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...

  I'm collecting data for the third (and probably last) part of my current study, 'The Quest for the River of Gold'. Devoted to medieval West Africa, this research aims to show the nuances of the Trans-Saharan trade and a long way of transporting gold from its sources to clients. I have finished the initial quest and now have to peruse some books and academic articles before starting to estimate my collection of facts and opinions.  My latest publicized article, Beware of 'Barbarians', has gained traction among many readers, becoming my second best extract after only a week's run. My ratings have surged 33 % at the same time. Besides, I have received a vast array of the critics' opinions about my piece of writing. Many of them offer friendly advice about how I can improve my work. You can view my paper  https://www.academia.edu/44115626/Beware_of_Barbarians  and get to know my other opuses  https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael I wish you all sec...

  I finished the draft of the second part of the new research.  As I have already told you, the chapter will probably comprise three parts. Part 3 will be about the Wangara traders in West Africa. This is a vast social group of inter-region traders and Muslim scholars who founded settlements along the trade routes throughout the region. These guys delivered gold produced by the miners to the Sahel market towns where it was exchanged for an array of products essential for local and inter-regional trade.  I am also considering the future developments of my project. It is high time to speak about Portugal as an emerging sea power in the fourteenth- early fifteenth century and maybe to continue the story about the discovery of the mid-Atlantic islands (Madeira  and the Azores).     Meanwhile, I uploaded a new chapter from my second book. The extract titled Beware of the 'Barbarians'  elaborates on the role of Alexander Macedon as the guardian of the civili...

  The African king depicted on the Catalan Atlas is boasting of his gold reserve Courtesy: https://www.quora.com/Individually-and-together-what-effects-did-colonialism-the-scramble-for-Africa-and-the-slave-trade-have-on-Africa  The second part of the chapter is getting into shape. I am writing about the difficulties of crossing the Great Desert, the logistics of the journey, and its economic necessity. What is left is a conclusion and the general polish of the text. I am hopeful it won't take that long.  The third part of the chapter will be devoted to the Wangara traders, a group of West-African merchants who engaged in salt for gold exchange. They had access to the forest zone and contacted with the gold miners. However, their impact was not reduced to gold alone. Again, the phenomenon is more important to me than a rigid time frame.  It will probably be the last part of the chapter. I decided to avoid depicting the Portuguese advancement into Guinea at this s...

  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...

I'm still doing the research called "The Quest for the River of Gold". It focuses on the European search for the origin of West African gold in the Late Middle Ages and the Age of Discoveries. In my view, we have to realize why on earth European explorers would take pains to approach this part of the earth.  The research will cover four or five steps. The first of them is dubbed 'The Near Shore'. That is, near to southern Europe. Despite all religious antagonism of the Middle Ages, cross-cultural trade across the Mediterranean gained momentum even during the Age of the Crusades. West African gold enabled Italian economies, e.g. Genoa, Florence, and Venice, to mint gold coins and decorated European palaces and churches.  The first section describes European 'funduks' located in North African ports where western merchants were allowed to dwell and trade. They were permitted to install amenities to make their lifestyle insid...