Michael Baizerman Author

  As the previous discussion on my paper, How to Measure the Earth's Circumference, has ended, I decided to launch another discussion. You can view the article at https://www.academia.edu/s/849a19ddfc/how-long-spans-the-inhabited-world?source=work This new paper continues the overview of the mathematical geography of the European Middle Ages and focuses on the extent of the known world. Besides reading, you can participate in the discussion during the remaining three weeks.  As you have probably noticed, I made a resolution to abstain from uploading new pieces until I take most of my articles through discussions. This is a new feature added by the Academia.edu site last summer. I think that my work deserves a chance of attracting better publicity. Especially, due to the reaction of literary agents who consider my book unsellable to the general public. The credit that I get from my readers enables me to continue.  Meanwhile, I was asked to give a lecture on Skype to t...

  I'm writing these lines amid the turbulent times of the modern pandemics in hope that the vaccination against the terrible disease will start in several days.  I'm very optimistic about choosing to subject my articles to discussion on the Academia site. The first outcome was popularity. Besides the immediate result that so many people begin to read the particular paper, some of them are also interested in other subjects. So the number of my readers has doubled in only four months reaching over 2K.   Besides, some readers decide to add their suggestions or criticism which gives me some food for thought. I am aware of the limitations of my Internet research and praise new perspectives that might open in these discussions. Or, at least, I know better why I keep standing in the same position despite the criticism.  The current discussion about my article  https://www.academia.edu/39924577/How_to_Measure_the_Earths_Circumference is still going on and you can take p...

 I had been silent for a long time not because I had nothing to say; since I was busy writing a new chapter of my third book. The chapter is called The Quest for the River of Gold; it comprises about 11 K words and consists of three parts:  a.     The Near Shore: Christian Mercenaries, Merchants, and Monks in the Maghrib b: Under the Desert Sun--The Vagaries of the Trans-Saharan Trade c: The Gold of Wangara The last part,  Reappraisal, sums up the chapter .  The first part shows that despite religious antagonism between Christianity and Islam, which took shape in the long-term wars of the Reconquista, international trade between the northern and southern shore of the Mediterranean went on and multiple Latin merchants found themselves lodging in the funduks  in Muslim port cities. Besides, Berber rulers would enlist European mercenaries to fight their wars on African soil. These warriors and their families resided in special quarters in Muslim citi...

  Processing the data took much longer that I expected. While doing this, I felt that some info is missing from my future article. I had to do additional search to realize what the problem was.  Now, when I have completed this bypass, I am more certain in what I am doing.  This week, I have started writing the third part of my research titled "The Quest for the River of Gold".  I found evidence that the contacts across the Sahara desert had preceded the classical  trans-Saharan trade. I realized the role of the Wangara intermediaries in the commerce across West Africa. I learned about the popularity of kola nuts and the purchase of Arab horses for the imperial armies. I estimated the investment of Muslim geographers to the knowledge about Western Sudan.  My latest uploaded article, A Kernel of Truth,  https://www.academia.edu/44328510/A_Kernel_of_Truth arose an interesting discussions. The academics denied my cautious remark that the wheel might b...

  A new chapter from Unit IV of my book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East", continues the topic of the previous extract, Beware of Barbarians. It  gives an account of real people behind the scenes, the steppe dwellers of the Eurasian grasslands. Tags: Petachia of Ratisbon, Sima Qian, The Secret History of the Mongols, Temujin, Al-Jahiz, Plano Carpini You may read this section on my website  https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael https://www.academia.edu/44328510/A_Kernel_of_Truth This paper is open for discussions so you can join in. Discussion is a new development of Academia services and the circle of my readers has widened drastically. Not everyone likes my treatment of 'barbarians' but I think I have touched a vital string. I generally evade commenting on my papers; however, if something was not clear, I am ready to clarify the point.  Unit IV of my book tells the story of Alexander Gate --a medieval legend-- and endeavors to immerse it int...

  Hi guys, Image: An improvised flea market at Sahel Courtesy:   Photo:  PGskot  |  CC BY-SA 4.0 I began processing the data I have collected about the Wangara traders. This association was a merchant network that linked the gold producers of West Africa with the entrepots in the Sahel. Gold for the salt exchange was the most obvious but not the only one avenue of this counteraction.  The material is controversial and I am unsure what will the outcome be. For example, what weight I would give for the empires of Western Sudan: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. There is much data but since I am a novice in African history, it is not easy to decide where I should stop. Besides, my main interest in this project seems to be maritime discoveries, so how much room should be provided for economic and human interest history?   The first three chapters of my projects are available on my page at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/41214506/How_Wide_Spans_the_Oce...

  I'm collecting data for the third (and probably last) part of my current study, 'The Quest for the River of Gold'. Devoted to medieval West Africa, this research aims to show the nuances of the Trans-Saharan trade and a long way of transporting gold from its sources to clients. I have finished the initial quest and now have to peruse some books and academic articles before starting to estimate my collection of facts and opinions.  My latest publicized article, Beware of 'Barbarians', has gained traction among many readers, becoming my second best extract after only a week's run. My ratings have surged 33 % at the same time. Besides, I have received a vast array of the critics' opinions about my piece of writing. Many of them offer friendly advice about how I can improve my work. You can view my paper  https://www.academia.edu/44115626/Beware_of_Barbarians  and get to know my other opuses  https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael I wish you all sec...

  I finished the draft of the second part of the new research.  As I have already told you, the chapter will probably comprise three parts. Part 3 will be about the Wangara traders in West Africa. This is a vast social group of inter-region traders and Muslim scholars who founded settlements along the trade routes throughout the region. These guys delivered gold produced by the miners to the Sahel market towns where it was exchanged for an array of products essential for local and inter-regional trade.  I am also considering the future developments of my project. It is high time to speak about Portugal as an emerging sea power in the fourteenth- early fifteenth century and maybe to continue the story about the discovery of the mid-Atlantic islands (Madeira  and the Azores).     Meanwhile, I uploaded a new chapter from my second book. The extract titled Beware of the 'Barbarians'  elaborates on the role of Alexander Macedon as the guardian of the civili...

  The African king depicted on the Catalan Atlas is boasting of his gold reserve Courtesy: https://www.quora.com/Individually-and-together-what-effects-did-colonialism-the-scramble-for-Africa-and-the-slave-trade-have-on-Africa  The second part of the chapter is getting into shape. I am writing about the difficulties of crossing the Great Desert, the logistics of the journey, and its economic necessity. What is left is a conclusion and the general polish of the text. I am hopeful it won't take that long.  The third part of the chapter will be devoted to the Wangara traders, a group of West-African merchants who engaged in salt for gold exchange. They had access to the forest zone and contacted with the gold miners. However, their impact was not reduced to gold alone. Again, the phenomenon is more important to me than a rigid time frame.  It will probably be the last part of the chapter. I decided to avoid depicting the Portuguese advancement into Guinea at this s...

  Image: A camel train across Karum, a salt lake in Ethiopia Courtesy:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salt_transport_by_a_camel_train_on_Lake_Assale_(Karum)_in_Ethiopia.jpg   I have completed collecting material for the second part of the chapter, 'The Quest for the River of Gold', where I will give an account of the Trans-Saharan Trade at its peak, i.e. before the European expansion in the fifteenth century.  The most critical step, the processing of the material may take a long time. I need to develop a few ideas about the carrying capacity of camels and a range of goods that were transported across the desert.  My Mesopotamian project has taken a new turn as I figured out how to expand the collection of material using Google Books as the link to other databases, such as Academia, Scribd, and ResearchGate. I am hopeful that after processing the data, I will analyze facts in a more nuanced way.  I completed the course "Rome: A Virtual Tour of the...

I'm still doing the research called "The Quest for the River of Gold". It focuses on the European search for the origin of West African gold in the Late Middle Ages and the Age of Discoveries. In my view, we have to realize why on earth European explorers would take pains to approach this part of the earth.  The research will cover four or five steps. The first of them is dubbed 'The Near Shore'. That is, near to southern Europe. Despite all religious antagonism of the Middle Ages, cross-cultural trade across the Mediterranean gained momentum even during the Age of the Crusades. West African gold enabled Italian economies, e.g. Genoa, Florence, and Venice, to mint gold coins and decorated European palaces and churches.  The first section describes European 'funduks' located in North African ports where western merchants were allowed to dwell and trade. They were permitted to install amenities to make their lifestyle insid...

As I have promised, I uploaded a draft copy of  The Rediscovered Islands. This will be the third chapter of Unit I of my third book.  The article delves into the medieval history of the Canary Islands from their rediscovery in the 1430s to European colonization in the course of the 15th and 16th centuries. The author emphasizes the dark sides of the European intrusion, including ecological imperialism and genocide.   Tags: Brothers Vivaldi, Cape Non, Francesco Petrarch, Angelino Dulceti, Luis de la Cerda, Afonso IV, Boccaccio, Jean de Bethencourt, Gadifer de la Salle, Ferdinand of Aragon, Isaballa of Castile, Pedro de Vera, Alfonso de Lugo The article includes five parts. The first part, The Priority of Discovery, sums up what is known about the possible date of the discovery and the name of the first explorer. It shows that from the beginning there were several contenders on the coveted territory.  The second part, People Behind the Scenes, expla...

I have started processing the first part of my new research titled "The Quest for the River of Gold". In the previous post, I have shown the outline. It is a working model liable to changes.     The additional study has revealed quite a few European individuals stationed in North African ports on a permanent and temporary basis. Besides merchant communities focused on funduks (a specialized compound featuring a hostel, warehouse, shops, and other amenities, we can find Christian mercenaries on the service of Muslim rulers and even monks engaging in missionary activities quite often with the risk to their lives.  In other words, we cannot visualize the European Middle Ages only in the context of the eternal confrontation between the Cross and the Crescent rather than develop a more nuanced picture.  Since the chapter turns so complicated, I will work on each part separately in the hope to pull together diverse extracts on a later, more mature stage.  Thank...

I looked through my previous article to lay out the outline of my ongoing research. Provisional plan of Unit I chapter 4: 1.       European merchants in North Africa 2.       Trans-Saharan trade network and West African traders, Wangara 3.       Progress of European navigation along the West African coast 4.       Rio del Oro , Palola island, Prester John in Africa. 5.       Reappraisal Some changes may occur. Meanwhile, I have reached point 3 in my plan. Not every material will enter in the final version but I need to learn as much as possible about African trade before the contact. By 'contact', I mean the encounter between Portuguese sailors and the people of sub-Saharan Africa in the mid-15th century. I am still unsure where to end my research and how to depict the Portuguese interference in local business, whether in terms of the Age of Discovery or the context of slave raids. Every significant topic wi...

I uploaded another chapter of my unpublished book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". This extract is taken from Unit IV,  Mapping Marvels and Monsters: In the Shadow of the Iron Gate. The unit treats the popular medieval myth of Alexander's Gate. This is a resume of the chapter : The myth of the Caspian Gates was modeled on Alexander the Macedon's pursuit of his rival, the Persian emperor. Due to the patchy awareness of Asian geography, the initiators of the legend switched the locality from the Iranian Caspian Gates to the Caucasus. The Hellenistic ideal of the civilized world carved by a Macedonian military genius needed to be defended from barbarian incursions by an impenetrable barrier. You can view this extract at  https://www.academia.edu/43202485/Alexander_at_the_Caspian_Gates as well as the previous chapter  https://www.academia.edu/42876161/Meet_your_enemy As far as my second book project, I have resumed searching for a literary agent who can represe...

As you understand, this is a bid for new research. This time, I will review the basics of the Trans-Saharan trade during the Little Age of Discovery (XIV century). This overland exchange was a highway for transporting wares, technologies, and ideas among vast expanses of West Africa, linking diverse cultures of the Mediterranean coast, the Sahara oases, the Sahel grasslands, and the forest belt on the way to the Guinea Bay.   An essential part of this commercial network was the gold trade. The 'yellow metal' was panned in the shallows of the rivers, in the knee-deep water, or mined in the shafts.  At this stage, I have started collecting the material. Many years ago, I wrote an article by the same title. Nowadays, I will try to expand it. It will be the last chapter of Unit I of my new project.  Unit I: The Little Age of Discovery:   European Maritime Adventures in the Fourteenth century 1: How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea a)    The Heated Argument with Her...

I hope you are feeling well and the days of the coronavirus will be over although this epidemic seems to stay with us for a while. I spoke with an editor of the literary magazine about the possibility of publishing my latest research "The Rediscovered Islands" in Russian. As he was interested, I started to translate the article. Of course, there will be some minor corrections: it will be another version of the same text. I may add additional illustrations, especially the diagram that explains the clockwise movements of the ocean currents in the tropical belt of the Atlantic.  I resolved to skip over the topic of the discovery of Madeira and the Azores since I still recount the events of the XIV century or the Little Age of Discovery, as I have dubbed it. The discussion of naval charts relating to these islands will be put off to later chapters.  Meanwhile, I started collecting material about the quest for the Rio del Oro ('The Golden River') and the ...

The chapter about the Canary Islands is nearly over. It is titled "The Rediscovered Islands". The extract has endured a complete renewal by contrast with the previous version uploaded several years ago.  "The Rediscovered Islands" comprises six parts: a. The Priority of Discovery, which tells the tale of rediscovery b. The People Behind the Scenes introduces the Guanches, the native settlers c. The Norman Conquest focuses on the private enterprise of Messier Jean de Bethencourt d. The Royal  Conquest elaborates on the final subjugation of the islands  e. The Sugar Islands switches to the production of sugar I'm working on the last part, the Reassessment, where I will tell the story in a nutshell, in a more prosaic way and excluding some details.  The chapter will stay unpublished for two main reasons: I need to leave it for a while to make a better reassessment (in terms of style, cohesion, etc.) and I will think about publication opport...

Image: At the foothills of Pico del Teide Courtesy:  https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/attractions/pico-del-teide/a/poi-sig/444919/360727 I am hopeful you are well and sound. My best advice for those who must spend a lot of time time in isolation is to engage in your favorite activities. In my case, it is research in matters that interest me. As you know, I have launched new research, which focuses on the European discovery of the maritime route to the Indies. I am working on Part I of the study titled " The Little Age of Discovery: The Conquest of the Western Sea". Here I tell the story of the European ventures in the eastern Atlantic throughout the fourteenth century.  The first two chapters are complete. Chapter 1,  How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea, based on the report of Herodotus, defies the idea that Africa had been circumnavigated in antiquity. It  also corrects the impression that Columbus was a lone wolf  obsessed with a crazy idea to f...

My article, "How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea", has been published in a Russian literary magazine, The Captain's Cabin, N 25, 2020. I believe it will be available to several thousand readers.  I'm developing good working relations with the editor who looked through the abstract of my second paper and endorsed it for publication in the next issue of the magazine. This paper, "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules", explains the significance of Gibraltar Strait for launching new shipping lanes across Western Europe. Besides, the 'opening' of the Strait can be viewed as the threshold to oceanic ventures. I'm going to upload the English version of this article on my site.  My next research is focused on the Canary Archipelago. I will try to extend the story beyond the discovery (a tricky subject in itself) and cover the conquest and colonization of the islands.  I have also decided to collect data on the following topic: social inequality in Chalc...

I have completed the paper titled "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules". I have made loads of corrections in the draft copy and for the first time used expressions from a special glossary which I fill in on a parallel basis with my reading the topic. I am hopeful that my new article has become much more presentable.  However, I will refrain from uploading it on the site before offering it to some magazines, many of which insist on exclusive rights. I will also appeal to Mr. Misyuk, the editor of the Russian-language literary magazine 'The Captain's Cabin' who is going to publish my previous article, 'How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea' next month. You can find this paper on my site  https://www.academia.edu/41214506/How_Wide_Spans_the_Ocean_Sea As for my second book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East", I will address several small publishing houses which accept manuscript from authors. It should be a traditional publisher whom I will give fu...

Image:  The Strait of Gibraltar viewed from the space, with Jebel Tariq on the port side and Jebel Musa to the starboard Courtesy:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Gibraltar#/media/File:STS059-238-074_Strait_of_Gibraltar.jpg I have written the first draft of my new research which deals with the 'opening' of the Strait of Gibraltar for Christian vessels at the end of the thirteenth century. This topic alludes to one of the chapters of the Reconquista, especially the struggle for the domination of the three ports which served the vessels wishing to enter the Strait: Tarifa, Algeciras, and Gibraltar. My paper includes four parts. Part 1, The Evil Omen, refers to the ancient spell laid on the crossing of the Pillars of Hercules by poets and historians. However, it did not prevent ancient or medieval Mediterranean mariners from venturing into the Atlantic. Part 2, Passing through the Eye of the Needle, discusses some weather vagaries and navigation hazards w...