Travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, through Europe, Asia, and Africa,
from Spain to China, between A.D. 1160 and 1173[1].
This Spanish Jew was the son of Rabbi Jonas, of Tudela, a small town in
Navarre. According to the testimony of Rabbi Abraham Zuka, a celebrated
professor of astronomy at Salamanca, it is supposed that Rabbi Benjamin
travelled from 1160 to 1173. Young Barratier, a prodigy of early literary
genius, asserts that Benjamin never made the journey at all, but patched up
the whole work from contemporary writers. There is no doubt that his work
is full of incredible tales, yet many of the anomalies it contains, may
have proceeded from mistakes of copyists; exaggeration was the taste of the
times, and other travellers who are believed actually to have travelled,
are not behind him in the marvellous. These often relate the miracles of
pretended Christian saints, while he details the wonders performed by
Jewish Rabbis. He contains however, many curious pieces of information, not
to be found anywhere else, and it seems necessary and proper to give a full
abstract of his travels in this place.
Travelling by land to Marseilles, Benjamin embarked for Genoa, and
proceeded to Rome, from whence he went through the kingdom of Naples to
Otranto, where he crossed over to Corfu and Butrinto, and journeyed by land
through Greece to Constantinople, having previously visited the country of
Wallachia. All this takes up the four first chapters, which are omitted in
Harris.
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