Michael Baizerman Author

I uploaded another chapter of my unpublished book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East".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 ...