556 parasites
from the Garden of Eden. There were specific rewards for
specific actions. There was no agreement among all Mus-
lims as to whether it was a literal or physical place or an
allegorical one. However, belief in reward or punishment
for actions has always been fundamental in ISLAM. One
was to do good, avoid evil, exhibit true repentance, and
believe in the QURAN. It was a state that had not been
seen or heard by humankind. MUHAMMADbelieved that
women would be a minority in heaven and no nonbeliev-
ers would be present.
See alsoESCHATOLOGY; HARROWING OFHELL; HEAVEN;
HELL; LAST JUDGMENT; LIMBO; PURGATORY; REDEMPTION.
Further reading:Jean Delumeau, History of Paradise:
The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition,trans. Matthew
O’Connell (New York: Continuum, 1995); Eileen Gar-
diner, Medieval Visions of Heaven and Hell: A Sourcebook
(New York: Garland, 1993); Colleen McDannell and
Bernhard Lang, Heaven: A History(New Haven, Conn.:
Yale University Press, 1988); Alister McGrath, A Brief
History of Heaven (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003); Howard
Rollin Patch, The Other World, According to Descriptions in
Medieval Literature(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 1950); Jeffrey Burton Russell, A History of
Heaven: The Singing Silence(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1997).
parasites In the Middle Ages as now parasites were
usually living organisms that existed temporarily or per-
manently within or upon a body of another organism, the
host. They derived nourishment from the host but did
nor provide any benefits. They could damage bodily
functions and cause death. Parasitism could occur among
all kinds of agents such as fungi, worms, bacteria,
viruses, arthropods, protozoa, and worms (helminths).
They could cause disease in humans and nonhumans.
Humans often contracted parasitic diseases from animals.
VARIETIES AND ENVIRONMENTS
Worms were the most common internal parasite or
endoparasite, including: flukes, spread through water;
tapeworms, transmitted through fur or contaminated
food and water from dogs and cats; and thorny-headed
worms and roundworms, transmitted by mosquitoes.
Head and body lice, fleas, bedbugs, mosquitoes, mites,
and ticks could transmit parasitic infection. Protozoa, or
unicellular animals, could also cause a variety of condi-
tions ranging from toxoplasmosis, a common parasite of
birds and mammals and contracted by humans from raw
or undercooked meat, to leishmaniasis, a skin disease
transmitted to humans by sand flies. Most parasitic dis-
eases did not cause bone or skeletal damage; they were
limited to soft tissue.
Evidence for the parasites in historical contexts has
been found primarily in coprolites from dry environ-
ments, intestinal contents of bodies preserved, deposits
from latrines and cesspools, and remnants on hair and
combs. Preservation depended on the condition of the
containing deposits.
Further reading:R. J. Donaldson, ed., Parasites and
Western Man(Lancaster: MTP Press, 1979); K. F. Kiple,
ed., Plague, Pox and Pestilence(London: Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, 1997).parchment Parchment was the most widely used writ-
ing material in the medieval world. It was made from ani-
mal skins. The technique for turning skins into
parchment was developed first, according to legend, in
Pergamum in ANATOLIA. The Hellenistic king of EGYPT
was jealous of the establishment of a library by his rival,
King Eumenes II (197–158 B.C.E.). So he forbade the
export of PAPYRUS. Parchment as a writing medium was
favored by disruption in the Mediterranean Sea of the
Muslim invasion and conquest of AFRICA. Parchment,
complex and expensive to produce, worked well enough
as the use of writing declined.
In the Middle Ages there were numerous recipes and
techniques for the preparation of a skin, be it goat, calf,
or sheep. In the basic procedure, skins were first soaked
in water for a day and then, washed, to remove oils.
They were smeared with a layer of acid lime on the flesh
side and folded with the flesh side always facing a flesh
side. Lime was to loosen any hair and open pores. Left to
stand for 10 days in that state, they were stretched,
rewashed in water, and any remaining hair removed.
They were scraped again to get rid of any residue, hung
on wooden frames, smeared with a chalky powder, and
polished with a pumice stone.USES
The parchment for charters and official documents was
usually of high quality. For everyday material the use of
leaves of different formats, full of nodules, holes, andThe Archangel Michael expels Adam and Eve from Paradise
from a bas-relief from the façade of the cathedral of Orvieto,
ascribed to Lorenzo Maitani and made about 1325 (Courtesy
Edward English)