A generation before 1200 but the only survey of its kind: the Jewish communities and their heads from Navarre through Provence, Italy, Constantinople and the Aegean, Antioch, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, Mosul and Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, with notes on rulers, trades, the exilarch at Baghdad, the Assassins of Syria and Persia, and hearsay on India, Ceylon and China. For 1200 use it for the structure of Jewish and urban life and for the notice of places; its numbers are rough and its eastern sections are second-hand.
About this source
- Title
- Masa'ot Binyamin
- Author
- Benjamin of Tudela
- Author's dates
- about 1130 to 1173
- Written
- about 1173
- Language
- Hebrew
- Covers
- about 1165 to 1173
- Kind
- Travel account
Adler's 1907 edition is public domain. Asher's 1840 edition with English is older. The travel dates are reconstructed; the infobox range (about 1159 to 1173) and the text's (about 1165 to 1173) differ.
Where to read it
Translations
- M. N. Adler, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Critical Text, Translation and Commentary (London, 1907), Hebrew with English
- Adler's English as a web text at Silk Road Seattle (University of Washington), partial
About the source
Realms this source covers in 1200
- The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans)
- Principality of Antioch
- County of Tripoli
- Kingdom of Jerusalem
- Al-Adil's lands: Damascus, Kerak and the south
- Mosul (Nur al-Din Arslan Shah)
- The Abbasid caliphate: al-Nasir's Iraq and Khuzistan
- The Nizaris (the Assassins) of the Syrian mountains
- The Nizari Ismailis of Alamut
- Kish: the island lords of the Gulf
- Kingdom of Navarre