The trade between the Greek settlements on the north shore of the Black Sea and the Royal Scythians had its [medieval] counterpart in a trade between Venetian and Genoese settlements on the same coast and the Golden Horde. During the Mamlūk régime in Egypt, when the Mamlūks were importing their slave-successors from the Great Western Bay of the Eurasian Steppe and not, as in the second phase, from the Caucasus, the Venetians were the principal carriers of this valuable human freight.
A Study of History, Vol VIII, OUP, 1954 (footnote)
February 7 2012 at 10:43 am
I think that few people know that the slave trade conducted by Genoese and Venetian traders between the Sea of Azov and the Italian cities especially between the 12th and 14th centuries left considerable genetic and cultural traces behind. The Tartar Sart and Uzbek women who became servants and concubines of the Italian merchants added pasta to the Italian diet, bringing in the techniques of flattening it with a rolling pin and that of making ravioli and such like stuffed pastry. Genetically, many babies in Florence especially are born with the so-called Mongolian stain on the lower back, a stain which vanishes in growing up. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the earliest formative period of Italian society, language and culture, there were several hundred Tartar slaves in Florence and Prato. Emblematic is Francesco Datini’s concubine.
February 7 2012 at 10:53 am
Fascinating. Thank you.