Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe

Front Matter....Pages i-ix
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Historical Disaster Experiences: First Steps Toward a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe in the Preindustrial Era....Pages 3-44
Living with Hazard: Disaster Subcultures, Disaster Cultures and Risk-Mitigating Strategies....Pages 45-59
Front Matter....Pages 61-61
Several Natural Disasters in the Middle East (at the Beginning of the Eleventh Century) and Their Consequences....Pages 63-79
 Fanāʾ and Fasād: Perceptions and Concepts of Crises and Disasters in Fourteenth-Century Egypt....Pages 81-91
The Black Death and the Human Impact on the Environment....Pages 93-106
The Day the Sun Turned Blue: A Volcanic Eruption in the Early 1460s and Its Possible Climatic Impact—A Natural Disaster Perceived Globally in the Late Middle Ages?....Pages 107-138
Cultural Implications of Natural Disasters: Historical Reports of the Volcano Eruption of July, 1256 CE....Pages 139-154
When Europe Was Burning: The Multi-season Mega-drought of 1540 and Arsonist Paranoia....Pages 155-185
Front Matter....Pages 187-187
“Assur Will Suffer:” Predicting Disaster in Ancient Egypt....Pages 189-206
“Natural” Disasters in the Arabic Astro-meteorological Malḥama Handbooks....Pages 207-223
Tracing the Will of the Stars: Indian Astrology and Divination About Natural Disasters and Threats....Pages 225-239
Explaining the 1934 Bihar-Nepal Earthquake: The Role of Science, Astrology, and “Rumours”....Pages 241-266
Front Matter....Pages 267-267
The 1173/1759 Earthquake in Damascus and the Continuation of Architectural Tradition....Pages 269-294
Living with Disaster: Aleppo and the Earthquake of 1822....Pages 295-305
“The Great Fire in Cairo in 1321:” Interactions Between Nature and Society....Pages 307-326
Perceiving Urban Fire Regimes in Europe and China (1830 to 1870): British Fire Insurance Businesses and the Sudden Challenge of Globalisation....Pages 327-352
Front Matter....Pages 353-353
Economic Adaptation to Risky Environments in the Late Middle Ages: The Case of the Accrues of the Doubs in Chaussin (Jura, France) from c. 1370 to c. 1500....Pages 355-367
Measuring “Disaster”: The “Everydayness” of Fluvial Landscapes and the Colonial State in Gangetic Diaras, 1790s–1880s....Pages 369-378
When the “Deluge” Happened: The Flood of 1929 in the Surma–Barak Valley of Colonial Assam....Pages 379-398
Alpine Landscapes of Defence: On Modern-Vernacular Avalanche Protection Systems in the Swiss Alps....Pages 399-422
Back Matter....Pages 423-436