IN FEBRUARY 1866 the third International Sanitary Conference—an early forerunner of the World Health Organization (WHO)— convened in Constantinople at the request of the French government, bringing together representatives from more than a dozen states and empires. The pressing concern was cholera. The year before, an outbreak in Mecca had spread first into Egypt and then into Europe through Mediterranean ports. Concerned that Muslim pilgrims on hajj to Mecca might carry the disease into Egypt once again if they could return by sea, the French delegation proposed suspending all maritime traffic into and out of Arabian ports. In effect, pilgrims who did not wish to remain in Mecca would be condemned to a perilous journey across the Arabian desert and most likely death from disease or dehydration.
As historian Valeska Huber has explained, the measure was met with massive protest from Muslim delegates, who claimed that no such policy would be entertained if it were to be forced instead upon European populations. Requisite supplies, food, and water could not possibly be distributed to tens of thousands of deserted travelers or to villagers along the coast, they pointed out: famine would be inevitable. Nor would a ban on maritime travel ensure that cholera did not spread into Egypt by land. The proposal, in short, meant risking the lives of tens of thousands of Muslims in a spurious effort to protect European lives and economic interests. Recognizing the immense loss of life at stake, chief Ottoman delegate Salih Efendi warned that “towns of living sentient beings would soon be transformed into necropoli.” Despite this and other stirring objections, the measure passed. Mercifully, there was no cholera epidemic in Mecca that year, and sea travel was not suspended.