Jehudah_, and by Joseph Hacohen in _Emek Habacha_, are
evidently based upon Benjamin's record, and throw no fresh
light on this Messianic movement. Asher, vol. II, note 300,
promises but fails to give the contents of an Arabic
document written by a contemporary, the renegade Samuel Ibn
Abbas, which the savant S. Munk had discovered in the Paris
library; a German translation of this document appears in
Dr. Wiener's _Emek Habacha_, 1858, p. 169. The name of the
pseudo-Messiah is given as Menahem, surnamed Al-Ruhi, but
Munk satisfactorily proves that he is identical with our
David Alroy. Being a young man of engaging appearance and
great accomplishments, he gained considerable influence with
the governor of Amadia, and had a considerable following
among the Jews of Persia. With the intention of occupying
the castle, he introduced a number of his armed adherents
into the town, who were careful, however, to conceal their
weapons. The governor detected the conspiracy, and put Alroy
to death. The excitement among the Jews lasted for a
considerable time. Two impostors, with letters purporting to
emanate from Alroy, came to Bagdad, and worked upon the
credulity of the community. Men and women parted with their
money and jewellery, having been brought to believe that on
a certain night they would be able to fly on angels' wings
from the roofs of their houses to Jerusalem. The only thing
which made the women feel unhappy was the fear that their
little ones might not be able to keep pace with them in the
aerial flight. At daybreak the fraud was discovered, but the
impostors had meanwhile decamped with their treasure. The
chronicler adds that the year in which this occurred was
called The Year of Flight.
De Sacy, in his _Chrestomathie Arabe_, I, p. 363, gives a
similar story, the authorship of which he ascribes to
Schahristani.]
[Footnote 160: Asher, vol. II, p. 167, n. 304, gives
expression to a keen desire for further particulars as to
this tomb. Dr. J.E. Polak, formerly Physician to the late
Shah of Persia, gives the desired information, on p. 26, in
an interesting work on Persia. He writes as follows: "The
only national monument which the Jews in Persia possess is
the tomb of Esther at Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, whither
they have made pilgrimages from time immemorial. In the
centre of the Jewish quarter there is to be seen a low
building with a cupola, on the top of which a stork has
built its nest. The entrance is walled up for the greater
part; there only remains below a small aperture which can be
closed by a movable flat stone serving the purpose of a door
and affording some protection from attacks, which are not
uncommon. In the entrance hall, which has but a low ceiling,
are recorded the names of pilgrims; also the year when the
building was restored. Thence one gains access into a small
four-cornered chamber in which there are two high sarcophagi
made of oak, which are the monuments of Esther and Mordecai.
On both of them are inscribed in Hebrew the words of the
last chapter of the Book of Esther, as well as the names of
three Physicians at whose expense the tomb was repaired."
Dr. Polak states that in the Middle Ages the Jewish
population of Persia was very large, especially in the
southern provinces. In recent years it has greatly
diminished in consequence of dire persecution. He was
assured that not more than 2,000 Jewish families remained in
the country. Eighty years ago the entire community at Meshed
were forcibly converted to Islam. Cf. E.N. Adler, _Jews in
Many Lands_, p. 214.]
[Footnote 161: Referring to Benjamin's statement that
Mordecai and Esther are buried at Hamadan, an interesting
article by Mr. Israel Abrahams upon the subject, with an
illustration of the traditional tomb, as well as a picture
of ancient Susa, will be found in the _Jewish Chronicle_ of
March 19, 1897. In the issue of March 4, 1898, Mr. Morris
Cohen, of Bagdad, furnished a full copy of the inscriptions
in the Mausoleum, but they possess no historical value. The
reputed Prayer of Esther seen there by former travellers is
no longer extant.
The statement of E. Jehiel Heilprin, in the _Seder
Hadoroth_, that Mordecai and Esther are buried at Shomron is
devoid of foundation, and may have arisen through reading
here [Hebrew:] for [Hebrew:]. For information derived from
the works of mediaeval Arab writers respecting Persia and
the adjacent countries the reader should consult Mr. Guy Le
Strange's book, _The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate_. The
maps will be found most useful.]
[Footnote 162: The British Museum version omits this
passage. An inspection of the map will show that Tabaristan
lies a long distance to the north of the trade route which
leads from Hamadan to Ispahan.]
[Footnote 163: The great extent of Ispahan is accounted for
by the fact that it consisted of two towns; the one called
Jay, measured half a league across; the other, Al Yahudiyah,
the "Jew Town" two miles to the westward, was double the
size of Jay. Mukadassi states that the city had been
originally founded by the Jews in the time of
Nebuchadnezzar, because its climate resembled that of
Jerusalem. Le Strange, p. 203.]
[Footnote 164: Lord Curzon, in his work on Persia, devotes
chap. xix in vol. II to a description of the City of
Ispahan, and of his journey there. Chap. xx contains an
account of his journey from Ispahan to Shiraz. The distance
between the two cities is 81 parasangs, equivalent to 312
miles. It will be seen that here, as well as in the cases of
Ghaznah, Samarkand, and Tibet, Benjamin altogether
under-estimates the true distances.]
[Footnote 165: Asher, following the printed editions, quotes
the Jewish population of this place as 8,000, and assumes,
without any justification, that Khiva is here referred to.
He also substitutes Oxus for Gozan. In the Middle Ages the
Oxus was known under the name of Jayhun or Gihon (Gen. ii.
13). The name of the city according to our text is Ghaznah,
which eight hundred years ago was the capital of
Afghanistan. Ibn Batuta says it was ten stages from Kandahar
on the way to Herat. Le Strange (p. 348) writes as follows:
"Ghaznah became famous in history at the beginning of the
eleventh century as the capital of the great Mahmud of
Ghaznah, who at one time was master both of India on the
east and Bagdad on the west." Istakhri says: "No city of
this countryside was richer in merchants and merchandise,
for it was as the port of India." The river Gozan, on which
we are told Ghaznah lies, must appear to the reader to be
ubiquitous. On p. 33 we find the Habor of Kurdistan is its
affluent; on p. 55 it is at Dabaristan; on p. 59 in
Khorasan. There is a simple solution of the difficulty. In
each of the localities Benjamin was told that the river was
called Gozan; for in the Mongolian language "Usun" is the
name for water or river. Thus "Kisil-Usun" means "Red
River." The addition of a "g" before a "u" or "w" is quite a
common feature in language; it occurs, for instance, in the
Romance and Keltic languages.]
[Footnote 166: The British Museum text has: "And he put them
in Halah and in Habor and the mountains of Gozan and the
mountains of the Medes." Having regard to the passages 2
Kings xix. 12 and Isaiah xxxvii. 12, Nöldeke maintains that
there was a tract of land watered by the river Gozan, known
as Gozanitis, which Scripture refers to. See _J. Q.R._,
vol. I, p. 186.
Naisabur is a city near Meshed, and close to high mountains
which are a continuation of the Elburz mountain range.
We draw attention to the cautious manner in which Benjamin
speaks here and elsewhere when alluding to the whereabouts
of any of the ten tribes. The tradition is widespread that
independent Jewish tribes were to be found in Khorasan until
recent times. Mr. E.N. Adler was told that in an Armenian
monastery near Kutais, ancient records are preserved which
conclusively prove that the Jews were paramount in certain
districts three or four centuries ago; _Jews in many Lands_,
p. 178. Cf. _Wo wären die zehn Stämme Israels zu suchen?_
Dr. M. Lewin, Frankfort, 1901.]
[Footnote 167: It should be remembered that _Cush_ in
ancient Jewish literature does not always signify Ethiopia,
but also denotes parts of Arabia, especially those nearest
to Abyssinia. The name _Cush_ is also applied to countries
east of the Tigris, see p. 63.]
[Footnote 168: Rayy is the ancient city of Rages, spoken of
in the Book of Tobit i. 14. The ruins are in the
neighbourhood of Teheran.]
[Footnote 169: The incidents here related are fully gone
into by Dr. Neubauer in the third of his valuable articles
"Where are the ten tribes?" (_J. Q.R._, vol. I, p. 185).
There can be little doubt that the Kofar-al-Turak, a people
belonging to the Tartar stock, are identical with the
so-called subjects of Prester John, of whom so much was
heard in the Middle Ages. They defeated Sinjar in the year
1141; this was, however, more than fifteen years prior to
Benjamin's visit. To judge from the above passage, where the
allies of the Jews are described as "infidels, the sons of
Ghuz of the Kofar-al-Turak," Benjamin seems to confound the
Ghuzes with the Tartar hordes. Now the Ghuzes belonged to
the Seldjuk clans who had become Mohammedans more than 100
years before, and, as such, Benjamin would never have styled
them infidels. These Ghuzes waged war with Sinjar in 1153,
when he was signally defeated, and eventually made prisoner.
It is to this battle that Benjamin must have made reference,
when he writes that it took place fifteen years ago. See Dr.
A. Müller's _Islam,_ also Dr. G. Oppert's _Presbyter
Johannes in Sage und Geschichte, 1864._]
[Footnote 170: It will be noted that Benjamin uses here the
terms [Hebrew: ] evidently implying that he himself did not go
to sea.
In the Middle Ages the island of Kish or Kis was an
important station on the trade route from India to Europe.
Le Strange writes, p. 257, that in the course of the twelfth
century it became the trade centre of the Persian Gulf. A
great walled city was built in the island, where water-tanks
had been constructed, and on the neighbouring sea-banks was
the famous pearl-fishery. Ships from India and Arabia
crowded the port. Kish was afterwards supplanted by Ormuz
and Bandar-Abbas; England held possession of the island from
1820 to 1879, and it has recently been visited officially by
Lord Curzon. For a description of the island see _The
Times,_ Jan. 18, 1904.]
[Footnote 171: Katifa or El-Katif lies on the Persian Gulf,
on the East coast of Arabia, near Bahrein. Bochart is of
opinion that this part of Arabia is the land of Havilah,
where, according to Gen. ii. 11 and 12, there is gold,
bdellium, and the onyx stone. Jewish authorities are divided
in opinion as to whether [Hebrew] is a jewel, or the
fragrant gum exuded by a species of balsam-tree. Benjamin
follows Saadia Gaon, who in his Arabic translation of the
Bible renders it [Hebrew], the very word used by our author
here for pearls. Masudi is one of the earliest Arabic
writers who gives us a description of the pearl-fisheries in
the Persian Gulf, and it very much accords with Benjamin's
account. See Sprenger's translation of Masudi's _Meadows of
Gold_, p. 344. At the present time more than 5,000 boats are
engaged in this industry along this coast, and it yields an
annual income of £1,000,000. See P.M. Sykes, _Ten Thousand
Miles in Persia_, 1902.]
[Footnote 172: Khulam, now called Quilon, was a much
frequented seaport in the early Middle Ages where Chinese
shippers met the Arab traders. It afterwards declined in
importance, being supplanted by Calicut, Goa, and eventually
by Bombay. It was situated at the southern end of the coast
of Malabar. Renaudot in a translation of _The Travels of Two
Mohammedan Traders_, who wrote as far back as 851 and 915
respectively, has given us some account of this place; Ibn
Batuta and Marco Polo give us interesting details. Ritter,
in the fifth volume of his Geography, dilates on the
cultivation of the pepper-plant, which is of indigenous
growth. In Benjamin's time it was thought that white pepper
was a distinct species, but Ritter explains that it was
prepared from the black pepper, which, after lying from
eight to ten days in running water, would submit of
being stripped of its black outer covering. Ritter devotes a
chapter to the fire-worship of the Guebers, who, as Parsees,
form an important element at the present day in the
population of the Bombay Presidency. Another chapter is
devoted to the Jewish settlement to which Benjamin refers.
See _Die jüdischen Colonien in Indien_, Dr. Gustav Oppert;
also _Semitic Studies_, (Berlin,1897), pp. 396-419.
Under the heading of "Cochin", the Jewish Encyclopaedia
gives an account of the White and Black Jews of Malabar. By
way of supplementing the Article, it may be well to refer to
a MS., No. 4238 of the Merzbacher Library formerly at
Munich. It is a document drawn up in reply to eleven
questions addressed by Tobias Boas on the 12 Ellul 5527 (=
1767) to R. Jeches Kel Rachbi of Malabar. From this MS. it
appears that 10,000 exiled Jews reached Malabar A.C. 68 (i.
e. about the time of the destruction of the Second Temple)
and settled at Cranganor, Dschalor, Madri and Plota. An
extract of this MS. is given in Winter and Wünsche's
_Jüdische Literatur_, vol III, p. 459. Cf. article on the
Beni-Israel of India by Samuel B. Samuel, _The Jewish
Literary Annual_, 1905.]
[Footnote 173: The British Museum text has Ibrig, and the
Casanatense has Ibriag: neither can be identified. The
printed editions have [Hebrew:] the islands of Candig, which
Asher thinks may be taken to refer to Ceylon, having regard
to the name of the capital, Kandy. It was not the capital in
Benjamin's time. The difficulty still remains that it does
not take twenty-three days, but about four days, to reach
Ceylon from Quilon. Renaudot states that in the tenth
century a multitude of Jews resided in the island, and that
they took part in the municipal government as well as other
sects, as the King granted the utmost religious liberty. See
Pinkerton's _Travels_, vol. VII, p. 217. A full description
is also given of the ceremonial when any notability proceeds
to immolate himself by committing himself to the flames.]
[Footnote 174: Benjamin's statements as to India and China
are of course very vague, but we must remember he was the
first European who as much as mentions China. Having regard
to the full descriptions of other countries of the old World
by Arabic writers of the Middle Ages, and to the fact that
the trade route then was principally by sea on the route
indicated by Benjamin, it is surprising that we have
comparatively little information about India and China from
Arabic sources. In none of their records is the Sea of Nikpa
named, and it is not improbable that Benjamin coined this
name himself from the root [Hebrew:] which occurs in the
Bible four times; in the Song of Moses (Exod. xv. 8):
[Hebrew:] "The depths were curdled in the heart of the sea"
(not "_congealed_" as the Version has it), Job x. 10:
[Hebrew:] "curdled me like cheese"; and in Zeph. i. 12 and
Zech. xiv. 6. The term "the curdling sea" would be very
expressive of the tempestuous nature of the China Sea and of
some of its straits at certain seasons of the year.]
[Footnote 175: Marco Polo has much to say about the bird
"gryphon" when speaking of the sea-currents which drive
ships from Malabar to Madagascar. He says, vol. II, book
III, chap. 33: "It is for all the world like an eagle, but
one indeed of enormous size. It is so strong that it will
seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the
air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so
killed him, the gryphon swoops down on him and eats him at
leisure. The people of those isles call the bird 'Rukh.'"
Yule has an interesting note (vol. II, p. 348) showing how
old and widespread the fable of the Rukh was, and is of
opinion that the reason that the legend was localized in the
direction of Madagascar was perhaps that some remains of the
great fossil Aepyornis and its colossal eggs were found in
that island. Professor Sayce states that the Rukh figures
much--not only in Chinese folk-lore--but also in the old,
Babylonian literature. The bird is of course familiar to
readers of _The Arabian Nights_.]
[Footnote 176: Neither Al-Gingaleh nor Chulan can be
satisfactorily identified. Benjamin has already made it
clear that to get from India to China takes sixty-three
days, that is to say twenty-three days from Khulam to Ibrig,
and thence forty days to the sea of Nikpa. The return
journey, not merely to India but to Zebid, which Abulfeda
and Alberuni call the principal port of Yemen, seems to take
but thirty-four days. With regard to Aden, the port long in
England's possession, and the so-called first outpost of the
Indian Empire, it has already been explained (p. 50) that
this part of Arabia as well as Abyssinia on the other side
of the Red Sea were considered part of Middle India. Ibn
Batuta says about Aden: "It is situated on the sea-shore and
is a large city, but without either seed, water, or tree.
They have reservoirs in which they collect the rain for
drinking. Some rich merchants reside here, and vessels from
India occasionally arrive." A Jewish community has been
there from time immemorial. The men until recent times used
to go about all day in their Tephillin. Jacob Saphir devotes
vol. II, chaps, i-x of his _Eben Saphir_, to a full account
of the Jews of Aden.]
[Footnote 177: We must take Benjamin's statements here to
mean that the independent Jews who lived in the mountainous
country in the rear of Aden crossed the Straits of
Bab-el-Mandeb and made war against the inhabitants of the
Plains of Abyssinia. J. Lelewel, in a series of letters
addressed to E. Carmoly, entitled _Examen geographique des
Voyages de Benjamin de Tudèle_ (Bruxelles, 1852), takes
great pains to locate the land of Hommatum [Hebrew:] in lieu
of which our text reads [Hebrew:] the land of the Plains;
but he quite fails in this and in many other attempts at
identification. The Jews coming from Aden had to encounter
the forces of the Christian sovereign of Abyssinia, and
sought safety in the mountainous regions of that country.
Here they were heard of later under the name of Falasha
Jews. Cf. Marco Polo, vol. III, chap. xxxv. The reader is
referred to Colonel Yule's valuable notes to this chapter.
He quotes Bruce's _Abstract of Abyssinian Chronicles_ with
regard to a Jewish dynasty which superseded the royal line
in the tenth century. See also Dr. Charles Singer's
interesting communication in _J. Q.R._, XVII, p. 142, and
J. Halevy's _Travels in Abyssinia_ (Miscellany of Hebrew
Literature: 2nd Series, p. 175).]
[Footnote 178: Assuan, according to Makrizi, was a most
flourishing town prior to 1403, when more than 20,000 of its
inhabitants perished. Seba cannot be identified. No doubt
our author alludes to Seba, a name repeatedly coupled in
Scripture with Egypt, Cush and Havilah.]
[Footnote 179: Heluan is the present Helwan, fourteen miles
from Cairo, which was greatly appreciated by the early
Caliphs for its thermal sulphur springs. Stanley Lane Poole,
in _The Story of Cairo_, p. 61, tells us of its edifices,
and adds: "It is curious to consider how nearly this modern
health-resort became the capital of Egypt." Heluan is
situated on the right bank of the Nile. One would have
thought that the caravans proceeding to the interior of
Africa through the Sahara Desert would have started from the
left bank of the Nile; but we must remember that ancient
Memphis, which stood on the left bank and faced Heluan, had
been abandoned long before Benjamin's time. Edrisi and
Abulfeda confirm Benjamin's statement respecting Zawila or
Zaouyla, which was the capital of Gana--the modern Fezzan--a
large oasis in the Sahara Desert, south of Tripoli.]
[Footnote 180: This sentence is out of place, and should
follow the sentence in the preceding paragraph which speaks
of the Sultan Al-Habash.]
[Footnote 181: Kutz, the present Kus, is halfway between
Keneh and Luxor. The old town, now entirely vanished, was
second in size to Fostat, and was the chief centre of the
Arabian trade. The distance of Kus from Fayum is about 300
miles. The letter [Hebrew: 'Sin'] denotes 300, not
3.]
[Footnote 182: In the Middle Ages the Fayum was wrongly
called Pithom. E. Naville has identified the ruins of
Tell-el-Maskhuta near Ismailieh with Pithom, the treasure
city mentioned in Exodus i. 11. Among the buildings,
grain-stores have been discovered in the form of deep
rectangular chambers without doors, into which the corn was
poured from above. These are supposed to date from the time
of Rameses II. See _The Store City of Pithom and the Route
of the Exodus_: A Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. E.
Naville, 1885. The Fayum, or Marsh-district, owes its
extraordinary fertility to the Bahr Yussuf (Joseph's Canal).
The Arab story is that when Joseph was getting old the
courtiers tried to bring about his disgrace by inducing
Pharaoh to set him what appeared to be an impossible task,
viz. to double the revenues of the province within a few
years. Joseph accomplished the task by artificially adapting
a natural branch of the Nile so as to give the district the
benefit of the yearly overflow. The canal thus formed, which
is 207 miles in length, was called after Joseph. The
storehouses of Joseph are repeatedly mentioned by Arabic
writers. Cf. Koran xii. 55, _Jacut_, IV, 933 and _Makrizi_,
I, 241.]
[Footnote 183:'Mr. Israel Abrahams, in _J. Q.R._, XVII, 427
sqq., and Mr. E.J. Worman, vol. XVIII, 1, give us very
interesting information respecting Fostat and Cairo, as
derived from Geniza documents, but to comprehend fully
Benjamin's account, we must remember that at the time of his
visit the metropolis was passing through a crisis. Since
March, 1169, Saladin had virtually become the ruler of
Egypt, although nominally he acted as Vizier to the Caliph
El-Adid, who was the last of the Fatimite line, and who died
Sept. 13, 1171, three days after his deposition. The student
is referred to the biography of Saladin by Mr. Stanley Lane
Poole, 1878. Chap, viii gives a full account of Cairo as at
1170 and is accompanied by a map. The well-known citadel of
Cairo, standing on the spurs of the Mukattam Hills, was
erected by Saladin seven years later. The Cairo of 1170,
which was styled El Medina, and was called by Benjamin
[Hebrew:], was founded in 969, and consisted of an immense
palace for the Caliph and his large household. It was
surrounded by quarters for a large army, and edifices for
the ministers and government offices. The whole was
protected by massive walls and imposing Norman-like gates.
The civil population--more particularly the Jews--dwelt in
the old Kasr-esh-Shama quarter round the so-called Castle of
Babylon, also in the city of Fostat, founded in 641, and in
the El-Askar quarter, which was built in 751. These suburbs
went under the name of Misr or Masr, but are called by
Benjamin "Mizraim." Fostat was set on fire on Nov. 12, 1168,
by the order of the Vizier Shawar, in order that it might
not give shelter to the Franks who had invaded Egypt, but
was soon rebuilt in part. It now goes under the name
Masr-el-Atika, and is noted at the present day for its
immense rubbish heaps. See Stanley Lane Poole's _Cairo_, p.
34.]
[Footnote 184: Cf. two elaborate papers by Dr. A. Büchler,
"The Reading of the Law and Prophets in a Triennial Cycle,"
_J. Q.R._, V, 420, VI, I, and E.N. Adler, ib. VIII, 529.
For details as to synagogues, see _J. Q.R._, XVIII, 11;
Letter I of R. Obadja da Bertinoro; _Miscellany of Hebrew
Literature_, p. 133; Joseph Sambari's Chronicle in Dr.
Neubauer's _Anecdota Oxoniensia_, p. 118. Sambari must have
had Benjamin's _Itinerary_ before him, as has been pointed
out by Mr. I. Abrahams, _J. Q.R._, II, 107.]