Michael Baizerman Author

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...