The End-of-the-Year Update (2021)

 Happy Christmas and New Year for you and your families,

As the second year of the coronavirus draws to an end, I am reviewing my work on a new project. 

I have made some corrections in Chapter 1, The Galley vs. the Round Ship, to make the comparison between the two breeds of watercraft less straightforward. I also continue collecting material for a second chapter about war galleys.

I think it was a good idea to split the narrative into two developments: that of the galley and that of the sailing ship. The description becomes more accurate and the trends more palatable. 

I restrict the narrative of galleys to the Mediterranean, excluding the Atlantic and the Baltic Sea.  I try to avoid overloading readers with too many details and focus on the main tendencies. I write for the general public, not for a handful of experts. 

I am planning to branch the story of Mediterranean galleys into two channels: about warships and merchantmen. These are two separate developments that are worth discrete storylines. 

I began compiling a special dictionary for the project to freshen the ideas and phrasing. 

My plans: After uploading the first four chapters of my third project, "Seeking Christians and Spices: The Quest for the Maritime Route to India" at https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael 

I am going to upload the remaining chapters of my second project, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East: Breaking the Ice between the Latin West and the Far East", offering each new paper for Discussions. It can take the entire year or a little bit more. I will check other options: uploading my papers on other sites in an attempt to draw an additional audience to my work. 

The Quest for the River of Gold

 The present paper completes Unit I of my third project, "Seeking Christians and Spices: The Quest for the Maritime Route to India". You may view the previous chapters on my author's page on the Academia site:

 https://www.academia.edu/41214506/How_Wide_Spans_the_Ocean_Sea

https://www.academia.edu/42166248/Beyond_the_Pillars_of_Hercules

https://www.academia.edu/43517659/The_Rediscovered_Islands_European_Claims_to_the_Canaries

The popular trope associates the Late Middle Ages with the incessant strife of antagonistic faiths which took shape of a crusade and a jihad. My research calls this pervasive approach into question due to the presence of the restricted contingents of Latin Europeans on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. Giving an account for this phenomenon requires a new set of arguments. Religious fanaticism was not the only platform to drum up support for achieving one’s goals. The first part of the chapter focuses on the involvement of European mercenaries, merchants, and monks in the Maghrib. The second part deals with the vagaries of the Trans-Saharan trade. The third part treats the mythical aspect of West African geography, the Island of Gold, and a real group of go-betweens in the gold-for-salt trade.

You may read this chapter and take part in Discussions that I have just launched:

https://www.academia.edu/63196943/The_Quest_for_the_River_of_Gold

I made up my mind to quit this project for a while as what was supposed to be Unit II has developed into a separate venture dedicated to seafaring in the medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean. 

In the new year, I am going to upload the rest of the chapters from my second project, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". Stay tuned! 

Meanwhile, I started a new blog, Michael Baizerman's Newsletter, where I posted my first entry, Presenting Myself: https://michaelbaizerman.substack.com/p/presenting-myself

where I speak about my four projects.