde had reopened as well. We should remember that because of the embargo, a large volume of unutilized goods was accumulated inside the Horde [4, pp. 213-214]. So, there is no surprise in the renewed trade activity despite the plague - the merchants aspired to trade off those goods1. This is an additional striking example how the trade facilitated the plague2. In sum, the peace rather than the war was an unwitting assistant of the pandemic diffusion.
Returning to the chronology of the siege of Caffa, it is necessary to determine previously the total number of the Horde's sieges of this city. This is not a simple task, because the sources are scarce and the scholars' opinions diverge again. But from sporadic mentions in Italian sources, it can be suggested that there had been two more sieges before 13463. Subsequently, this one was supposedly the
1 According to Matteo Villani [37, p. 453], Italian ships arrived at Sicily from the Black Sea, Byzantium, and Levant (Syria), while aspiring to escape the plague and return home with their merchandise (so, it is quite likely that these were the same Genoese ships that came to Messina). It seems that they hoped to transport the acquired goods (and maybe to acquire some merchandise on the way) before the plague would reach themselves, but the pestilence was faster.
2 M. Dols considers merchant fleet to be very effective transportation of the plague. Its ships carried infected rats; and merchandise and foodstuffs on board, and especially furs, popular in Mamluk Egypt, transmitted easily infected fleas [7, p. 57]. This opinion is shared by J. Aberth, too, who assumes that the territory of Italy could also be infected through the transportation of furs [1, p. 13]. Yet, in addition to luxury goods, ships also transported living essentials, grain, in particular, from the contaminated areas of the northern Black Sea region. Thus, not only the greed, but also trivial hunger forced people to forget precautions and their fear of the epidemic [14, pp. 225-226]. Moreover, the grain shortage was apparently so serious that the Venetian Senate, even before the truce with the Golden Horde (in April 1347), ordered its merchants to come back and participate in the grain trade with the territories under the control of Janibeg, despite the Senate's own ban on trade with such territories (also mentioned, by the way, in this decree) [32, p. 60; 33, p. 336].
However, the most effective epidemic agent was possibly a man. The most salient example of this is probably the arrival of a large slave ship from the Black Sea region to Alexandria. By its arrival, the personnel on board: the crew, slaves and merchants, had been mostly died, the rest of them died in the harbor. See [7, p. 60; also 3, p. 63]. O. Benedictow doubts the figures of al-Maqrizi, who told the story, but the tendency is nevertheless clear.
3 The first siege, which is briefly described in the Genoese chronicle by the brothers Stella, took place in February 1344 [29, p. 135; see also 10, p. 188]. This siege is frequently referred to in the historical literature; it badly ended for the besieging troops, because the Genoese destroyed their siege machines in a night foray. The second attempt to take Caffa
third Tatar siege of Caffa1. I suggest that the third campaign against Caffa took place in the winter of 1346-1347, since the winter period was preferred by the Horde's army for military campaigns [16, pp. 41-45]. Thus, the campaign matches chronologically with the pandemic spread in the region (of Crimea). This in no way means the "responsibility" of the besieging Tatar army for contaminating Caffa. Perhaps, the first ones who fled from there were the besiegers, and only then they were followed by the besieged (but to different destinations, of course). Additionally, the way of infecting the city, as proposed by de Mussis, should be doubted as well. Certainly, there were more ways to introduce plague bacteria into the city.2 Similarly, there were much more ways to transmit the plague to Europe than the described one in de Mussis' account3.
References
1. Aberth J. (ed.) The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, Bedford/St. Martin's Publ., 2005. xv + 199 p.
2. Bartsocas C. Two Fourteenth Century Greek Descriptions of the 'Black Death'. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 1966, vol. 21/4, pp. 394-400.
in the summer of 1245 is mentioned in a document of the Venetian Senate [33, pp. 333334; see also 32, p. 57]; this one is almost devoid of historians' attention, at least, I have seen it only here: [9, pp. 83-84]. These researchers suggested that the city paid a ransom this time; I doubt this, because Janibeg wanted its submission probably more than its tribute, in my opinion. Therefore, I assume that this siege was simply unsuccessful, too. On the other hand, it is even more likely that this campaign was only a demonstration of power and did not involve a prolonged siege; at least, the reports of the aforementioned sources speak about the threat from the Golden Horde's army led by Begliaribeg Moghul Buga (d. 1361) rather than about its real actions. In fact, the description of the actual military operations at Caffa during the last two sieges (according to my chronology) remains outside the scope of the known sources of this period (if we admit that the chronicle of de Mussis is unreliable).
1 The Italian researcher G. Petty Balbi also mentions three sieges of Caffa by the Horde's troops, but she refers the last third siege to 1349. Unfortunately, she does not cite sources to support her assumption. See [21, p. 219]. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Francesca Fiaschetti for her translation of this section in the mentioned article.
2 M. Wheelis argues that since the spread of the plague in Caffa was unlikely through the rodent population nearby, the version of de Mussis' account (catapulting corpses) is more credible [38, p. 974]. However, there were many additional ways of man-to-man contagion between the besiegers and the besieged, such as through battles, captives, negotiations, and even trade. Another way, which seems plausible for me, is that the deserted Tatar camp was pillaged by the Caffan inhabitants. This version takes into consideration as the standard nomad behavior during the epidemics, so the standard soldiers-burgers behavior after the besiegers leave. This is valid only if the Horde's troops quitted immediately after breaking the epidemics, since the city's defenders would have been afraid to enter in the literally infectious cemetery, into which the camp would have been turned otherwise.
3 This time I should agree with M. Wheelis, who suggested this [38, p. 974].
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About the author: Moshe Grinberg - a graduate (M.A.) of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (the Faculty of Humanities, an individual program on the history of Russia and Inner Asia) (The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 9190501, Israel). E-mail: [email protected].
Received June 04, 2018.
Accepted for publication July 26, 2018.
ПОСЛЕДНЯЯ ОСАДА КАФФЫ (1346-1347) ХАНОМ ДЖАНИБЕКОМ И ЧЁРНАЯ СМЕРТЬ: К ВОПРОСУ О ДОСТОВЕРНОСТИ ИСТОЧНИКОВ И О ХРОНОЛОГИИ
Моше Гринберг
Еврейский Университет Иерусалим, Израиль 1вуаШ17@таИ ги
Резюме. Цель исследования: исследовать историческую достоверность предполагаемой татарской бомбардировки Каффы заражёнными чумой трупами своих соратников, прояснить хронологию этой и других осад Каффы войсками Золотой Орды во время правления хана Джанибека (1342-1357 гг.), а также хронологию распространения Чёрной Смерти из Улуса Джучи в Европу.
Материалы исследования: хроника Габриэля де Мюсси, другие итальянские хроники, венецианские дипломатические документы, отчеты путешествий францисканских монахов (в качестве культурного фона) и богатая исследовательская литература по данным темам.
Результаты и новизна исследования: обсуждаемое событие привлекло широкое внимание со стороны историков, и некоторые из них даже рассматривали его как первый или один из первых актов биологической войны в истории человечества. Другие исследователи сомневались в этой истории, но без достаточной или при помощи излишне односторонней (медицинской)
аргументации. Новизна исследования заключается в попытке представить более широкий спектр аргументов против достоверности этого события, которое рассматривается с разных точек зрения: источниковедческого, хронологического, культурного и военного. Кроме этого, исследование пытается определить хронологические рамки данного (пусть и вымышленного) события, которое, предположительно, произошло во время последней осады Каффы армией Джанибека, а также уточнить хронологию и некоторые из путей распространения Чёрной Смерти из Золотой Орды в Европу. Результаты исследования позволяют рассматривать обсуждаемые события в гораздо более чётких хронологических рамках; объяснить некоторые причины быстрого распространения чумы в Восточном Средиземноморье, а оттуда -в остальную Европу; и предоставить более солидную и разнообразную доказательную базу для отказа в достоверности рассказу о татарской "биологической войне" против защитников Каффы.
Ключевые слова: Каффа, Крым, Черное море, Генуя, Венеция, Италия, итальянские морские республики, Золотая Орда, татары, Джанибек, Габриэль де Мюсси, Черная смерть, чума, осада, война, биологическая война.
Сведения об авторе: Моше Гринберг - выпускник (магистр) Еврейского Университета в Иерусалиме (гуманитарный факультет, индивидуальная программа по истории России и Центральной Азии) (Еврейский Университет, гора Скопус, Иерусалим 9190501, Израиль). E-mail: [email protected].
Дата поступления материала 04.06.2018.
Принят к публикации 26.07.2018.
