Journal - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

Kathem K. AL-RIBIAY THE STORY OF BEJEL DISEASE IN IRAQ: BEJEL (ENDEMIC SYPHILIS)
DISEASE AMONG THE EUPHRATES ARAB BEDOUINS
crew of Christopher Columbus' ship acquired
syphilis from local women and developed a rashes
called 'Indian Measles'. Some of the crews later
became mercenaries in 1494 at the Siege of Naples,
where a great epidemic broke out. However, this theory
does not explain the evolution or origin of
endemic syphilis (6,7,12).
Role of Wars and Pilgrimage
The first Crusade (AD 1096-1099) believed to
have consisted of 250,000 fighting men with an equal
number of servants, camp followers, and women captured
Jerusalem and entered a Syrian Villages'. So
marked an increase in leprosy was reported. But later
archaeological evidence showed that many lepers
were in fact suffering from syphilis (14,15).
Islamic conquest stretched throughout the world
during and after the time of the Prophet Mohammed.
These conquests extend from Spain to Samarkand.
The first pilgrimage to 'Mecca' undertaken by the
Prophet Mohammed in 632 AD. After that, Islamic
pilgrimages attracted people from all over Africa,
Asia, and other places. It also mentioned that Mecca
had been an object of reverence for 200 years before
the time of Prophet Mohammed, because of its sacred
stone and its designations as the legendary site where
Abraham dismissed his wife, Hajar and her son
Ismmael. Another mass migration by Mongols was to
Mesopotamia where the Mongol troops sacked
Baghdad in 1258 AD.
This process of migration through pilgrimages,
Islamic conquests, and Crusades wars from all parts
of the world in the course of time might have played
a major role in the dissemination of Treponema.
Slave Trading and Commerce
Throughout the line of history there have been
slaves and slave trading. Slaves were captured from
various regions of Africa and shipped across oceans
or driven across the Arab desert to Asia Minor and
other countries. At the time of the pre-Christian era,
Ethiopia was a collecting point for African slaves for
Arabs. Migrating Arabs came from the east across the
Red Sea to the Horn giving the Ethiopians horses,
camels and grapes, and receiving in return coffee and
Negro slaves. In Africa was also the richest ports for
exporting gold, ivory and slaves (12,16). After the
Muslim conquest of Africa, slave trading continued
and reached its peak at the end of the 7th century AD.
The slave war which occurred in Iraq in 869 AD was
called the revolt of the Zanj. This was a war between
the Negro slaves from East Africa who were forced to
work in the salt mines.
There was no evidence that slaves transmitted treponema
to the Middle East, but one can conclude
these mass migrations from regions of Africa where
treponema was prevalent. Their transportation may
have also transported the organism. The first treponema
to be introduced to the Caribbean from Africa
came in 1502 with the first Negro slaves. Its incidence
increased after 1512 with the spread of slave
trading and commerce. This may explain the role of
slaves in spreading of treponema. It seems reasonable
to apply this assumption to slave trading and commerce
in the Middle East.
The Antiquity of the Bejel in Arab
Homeland
The origin of Bejel is unclear, and there is no
direct evidence but some considered Bejel the archetype
of syphilis or the prototype of non-venereal
syphilis in the ancient Arab homeland around the
Euphrates region. The ancient world was predominantly
rural; the majority of its habitants probably
lived under conditions similar to those of Euphrates
Arab in the early part of this century. It may be therefore
that the Bedouins are presenting contemporary
picture of syphilis as it existed in ancient time in nonvenereal.
Some support for this view comes from the
WHO campaign in Iraq in 1951. The teams found
that some villages used other names for Bejel disease.
Some Bedouins in the West Desert in Iraq
called it 'Lowath', other villagers in the south called it
'Jirdam', in other places in Iraq they called the disease
just 'leprosy'. Both lowath and jirdam are ancient
mediaeval words introduced in Mesopotamia and the
meaning of these terms was leprosy and its use to
describe chronic ulcerative lesion might also include
Bejel disease. Leprosy was mentioned in the Bible,
and in ancient medical records, it was prevalent
throughout the world (6,7).
Four characteristics of ancient leprosy which
66 JISHIM 2004, 3