Benjamin of Tudela

Spanish rabbi and traveler

• Born: Twelfth century
• Birthplace: Tudela, Navarre (now in Spain)
• Died: 1173
• Place of death: Castile (now in Spain)

Benjamin's account of his travels presents the best record available of the number, the leaders, and the social, religious, and economic conditions of the Jews in southern Europe and the Middle East during the twelfth century. At the same time, he provided the best documentation of trade and commerce in these areas in the period between the Second and Third Crusades.

Early Life

All that can be learned of the life of Rabbi Benjamin ben Jonah of Tudela (tew-DAY-lah) is found in his only surviving literary work, Massaՙot (c. 1173; Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, 1840), and its Hebrew preface, written by a contemporary of Benjamin. This preface refers to Benjamin as “a wise and understanding man, learned in the Law and the Halacha [Book of Practices],” and observes further that “wherever we have tested his statements we have found them accurate, true to fact and consistent; for he is a trustworthy man.” Unfortunately, Benjamin stood outside his narrative, revealing little about himself as he chronicled what he had seen and heard during his travels.

The Hebrew preface speaks of Benjamin as a rabbi, and in his observations Benjamin demonstrated a familiarity with the rabbinical literature of his time as well as a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew Bible. He wrote in a formal medieval Hebrew sometimes called Rabbinic Hebrew. He seems to have known Arabic, for his account is filled with phrases from that language. In fact, in that his native city, Tudela, was located in al-Andalus, or Muslim Spain, Arabic may well have been his mother tongue. Benjamin no doubt grew to maturity in two cultural worlds: one of Arabic science and culture and another of Jewish culture based on the Bible and the classical works of the rabbis such as the Talmud. His careful description of commercial activities indicates that he was probably a merchant by profession.

Benjamin did not explain his reasons for making his journey. He may have gone as a pilgrim to worship before the relics of the Hebrew past, many of which he described in the course of his travels, or his object may have been trade and mercantile operations, since he spent so much time describing those that he saw among the people he visited. He may also have been motivated by a concern for his fellow Jews. The period of the Crusades had already witnessed the extermination by Christian Crusaders of whole communities of Jews in Germany and along the routes to Palestine, and even in Benjamin's Spain his Jewish brethren were caught between the Christian soldiers of the Reconquista (Reconquest) and the occupying Muslims of al-Andalus. Perhaps he hoped to find places of asylum for his fellow Jews in the lands he visited. This would account for his careful descriptions of independent communities of Jews that had rulers of their own and owed no allegiance to outsiders. Indeed, Benjamin may have been motivated by all these considerations.

Life's Work

The only claim to importance of Benjamin of Tudela is The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, his record of a journey he took from his birthplace in northern Spain to Baghdad and perhaps beyond, and his return by way of Egypt and Sicily. He left Tudela in 1159 or 1160 and was back in Spain by 1173, the year in which he died.

Most scholars make a distinction between what Benjamin saw and what he heard. His descriptions of communities in Spain, southern France, Italy, the Byzantine Empire, Palestine, and Iran are detailed and accurate, so that there is little doubt that he visited them. Of areas to the east of Baghdad, however, his descriptions are brief, sketchy, and filled with fabulous stories, so that most who have studied Benjamin's work agree that his accounts of places beyond the Persian Gulf are based on what he heard from merchants and other travelers whom he met in Baghdad, where he spent considerable time. On his return route, Benjamin visited Aden, Yemen, Egypt, and Sicily. He makes reference to Germany, Bohemia, Russia, and northern France at the end of his account, but there is little reason to believe that he actually visited them. Of the nearly three hundred locations mentioned by Benjamin, those communities given the most coverage are Rome, Constantinople, Nablus, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Alexandria.

The importance of The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela is that it is the earliest, the best, and, in some cases, the only source of information for many facets of the history of the regions through which he traveled at the time of the Crusades. Without question, Benjamin's account is the fullest and most accurate record of the condition and numbers of the Jews in the twelfth century. For most of the Jewish communities that Benjamin actually visited, he provides the reader with the names of the leaders and the sizes of the congregations; in many cases, he lists the occupations of the people silk and purple cloth makers in Thebes, dyers in Jerusalem, silk cloth makers and merchants in Constantinople, glass makers in Tyre. Indeed, until the discovery in the nineteenth century of merchant letters stored in the attic of the synagogue in Cairo, Benjamin's account was the sole source of information for the vast and diverse trade on the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean during the period in which he wrote. While the letters augment Benjamin's account, they do not challenge its basic accuracy.

On numerous other matters, Benjamin was the first European commentator. He was the first from the West to describe with accuracy the sect of the Assassins in Syria and Iran, the first to point to the island of Kish (or Kis) in the Persian Gulf as the chief emporium in the Middle East for the goods of India, and the first to refer to China by its modern name.

Benjamin's account is also valuable for showing the diversity of religious beliefs and practices among the people he met or of whom he heard, whether they were Jews, Christians, Muslims, or pagans. He described strange worship patterns, burial customs, diets, and other deviations from what he considered to be normal practice. For example, he described the Jews of Nablus, whose alphabet lacked three letters. While they knew the law of Moses, their alphabetical deficiency, according to Benjamin, deprived them of dignity, kindness, and humility. Benjamin was also aware of the issues that separated the Roman Christians from those of the Byzantine Empire, as well as the struggle between the Protector of the Faithful in Cairo and the Protector of the Faithful in Baghdad, which disrupted the unity of the Muslim community.

Two of the most extensive and useful descriptions in Benjamin's account are those of the cities of Constantinople and Baghdad, two cities that in his estimation had no peer. Constantinople was visited by merchants from every country, and its storehouses of silk, purple, and gold were without equal. He estimated that the city received twenty thousand gold pieces every year as tribute from merchants who entered by sea and land, and from the rents of shops and markets. According to Benjamin, the Greek inhabitants were very rich: “They go clothed in garments of silk with gold embroidery, and they ride horses, and look like princes.” To protect themselves, the Greeks hired mercenaries, for they were “not warlike, but . . . as women who have no strength to fight.” No Jews were permitted in the city, except one who was the emperor's physician, and through him the oppression of the Jews who lived outside the city was somewhat alleviated.

Baghdad is clearly the city that made the greatest impression on Benjamin. He noted that there were twenty-eight synagogues, ten rabbinical academies, and forty thousand Jews there, all dwelling “in security, prosperity and honour under the great Caliph.” While devoting much space to the wonders of the city and the character of the caliph a ruler who supported himself by the work of his own hands and gave generously to the poor but kept members of his family bound by iron chains and under perpetual guard for fear of rebellion Benjamin was most eloquent when he described the exalted role held by the exilarch, whom the Jews called Our Lord, the Head of the Captivity of All Israel. This man, according to Benjamin, had been given authority by the caliph over all the Jews in the Muslim Empire. Every subject of the caliph, Jew and Muslim alike, was required to rise up before the exilarch and salute him. Each Thursday a triumphal parade through the streets of Baghdad preceded the exilarch's meeting with the caliph at the royal palace. The exilarch, possessed of great property, bestowed charity and benevolence on his people.

Aside from the more serious aspects of his account, readers may find much of interest in Benjamin's retellings of fanciful stories that he heard. He tells, for example, of the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was turned, observing that “the sheep lick it continually, but afterwards it regains its original shape.” Stranger still is his fable of the sun-worshipers of Khulam (Quilon), who embalmed their dead with spices and then placed them in their homes “so that every man can recognize his parents, and the members of his family for many years.”

Significance

Although Benjamin's account undoubtedly reflects his interests as a pilgrim, a merchant, and a Jew who may have been seeking places of asylum for his coreligionists, it is the good fortune of his readers that his other interests were diverse. Though he was at his best in describing the conditions of the Jews in the communities he visited, as well as the economic endeavors in which they and other peoples engaged, Benjamin was also skillful in discussing architectural wonders, religious relics, social customs, religious beliefs and practices, and forms of government. His analysis of the power of the caliph of Baghdad and the exilarch has been noted; he also offers useful discussions of the power exercised by the Old Man of the Assassins, the leaders of the Turkish tribes, and the priests of Ceylon, who controlled their people through trickery and witchcraft.

The ultimate significance of Benjamin's narrative can be judged by the numerous editions and translations through which it has passed. Cited by various writers in the Middle Ages, when it circulated in manuscript, it was first printed in 1543. Since then it has gone through many printings, both in the original Hebrew and in modern languages. No scholarly work on the Middle East in the twelfth century can be complete without drawing directly or indirectly on this work. While recent research has cast additional light on many of the topics covered by Benjamin's work, regarding those things he claims to have seen himself few significant errors have been exposed. In large part, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela has stood the test of time.

Bibliography

Ahituv, Shmuel, ed. A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present. New York: Continuum, 2003. A finely detailed and well-illustrated presentation about the global history of the Jews including migrations to the Middle East in medieval times with maps, photographs, drawings, chronologies, and extensive commentaries. Also provides a bibliography and an index.

Baron, Salo W. A Social and Religious History of the Jews. 8 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952. Vols. 3-7 contain numerous citations of Benjamin, in which his data are compared and contrasted with information from other sources for the same period.

Beazley, C. Raymond. The Dawn of Modern Geography: A History of Exploration and Geographical Science. 2 vols. 1897-1906. Reprint. New York: Peter Smith, 1949. Vol. 2 of this work focuses on the period from 900 to 1260, including a fifty-page analysis of Benjamin’s writings. Where errors in Benjamin’s account are noted, the appropriate corrections are made.

Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. Translated with an introduction and notes by Marcus Nathan Adler. London: H. Frowde, 1907. Contains an improved translation of the text, a useful introductory essay, notes, an English index to the text, and a map showing the route taken by Benjamin.

Benjamin of Tudela. The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela. Translated with an introduction and notes by A. Asher. 2 vols. London: A. Asher, 1840. Vol. 1 contains the earliest English translation of the text, an informative introductory essay, and a bibliography. Vol. 2 contains extensive notes on the text and two expository essays.

Murray, Alexander Calander, ed. After Rome’s Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History/Middle Ages. Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, 1998. A study of the major chronicles of Medieval History/Middle Ages, including Benjamin’s and his contemporaries’ work on “Jews, pilgrimage, and the Christian cult of saints.” Also includes a bibliography.

Signer, Michael A. Introduction to The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. New York: Joseph Simon, 1983. This volume includes a reprint of the Adler translation along with Adler’s and Asher’s introductory essays. The excellent introduction gives fresh insights into Benjamin’s motives for making the journey and writing his account. Maps included.

Signer, Michael A., and John van Engen, eds. Jews and Christians in Twelfth-century Europe. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001. An extensive collection of articles surveying the history of Christians and Jews in the Europe of Benjamin’s time. Includes a chapter on Jewish-Christian conflict in the context of the First and Second Crusades.