Note 1397 — Chapter XII · REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY
Reading edition
Matthew Paris, Chron. maiora, Rolls Series edit., vol. v, p. 217, tells how “the indifferentist, Frederic II, nominal leader of a Crusade, maintains 474so close a friendship with the Sultan of Egypt that German merchants (it is said) were able to travel in the company of Egyptians to the Indies” (Beazley, Dawn, vol. ii, 1901, p. 461). Heyd, Commerce du Levant, vol. ii, 1886, pp. 153–156, refers to a Pisan claim to an expedition to India in 1175. This is very doubtful.