Jewish Travellers

Elkan Nathan Adler

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781134286058
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Jewish History
• Index: History

First published in 1930. The wandering Jew is a very real character in the great drama of history. He has travelled as nomad and settler, as fugitive and conqueror, as exile and colonist and as merchant and scholar. Of necessity bilingual and therefore the master of many languages, the Jew was the ideal commercial traveller and interpreter.
Based on the volume of 24 Hebrew texts of Jewish travellers by J D Eisenstein, this volume begins with the ninth century. After the sixteenth century geographical discoveries had made the whole world familiar to most people. Consequently, the wandering Jew becomes less the diplomatist or scientist but still remains a link between the scattered members of the Diaspora. The volume ends in the middle of the eighteenth century and taken as a whole provides a survey of Jewish travel during the Middle Ages. For this translation, some of the texts have been abridged, whilst retaining many of the original notes.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Front Other
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Front Other
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Eginhard of Franconia, a.d. 801
• Ibn Khordâdhbeh, c. 817
• Eldad the Danite, c. a.d. 880
• The Epistle of R. Chisdai Ibn Shaprut to the King of the Khozars and the King’s Reply, c. 960
• Judah Halevi, 1085–1140
• Benjamin of Tudela, 1165–73
• Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon, 1170–87
• Rabbi Jacob ben R. Nathaniel ha Cohen. Twelfth Century
• The Cairo Geniza. Thirteenth Century
• Itinerary of Rabbi Samuel Ben Samson in 1210
• Judah-al-Harizi, c. 1216
• Rabbi Jacob, the Messenger of Rabbi Jechiel of Paris, 1238–44
• Isaac ben Joseph ibn Chelo. The Roads from Jerusalem, 1334
• Elijah of Ferrara, 1434
• Rabbi Meshullam ben R. Menahem of Volterra, 1481. I. II
• Obadiah da Bertinoro, 1487–90
• David Reubeni, 1523–27
• Jemsel the Karaïte, 1641
• David Azulai, 1755
• Notes
• Index