Under the Desert Sun: The Vagaries of the Trans-Saharan trade (1)

 

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 Ancient City" and started another course "European Empires: An Introduction, 1400-1522" launched by the University of Newcastle Australia. During the first week, we studied the waning of feudalism in Europe and the consolidation of the royal power, the growth of cities and the disaster of the Black Death. 

I was asked to deliver a mini-lecture on Skype to the members of a Russian-speaking polemical club. The topic, "The Origin of Israel", is much debated in the Israeli society and is very popular. I am looking for new arguments to present my views in a concise form. 

Take care and do your best!