1915 Ottoman Syria locust plague

Djemal Pasha, who was the Supreme Commander of Syria and Arabia at the time of the locust infestation, launched a campaign to limit the devastation of the incident. Many people believed that prayer and petition were required to end the plague, as they viewed the swarm of locusts as a punishment from God for their sins. Rav A.M. Luntz, who observed the development of the infestation said that the "Badatz decreed that on the following day there should be a Taanit Tzibbur and the whole day should be one of selichot, prayer and petition. After a few days the locusts left the Land", as locusts do after they have finished feeding. However, in the amount of time they nested there, the locusts replenished themselves with new larvae. ==Regulations==

Midhat Bey, who was the official appointed to fight the infestation, helped enact a law which required every male between ages 15 and 60 in cities to collect 20 kilograms of locust eggs or pay a fine of £4.40. The New York Times reported that this law was strictly enforced. They said that people who failed to follow the law risked having their businesses closed. 800 had paid the fine by 21 November 1915. ==Aftermath==

The Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918) was a period of mass starvation during World War I. The Allies' blockade was made worse by another introduced by Djemal Pasha, the commander of the Fourth Army of the Ottoman Empire in Syria region, where crops were barred from entering from the neighboring Syrian hinterland to Mount Lebanon, and by the locusts infestation in 1915. The famine was caused by a convergence of political and environmental factors that lead to the death of half of the population of Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, a semi-autonomous subdivision of the Ottoman Empire and the precursor of modern-day Lebanon. ==See also==