Medieval Arabs understood plague contagion but devised no preventive measure

Evidence

Another difficulty was the quarantine, arising from the fear of the plague, which was often endemic in the Middle Eastern lands. The danger of contagion was well understood in the Middle Ages. We have medieval Arabic texts which talk about the danger of communicating plagues by garments, by contact, by travelers from one town to another. They were aware of the nature and danger of contagion, but they did not devise any method of dealing with it. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 784

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: which specific medieval Arabic texts discuss garment/contact contagion? Anticipates later quarantine development by centuries.
• SHARE: A precise nugget for anyone interested in the history of epidemiology or medieval Islamic medicine.