Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/51

 BYZANTIUM, VENICE, AND GENOA 17 BRIDGE OF BOATS OVER THE TIGRIS AT BAGHDAD. forth before the world as the acknowledged Queen of the Mediterranean. On the re-establishment of the Byzantine empire (1261), the Genoese, whose mercantile jealousy of Ven- ice overcame their orthodox faith and led them to assist the Greek emperor in the expulsion of their Catholic trade-rivals, took the place of the Venetians at Con- stantinople. They re- ceived the Pera quar- ter, commanded the harbour, planted for- tified factories or trading-posts under the superinten- dence of a factor as head along the European and Asi- atic coasts of the Euxine, occupied part of the Crimea, and made its old emporium at Kaffa the headquarters of the Eastern trade by the Black Sea route. About 1263 they rebuilt the ruined city of Kaffa. Its spacious harbour, with deep water and firm anchorage for a hun- dred ships, played a leading part in the Genoese monop- oly of the Euxine. Of scarcely less importance was Soldaia, also on the southeast coast of the Crimea. Its Greek settlers had long acted as middlemen between the Asiatic and Rus- sian traders, and, strengthened by a Venetian factory, they grew rich on the Indian commerce by the Black Sea route during the thirteenth century. Marco Polo the elder owned a house at Soldaia which he bequeathed