UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN COLORADO

WHAT WOULDN'T A RABBI DO TO EASE THE MINDS OF HIS PEOPLE? ­

A BRIEF LOOK AT THE ITINERARY OF BENJAMIN OF TUDELA AND WHAT LIGHT THIS WORK HAS TO SHED ON THE JEWISH OCCUPATIONS IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY

A SEMINAR PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. BEA SPADE

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE BACHELOR'S OF ARTS IN HISTORY

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

BY

AMBER TAFOYA

PUEBLO, CO

JUNE 1999

Introduction

A classic Jewish parable illustrates the great problem in analyzing Jewish-Christian relations during the Middle Ages. Before that point all had related with relative ease. This in turn resulted in a high degree of prosperity for all. But as in the fable told to the King of Aragon, the question of which religion was superior led to bickering and a break in the peace and prosperity that they had all enjoyed previously.

Originating during the Crusades, the parable illustrates the inherent problems in the shifting balance of powers in the twelfth century. The parable is quoted in full here to show a preliminary example in how differently Jews and Christians approached the subject of religion in the twelfth century.

About 1100 King Peter of Aragon wanted to embarrass a Jew and asked him which religion was the best, the Jews' or the Christians' . The Jew gave the following answer:

"My religion is best for me. I was a slave in Egypt and my God delivered me into a wonderful way. Yours is the best for you for it has brought the Christians great power."

But the king held him fast: "I didn't ask you which religion was best for you or me, but which is the best regardless of the man who professes it."

Then the Jew asked for time to reflect. Three days later he came back, looking very excited. The king asked what was in the wind and the Jew said:

"I have been treated badly and I ask you for help, Lord King. A month ago my neighbour went on a journey. To please his two sons he gave each of them a precious stone. The next day the two sons came to me and asked me to tell them about the stones' different properties. I answered that no one could do that better than their father who was a jeweller and therefore knew much more about the stones' nature than I did. But then they mocked me and ill-handled me."

"Then they did wrong," replied the king, "and they deserve to be punished."

"Right," said the Jew, "now let your ears hearken to what your mouth has said. Edom and Jacob were also brothers.⁽¹⁾ Each one received his precious stone and now you want to know which is the best. Send a messenger to our Father who is in heaven. He is the great goldsmith who can tell you the difference between stones." ⁽²⁾

Living in the same country, but coming from two different worlds, the Jew and the Christian in Spain rarely made contact outside of their professional relationships by the end of the Almohads reign in 1140.⁽³⁾ The Golden Age of Spanish Jewery came to a finale by the end of the twelfth century. So, it is no wonder that Rabbi Benjamin embarked upon his pilgrimage in 1160, seeing that things were taking a turn for the worse at home, to explore other options for the Sephardic Jews.⁽⁴⁾

Biography

Unfortunately not much is known about the traveler Benjamin of Tudela. In contrast to many medieval pilgrims he makes no direct references to himself in his itinerary, preferring to let the reader feel that he or she is the one experiencing the new geographies and peoples. Nor does any surviving record exist that others may have written about him. What is known about Benjamin of Tudela comes mainly from the Hebrew introduction to the text and from the indirect evidence that his narration provides about him. The Hebrew introduction vouches for the writer but gives none of his biographical details such as date of birth or an account of his life's events.

In the introduction the reader is introduced to Benjamin as a rabbi from Tudela, a city in the Spanish province of Navarre. He was the son of a man named Jonah and was a native of Tudela. All of the information that he gathered on his journey was news to his countrymen. He returned with this book to the country of Castile, of which Navarre was a province, in C.E.1173 or the year 4933 by the Hebrew calendar. It is interesting to note that the introduction describes Benjamin qualitatively rather than with what quantities of material possessions he acquired during his lifetime. This undoubtedly shows that it was the character of a man in twelfth century Sepharad, as the Jews called Spain, not the wealth that mattered. When one looks at the typical stereotype of Jewish communities as overly consumed with monetary matters, this account shows that the Sepharad community had far loftier ideals. To this end Rabbi Benjamin is a "wise and understanding man, learned in the Law and the Halacha, and wherever we have tested his statements we have found them accurate, true to fact and consistent; for he is a trustworthy man." Evidently the mark of Rabbi Benjamin's life was that he shared the knowledge of his travels with his people and thus enriched his community not through monetary reward, but through knowledge, a commodity highly valued in the Sepharad Middle Ages.⁽⁵⁾

Knowledge was of primary importance to the twelfth century Rabbi Benjamin is evident throughout his work in the broad scope of topics that he chooses to report. In addition, the style of Hebrew that he uses includes Arabic forms and phrases showing that he was part of a Sephardic community that had interactions and appreciation for the knowledge and culture of Andalusia, or Arab Spain. This would require some degree of education in Arabic for Benjamin to use these forms and is one explanation of how he may have facilitated his voyage through knowledge of Hebrew, Arabic, and judging from his location in Castile, probably Latin. He makes no direct references to the languages he used to communicate with those he encountered in the itinerary but these three languages were very common to most Sephardic Jews of the twelfth century.⁽⁶⁾

The Middle Ages, though a dark time for Christianity, was part of the Golden Years for the Jews that existed without a homeland. Unfortunately, with the rise of Christianity, the Jews and their place in the world declined rapidly. By 1172 the Almohades had pushed the Jews out of Al-Andalusia and into Northern Spain and the Jews would continue to be pushed out in England, Christian Spain, Germany, and many other places that they had helped to build.⁽⁷⁾ For the Jews the twelfth century marked a crucial, if unpleasant turning point in their history.

History of the Text⁽⁸⁾

The first translations of the text were made into Latin, the first on being done by the celebrated Arias Montanus. Montanus was the first to translate this work from Hebrew into Latin and thus into the Christian world. However he did have difficulties due to the rabbinin nature rather than the scriptural nature of the Hebrew involved. A second translation was made by Constantinus L'Epereur. This second translation is not as accurate as the first translation from Hebrew to Latin, but the edition given in the Simon volume of the Itinerarium Benjaminis Tudelensis ex Versione Benedicti Ariae Montani. Subjectae sunt descriptiones Mechae et Medinae--Alnabi ex itinerariis Ludovicii Vartomanni et Johannis Wildii. Praefixa vero Dissertatio ad Lectorem, quam suae editioni praemisit Constantinus L'Empereur et nonnullae ejusdem notae. Helmstadi in typographeo Calixtino excudit Henningus Mullerus MDCXXXVI. Small 8vo contains Montinus's Translation and it also contains the Montanus's and L'Empereur version and gives a complete list of phrases in which these two translations differ so that the student possesses all that that has been written in the subject in Latin.

The first English translation was made in 1625 and was entitled The Peregrinations of Benjamin the Sonne of Jonas a Jew, written in Hebrew, translated into Latin by B. Arias Montanus. Discovering both the state of the Jews and of the world, about foure hundred and sixtie yeeres since. This is included in Purchas' Pilgrims, London 1625, folio, vol. II. Liv. 9. Chap. 5. P. 1437. It is divided into five paragraphs.

The second translation is from the Latin translation of B. A. Montanus and L'Empereur compared with other translations into other languages and is entitled The Travels of Benjamin, the Son of Jonas of Tudela, through Europe, Asia, and Africa, from Spain to China, from 1160 to 1173. However, this is only an extract of the itinerary. Unfortunately, Mr. Harris, who provided this translation, neither understood Hebrew nor gave a complete translation of Benjamin's writings.

The third English translation is Travels of Rabbi Benjamin, Son of Tudela; Through Europe, Asia and Africa from the ancient Kingdom of Navarre, to the frontiers of China. Faithfully translated from the Original Hebrew and enriched with a Dissertation and Notes, Critical, Historical, and Geographical. In which the true character of the author and intention of the work, are impartially considered. This edition was put out by the Reverend .R Gerrans from London in 1784 in eight volumes. The author purports that he has translated from the Hebrew as a most faithful translation, however, an examination of the work by Simon shows that it was derived from the Montanus, L'Empereur and Barratier. The use of L'Empereur can be proven by the use of chapters, which was first introduced by Barratier. Unfortunately, the Gerran's translation was the only edition available to the English public for more than fifty years until the translation by A. Asher in 1843.

The last translation from Latin into English before Asher made the first straight translation from Hebrew to English was Travels of R. Benjamin of Tudela from the Latin of B. Arias Montanus and Constantin L'Empereur compared with other Translations into different Languages was found in Pinkertons "General Collection of the best and most interesting Voyages and Travels of the world," London 1808-14. Vol. VII. It contains only the sections that appear to have been of interest to him.

Several other translations of the work into French, Dutch, and Jewish German, that I will not detail here are available. The texts used here consist of the volume of A. Asher, published in 1843, which was the first direct translation into English into Hebrew. Secondly, the translation by Marcus Nathan Adler done in 1907, which made use of the Asher translation and other manuscripts as well. Asher used the Hebrew manuscript found at Constantinople in 1543 in 8 volumes in 64 pages printed in the Rabbinic character as his source. It is interesting to note that he notes several other Hebrew editions of the work that use the 1543 text.

Adler used, in addition to the 1543 manuscript, four other manuscripts. Two of these are available in the Oppenheim collection of the Bodleian Library. The advantage of the Adler text was that he used more than one complete manuscript, as well as large fragments belonging to two other manuscripts which he has embodied in his text. One manuscript found in the British Museum was bound up with Maimonides' works, several Midrashic texts, a commentary on the Hagadah by Joseph G. Ikatilia, and an extract from Abarbanel's commentary on Isaiah. These works form part of the Almanzi collection, which was purchased from the Asher Company by the British Museum in 1865. That manuscript is the groundwork of the Adler text.

Introduction to the Diary and the Historical Context

Spain, as yet an unformed entity, fluctuated from Muslim to Christian rulers. Always in the middle though were the Jews who preceded both the Muslim and Christian entry into the Peninsula by at least 500 years. The Jews first settled in spain after its conquest by the Romans in 133 BCE.⁽⁹⁾ Unfortunately, the position of the Jews in Spain was ever transitory and depended on the disposition of the ruler in power at the time.

Benjamin of Tudela embarked on his mission with more intensity and tenacity than most travelers of his time. He traveled with the purpose of giving the Jews in Castile hope of a better future and a reminder, geographical, historical, and social, of how vast and great the Jews were in the world. At the time that Benjamin wrote this work his people were suffering the beginnings of the persecution that would result in their 1492 expulsion by Ferdinand and Isabella. Under Alfonso VII, the Jews of Castile faced a lifestyle marked by constant warfare on behalf of their ruler against the Almorabid Muslims.⁽¹⁰⁾ Benjamin, in addition to visiting and revering the tombs of the Patriarchs, visited 176 villages, towns, and cities to evaluate the condition of the rest of the Jewish communities known in the twelfth century.⁽¹¹⁾ His was a voyage not only of pilgrimage, but of analysis for his troubled people.

Remarkably enough, Benjamin managed to travel during a period free from major troubles in the world. His voyage lasted thirteen long years, 1160 to 1173, and whether through luck or good planning (Benjamin makes no comment to guide the reader.) Benjamin always arrives in a location before war breaks out or after it has already ended.

So, how did the world look during the time that Benjamin traveled? After the retaking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1096, Jerusalem was lost again due to poor management and the instability of Crusader rule in the Holy Land. Jerusalem was reclaimed in 1146 in the Second Crusade.⁽¹²⁾ Benjamin traveled at a time when Jerusalem was held by the Crusaders, but not for long. The Crusaders lost Jeruselam in 1187 in the decisive battle of The Horns of Hattin, executed by the brilliant Salah ad-Din.⁽¹³⁾

Ghengis Khan ruled the greater part of Asia and the great empire of Turkey, and was fast moving in his push toward the West.⁽¹⁴⁾ Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire lived lavishly under the rule of Emperor Manuel Comnenus. Persian Jews emigrated to China as early as the Han dynasty erecting a synagogue at Kaifong in 1164, fully within the time of Benjamin's travels. ⁽¹⁵⁾

The world Benjamin traveled was one where travel was on good roads, but at the traveler's own risk.⁽¹⁶⁾ Danger came at many turns of the road, which Benjamin alludes to in his narrative. During the time Benjamin traveled he shared the road with hundreds of pilgrims from Edom who traveled in large bands to ward of attack. Benjamin instead traveled alone or with merchants and put himself at considerable risk by traveling by land rather than taking the shortcut the sea offered. His was a true labor of love for his community.

Exegesis

Though the information given in the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela covers a broad scope of topics, it is evident that his primary concern is relating the condition of the Jews scattered across the world. With regard to their condition, Rabbi Benjamin focuses more narrowly on the occupations of the Jews he meets and their commercial success. With this in mind, it seems fitting to focus a closer examination the occupations of Jews in the twelfth century. A variety of sources will be used to explore the most common occupations of the Jews, from primary sources and studies done on occupation in regions such as Montpellier and Marseilles, where Benjamin was a visitor.

Most people in the Middle Ages recognized the Jew as the administrator of government. In Spain, he was the tax farmer and often served diplomatically on both the Muslim and Christian side. Cologne, in present-day Germany, saw a Jewish immigration as a result of the Hellenistic Diaspora that began the Jews on the road to municipal service under Constantine before any of the Germanic tribes had arrived.⁽¹⁷⁾ The Jews were able administrators in every region they settled because they were quick to adapt to their new environment. They looked at their scattering as a continuation of their Biblical role and so did not hesitate to fill in gaps in the economy left open to them.⁽¹⁸⁾ This primarily meant government service in the early Middle Ages. In Spain the principal occupation of the Jews was large-scale lending to the State and private individuals, tax farming and tax collecting.⁽¹⁹⁾

The apogee of Jewish-Arab relations occurred in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries.⁽²⁰⁾ However, despite this, Jews felt the sting of being restricted in their choice of occupations anywhere they chose to settle. Whereas they had started as landowners and farmers in the Muslim regions, this was barred from them by the imposition of rules against Jews earning money from the soil. So, by the twelfth century, the Jewish farmer was rather the exception than the rule in Arab controlled lands.⁽²¹⁾

One of the most respected and common occupations for Jews in both the Muslim and Christian worlds was that of a physician. Most noble courts and high officials had Jewish physicians attend to them. The Jewish physician also served his community at large and was found in almost every settlement ­ whoever needed his help, whether in times of good health or plague.⁽²²⁾ However, this began to change in the Christian world with the Council of Béziers in 1246. This council excommunicated all Christians who allowed themselves to be treated by a Jew.⁽²³⁾ Up until the fourteenth century these types of edicts were often ignored, but with the advent of the plague in Europe, the Christians became distrustful of the Jews because of they were not afflicted with the Black Death the same way as the Christians were.⁽²⁴⁾ Hence, the long respected place of the Jew as physician faded into obscurity.

International trade, about which Benjamin focuses a great deal of attention, flourished under Jewish dominance in the first three centuries of Muslim rule. The Muslim conquest put a barrier between East and West that was very difficult for either of them to cross.

The Jews combined political neutrality with long-standing international connections, and knowledge in Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin, and other vernacular languages to control a large portion of the Mediterranean trade.⁽²⁵⁾ The Geniza merchants roamed from Spain to Syria and Palestine, and all the way to India. Jewish traders often focused on one article, such as ambergris or dyeing materials. Whatever else was listed on their inventories represented sidelines. ⁽²⁶⁾ The most compelling reason for the Jewish trader to travel in search of wares was the belief repeated in the Geniza letters, that "one who is present sees what one who is absent cannot see."⁽²⁷⁾ However, by the end of the twelfth century European and especially Italian, naval supremacy forced most Jewish traders out of the business.⁽²⁸⁾

Of a most interesting character in the itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, Benjamin often refers to a city, such as Brindisi, that contained ten dyer families or only one dyer.⁽²⁹⁾ It is clear from these references that Jews had a widespread hand in the handicraft market during the twelfth century. Even in Benjamin's hometown of Tudela, a full array of Jewish skilled workers, artisans, weavers, shoemakers, tailors, leatherworkers and cloth dyers, provided goods for a thriving market.⁽³⁰⁾ Most Jewish artisans had all of their capital sunk into their trade or craft.⁽³¹⁾

Dyers have an especially interesting and unique position in the commerce of the Middle Ages and should therefor be expounded on further. The dyeing industry of the Mediterranean area in the Middle Ages was particularly conspicuous. To produce the enormous variety of colors favored in those times, great skill and experience in using the many natural and industrial dyes was required.⁽³²⁾ In this color-intoxicated age, colors like gazelle blood and pure, clean white, incling to yellow, commonly filled the orders dyers had from clients as far ranging as China. When one thinks of adition to dyeing, that the fibers and fabrics underwent bleaching and blanching, one sees what a specialized field dyeing was and why artisans preferred to go into other fields. This regularly left an opening that the Jew readily took.⁽³³⁾ In Europe Jews almost held a monopoly on the dyeing and silk-weaving industries in Apulia, Sicily, and Greece, as well as further east.⁽³⁴⁾ There was even a dye discovered by the Jews that was known by their name.⁽³⁵⁾

It is clearly evident that despite their subordination by both Muslim and Christian rulers, the Jews played integral roles in the economic activities of the twelfth century and throughout the Middle Ages. Without their money lending and commercial activities Spain would have never attempted the voyages of Columbus and it is doubtful that capitalism would have taken such a strong hold in international trade relations.⁽³⁶⁾

Conclusion

Pilgrimage spun the common thread for those living in the Iberian Peninsula. Whether they be Muslim, Jewish, or Christian, everyone made the attempt at least once in their lives to go and see the Holy Lands. Christan pilgrimage began with the shrines, inspired by Helena's conversion, that marked important places in the life of Jesus.⁽³⁷⁾ Christians went motivated primarily by the hope of seeing or experiencing a miracle.⁽³⁸⁾ Muslims went to fulfill their obligation as given in the Koran.⁽³⁹⁾ Jews began to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem at the time of King Solomon's Temple to visit the Tabernacle and Ark of the Law and later to visit the holy sites of their ancestors.⁽⁴⁰⁾ Motivated by their religious zeal the three religions were unable to maintain peace during the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the Jew, the wanderer, was often the victim of this violence.

Looking at the history of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, the travels undertaken by Benjamin of Tudela in 1160 clearly had different and important motivations. His voyage was not just a look at past greatness, but rather a search for the future of his dispossessed people. As one twelfth century author thought "all chroniclers have a single purpose: to relate noteworthy matters so that the invisible power of God may clearly be seen in the march of events, and men may, by stories of reward and punishment be made more zealous in the fear of God and the pursuit of Justice."(41) The Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela clearly fulfilled this purpose in his writings, which offered hope and consolation to generations of Diaspora Jews that someday they would be returned to their homeland and former status as a nation.

1. ¹ The name by which Jews called the land of Christendom and its people was Edom. They also referred to themselves often as Jacob.

2. ² Poul Borchsenius, The Three Rings: The History of the Spanish Jews, trans. Michael Heron (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1963), 16-17.

3. ³ Raymond P. Scheindlin, "The Jews in Muslim Spain," in The Legacy of Muslim Spain, ed. Salma Khadra Jayyusi (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994), 188. See also Haim Beinart, "Hispano-Jewish Society," in Jewish Society Through the Ages, eds. H. H. Ben-Sasson and S. Ettinger (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), 221.

4. ⁴ Sephardim is the word that Jews used to describe Spain. Hence, Spanish Jews are often referred to as Sephardic Jews.

5. ⁵ Hebrew introduction to Marcus Nathan Adler, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Critical Text, Translation and Commentary (New York: Phillip Feldheim, Inc., 1907) 1-2. Most all of the information contained in this paper will come from this translation and will be cited according to what page of the actual itinerary it came from, not by the page numbers of Adler's book. If the citation is in reference directly to the additional material that Adler includes in notes and etc. it will be noted by the Adler page number.

6. ⁶ Salma Khadra Jayyusi, ed., The Legacy of Muslim Spain, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 198.

7. ⁷ Cecil Roth, A Short History of the Jewish People (Hartford: Hartmore House, 1969), 164.

8. ⁸ Simon, Joseph, The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages, with introductions by Michael A. Signer, Marcus Nathan Adler, and A. Asher (Malibu: Pangloss Press, 1983) passim.

9. ⁹ Raphael Patai, Tents of Jacob: The Diaspora ­ Yesterday and Today (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1971), 18.

10. ¹⁰ Mahmoud Makki, "The Political History of Al-Andalus (92/711-897/1492)", Legacy, 71.

11. ¹¹ This number is taken from my evaluations of the Adler translation.

12. ¹² Shlomo Eidelberg, Ed. and Trans., The Jews and the Crusaders: The Hebrew Chronicles of the First and Second Crusades (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977), 7.

13. ¹³ Teddy Kollek and Moshe Pearlman, Pilgrims to the Holy Land: the Story of Pilgrimages throughout the Ages (New York: Harper and Row, 1970) 121.

14. ¹⁴ Manuel Komroff, Ed. Contemporaries of Marco Polo (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1928), viii.

15. ¹⁵ Herman Schreiber, Merchants, Pilgrims, and Highwaymen: A History of Roads through the Ages (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1961), 47.

16. ¹⁶ Ibid, 93.

17. ¹⁷ Erich Kahler, The Jews among the Nations (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1967), 37.

18. ¹⁸ Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis: Jewish society at the End of the Middle Ages (New York: Schocken Books, 1961), 44.

19. ¹⁹ Haim Beinart, Jewish Society throughout the Ages, ed. by H. H. Ben-Sasson and S. Ettinger (New York: Schocken Books, 1969), 224.

20. ²⁰ S. D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs: Their Contacts Through the Ages (New York Schocken Books, 1955), 90.

21. ²¹ Ibid, 98.

22. ²² Beinart, 225.

23. ²³ Jonathan Sumption, Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediaeval Religion (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975), 81

24. ²⁴ This was due to the Jews superior hygiene and cleanliness when it came to preparation of foods. However, the Christians assumed that it was the result of black magic or worse yet, that the Jews were spreading the Black Death through poisoning the Christians' wells.

25. ²⁵ Goitein, 98

26. ²⁶ S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (Berkley: University of California Press, 1967), 156.

27. ²⁷ Ibid, 157.

28. ²⁸ Ibid, 149.

29. ²⁹ Adler, 15.

30. ³⁰ Beinart, 224.

31. ³¹ Ibid., 225.

32. ³² Goitein, Mediterranean, 106.

33. ³³ Ibid, 108.

34. ³⁴ Roth, 216.

35. ³⁵ Ibid.

36. ³⁶ Legacy, "Al-Andalus and 1492: The Ways of Remembering" by María Rosa Menocal, 492.

37. ³⁷ Kollek, 10.

38. ³⁸ Sumption, 77

39. ³⁹ Kollek, 56.

40. ⁴⁰ Ibid, 10.

41. ⁴¹ Sumption, 61.