High Middle Ages · Middle East · Disaster

1074

Nile Floods Normalize and Egypt Slowly Recovers

1074

After seven years of catastrophically low floods, the Nile at last rose to its normal height, depositing the dark silt that meant salvation across the Delta and Upper Egypt. Replanting began in fields that had lain barren for half a decade. The famine had halved the population of Fustat, depopulated entire towns, and destroyed irreplaceable Fatimid libraries. Recovery would take a generation; the psychic scar would last longer.