Michael Baizerman Author

 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...