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Map of the route
Map of the route

Benjamin of Tudela (Binyamin MeTudela) was a medieval Navarrese rabbi and explorer who traveled through Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. The Kingdom of Navarre (Reino de Navarra Nafarroako Erresuma Royaume de Navarre originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years. Marco Polo ( September 15 1254 – January 9 1324 at earliest but no later than June 1325 was a Venetian trader and explorer With his broad education and vast knowledge of languages, Benjamin of Tudela is a major figure in the history of geography and Judaism. Geography (from Greek γεωγραφία - geografia) is the study of the Earth and its lands features inhabitants and phenomena Jewish history is the History of the Jewish people, faith, and culture.

Contents

Journey

Benjamin of Tudela in the Sahara (Author : Dumouza, XIXth century engraving)
Benjamin of Tudela in the Sahara (Author : Dumouza, XIXth century engraving)

Benjamin set out on his journey around 1165, in what began as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Sahara (الصحراء الكبرى aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-kubra, "The Great Desert" is the world's largest hot Desert and the world's second largest The Holy Land ( Arabic: الأرض المقدسة al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah;Ancient Aramaic: ארעא קדישא Ar'a Qaddisha; Hebrew: ארץ_הקודש [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 Navarrese town of Tudela. The Kingdom of Navarre (Reino de Navarra Nafarroako Erresuma Royaume de Navarre originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either Tudela is a Municipality in Spain, the second city of the Autonomous community of Navarre. Today, a street in the aljama (former Jewish quarter) is named after him. Aljama is a Spanish-language term of Arabic-language origin used in old official documents to designate the self-governing communities of Moors 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. Zaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former The Ebro ( Ebre) is Spain 's most voluminous river Its source is in Fontibre ( Cantabria) This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Marseille, ( English alt Marseilles mɑrˈseɪ — French: maʁsɛj locally — Provençal Occitan: Marselha maʀˈsijɔ After visiting Rome and Constantinople, he set off across Asia, visiting Syria and Palestine before reaching Baghdad. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Baghdad (بغداد) is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous 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. The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب jazīrat al-ʻarab) This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra [1] In all he visited over 300 cities including Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baghdad, and beyond.

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. Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive 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

Commemoration

The name Benjamin of Tudela was adopted by a mid-19th century traveler and author, known as Benjamin II. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works

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. Mendele Mocher Sforim (also Sfarim, מענדעלע מוכר ספֿרים) ( December 21, 1835 ( O es '''''Don Quixote''''' (, see spelling and pronunciation below fully titled es '''''El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha''''' ("The Ingenious Hidalgo Don

A street in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, Rehov Binyamin Metudela (רחוב בנימין מטודלה), is named after him - as is a street in the former Jewish Quarter of his hometown Tudela. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the

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. Natan Alterman (born August 14 1910 Warsaw - died March 28 1970 Israel) was an Israeli Poet, Playwright, Journalist, and Naomi Shemer (נעמי שמר born 13 July 1930, died 26 June 2004) was one of Israel 's most important and prolific Song [3]

See also

Sources

Notes

  1. ^ a b Shatzmiller, 338. The Jewish Virtual Library is an online Encyclopedia published by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE
  2. ^ Ibid, 347.
  3. ^ מכללת אורנים - המסע בעקבות בנימין מטודלה
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