For the first time in the text, Benjamin of Tudela spends more time talking about the people of a city than its architecture. Despite the grandeur of twelfth-century Baghdad, he spends comparatively little time discussing the monuments and far more time on the Caliph and the Head of the Captivity. Benjamin heaps praise on the Caliph with special note of his great charity. The Caliph is described as a generous and kind leader who treats the Jews in his city with grace as well as the Muslim citizens. He pays great attention to the hospitals run by the Caliph, especially their treatment of “the demented people who have become insane in the towns through the great heat in the summer” (59). That this care is worthy of note to Benjamin shows the rarity of care for the mentally ill in his own culture or the cultures he has traveled through to this point. The Caliph’s care for these people is a sign of his great benevolence. The scorching climate drives the reason from these people, but they are cared for and nursed back to health on the Caliph’s dime. Baghdad is depicted as a place where people are cared for, and its wealth is used for the direct benefit of the citizens. Even the Caliph himself is a man of hard work and virtue who “will not partake of anything unless he has earned it by the work of his own hands” (55). The public support channeled through the Caliph makes Baghdad one of the most uplifted cities Benjamin visits.
An even greater aspect in Benjamin’s eyes is the thriving and exalted Jewish community living in Baghdad. While in most previous sections, even the very short ones, he frequently lists Jewish leaders in the places he mentions, for Baghdad he lists all ten heads of the academies, the chief Rabbi, and the Head of the Captivity along with their pedigrees. Much attention is given to the Head of the Captivity as both the head of the Jews throughout the Middle East and Asia and as an important and high-ranking figure in the Caliph’s court. The office of the Exilarch commands respect from all members of the court regardless of religion upon threat of whipping (61). He occupies an exalted position which reflects a raised, or at least not oppressed, status onto the rest of the Jewish community. The honor he receives as well as the vast numbers of Jewish residents in Baghdad show the high quality of life they experience. The numbers of Jews he lists in each city increase as he travels through the Middle East. The numerous academies and high positions of respect and authority held by Jews make Baghdad a Jewish scholar’s dream, especially compared to the discrimination he had witnessed in other places along his journey. If Benjamin’s mission is to report to diasporic Jews where they might want to travel, then his account of Baghdad is his most glowing review thus far. It is a city of great learning with benevolent leadership and the center of Jewish religious authority.