The Itinerary Of Benjamin Of Tudela Part 10

See page 81.]

[Footnote 43: The Petchinegs, as well as the Khazars, Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Turks, are called by Josippon, I, chap. i, descendants of Togarma. Patzinakia was the country from the Danube to the Dnieper, and corresponds with Dacia of cla.s.sical times.]

[Footnote 44: The readings of E and A are corrupt. R has [Hebrew:], and BM. has [Hebrew:], the southern provinces of Russia were spoken of as the land of the Khazars, especially by Jewish writers, long after the Russian conquest about the year 1000, and the Crimea was known to European travellers as Gazaria. It took Rabbi Pethachia eight days to pa.s.s through the land of the Khazars. See Dr. A. Benisch, _Translation of Petachia's Travels_. In note 3, p. 70, he gives a short sketch of their history. The ruling dynasty and most of the inhabitants embraced the Jewish religion.]

[Footnote 45: _Procopius_, vol. I (Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society), gives a full description of Constantinople.]

[Footnote 46: The commentator, wrongly supposed to be Rashi, gives an interesting note upon the pa.s.sage in I Chron. xx.

2, where it is mentioned that David took the crown of the king of the children of Ammon, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and it was set upon David's head. Rashi states that the meaning of the pa.s.sage must be that this crown was hung above David's throne, and adds that he heard in Narbonne that this practice was still kept up by the kings in the East.]

[Footnote 47: See for a full account of these powerful Seljuk Sultans F. Lebrecht's Essay on the Caliphate of Bagdad during the latter half of the twelfth century. Vol.

II of A. Asher's _Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin_.]

[Footnote 48: Ibn Verga, _Shevet Jehuda_, XXV, states that a predecessor of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus issued an edict prohibiting the Jews from residing elsewhere than in Pera, and restricting their occupation to tanning and shipbuilding.]

[Footnote 49: This place is mentioned by _Procopius_, p.

119, as having been fortified by Justinian. It is now known as Rodosto.]

[Footnote 50: Ibn Ezra visited Cyprus before his arrival in London in 1158, when he wrote the _Sabbath Epistle_. It is not unlikely that the heterodox practices of the sect of whom Benjamin here speaks had been put forward in certain books to which Ibn Ezra alludes, and induced him to compose the pamphlet in defence of the traditional mode of observance of the Sabbath day. This supposition is not inconsistent with Graetz's theory, vol. VI, p. 447. See also Dr. Friedlander, _Ibn Ezra in England, J.Q.R._, VIII, p.

140, and Joseph Jacobs, _The Jews of Angevin England_, p.

35.]

[Footnote 51: See Gibbon, chaps, lviii and lix; Charles Mills, _History of the Crusades_, I, p. 159; C.R. Conder, _Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem_, p. 39.]

[Footnote 52: The several MSS. give different readings. The kingdom reached to the Taurus mountains and the Sultanate of Rum or Iconium.]

[Footnote 53: Beazley remarks that Benjamin must have pa.s.sed along this coast before 1167, when Thoros died at peace and on terms of va.s.salage to the Emperor Manuel Comnenus.

Malmistras is forty-five miles from Tarsus. Both had been recaptured by Manuel in 1155. _Josippon_, I, chap. i, identifies Tarshish with Tarsus.]

[Footnote 54: No doubt the river Fer, otherwise Orontes, is here referred to. Ancient Antioch lies on the slope of Mount Silpius, and the city-wall erected by Justinian extended from the river up to the hill-plateau. Abulfeda says: "The river of Hamah is also called Al Urunt or the Nahr al Maklub (the Overturned) on account of its course from south to north; or, again, it is called Al' asi (the Rebel), for the reason that though most rivers water the lands on their borders without the aid of water-wheels, the river of Hamah will not irrigate the lands except by the aid of machines for raising its waters." (Guy le Strange, _Palestine under the Moslems_, p. 59.) It is strange that R. Benjamin should call the Orontes the river Jabbok, but he always takes care to add that it rises in the Lebanon, to avoid any misconception that the Jabbok which falls into the Jordan is meant.]

[Footnote 55: Boemond III, surnamed le Baube (the Stammerer), succeeded his mother in 1163. We owe the doubtless correct rendering of this pa.s.sage to the ingenuity of the late Joseph Zedner. Benjamin visited Antioch before 1170, when a fearful earthquake destroyed a great part of the city.]

[Footnote 56: It must be inferred from the context here, as well as from other pa.s.sages, that when Benjamin mentions the number of Jews residing at a particular place he refers to the heads of families.]

[Footnote 57: Gebal is the Gabala of ancient geographers.

See Schechter, _Saadyana_, p. 25. Many travellers, among them Robinson, identify Baal-Gad with Banias, others suppose it to be Hasbeya.]

[Footnote 58: Hashishim--hemp-smokers--hence is derived the word "a.s.sa.s.sin." See Socin, _Palestine and Syria_, pp. 68 and 99. Ibn Batuta and other Arabic writers have much to say about the a.s.sa.s.sins or Mulahids, as they call them. They are again referred to by Benjamin on p. 54, where he states that in Persia they haunted the mountainous district of Mulahid, under the sway of the Old Man of the Mountain. The manner in which the Sheik acquired influence over his followers is amusingly described by Marco Polo (_The Book of Ser Marco Polo_: translated and edited by Colonel Sir Henry Yule; third edition, London, John Murray, 1903): "In a fertile and sequestered valley he placed every conceivable thing pleasant to man--luxurious palaces, delightful gardens, fair damsels skilled in music, dancing, and song, in short, a veritable paradise! When desirous of sending any of his band on some hazardous enterprise the Old Man would drug them and place them while unconscious in this glorious valley. But it was not for many days that they were allowed to revel in the joys of paradise. Another potion was given to them, and when the young men awoke they found themselves in the presence of the Old Man of the Mountain. In the hope of again possessing the joys of paradise they were ready to embark upon any desperate errand commanded by the Old Man." Marco Polo mentions that the Old Man found crafty deputies, who with their followers settled in parts of Syria and Kurdistan. He adds that, in the year 1252, Alau, lord of the Tartars of the Levant, made war against the Old Man, and slaughtered him with many of his followers. Yule gives a long list of murders or attempts at murder ascribed to the a.s.sa.s.sins.

Saladin's life was attempted in 1174-6. Prince Edward of England was slain at Acre in 1172. The sect is not quite extinct. They have spread to Bombay and Zanzibar, and number in Western India over 50,000. The mention of the Old Man of the Mountain will recall to the reader the story of Sinbad the Sailor in _The Arabian Nights_.]

[Footnote 59: See Parchi, _Caphtor wa-pherach_, an exhaustive work on Palestine written 1322, especially chap.

xi. The author spent over seven years in exploring the country.]

[Footnote 60: Socin, the author of Baedeker's _Handbook to Palestine and Syria_, p. 557, gives the year of the earthquake 1157. It is referred to again p. 31. There was a very severe earthquake in this district also in 1170, and the fact that Benjamin does not refer to it furnishes us with another _terminus ad quem_.]

[Footnote 61: See the narrative of William of Tyre.]

[Footnote 62: Gubail, the ancient Gebal, was noted for its artificers and stonecutters. Cf. I Kings v. 32; Ezek. xxvii.

9. The Greeks named the place Byblos, the birthplace of Philo. The coins of Byblos have a representation of the Temple of Astarte. All along the coast we find remains of the worship of Baal Kronos and Baaltis, of Osiris and Isis, and it is probable that the worship of Adonis and Jupiter-Ammon led Benjamin to a.s.sociate therewith the Ammonites. The reference to the children of Ammon is based on a misunderstanding, arising perhaps out of Ps. lx.x.xiii.

8.]

[Footnote 63: _The Quarterly Statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund_ for 1886 and 1889 give a good deal of information concerning the religion of the Druses. Their morality is there described as having been much maligned.]

[Footnote 64: Tyre was noted for its gla.s.s-ware and sugar factories up to 1291, when it was abandoned by the Crusaders, and destroyed by the Moslems.]

[Footnote 65: This name is applied to the Kishon, mentioned further on, celebrated in Deborah's song (Judg. v. 21), but it is about five miles south of Acre, the river nearest to the town being the Belus, noted for its fine sand suitable for gla.s.s-making. It is not unlikely that R. Benjamin alludes to the celebrated ox-spring of which Arab writers have much to say. Mukkadasi writes in 985: "Outside the eastern city gate is a spring. This they call Ain al Bakar, relating how it was Adam--peace be upon him!--who discovered this spring, and gave his oxen water therefrom, whence its name."]

[Footnote 66: Gath-Hepher, the birthplace of Jonah, near Kefr Kenna, in the territory of Zebulon (Joshua xix. 13), is not here referred to, but the land of Hepher, I Kings iv. 10 is probably meant.]

[Footnote 67: In Benjamin's time hermits, who eventually founded the Carmelite order of monks, occupied grottoes on Mount Carmel.]

[Footnote 68: Benjamin travelled along the coast to Caesarea. Mr. Guy Le Strange (_Palestine under the Moslems_, 1890, p. 477) writes: "Tall Kanisah, or Al Kunaisah, the Little Church, is the mound a few miles north of Athlith, which the Crusaders took to be the site of Capernaum."

Benjamin must have known very well that Maon, which was contiguous to another Carmel (referred to in Joshua xv. 55), belonged to Judah, and was not in the north of Palestine.

Here, as in the case of Gath and elsewhere, he quotes what was the hearsay identification current at the time he visited these places. See an article by C.R. Conder on "Early Christian Topography" in the _Quarterly Statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund_ for 1876, p.16. Cf. _The Ancient Hebrew Tradition_, by Prof. Fr. Hommel, p. 243.]

[Footnote 69: In the time of the Crusaders Gath was supposed to be near Jamnia, but nothing definite is known as to its site. (Baedeker, _Handbook to Palestine and Syria_, 1876, p.

317.)]

[Footnote 70: It lies between Caesarea and Lydda. See Conder's _Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem_. Munk's _Palestine_ might also be consulted with advantage.]

[Footnote 71: The tomb of St. George is still shown in the Greek church at Lydda.]

[Footnote 72: Mr. A. Cowley in an article on the Samaritan Liturgy in _J. Q.R._, VII, 125, states that the "House of Aaron" died out in 1624. The office then went to another branch, the priest being called [Hebrew:], the Levite Cohon.

Cf. Adler and Seligsohn's _Une nouvelle chronique Samaritaine_. (Paris: Durlacher, 1903.)]

[Footnote 73: The small square building known as Joseph's tomb lies a short distance north of Jacob's well, at the eastern entrance to the vale of Nablous.]

[Footnote 74: Cf. Guy Le Strange, _Palestine_, 381, and Rapoport's Note 166, Asher's _Benjamin_, vol. II, p. 87.]

[Footnote 75: The MSS. are defective here; starting from Shechem, Mount Gilboa, which to this day presents a bare appearance, is in a different direction to Ajalon. It is doubtful whether Benjamin personally visited all the places mentioned in his _Itinerary_. His visit took place not long after the second great Crusade, when Palestine under the kings of Jerusalem was disturbed by internal dissensions and the onslaughts of the Saracens under Nur-ed-din of Damascus and his generals. Benjamin could at best visit the places of note only when the opportunity offered.]

[Footnote 76: This and most of the other places mentioned by Benjamin are more or less identified in the very important work published by the Palestine Exploration Fund, _The Survey of Western Palestine_. Our author's statements are carefully examined, and Colonel Conder, after expatiating upon the extraordinary mistakes made by writers in the time of the Crusaders, some of whom actually confounded the sea of Galilee with the Mediterranean, says: "The mediaeval Jewish pilgrims appear as a rule to have had a much more accurate knowledge both of the country and of the Bible.

Their a.s.sertions are borne out by existing remains, and are of the greatest value."]

[Footnote 77: King Baldwin III died in 1162, and was succeeded by his brother Almaric.]

[Footnote 78: The reading of the Roman MS. that there were but four Jewish inhabitants at Jerusalem is in conformity with R. Pethachia, who pa.s.sed through Palestine some ten or twenty years after R. Benjamin, and found but one Jew there.

The [Hebrew: daleth] meaning four would easily be misread for [Hebrew: resh] meaning 200.]

[Footnote 79: The Knights of the Hospital of St. John and the Templars are here referred to. See Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_; Charles Mills, _History of the Crusades_, 4th edition, vol. I, p. 342, and Besant and Palmer's _Jerusalem_, chap. ix.]

[Footnote 80: Cf. the writings of Mukaddasi the Hierosolomite, one of the publications of the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. See also Edrisi's and Ali of Herat's works. Chap. iii of Guy Le Strange's _Palestine_ gives full extracts of Edrisi's account written in 1154 and Ali's in 1173. See also five plans of Jerusalem designed between 1160 and 1180, vol. XV, _Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins._]

[Footnote 81: Ezek. xx. 35. The idea that the Gorge of Jehoshaphat will be the scene of the last judgment is based upon Joel iv. 2. Cf. M.N. Adler, _Temple at Jerusalem_ and Sir Charles Warren's Comments.]

[Footnote 82: In memory of Absalom's disobedience to his father, it is customary with the Jews to pelt this monument with stones to the present day. The adjoining tomb is traditionally known as that of Zechariah, 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, King Uzziah, otherwise Azariah, was buried on Mount Zion, close to the other kings of Judah, 2 Kings xv. 7. Cf. P.E.

F., _Jerusalem_, as to identification of sites. Sir Charles Wilson, _Picturesque Palestine_, gives excellent ill.u.s.trations of the holy places, and his work might be consulted with advantage.]