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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2004-03 > 1079523113


From: Peter Stewart <>
Subject: Re: POSSIBLE GATEWAY: FROM AFRICA TO EUROPE
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 11:31:53 GMT
References: <c57e4f24.0403141731.5b931209@posting.google.com> <00f601c40aee$508f9da0$9b0d0043@hppav> <010401c40af0$dd3b5b20$9b0d0043@hppav> <7004aa4b.0403161328.2409e930@posting.google.com> <40582A2C.1070409@interfold.com>
In-Reply-To: <40582A2C.1070409@interfold.com>


Todd A. Farmerie wrote:

<snip>

> Simply put, this emperor is buck naked:
>
> The evidence presented as to the wives of Izyaslav is confused and
> between many many centuries removed from the events being described.
> Names, origins, order, maternity of children is all up in the air.
>
> The hypothesis of aunt/niece marriages of Geza is ill advised, to say
> the least.
>
> The conspiracy coverup is of no value.
>
> The jump from "legends derive from reality" to accepting it as all true
> and trying to name names is a big leap of faith.
>
> And the final conclusion is based on nothing more than someone being
> dark-complected, therefor, she must have been child of an African,
> therefor she must have been child of this specific Abyssinian (as if
> everyone else in Byzantium was white as snow).

Gosh darn, Todd, you've spoiled the sport - just when I was about to
post a thrilling conjecture that Margarert II, countess of Flanders (aka
Zwarte Griet - that is, Black Meg), was a negress....

As people might have reflected from the information linked in my earlier
post about Peter the Great's African friend Hannibal, a black man as
recently as the 18th century was able to become the unconcealed ancestor
of some very famous people, including Pushkin and his many notable
descendants living today. The kind of racism that would seek to hide
such links tended to arise after that and in newer societies, like the
American colonies, where these are far less rare than could ever have
been the case in medieval Constantinople or Kiev.

Apart from commonsense, as helpfully applied by Todd, a reasonable feel
for cultural history may be no small aid to a genealogical explorer.

Peter Stewart

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