The Squall from the East

 This is my latest contribution to the Discussions section on the Academia site.

The Mongol invasion of Central Europe in 1241-1242 took the western leaders aback. Gruesome and spine-chilling, the victorious campaign of the steppe army sent shock waves across the continent. That was a powerful lesson that the Latin decision-makers would never forget. The campaign is assessed in terms of its strategic goals and viewed through the eyes of survivors. The author supplies several factors explaining the momentous withdrawal of the winners from the occupied territories.

You may read the article https://www.academia.edu/40613981/The_Squall_from_the_East

I also uploaded another extract where I attempt to cover the diplomatic correspondence between Great Khan Guyuk and Pope Innocent IV.  

The paper explores the attempt of the Apostolic See to keep an eye on the Mongols after their disastrous campaign against Central Europe. The Holy Father forwarded epistles to talk some sense into steppe predators and coax them into baptism. The Great Khans, in their turn, took advantage of bilateral relations to convince the Vicar of Christ and all European kings to submit to the Tartars. The dialogue between the blind and the deaf failed but managed to buy critical time. 

You may peruse it https://www.academia.edu/40815844/The_Suspension_Bridge_across_the_Abyss

I am waiting for an answer from the Academia Letters, a new journal where they publish short articles on multiple topics. I sent them a new piece, The Monster Galley, the story of a quinquereme, a five-oared galley designed by an amateur naval architect Vettor Fausto. This is part of my new project about medieval watercraft. I am still working on the section devoted to galleys. I have written a draft of the first two chapters and am developing the material focused on naval guns. The last chapter will center on merchant galleys. 

I hope that in the late summer- early fall I will upload a few chapters of my third project. 

The Enigma of the Antipodes

 About three weeks ago, I uploaded a new version of my article "The Enigma of the Antipodes" for Discussions on academia.edu. This is the concluding chapter of Unit II of my manuscript, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". You may view this extract 

https://www.academia.edu/40346434/The_Enigma_of_the_Antipodes

as well as enjoy reading the rest of my 20 something papers that represent the three projects. 

The paper explores a strand of medieval geography concerning the Antipodes, the legendary fourth continent of the European Middle Ages. It plunges the readers into a scholastic debate, presenting opposite sides. The arguments become intense and controversial on the eve of the Age of Exploration. This is a famous mappamundi featuring the Sciapod, a fantastic one-legged creature living and breathing in the Antipodes. 

 

Burgo de Osma Mappamundi

Courtesy: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mappa_mundi_of_Burgo_de_Osma_Beatus#/media/File:Beato_de_Liebana_Burgo_de_Osma_1086.jpg 

The discussion is going to end very soon and I am up to upload the next extract of my second project, which is the starting chapter of Unit III: Unveiling the Alien. I will add some details about this paper after I complete the revision. 

I got in touch with a group of scientists who encourage people to deliver lectures on zoom. They are going to start a history club and I will give a lecture on Sumerian civilization next Monday at 18:30 Jerusalem time to a Russian-speaking audience. 

I continue to read papers on ancient Canaan in an attempt to identify the origin of the early Hebrews. One of them is Tommy Beyl's dissertation, "Phoenicia: Identity and Geopolitics in the Iron I-II A period: An examination of the textual, archaeological, and Biblical Evidence". 

 

Textual, Archaeological, and Biblical Evidence

In Black and White: Racial Prejudices in the European Middle Ages

 I uploaded a new version of this article on my Academia page. You can view it https://www.academia.edu/40219335/In_Black_and_White_Racial_Prejudices_in_the_European_Middle_Ages

You can also read the previous chapters, The Trefoil of the World and Jerusalem on European Mind Maps.

See  https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael

"In Black and White" is open for discussions for 2 weeks from now. If you would like to comment later, you can do it either here, on my blog or my site. Here is the abstract:

Intolerance to nonwhites harks back to the Early Middle Ages; it takes root in a new faith, the alive and kicking Christianity which spreads across the known world. The advocates of the novel ideology strive to defend it against ubiquitous paganism. They make up a pseudo-biological race theory that adopted the principles of Eurocentrism and the superiority of the west. This teaching, which we call here the “racial fiction”, associates blackness with sin.
Black people that disgusted medieval Europeans in terms of physical unattractiveness occupied the remote pockets of the inhabited world. Their character and behavior seemed ecologically determined; the denizens of the outback were prone to physical weakness and exhaustion at an early age. Besides, these outlandish areas were considered to host all and sundry monsters.

The blackness also epitomized moral degradation and wantonness. The supposed low status and irrational behavior of non-white residents would justify their enslavement by the “enlightened” European colonizers. 

A bleak period in which amorality climbs over the bodies of moral principles, while remorse is treated as human weakness and ugliness of soul. 

Other news. I am still collecting info about galleys, both galea sottile (warships) and great galleys in the Mediterranean. I am particularly interested in naval artillery which began to take great strides during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern era. 

A galley gun from Malta Maritime Museum, which was mounted on a carriage and slid over the runners. 

   https://www.modelships.de/Museums_and_replicas/Malta_Maritime_Museum/Galley-gun.htm

I also returned to the Late Chalcolithic age checking the evidence of social inequality, the emergence of the elites, amassing the capital, and long-distance trade. These are the topics from my first book, "Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East". Only this time I will nuance my approach and make it more comprehensible.  

My Writing Goals

 

Courtesy: https://www.wikihow.com/Set-Writing-Goals 

It's high time to set up my writing goals to show my strategy.

I would like to continue developing my site at the Academia: see https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael

I intend to expose the articles from my second and third books on Discussions. By the way, you can view the paper on the current discussion, which will end in a week  

https://www.academia.edu/45063380/Jerusalem_on_European_Mind_Maps

I have started collecting materials for the next chapter from my third book; it is devoted to light and great galleys. I will try to explain why the long-lived  Age of the Galleys on the Mediterranean was coming to the end and what efforts were undertaken to prolong it. 

I am going to extend my blog and keep in contact with my readers. Building a platform is a multi-year enterprise and I hope you will assist me in these efforts. 

I will look for additional opportunities, like giving lectures and publishing. You will know the details if I am successful. 

I strongly believe in what I am doing. I am mastering my research skills to find unconventional topics or still unpopular sides of the familiar subjects. I am honing my writing skills to convey to my readers the best content that I can produce. I am not chasing popularity but hope you will find my articles authentic and entertaining to a certain extent. 

I find it difficult to speak about myself in length before the public. I feel I am not the subject of my writing but an instrument through which new wine is poured in old wineskins. I bet it is possible and maybe I know how to do it. 

Galleys versus Sailing Ships: Plying the Waters of the Medieval Mediterranean

 

Venetian War Galley, late sixteenth century

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/511721576383894517/

Genoese Merchant Vessel

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/313915036504583191/

The first chapter of a new unit compares and contrasts galleys and sailing ships negotiating maritime routes in the medieval Mediterranean. It discusses shipbuilding approaches and the diet of seafarers. The paper is based on my previous version penned about seven years ago but sustained major corrections. Due to personal reasons, I will keep the draft intact but I cannot help uploading the first page for you. 

A curious landlubber gazing at the sea could discern with ease two broad types of watercraft hugging the coast: oared vessels (galleys) and sailing ships. These breeds epitomized the unabated contest between seaworthiness and speed.

Oared vessels were born for speed and doomed to fight; not for nothing tags like "dromon" (Greek: "racer") in Byzantium and "sagitta" (Latin: "arrow") in the West stuck to them. Endowed with a cigar-like body and shallow draft, which rendered them minimum water resistance, galleys boasted of their built-in velocity.  When the hull was normally laden, the freeboard amidships could descend as low as half a meter. A Byzantine chronicler mocks at Sicilian triremes at the outbound voyage from a successful raid, claiming that they were so overloaded with trophies that literally "submerged down to the oars". 

Routinely propelled by wind, which would inflate fore-and-aft sails, galleys switched to sweeps in standard situations, when they were becalmed or had to get in or out of the port, or in emergencies, to avoid running aground or encountering reefs, rocks, or shallows. They also took to oars when tempo and maneuverability were counted, for example in maritime engagements, coastal raids, or transportation of diplomatic missions. The use of human power imparted remarkable freedom of movement to their banana-shaped bodies.  

Galleys were discerned by the number of rowing seats on a bank of oars, by and large, from one to three, known as monoremes, biremes, and triremes. The experiments of naval architects with four and five sweeps did not give polyremes a competitive edge over less crowded models.

In contrast to their mobility, longships were mediocre and capricious sailers. Traveling under canvas to preserve muscle power, they made the most of the sail under the wind astern and at flat seas but found fault with an air current stronger than a light breeze.

Long-hulled warships could make a good headway, cutting coastal waves at ease on short stretches of sea travel and under favorable conditions. However, when confronted even with mild winds, they performed badly and would withdraw from the race on the brink of storms. The galley masters would rather linger away the foul weather in the comfort of taverns than put the craft's safety at risk. 

Jerusalem on European Mind Maps

 This is a new version of my article that is taken from my second manuscript, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". The paper studies the role of Jerusalem in the European Middle Ages. I draw on medieval travelogues, "world maps", and modern research. You are invited to read the draft and leave comments in the Discussions section.

https://www.academia.edu/45063380/Jerusalem_on_European_Mind_Maps

It might take a few hours until my contribution is converted so don't be in a hurry. Discussions are open for 3 weeks.

I have started writing the first chapter of Unit II of my third manuscript. It is called Galleys versus Sailing Ships: Plying the Waters of the Medieval Mediterranean. Here, I would like to compare and contrast the two types of medieval craft. I have nearly completed three sections out of five or six: galleys, sailing ships, pros & cons. I will add a few words about shipbuilding technology in the medieval Mediterranean as well as about sailors' diet. There will be the Bottom Line where I will rationalize my findings in contrast with describing them. 

https://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/medieval-ships/

The Trefoil of the World

I continue to make facelifts to my uploaded papers. This time, it is a chapter from Unit II of my second manuscript, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". 

You can view it https://www.academia.edu/40051105/The_Trefoil_of_the_World

The article is presented to the discussion on the Academia site in the nearest three weeks. You are invited to take part in. I would appreciate any comment and would do my best to reply. 

The paper describes the evolution of the mappae mundi, the "world maps" of the medieval imagination. Across the centuries, this medium had upgraded from simple schemes depicting the tripartite inhabited earth to more elaborate designs, which incorporated the Ptolemy vision or reflected current geographic discoveries and married with sea charts. The medieval world of the sacred and profane hangs in front of our eyes.

Meanwhile, I finished estimating materials concerning my paper about medieval shipping. The article will compare a galley and a sailing ship. This is the first chapter of a new series that is intended for my third manuscript. Now I need to compare my draft version with the new stuff unearthed and partially developed.