Michael Baizerman Author

  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...