Month: November 2025 (Page 3 of 6)

From Okbara, Benjamin arrives in Baghdad. He focuses primarily on two people in this section: the Caliph and the Head of the Captivity of Israel. Religion is the main subject here. He first introduces Caliph Emir al Muminin al Abbasi of the family of Mohammed. Baghdad in the 12^th century was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, an empire which at its height controlled the entirety of the Arabian Peninsula and large swathes of the Middle East and North Africa. Benjamin compares his role in Islam like that of the Pope over the Christians, the most important figure in the religion, revered by all Muslims of the empire.

Benjamin of Tudela seems to admire Caliph al Abbasi greatly. He cites his benevolent attitude towards the Jews; he is “kind unto Israel” and has many Jewish attendants. He is well-versed in Jewish law and in Hebrew. Benjamin asserts that al Abbasi is truthful and trustworthy, speaking peace to all men. He calls him a righteous man, whose actions are all for good. He describes at length al Abbasi’s acts of charity. He built a hospital for the sick poor, where every man is treated at his own expense. In addition, there is a sort of mental hospital, where the Caliph provides for them also, even giving them money at their discharge. Strangely, the Caliph’s siblings and family are all imprisoned in their homes inside the palace, to prevent them from rising against him. However, Benjamin assures us that they reside in “great splendour” and are all living lives of great luxury. Perhaps this was a normal enough precaution for kings to take in Benjamin’s time that it did not seem unreasonable to him, or perhaps he admired the Caliph’s actions or patronage of the Jews enough that it did not matter to him. It is interesting that Benjamin of Tudela respects the leader of a different religion so greatly. Throughout the text it’s clear that being Jewish is the surest way for Benjamin to be assured of a person’s goodness, but obviously it is not the only way. He appreciates other signs of good character, like charitableness, peacefulness, modesty, intelligence, and an egalitarian approach to other religions, all traits which he believes al Abbasid possesses.

In Baghdad, there are 40,000 Jews, a very large population, as they live in security and prosperity under Abbasid rule. There are ten Academies in the city, and many great Jewish academics and sages. There is an office of the “Head of the Captivity of Israel”, who has authority over all the Jewish congregations and is appointed by the Caliph. Benjamin writes that this Head of the Captivity is honored by both Gentiles and Jews. He has authority over a large region, within which he gives communities the power to appoint Rabbis and Ministers who receive his authority, and from which he receives tribute. He owns land and receives revenue from Jewish markets and merchants. This position is also known as Exilarch, the hereditary head of the Jewish community, recognized by the ruler, and was present in the region for hundreds of years up until the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate. The safety of the Jews and the Caliph’s appreciation of them clearly assured their stability, as Benjamin says the Jews of Baghdad are well-educated and rich. There are nearly thirty synagogues in the city, crowned by the great synagogue of the Head of the Captivity. He says the city is a full twenty miles in circumference, with gardens and plantations, and prosperous trade, philosophers, and magicians. Overall, he speaks very highly of Baghdad and finds one of the most prosperous Jewish communities there.

Five days’ journey from Abydos is Constantinople, the seat of the Greek empire. Benjamin of Tudela briefly describes the structure of the government under King Emanuel, with his twelve ministers. As is typical for this account, Benjamin does not describe the practical or physical aspects of his journey—there is no indication of where he stayed, or for how long, or how he traveled to and from the city. He does describe the terrain surrounding the city and how it is situated on a peninsula, surrounded on one side by an arm of the Sea of Russia and the other side the Sea of Sepharad. It is eighteen miles in circumference, one of the larger cities he has visited.

He spends a large part of this excerpt talking about the merchant activity, wealth, and material possessions of Constantinople and the Greeks. We know very little about Benjamin of Tudela outside of his Itinerary, but a common theory is that he was a merchant of some kind. This passage certainly supports this conclusion, since he seems especially interested in trade and goods out of everything he saw in Constantinople. In fact, the majority of his writings on this city are devoted to those subjects. He says that Constantinople enjoys lots of merchant activity from all over: Egypt, Persia, Hungary, Russia, Babylon, and more. In terms of the architecture, he describes churches and palaces with pillars of gold and silver, inlaid with precious stones. He says that the King’s palace, Blachernae, was made of so many precious metals and jewels that it shone by moonlight. He is also concerned with the tributes received from all over the kingdom, the total of which he is told amounts to 20,000 gold pieces every year. These include silks and fabrics of purple and gold, the most precious and expensive colors. The inhabitants themselves are rich in gold and jewels and wear silks and embroidery. They ride horses and eat bread, meat, and wine. He says they “look like princes,” and calls it the richest land in the world.

In contrast are the Jews of Constantinople, who are relegated to a ghetto outside the city, behind and inlet, so that they must travel by sea to get in or out. He says that they are permitted to do business in the city, and that there are silkmakers and rich merchants among them, but overall their condition is poor. There are 2,000 Rabbanite and 500 Karaite Jews, divided by a fence. Benjamin sees that the Greeks hate the Jews, defiling their homes and beating them in the streets. These are some of the worst conditions of the Jewish population seen in his travels. Yet, he says, the Jews are good, kind, charitable, and cheerful despite their oppression. Wherever the place, Benjamin of Tudela speaks highly of Jews, even in unfamiliar lands or of different ethnicities, when he otherwise dislikes or distrusts the native populations. There was great allegiance among the Jewish diaspora of Benjamin’s time, and a great desire for communication between scattered groups of Jews, as noted in part II of the introduction: “In the sacred tongue they possessed a common language, and wherever they went they could rely upon a hospitable reception from their co-religionists. Travelling was, therefore, to them comparatively easy, and the bond of common interest always supplied a motive.” Interestingly, he writes that despite the widespread hatred of Jews the King’s physician, R. Solomon Hamitsri, is a Jew who lives in the ghetto, and through him the rest of the Jews enjoy some alleviation of their condition. In this time period the status of Jews was often extremely precarious, changing from one ruler to the next even within a single dynasty, region, or city. In these climates, individuals like R. Solomon could potentially bring their community up with them to a certain degree.

Two of the most common hypotheses for Benjamin’s reasons for traveling are present in this excerpt: first, the merchant theory, as mentioned previously, based on his great interest in trade, wealth, and goods in and out of Constantinople. Second, his interest in the conditions of Jews in each place he traveled, potentially writing a guide for his community on the safest places to live and move around.

Benjamin of Tudela’s description of Cairo (Mizraim) is dominated by discussion of the Nile river. The importance the river has to all aspects of life in the city and its surrounding regions cannot be overstated. It is both a form of protection, eliminating the need for a city wall, and the center of their food production (99). He describes the rising and falling pattern of the river in great detail. The rising of the river is both an important cultural and agricultural event. He draws great attention to the pillar that measures the height of the flooding as a cultural oddity that only exists due to the unusual seasonal changes of the region. He also discusses the ways in which the river’s flooding affects how agriculture is practiced. Bountiful fish end up in farmlands and water covers the earth for two months (100). This pattern is the only thing that allows for any farming in the otherwise arid climate and if it ever fails to occur great famine spreads through the land. Benjamin’s focus on farming in this section differs from his previous descriptions because, while he occasionally had comments about the market goods in other areas, he paid little attention to the process of getting them to the cities. This may be because it was simply standard practice while the Nile creates notable differences, but it could also be a sign that he was only relating other people’s stories rather than his own. He also spends far less time discussing the topics that he usually focuses on like the built environment.
He does acknowledge the similarly unusual structure of the Jewish community in Cairo, another of his standard factors of note. They are divided into two different congregations, those who follow Babylonian customs and those who follow Israeli customs. Specifically, he notes the difference in how they divide the portions of the Torah with Babylonians doing one portion a week and Israelis doing one third of a portion each week (98). He also makes sure to state that the Babylonian method is the same as how the Jews back in his home country of Spain divide the portions. This offers his audience of Jews who may be looking to move to areas of less persecution an insight into which foreign communities are most similar to their own. Benjamin has been, perhaps surprisingly, sparse in his description of the actual religious practices of the Jewish communities he has been documenting because, despite all following the same religion, there were great differences in practicalities region to region. A Jew from Spain may find the observances of a Jew from Baghdad completely alien despite originating from the same text and following the same basic principles. While other elements that would be important to a potential immigrant such as the size of the Jewish community and their status within society are addressed, how easy it would be for a newcomer to fit in is left ambiguous. However, Cairo shows that despite the division of the Jewish community they can still come together for special occasions to practice as a single great unit.