Benjamin of Tudela

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Benjamin of Tudela
בִּנְיָמִין מִטּוּדֶלָה
Bust of Benjamin of Tudela
Bronze bust of Benjamin by Ricardo Varela Andrés in Tudela, Navarre, 1994
Pronunciationbinjaˈmin mituˈdela
Born
Tudela, Kingdom of Navarre
Other namesBenjamin ben Jonah
Years activec. 12th century
Known forTravels throughout the Old World

Benjamin of Tudela

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
.

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

Hebrew, his itinerary was translated into Latin and later translated into most major European languages. It received much attention from Renaissance
scholars in the sixteenth century.

His journeys reveal the concurrent interconnectedness and diversity of Jewish communities during this time period.

Personal life

Little is known of his personal life, apart from the fact that he was a native of Tudela in the Kingdom of Navarre, that he lived during the second half of the 12th century and that his father's name was Jonah. He is often referred to as Rabbi by non-Jewish sources, although there is no reliable evidence that he was ever one.[1][2]

Journey

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.

Egypt and North Africa, returning to the Iberian Peninsula in 1173.[4] 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 writer travel writers are actually referencing.[3]

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

His visit to the ruins outside

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), 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.

Eusebius of Caesarea locates Dan/Laish more accurately in the vicinity of Paneas at the fourth mile on the route to Tyre.[13]

Commemoration

Binyamin Mitudela street, Tel Aviv

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

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 Tel Aviv and another one in the former Jewish Quarter of his hometown Tudela. A high-school in his hometown is named Benjamín de Tudela after him too.

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.[14]

Uri Shulevitz wrote and illustrated The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela: Through Three Continents in the Twelfth Century in 2005.

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. PDF format.
  • The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Critical Text, Translation and Commentary Nathan Marcus Adler (trans., ed., New York: Phillip Feldheim, Inc., 1907), reprint by Hebrew University – Department of History of Israel, 1960. Text document, accessed July 2020.
  • Works by Benjamin of Tudela at Project Gutenberg
  • Sefer Masaot Benjamin MiTudela, Trilingual edition in
    ISBN 9788423512867
  • 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 978-975-548-227-9

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Hebrew: בִּנְיָמִין מִטּוּדֶלָה,  pronounced [binjaˈmin mituˈdela]; Arabic: بنيامين التطيلي, Binyamin al-Tutayli

References

  1. ^ "Benjamin of Tudela". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  2. ISBN 9780028659282
    .
  3. ^
    S2CID 163444188
    .
  4. ^ a b Shatzmiller 1998, p. 338.
  5. ^ Roth, Cecil. (1972) "Benjamin (Ben Jonah) of Tudela" in Encyclopaedia Judaica. 4. New York: Macmillan, pp. 535–538.
  6. ^ Shatzmiller 1998, p. 347.
  7. S2CID 161989448
    .
  8. ^ copied Fauvelle-Aymar, François-Xavier. "Desperately Seeking the Jewish Kingdom of Ethiopia: Benjamin of Tudela and the Horn of Africa (Twelfth Century)." Speculum 88, no. 2 (2013): 383–404. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23488846.
  9. ^ Hess, Robert L. "The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: A Twelfth-Century Jewish Description of North-East Africa." The Journal of African History 6, no. 1 (1965): 15–24. https://www.jstor.org/stable/179644.
  10. ^ Kramer 1963, p. 8.
  11. ISBN 9780486253978
    .
  12. ^ Provan, Long & Longman 2003, pp. 181–183; Wilson 2004, p. 150; Saulcy & Warren 1854, pp. 417–418
  13. ^ Saulcy & Warren 1854, p. 418.
  14. ^ מכללת אורנים – המסע בעקבות בנימין מטודלה Archived February 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (in Hebrew)

Bibliography

Further reading

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Benjamin of Tudela".

External links

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