PLAGUED BY SUSPENDED SCEPTICISM

THE Mongols are believed to have used the first bioweapon in recorded history in 1347, when the forces of the Golden Horde under Khan Jani Beg catapulted a corpse infected by bubonic plague into the besieged Genoese citadel of Caffa in the Crimea.

- PRATIK KANJILAL

Caffa, now called Feodosia, has been an important port for centuries. It controlled the medieval Black Sea trade, including the eternally lucrative business of slavery, and was a terminus of the Silk Route. It is still strategically important—nominally Ukrainian, but administered by Russia. After the Russian invasion began, the world took note when Ukrainian aircraft attacked Russian warship Novocherkassk in the Feodosia harbour.

In 1347, the unknown soldier who served as a bioweapon decisively ended the siege of Caffa. The Genoese fled to Italy, carrying the plague with them into Europe, which it ravaged for the next four years, changing the course of history. For about 50 years, this one-man story has explained the rapid spread of the plague east to west across the Old World, from China to Iberia and the British isles. There’s even a name for it: the quick transit theory. When the Covid-19 outbreak was traced to Wuhan, the story of Caffa was recalled, and it was suggested that deadly epidemics inevitably originate in China and travel west at top speed. Covid moved very fast because of air travel, but were earlier pandemics so fast-moving?

A paper in the October 31 edition of the