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Benjamin of Tudela[note 1] (1130 – 1175), also known asBenjamin ben Jonah, was a medievalTudelano Jewish traveler who visitedEurope,Asia, andAfrica in the twelfth century. His vivid descriptions ofwestern Asia preceded those ofMarco Polo by a hundred years. With his broad education and vast knowledge of languages, Benjamin of Tudela is a major figure in medievalgeography andJewish history.
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 andethnography of theMiddle Ages. Some modern historians credit Benjamin with giving accurate descriptions of everyday life in the Middle Ages. Originally written inHebrew, his itinerary was translated intoLatin and later translated into most major European languages. It received much attention fromRenaissance scholars in the sixteenth century.
His journeys reveal the concurrent interconnectedness and diversity of Jewish communities during this time period.
Little is known of his personal life, apart from the fact that he was a native ofTudela in theKingdom of Navarre, that he lived during the second half of the 12th century and that his father's name was Jonah.[1] He is often referred to asRabbi by non-Jewish sources, although there is no reliable evidence that he was ever one.[2][3]
There is no consensus among scholars as to Benjamin of Tudela's exact route, although most scholars believe from his itinerary that he travelled on a popular route frequented by travelers at the time.[4] Benjamin set out on his journey from the northeast Iberian Peninsula around 1165, in what may have begun as a pilgrimage to theHoly Land.[5] It has been suggested he may have had a commercial motive as well as a religious one. Several times the subject shows an interest in the coral trade, perhaps as a professional gem-merchant.[6] On the other hand, he may have intended to catalog the Jewish communitiesen route to theLand of Israel to provide a guide where hospitality could be found for Jews traveling to the Holy Land, or for those fleeing oppression elsewhere.[7] He stopped frequently, meeting people, visiting places, describing occupations, and giving a demographic count of Jews in each town and country that he visited.[8] Benjamin provided his own evaluations of various cultures he encountered and, sometimes, drew parallels between customs he encountered.[9]
Map of route
His journey began inZaragoza, farther down the valley of theEbro toTarragona,Barcelona, andGirona, whence he proceeded north toFrance, then set sail fromMarseille. After visitingGenoa,Lucca,Pisa,Florence[10] andRome, he went toGreece andConstantinople, then set off across Asia. He visitedSyria,Lebanon, theLand of Israel, and northern Mesopotamia (which he called Shinar) before reachingBaghdad.[11] From there he went toPersia, then cut back across theArabian Peninsula toEgypt andNorth Africa, returning to theIberian Peninsula in 1173.[5] In his travels, he described a significant Jewish community somewhere around modern-day Ethiopia. While it appears clear that such a community existed, scholars still struggle to decide where in Africa he actually visited—a lack of uniform spelling makes it hard to distinguish what places Benjamin and other contemporary travel writers are actually referencing.[4]
Benjamin of Tudela in theSahara (Author : Dumouza, 19th-century engraving)
His visit to the ruins outsideMosul is one of the earliest accurate descriptions of the site of ancientNineveh.[12] He visited 300 cities in all, including many of importance in Jewish history, such asSusa,Sura, andPumbedita. In addition, he gathered information on many more areas that he heard about in his travels, including China and Tibet. He recorded details on cultures such as that ofAl-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), which 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. In his accounts, Benjamin of Tudela describes Baghdad with great enthusiasm, making particular note of the virtues of the Caliph. He often writes of the respect and intermingle that he encounters between Judaism and Islam.[13] 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 ofLaish (Tel Dan) withBaniyas along withPhilostorgius,Theodoret, andSamuel ben Samson is given over to dispute.[14]Eusebius of Caesarea locates Dan/Laish more accurately in the vicinity of Paneas at the fourth mile on the route toTyre.[15]
A street inJerusalem'sRehavia neighborhood, Rehov Binyamin Mitudela (רחוב בנימין מטודלה), is named after him, as is a street inTel Aviv and another one in the former Jewish Quarter of his hometownTudela. A high-school in his hometown is namedBenjamín de Tudela after him too.
The well-known Israeli poetNathan Alterman wrote a poem about Benjamin of Tudela, which was set to music byNaomi Shemer and was often heard on the Israeli radio.[16]
Uri Shulevitz wrote and illustratedThe Travels of Benjamin of Tudela: Through Three Continents in the Twelfth Century in 2005.
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.ISBN0-934710-07-4
Sefer Masaot Benjamin MiTudela, Trilingual edition inBasque,Spanish andHebrew published inPamplona, 1994 by theGovernment 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 anintroduction by thepresident of Navarra,Juan Cruz Alli ArangurenISBN9788423512867
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 2001ISBN975-6698-21-7 (Second ed. M.Ü. İlahiyat Fakültesi Vakfı Yayınları: İstanbul 2009ISBN978-975-548-227-9
^Jacoby, David (2014). "Benjamin of Tudela and his „Book of Travels"".Travellers, Merchants and Settlers in the Eastern Mediterranean, 11th-14th Centuries. Routledge. pp. 160–161.ISBN9780367600624.
^abFauvelle-Aymar, François-Xavier (2013). "Desperately Seeking the Jewish Kingdom of Ethiopia: Benjamin of Tudela and the Horn of Africa (Twelfth Century)".Speculum.88 (2):383–404.doi:10.1017/S0038713413000857.JSTOR23488846.S2CID163444188.
^Hess, Robert L. (1965). "The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: A Twelfth-Century Jewish Description of North-East Africa".The Journal of African History.6 (1):15–24.doi:10.1017/S0021853700005302.JSTOR179644.S2CID161989448.
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.ISBN978-0-8020-0779-7.
Wilson, John Francis (2004).Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan. I. B. Tauris.ISBN978-1-85043-440-5.
Jacobs, Martin.Reorienting the East: Jewish Travelers to the Medieval Muslim World. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.
Jacobs, Martin. “‘A Day’s Journey’: Spatial Perceptions and Geographic Imagination in Benjamin of Tudela’s Book of Travels.”Jewish Quarterly Review 109, no. 2 (2019): 203-232.
Anna K. Dulska: “Abrahamic Coexistence in the Twelfth-Century Middle East? Jews among Christians and Muslims in a Travel Account by a Navarrese Jew, Benjamin of Tudela”, Journal of Beliefs & Values, DOI: 10.1080/13617672.2017.1317520,http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/zWEMrqQ8q99rwvTpsQem/full
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