Michael Baizerman Author

My new chapter will be devoted to John of Montecorvino, a Franciscan friar who reached China at the end of the 13th century. His letters focus on his missionary activities. He established two episcopal sees and rendered spiritual service for those in need. I have copied a few facts, read his letters, and am now processing notes about this person and the milestones of his life. We enter the period when the united Mongol Empire was split into four polities whose rules had to give up the demand for the world domination. The advance to the Western Europe as well as the incursion into Japan failed to materialize. The Apostolic See with the aid of newly-created orders of mendicant friars resumed its die-hard policy of spreading the word of God among diverse nations. One of the missionaries called to the banner was an Italian priest-monk Giovanni of Montecorvino. The Franciscan friar gained immense diplomatic experience. He was involved into negotiations between the Latin and Greek Ch...

The English were not necessarily the best bowmen in the Middle Ages though both the habit and the law demanded that able-bodied men of all walks of life should have practiced archery on Sundays and holidays. The English kings often hired Welsh and French archers to serve in their armies. These bowmen served as levies or contractors. The latter were often semi-professional troops who lived on the lands controlled by noblemen or the crown. They were employed in the wars overseas. The system of low wages and irregular payments was counterbalanced by such "bonuses" as plunder and ransom. The transfer of a VIP prisoner demanded a circle negotiations; the warrior's captain, the superior commander and even the king were involved. The main sum was fairly paid for the captor. There were no training camps for the warriors to practice archery, just holiday recreation and hunting trips. Bowmen was a privileged business and the kings were responsible for their armory and weapon...

The second chapter in my current research is devoted to William of Rubruck who was sent by the French king to Sartack Khan to check up on rumors of his baptism and give spiritual aid to certain German slaves captured by the Tartars. The traveler reached the khan but made sure that the steppe notable stuck to his nomadic traditional values. William had never seen the prisoners. However, the Mongol chiefs were indecisive what to do with this weird monk and he eventually made his way to the court of the Great Khan Mongke and visited his capital city Karakorum. His account presents a wide range of data which I classified into a few topics: Appearance, Dwellings, Religion, etc. I find that William was neither an ambassador nor a missionary but rather a spy. The Mongol leaders probably understood this and wanted to manipulate him to serve their own interests. Now, when a draft copy is over, I will study materials connected to the life of a great missionary, John of Montecorvino, who wa...

My second champion is a Franciscan friar William (Guilliom) of Rubruck who insists on taking a missionary trip into the heart of the Mongol Empire. Unlike his repeated denouncements of the association with Louis IX of France, our monk seems to be one of the royal associates. He counts the king as one of his spiritual friends. He transmits the royal letter to Sartak Khan and agrees to pass the Great Khan's missive to his royal patron. On the other hand, Guillom is utterly unprepared to be a missionary. He is unaware of local languages and customs. He took with him an incompetent interpreter who cannot support most of spiritual dialogues but clings to bottle on every feast. He is too critical of other faiths-not exactly a kind of conversationalist you would like to have at your dinner table. William probably acts as a royal spy disguised as a missionary. Anyway, his description of the Great Khan's entourage and the capital city Karakorum cast light on political developments...

End-October Update I am through with the second leg of my FutureLearn course called "Radical Spirituality: The Early History of the Quakers". This is my third history course. Though this learning highway is not designed for professionals it transmits professional info and enables interesting discussions. I am not contented with writing my personal response and not always I have something ready. However, while looking through other replies, I can come up with an original approach.  Before that, I finished a course, Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the Lost Harbor of Ancient Rome. These tracks are not necessarily linked to my own research but they give me an outlook of the work of historians, a glimpse of a bunch of exact sciences borrowed to pinpoint certain issues, and a chance to confront with the mainstream theories.  I have reread the account of William of Rubruck and picked up a slew of citations which I need to lace together to finish up a draft of a current c...

US Reviews published a very favorable review of my book, Dawn and Sunset. Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East  Michael Baizerman AuthorHouseUK HISTORY 978-1-5049-3611-8 Four Stars (out of Five) Dawn and Sunset is a well researched, nicely written, organized account of early Mesopotamian history. Some of the world’s first cities emerge, prosper, and decline over the course of several millennia while their citizens chart remarkable advances in art, linguistics, religion, politics, warfare, and other areas. Michael Baizerman explores these developments in  Dawn and Sunset: A Tale of the Oldest Cities in the Near East , a scholarly look at the history of ancient Mesopotamia. Baizerman begins with a brief explanation of the region’s history and geography, and an outline of its different historic periods. He argues that the twelve things required for a settlement to be considered urban were all present in Mesopotamian cities. These include a dedicat...

Not much is going on. I'm still collecting material for a new chapter about William of Rubruck. I have to describe the Mongol society as this traveler witnessed. My page on Scriggler has reached over 12 K readers. My platform is growing in spite of the fact that I don't publish new articles. My publisher advised me not to upload the whole book on the web. You can read about nine chapters at  https://scriggler.com/Profile/michael_baizerman If I write some notes on other topics, I will add them to my list. I finished the fourth leg of FutureLearn course "The Archeology of Portus". Week 4 was devoted to the development of the port in the III-IV centuries AD. In 337 AD it became a town. We explored Building 5 which is supposed to be a ship shed measuring 240 m in length and 18 m in height. It had 12 bays for ships of various widths, from 4.5 m to 20 m. The researchers are sure that its initial function was to repair and build ships. The ship shed opens both on the C...

There are two pieces of news concerning my history book, Dawn and Sunset, that I'd like to share with you. My book entered the contest, Eric Hoffer Book Award, for independent books. The results will be published in May, 2017. It's a great honor. The book was nominated by my publishing house, Authorhouse UK. Pacific Book Review published a review of my book and I could not expect anything better. Here is the text.  Author: Michael Baizerman Publisher: AuthorHouseUK ISBN: 9781504936118 Pages: 289 Genre: Education Reviewed by: S. Marie Vernon Rating: 4 Star Review Pacific Book Review Dawn and Sunset is a compelling Tale of the Oldest Cities of the Near East written by amateur historian and Israeli high school English teacher, Michael Baizerman. It’s clear, Baizerman has spent countless hours researching and documenting this work . He has compiled minute details of everyday life of the inhabitants of the old world known as Mesopotamia and the...

The Summer is Over (2) I have completed the third leg of the course "The Archeology of Portus". We discussed the events of the end of the 2nd century CE when Portus was enlarged by building spacious warehouses. We spoke about the discovery of a stunning sculptured head, probably that of a fisherman which belonged to a statue located in a gardern setting. We made acquantaince with new scientific methods of geophysics and geological coring.  I have reviewed the beginning of the ChinaX-5 course. We made a comparison between the nomadic and cedentary lifestyles, noticed the transformation of Mongols from a marginal tribe into a warring nation, and paid attention that the Mongol rule in China was slightly different than in other parts of the world empire. Since this is my first course in a new format, I skipped several tasks and now want to restore them.  The number of my Facebook friends has exceeded 200 and my Scriggler readership keeps growing though I rarely publi...

The Summer is Over (1)  Next week I am returning to my teaching which leaves much less time to creative work. Anaway, I started collecting materials for the next chapter of The Witness in the Den. My next witness is William of Rubruck who composed a fascinating report about his journey to the Mongols. Writing a new item includes four major stages: after collecting enough material, I look through my dosier and attempt to do some creative writing. It might be a sentence or a paragraph, bits and pieces. Then I estimate these pieces and either drop them or combine together. Later, I try to assesss what is missing to link the extracts into a unified text. Sometimes I research a particular item to make it eloquent. I also begin to check the citations and think about accompanying images.

This is a review of an article by D. Mandal, The World's Oldest Known Pieces of Literature Pertain to Two Ancient Sumerian Works, published in Realm of History, July 21, 2016. According to the conventional opinion, Sumerian scribes were the group who left us the remnants of their literature. What we can lay hand is not the first attempts but part of the long written tradition. The author mentions the Kesh Temple Hymns; this is in the present state a collection of 8 hymns comprising 134 lines. Also, the hymns heap their praises to Nisaba, the goddess responsible for writing, which only emphasizes the age of recording. During the same Early Dynastic period we see a tradition of donating statuettes of believers to temples. Some of these statuettes carry short texts written on behalf of the members of the elite or even the middle class. The schools, where these literary texts were recorded, served the earliest libraries. Another literary piece, the Instructions of Shuruppak, where ...

When the Summer is Nearly Over Last week was full of little "events" which gave me great relief and comfort. I finished the draft of the first chapter of my last unit with the working title, The Witness in the Den. My maiden witness is John of Plano Carpini.  The full list, which I composed before doing research, enlists 14 names. However, I'm going to curtail it significantly: it should be an actual travel, which excludes fantastic travelogs. It should be penned by the witness himself, which excludes the Travels of Marco Polo. My next item is William of Rubruck.  I completed the second leg of the FutureLearn course in Roman history, The Archeology of Portus, led by a team from Southampton University. We focused on the reign of Emperor Trajan who enlarged Portus by digging a hexagonal harbor basin fringed by new warehouses and baths. We also reviewed the absolute dating using brick stamps and spoke about the entire port network which included canals, th...

The Last of the Vikings Image: Harald in his last battle according to Matthew Paris, the English chronicler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Hardrada                  The well-written article harks back to the twilight of the Viking Age zooming on the life of a hopeless adventurer and eventually the king of Norway.          An ultimate pretender to the throne, Harald Hardrada began his career as a commander of a contingent of rebel forces assisting to no avail to his half-brother to recover the throne in his maiden Battle of Stiklestad when the young warrior was still in his teens.         The humiliating defeat sent him into exile to the Kievan Rus. Harald found favor at the court of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise who appointed him one of his captains. However, the young man's attempt to court the ruler's daughter ended in fiasc...

John of Plano Carpini (2)  I made a template for a chapter about this envoy based on reading his travel account. John's fact-finding mission included gleaning info about the military potential of the Mongols. The clerical "spy" was sure that the Tartars were going to attack Europe again. He suggests nothing less than a new Crusade against the steppe invaders.  My angle of research is the data about the Mongols collected by this witness. I am hopeful to finish the draft of the chapter until next weekend. It might be useful to compare the same features as John mentions in the accounts of other travelers. I still don't know how many chapters this unit will contain. Marco Polo, in my view, is a work of fiction. I have no doubts that he made a journey to China; however, it is not a genuine account but the one doctored by the literary talent of Rusticelli. 

Mongol Retreat from Europe in spring 1242 Image 1: A True Gift for a Warrior by Benny Johnson  After staging a spectacular onslaught against the West, the Mongol army crushed the resistance and occupied Central Europe. Suddenly the Tartars, as they were commonly dubbed, folded their arms and retreated. There was no other advance on such scale and with such success.  I am fascinated by this issue. One of the units in my new manuscript focuses on the relations between the West and the Mongol authorities.  Historians still argue about the reasons of the Tartar withdrawal.  Stephanie Papas' article "Mystery of Mongol Retreat from Hungary Solved" published in Live Science> History on May 27,2016 is the latest contribution.  The contributor develops the "ecological theory" claiming that the steady rainfall reduced the extent of the pasture for Mongol steeds. She cites a recent research conducted by Nicola Di Cosmo from Princeton University and ...

Archeology of Portus I recently joined the FutureLearn history course centered on the archaeological dig of Portus, the marine port of Rome which functioned about 500 years from mid-I century CE.  The course is presented by Dr. Graeme Earl from the University of Southampton. It includes video mini-lectures and interviews, virtual tour of the site, scientific articles, and much more. The division of participants into study groups enables to review the remarks of other members, check new links, and read the instructors' comments. Week 1 shows the reason for digging an artificial marine port by the emperor Claudian: the needs of the burgeoning population of Rome in foodstuffs, building materials, and luxury items. We take a glimpse of foreign trade across the Mediterranean and enjoy the terrific look of old buidings reconstructed by computer graphics. The map of the imperial Portus http://www.archaeology.org/issues/168-1503/features/2971-rome-portus-rise-of-em...

The last unit of my manuscript is called "The eyewitness in the Den". It focuses on travel narratives of European guests who happened to visit the Orient or stayed there for a while. My first hero is John of Plano Carpini, a Franciscan friar sent by the Pope Innocent IV on a fact-finding mission. I read both his travel account and the revised version of his History of the Mongols. Next week, I will look through my notes and write initial extracts. However, I can't go straightforward as fast as I can because there is so much subsidiary material referring to the previous chapters. I can't deny the pleasure of correcting other parts of my research. John of Plano Carpini, head of the first Catholic mission to the Great Khan. The image borrowed from http://window2thepast.blogspot.co.il/2012/08/carpini-there-interesting-account-of.html 

Welcome Page Welcome to my blog! I'm an amateur historian who is building an alternative career of a non-fiction writer. I wrote a history book "Dawn and Sunset" about the emergence, bloom, and demise of the early Mesopotamian civilization (IV-III millennia BCE). You can view it on my websibe http://www.michaelbaizerman.com/  I am currently writing a second manuscript with the working title "The Enchanting Encounter with the East" which focuses on the contacts between West and East throughout the Middle Ages, especially the Late Middle Ages, xiii-xiv centuries.