The Black Death in Egypt and England:
A Comparative Study

Stuart J. Borsch
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. 195 pages.

In this cross-regional comparative study, Stuart Borsch marshals medieval
economic data to address why, following the Black Death, “Egypt’s central-
ized and urban landholding system was unable to adapt to massive depopu-
lation, while England’s localized and rural landholding system had fully
recovered by the year 1500” (dust jacket). After making a quick dispatch of
antiquated theories and flawed research, he introduces new findings on
medieval Egypt’s sharp financial downturn in contrast to England’s eco-
nomic stabilization and upswing. 

The author points out that both states were centralized monarchies with
similar population levels and agrarian-based economies overseen by “big
stick” aristocracies. Egypt had a modicum of arable land along the Nile;
England had large areas of pastoral land and far more arable soil (pp. 16-17).
In addition, Egypt’s nonhereditary ruling Mamluk elite, imported Caucasian
and Central Asian slave children (some of whom actually ruled), became
iron-handed absentee landholders: “A vast gulf separated the Mamluk
warrior-landholder from the Egyptian peasant. A barracks-trained Turkish-
or Circassian-speaking Mamluk and a village peasant were probably as for-

108 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:4



eign to each other as Egyptians and Europeans” (p. 27). This social separa-
tion, which helped the landowning system to function well before the
plagues, contributed to its breakdown afterward. 

Borsch’s tome is meant for comparative and world historians, along
with scholars of pre-modern Middle Eastern economic history. He notes that
narrative chronicles, in tandem with other extant sources (e.g., chancery
manuals), formed the lion’s share of his source materials. Cairene sources
included unpublished institutional endowment deeds (waqfiyyat) from the
archives of Egypt’s Ministry of Religious Endowments. These deeds refer-
ence details of endowed structures and how the state handled and extracted
revenue. 

The author’s introductory chapter explains the plague’s three clinical
forms: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. He hypothesizes that the bac-
terium Yersinia pestis, which causes all three forms, may have been a “mutant
strain” of a less devastating bacterium that afflicted the Mediterranean region
as early as the sixth century. The powerful new strain originated in Central
Asia and raged through China, the Middle East, Europe, and elsewhere dur-
ing the fourteenth century: “Plague depopulation, both urban and rural, was
at least as severe in Egypt as in the more heavily stricken areas of Western
Europe. ... Egypt lost roughly half its total population, taking into account the
initial Black Death and subsequent plague outbreaks” (p. 15). 

Borsch sets out “to find two economies with similar parameters (e.g.,
population, levels of GDP, predominance of agriculture, percentage of long-
distance trade in the economy, royal control, etc.) so that a comparison of
agricultural regimes can be carried out with a degree of normative control”
(p. 21). In so doing, he is “able to discover the exact value of the dinar jayshi
(a unit of account) and, consequently, to extract solid quantitative statistics
from Egypt’s 1315 land survey in order to determine Egypt’s land revenue
before the plagues” (p. 11). He also argues convincingly that “the landhold-
ing system, not geography alone, determined the outcome for Egypt’s agrar-
ian economy” (p. 19). 

Chapter 2 explains how Egypt’s canals and inland waterways trans-
ported plague-infected fleas and rats on small grain-carrying vessels (p. 25).
Here, he draws attention to the Mamluks’ dependency on the “mubashirun”
(civilian bureaucrats connected with rural revenue collection) to manage and
stream payments to the landowners. Chapter 3 addresses how the plagues
wreaked havoc on the rural economy and drove peasants to urban centers.
Compounding this disaster was the bureaucratic mismanagement of Egypt’s
all-important irrigation systems. Although Bedouin raids included dike sab-
otage and basin ruinage (p. 51) to expand their own crop territories, “Al-

Book Reviews 109



Maqrizi singles out for blame the amirs (particularly amirs of one hundred)
who ke[pt] the irrigation tax for themselves” (p. 43) instead of maintaining
the canals and dikes. 

Chapter 4 covers the impact of plague-related depopulation (p. 54) on
England’s rural economy: “English landowners were far more likely to live
in their manor houses or, failing that, they would at least visit their rural
estates. Many of the Mamluk landholders, in contrast, had never even seen
their estates” (p. 55). Per capita income, greater economic opportunities for
lower classes, and a more efficient and responsive economy (p. 65) resulted
in England’s economic recovery by the end of the fifteenth century, despite
the Wat Tyler peasant uprising of 1381. 

Chapter 5 reviews the genesis of the dinar jayshi and its relationship
with Egyptian bumper crops of wheat, barley, and broad beans and with
arable land use and management. Chapter 6 analyzes the “price and wage
‘scissors’” in medieval Egypt and England. Wages in England rose steadily,
while they fell in Egypt: “The comparison of Egyptian and English agrarian
living standards is, in the end, more important than any absolute comparison
of prices and wages” (p. 101). 

The author concludes: “Where English landowners failed in their efforts
to collectively confront a scarce rural labor market, Egyptian landholders tri-
umphed brilliantly. The consequences were disaster for Egypt’s rural econ-
omy, the backbone of its economic power … Without the dramatic exoge-
nous shock of the plague, the story of Egypt’s development would have been
very different” (pp. 113-14). Borsch encourages scholars to undertake simi-
lar studies comparing Egypt’s landholding and water systems with those of
Syria, Iran, Ottoman Anatolia, the Balkans, China, and elsewhere (p. 115).
The use of selective photographs would have enhanced his effective presen-
tation of data via flowcharts, diagrams, and tables. 

Borsch does more than just illustrate that the plagues severely affected
Islamic societies; he reveals that differences in the resilience of the two
states’ agrarian economies are not solely attributable to differing quantities
of arable land and readily available water, for contrasting landholding sys-
tems also played a role. In sum, his analysis of archival materials produces
fresh data that will enlighten historians, economists, and political scientists
as they reexamine economic patterns that put such states as England and
Egypt on disparate financial paths in the late medieval period. 

Jeffrey C. Burke
Visiting Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Religious Studies

College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts

110 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:4