Minister to the Khozar King, and the reply of the latter, form interesting contributions to the scanty literature of that time.[1]
The great Jewish poets of the eleventh century were penetrated by a yearning to see the land of their fathers, and their writings are replete with pathetic references to the cradle of their religion. Foremost among these Jewish poets is Jehuda Halevi, who in 1141 left his family and his all behind him and started in the sixtieth year of his life to satisfy his longing. His stormy voyage from Spain to the Levant is described in thrilling lyrical language. Eventually Jehuda landed at Alexandria, where his admirers would fain have detained him, for it was a hazardous undertaking at that time to visit Palestine. Jerusalem was in the hands of the Crusaders, who had massacred the Jewish community when the city was taken in 1099, and but a scant few had since returned. We cannot say with certainty that Jehuda Halevi visited the Holy City, nor do we know the year of his death. But we do know that his last days were spent in the north of Palestine. There is a legend that he was trodden to death by a Mohammedan horseman as he was uttering his well-known Ode to Zion. I shall have occasion to refer to his burial place further on.
The first mediæval Jewish writer of whose travels we possess a detailed record is Benjamin ben Jonah, of Tudela. He proceeded in the year 1160 from Spain, through France, Italy, and Greece, to Constantinople. Thence he visited Syria, and Palestine, as well as Persia, and returned to Spain in 1173 by way of Egypt and Sicily.
A. Asher, the well-known publisher, issued the Hebrew text of Benjamin's account of his travels, with an English translation, in the year 1840, and supplied also voluminous notes to which Dr. Zunz and other Jewish savants contributed. Dr. Zunz maintains Benjamin's accuracy as regards all which he professed to have seen. Benjamin subjoins, however, hearsay information as to Khorassan, India, China, and other distant places, but in most of these cases he adds the words "I have heard" and not "I have seen," and such statements must be accepted with reserve.
The travels of Benjamin have been translated into various languages. All the editions hitherto published seem to be based upon the Editio Princeps which appeared in the year 1543 at Constantinople, but which is far from correct. In the year 1865 the British Museum acquired a manuscript which, although somewhat defective in parts, in consequence of damp, gives improved readings in many cases.
The itinerary of Benjamin deserves careful perusal, as it shows that the writer, considering the age in which he lived, was a man of exceptional enlightenment. Many a passage throws light upon the commercial relations subsisting between the principal nations of his time, and the information he gives about Palestine is specially interesting. I propose to give copious extracts from the manuscript in the British Museum, omitting minor details.
- ↑ See "Miscellany of Hebrew Literature," vol. i, p. 92.
