BENJAMIN OF TUDELA

'Benjamin of Tudela' (Binyamin Metudela) was a medieval Spanish rabbi and explorer who traveled through 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 the history of geography and Judaism.

Contents

Journey

Translations of his work

Commemoration

See also

Sources

Notes

Journey

Benjamin set out on his journey around 1165, in what began as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.^[1] He may have hoped to settle there, but there is controversy about the reasons for his travels. 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 catalogue the Jewish communities on the route to the Holy Land so as to provide a guide to where hospitality may have been found for Jews travelling to the Holy Land.^[2] He took the "long road" stopping frequently, meeting people, visiting places, describing occupations and giving a demographic count of Jews in every town and country.
Little is known of his early life, apart from the fact that he was from the Spanish town of Tudela. Today, a street in the aljama is named after him. His journey began in the city of Zaragoza, further down the valley of the Ebro, whence he proceeded north to France, and then set sail from the port of Marseilles. After visiting Rome and Constantinople, he set off across Asia, visiting Syria and Palestine before reaching Baghdad. From there he went to Persia, then cut back across the Arabian Peninsula to Egypt and North Africa, returning to Spain in 1173. In all he visited over 300 cities including Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baghdad, and beyond. He was back in Spain by 1173.^[3]
He described his years abroad in a book, ''The Voyages 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 there. There are also detailed descriptions of sites and landmarks he passed along the way, as well as important buildings and marketplaces. Benjamin is noted for not only telling facts, but citing his sources; historians regard him as highly trustworthy.
''The Voyages 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. As well some modern historians credit Benjamin as giving very accurate descriptions of every-day life in the Middle Ages. Originally written in Hebrew, it was translated in to Latin and later translated into most major European languages, receiving considerable attention in the sixteenth century.

Translations of his work

★ Benjamin of Tudela. ''The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages''. trans. 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.

★

Commemoration

A street in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, Rehov Binyamin Metudela, is named after him.

See also

★ Ibn Battuta

★ Exploration of Asia

Sources

★ Shatzmiller, Joseph. "Jews, Pilgrimage, and the Christian Cult of Saints: Benjamin of Tudela and His Contemporaries." ''After Rome's Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History''. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1998.

★ Jewish Virtual Library: "Benjamin of Tudela."

Notes

1. Shatzmiller, 338.
2. Ibid, 347.
3. Ibid, 338.