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November 16, 2023

The Jew Who Wrote One of the Middle Ages’ Most Famous Travel Books

Benjamin of Tudela.

Historians are fortunate to have a wealth of material composed by medieval Jews that has been preserved through the centuries. But since most of these writings are rabbinic commentaries, legal analyses, and philosophy, they provide little information of the kind historians are often most eager to find out. The exception is the extraordinary 12th-century travelogue of Benjamin of Tudela, whom Tamar Marvin describes as “one of the most famed . . . of all premodern travelers,” Jewish or otherwise:

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