maqāma

This “maqāma”—an Arabic genre of writing often focusing on a traveling “trickster”—was written by the poet and historian, Ibn al-Wardi in 1348/9 in Aleppo but was later mistaken for a factual description of the plague’s movement.

Myths about rapid spread of the Black Death influenced by single “literary tale”, experts show Kerra Maddern 2025