Benjamin of Tudela

Map of route

Benjamin of Tudela (Template:Lang-he-n, pronounced [binjaˈmin mituˈdela]; Template:Lang-ar;‎ Tudela, Kingdom of Navarre, 1130 – Castile, 1173) was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years. With his broad education and vast knowledge of languages, Benjamin of Tudela is a major figure in medieval geography and Jewish history.

Little is known of his early life, apart from the fact that he was from the Navarrese town of Tudela in what is now Spain. Today, a street in the aljama (former Jewish quarter) is named after him.

The Travels of Benjamin is an important work not only as a description of the Jewish communities, but also as a reliable source about the geography and ethnography of the Middle Ages. Some modern historians credit Benjamin with giving accurate descriptions of everyday life in the Middle Ages. Originally written in Hebrew, his itinerary was translated into Latin and later translated into most major European languages. It received much attention from Renaissance scholars in the 16th century.

Journey

Benjamin of Tudela in the Sahara (Author : Dumouza, 19th-century engraving)

Benjamin set out on his journey from the northeast Iberian Peninsula around 1165, in what may have begun as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It has been suggested he may have had a commercial motive as well as a religious one. On the other hand, he may have intended to catalog the Jewish communities en route to the Land of Israel to provide a guide where hospitality could be found for Jews traveling to the Holy Land, or for those fleeing oppression elsewhere. He took the "long road," stopping frequently, meeting people, visiting places, describing occupations and giving a demographic count of Jews in each town and country that he visited.

His journey began in the city of Zaragoza, further down the valley of the Ebro to Tarragona, Barcelona, and Girona, whence he proceeded north to France, and then set sail from the port of Marseilles. After visiting Genoa, Lucca, Pisa, and Rome in present-day Italy — he next went to Greece and Constantinople, and then set off across Asia. He visited Syria, Lebanon, the Land of Israel, and northern Mesopotamia (which he called Shinar) before reaching Baghdad. From there he went to Persia, then cut back across the Arabian Peninsula to Egypt and North Africa, returning to the Iberian Peninsula in 1173. His visit to the ruins outside the city of Mosul in Iraq is one of the earliest accurate descriptions of the site of ancient Nineveh. He visited in all, over 300 cities, including many of importance in Jewish history, such as Susa, Sura, and Pumbedita in Iraq. In addition, he gathered information on many more areas which he heard about on his travels, including China and Tibet. He recorded details on cultures such as that of Al-Hashishin, the hemp smokers, introducing Western Europeans to people and places far beyond their experience.

He described his years abroad in a book, The Travels of Benjamin (מסעות בנימין, Masa'ot Binyamin, also known as ספר המסעות, Sefer ha-Masa'ot, The Book of Travels). This book describes the countries he visited, with an emphasis on the Jewish communities, including their total populations and the names of notable community leaders. He also described the customs of the local population, both Jewish and non-Jewish, with an emphasis on urban life. He gave detailed descriptions of sites and landmarks passed along the way, as well as important buildings and marketplaces. Although Benjamin is noted for citing sources and is generally regarded by historians as trustworthy, some of his claims are faulted as relying on earlier writers. For instance, Benjamin's identification of the Laish (Tel Dan) with Baniyas along with Philostorgius, Theodoret, and Samuel ben Samson is incorrect. Eusebius of Caesarea, conversely, locates Dan/Laish more accurately in the vicinity of Paneas at the fourth mile on the route to Tyre.

Translations of his work

• Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages. Trans. Marcus Nathan Adler. Introductions by Michael A. Signer, Marcus Nathan Adler, and A. Asher. Published by Joseph Simon/Pangloss Press, 1993. ISBN 0-934710-07-4
• The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. trans. Marcus Nathan Adler. 1907: includes map of route (p. 2) and commentary.
• Works by Benjamin of Tudela at Project Gutenberg
• Sefer Masaot Benjamin MiTudela Tri-lingual edition in Basque, Spanish and Hebrew published in Pamplona, 1994 by the Government of Navarra. Xabier Kintana translated Sefer Masaot into Basque language and Jose Ramon Magdalena Nom de Deu translated into Spanish. This trilingual special edition of Benjamin MiTudela book has an introduction by the president of Navarra, Juan de la Cruz Alli Aranguren ISBN 9788423512867 [1]
• Tudelalı Benjamin ve Ratisbonlu Petachia, Ortaçağ’da İki Yahudi Seyyahın Avrupa, Asya ve Afrika Gözlemleri [trans. by Nuh Arslantas, from Marmara University, Istanbul] Kaknüs: İstanbul 2001 ISBN 975-6698-21-7 → (Second ed. M.Ü. İlahiyat Fakültesi Vakfı Yayınları: İstanbul 2009 ISBN 978-975-548-227-9

Commemoration

The name Benjamin of Tudela was adopted by a mid-19th-century traveler and author, known as Benjamin II.

One of the main works of Mendele Mocher Sforim, a major 19th-century Russian Jewish writer, is the 1878 Masoes Benyomen Hashlishi (מסעות בנימין השלישי) (The Wanderings of Benjamin III), which is considered something of a Jewish Don Quixote and whose title is clearly inspired by Benjamin of Tudela's book.

A street in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, Rehov Binyamin Mitudela (רחוב בנימין מטודלה), is named after him—as is a street in the former Jewish Quarter of his hometown Tudela.

The well-known Israeli poet Nathan Alterman wrote a poem about Benjamin of Tudela, which was set to music by Naomi Shemer and was often heard on the Israeli radio.

Uri Shulevitz wrote and illustrated "The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela. Through three continents in the twelfth century" in 2005. ISBN 978-0-374-37754-0. [2]

See also

• Ibn Battuta
• Exploration of Asia

References

• Kramer, Samuel Noah (1963). The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character. University of Chicago Press. p. 8. OCLC 399046. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Provan, Iain William; Long, V. Philips; Longman, Tremper (2003). A Biblical History of Israel. London: Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 181–183. ISBN 0-664-22090-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Shatzmiller, Joseph (1998). "Jews, Pilgrimage, and the Christian Cult of Saints: Benjamin of Tudela and His Contemporaries". In Goffart, Walter A.; Murray, Alexander C. (eds.). After Rome's Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 337–347. ISBN 0-8020-0779-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Saulcy, Louis Félicien Joseph Caignart de; Warren, Edouard de (1854). Narrative of a Journey Round the Dead Sea, and in the Bible Lands; in 1850 and 1851. Including an Account of the Discovery of the Sites of Sodom and Gomorrah (second ed.). London: Parry and M'Millan. pp. 417–418. OCLC 797925862. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wilson, John Francis (2004). Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-85043-440-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Komroff, Manuel; Carpini, Giovanni di Plano, abp. of Antivari; Ruysbroeck, Willem van; Odorico, da Pordenone; Benjamin, of Tudela (1928). Contemporaries of Marco Polo, consisting of the travel records to the eastern parts of the world of William of Rubruck (1253-1255); the journey of John of Pian de Carpini (1245-1247); the journal of Friar Odoric (1318-1330) & the oriental travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela (1160-1173). New York: Boni & Liveright. OCLC 3974287.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Jewish Virtual Library: "Benjamin of Tudela."

External links

• Works by Benjamin of Tudela at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Benjamin of Tudela at the Internet Archive
• Video Lecture on Benjamin of Tudela by Henry Abramson of Touro College South