While the civilised Christians of Britain believed that disease was a punishment from Yahweh for sins, and happily filled the streets and rivers with their excrement, the uncivilised non believers of Asia, China in particular, had people collect their bodily waste in the cities and transport it into the country where it was used to fertilise their crops.
In 18th century Japan, such use made it so valuable it was a tradable commodity and a crime to steal it.
Primitive heathens
In the middle east, the cradle of civilisation, the arabs were so far advanced from Christian Europe in terms of science, medicine, literature, architecture, the arts. They had observatories, libraries, universities. Their cities not only had mosques, but synagogues and Christian churches.
Thank Yahweh that the Christian church realised what a threat this all was to their religious (fear) based power and started the crusades in an attempt to destroy all this.
You can only applaud such religious zealotry that when you have run out of men to die for your cause, you start sending armies of children off to die in a foreign land in god's name.