Benjamin of Tudela

Benjamin of Tudela was a Jewish merchant renowned for his travels through Europe, Asia, and Africa from about 1160 to about 1172, when he returned to Spain, dying shortly thereafter. He left his notes in Hebrew concerning his travels, which became famous and in translation was one of the most widely read travel accounts of all time.

Benjamin’s travel account is particularly valuable because of its details on commerce, agriculture, manufacture, and so on, and for the information on then remote and exotic areas of the world. His travels were limited to the coast of Provence, Italy, the Greek isles, Constantinople and Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egypt but he gives information about other lands, including China, acquired from secondhand reports. Besides investigation of commerce and agriculture, one of his goals was to report on the presence and condition of Jews in various parts of the world, as well as to visit “holy sites.”