At the beginning of 1200, the inhabitants of Baghdad drew attention to the fact that many emaciated and emaciated people began to arrive from Egypt to them. Few of them came in a cart drawn by exhausted oxen. There were more of those who simply trudged on foot. When they reached Baghdad, they could barely keep their feet, and some fell right at the city gates and asked for help. Some were given water and a cake, others were covered with blankets, since they showed almost no signs of life. The stronger ones and those who had money stayed in the city for several days and then continued on their way. All intended to get to well-fed and rich countries - Arabia, Yemen and Syria.
To the question "What was the reason for such a sudden exodus from your country?" - all who arrived answered one thing: the rains stopped in the Nile valley. Refugees said that in that year the water level in the Nile dropped noticeably, its shallowing began, which led to an extensive drought and the death of the entire crop. The river has turned into a pitiful stream. There is no water, only dirt remains, there is nothing to drink. A terrible famine and pestilence began among the inhabitants of Egypt. Everyone is starving, hunger has entered the Sultan's palace.
First, the fellahi killed and ate all the domestic animals they had, then they caught all the birds in the area. But that didn't save. Hunger and thirst reached such proportions that cannibalism began and people began to kill each other. Discord and arbitrariness reigned in the country, it is no longer possible to stay there, people can simply devour each other.
One of the chroniclers of that time recorded the following story of the arriving Egyptian. “I saw a fried child with my own eyes. It was carried to the emir, and those who committed this sacrilege - the father and mother of the child, swollen from hunger, were led after him. The emir, in order to intimidate all residents, sentenced both to roasting over a fire."
After public roasting at the stake of cannibal parents, whose torment and death were watched by many townspeople, their meat was handed out to the hungry crowd. This food was allowed to be consumed … This was the command of the emir.
Even in states of the classical type, like the Greek Sparta or Athens, the issue of supplying the population with food was of paramount importance. Majestic Rome itself was heavily dependent on bread from Sicily and Egypt, and a delay of one or two days was already threatening disaster. It is no coincidence that the famous saying "Bread and circuses" was born in Rome. But if the Romans, a free people, enjoyed the privileges of citizens of a free city and did nothing themselves, then the Egyptians were great workers. And if they didn’t have enough bread to feed themselves, this meant only one thing: a great disaster had come, which would also affect neighboring countries. As you know, hunger is most often accompanied by diseases, growing crime and mass suicide.
The Nile, the main source of life and breadwinner of all Egypt, has become shallow. There is not a cloud in the sky, only the inexorable sun beats down, from the heat of which plants and all living things dry up. The corpses of dead animals and people were scattered everywhere, there was no one to clean them up. The road from Egypt to Baghdad was strewn with corpses. Only crows and vultures flocked to their terrible feast.
These eerie messages have sparked fear and panic among the residents of Baghdad and surrounding cities. It was decided not to let any more suffering and starving people from Egypt into the city. Therefore, during the day, the Baghdad guards checked everyone who wanted to get into the city. The city gates were locked at night.
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In total (according to the estimates of contemporaries) in those years in Egypt one hundred thousand people died of hunger - a huge figure for any time. In one city of Max, twenty thousand inhabitants died. The drought, which began in the formerly fertile fields of the Nile, raged for three years. It seemed that the population of all of Egypt was doomed. In vain the priests raised their hands to the sky and prayed to the gods for mercy, it did not change anything. Not a cloud appeared in the sky - one yellow, all sizzling sun reigned in the skies.
Only in the spring did the clouds finally appear brought relief and hope. Everyone was waiting for the rain. There was not a single person who did not raise his eyes with entreaty. And the long-awaited moisture spilled. The blessed rain began, but the gushing water did not soon fill the bed of the dry Nile. At first, she watered the dried up land, and life began to improve with great difficulty, but the inhabitants who had left earlier were in no hurry to return to their lands.
HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS. N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev