Plague, Climate, and Migration: Rural Depopulation in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire During the Little Ice Age (Nükhet Varlık)
The effects of the Little Ice Age on Ottoman rural society have been so far examined with respect to political and economic changes, social upheaval, and migration. What remains to be better understood is how recurring outbreaks of plague of that era further aggravated this fraught society. Ottoman archival and narrative sources suggest that recurrent plagues led to radical changes in the empire’s demographic structure starting in the late sixteenth century. High levels of rural mortality paired with flight resulted in smaller settlements being abandoned in favor of larger towns and cities. In this presentation, I will discuss the demographic effects of plague on Ottoman society in the unusual climatic context of the Little Ice Age.