Abstract:

The 1910 cholera epidemic, brought to the Ottoman Empire by Russian pilgrims, first appeared in Erzurum in July 1910. It then spread to other Ottoman cities, particularly those with harbors. Despite the cities’ inadequate health infrastructure, local administrators resorted to quarantine measures to stem the spread of the epidemic. Local people of Hania (Crete) considered these measures insufficient and strongly opposed the docking of a ship that was thought to carry infectious disease, as well as the disembarkation of its passengers. Occasionally, administrators attempted to conceal the realities of the epidemic from the public to forestall financial loss from the disruption of maritime trade and postal traffic and to prevent panic and chaos from breaking out. This article examines the atmosphere of panic that the 1910 cholera epidemic created in the Ottoman port cities of Haifa, Beirut, Jaffa, Chania, Samsun, Trabzon, Izmir, Çanakkale, and Thessaloniki, as well as the inland cities of Adana, Osmaniye, Aleppo, Tiberia, and Damascus. It also examines some events that followed the epidemic as reflected in the consular reports of 1911–1914. Local incidents occurring during an epidemic may provide important clues toward understanding and evaluating the overall picture of the era and the area.

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