In Black and White

The statue of St. Morris as a black African from the Magdeburg Cathedral 

I have added a new chapter to my book, The Enchanting Encounter with the East. The extract belongs to Unit 2, The Saga of All My Sons. The episode delves into the attitude to the race issue in medieval Europe. I show the emergence of the concept which I call the "race fiction", i.e. the superficial and biased approach to differences among people. The literati in the European Middle Ages adopted this outlook from the early church, whose representatives often saw the reality in black and white.  

The chapter explains that the color carried many other functions accept the reference to foreign origin and soaring climate. The whiteness was perceived as a sign of superiority, leaving the blackness as a mark of inferior position. 

Religion played the major role in people's lives, and any other faith except the Christianity seemed the distortion from the truth. In addition, the Christians in the East were believed to be stuck in heresy. They were welcomed only as a potential ally in the confrontation with Islam. 

The case of St. Morris depicted as a black African is exceptional. Its introduction is connected to the eccentric figure of Frederic II, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, who was at loggerheads with the Apostolic See. 

The Rediscovered Islands

The Canary Islands revisited. That happened in the 14th century when European explorers revealed the location of the archipelago known in the antique era as the Isles of the Blessed or Fortunate Islands.

This is part of  my promise to publish new articles on my page at https://scriggler.com/DetailPost/Opinion/63451

While developing articles from my current project into chapters of my second book, I realized that some extracts don't belong to the plot. They are more suitable for my future project about the discovery of India by Portuguese sailors in the course of the 15th century. As usual, the story harks back to the period that I call the Little Age of Discovery.

This is my first contribution to my writer's page on Scriggler after a long time of silence. I will go on uploading other articles. The whole list is available at https://scriggler.com/Profile/michael_baizerman