Chap. II. 
c/ Benjamin de Tudela. 
full of the Difciples of the wife Men, that Is, of the JewiJh 
Doctors, who ftudy the Law Day and Night, and are 
extremely kind, and charitable to their diftreffed Brethren. 
He concludes with an earned; Prayer to God, to remember 
his Promife to the Children of Ifrael , and to return and 
affemble them from all Nations, through which in his Wrath 
he has difperfed them. 
In the feveral Places he mentions, he reckons up in the 
whole 39468 7 Jews , from which, if we fubftraCt 740 
Car ait es , 1000 Samaritans , and 2000 other Schifmaticks, 
there'will remain 390947, to which, if we add 350000 free 
Jfraelites , whom he found in the Kingdoms of Them a and 
Chehar , they will fwell the Account of the Rabbanites he 
met with in his Travels to 740947, which, when duly 
confidered, will not, perhaps, appear very improbable. Thus 
we have brought to a Conclufton the Travels of Benjamin 
de Tudela , which had never appeared fo fully as we have 
given them in the Englijh Language. 
15. We have in the Introduction to this SeCtion given 
fo large an Account of our Author, of his Performance, and 
the Reafon of our inferting it, that we have not much to 
add here. That there may be, and indeed that there are 
many Miftakes in thefe Travels, is not to be denied, neither 
can we help confeffing, that the Author was a very credu- 
lous Man, and far enough from deferving the high Cha- 
racter bellowed upon him by the Jews, who reprefent him 
as a Perfon {killed in all Sciences, and refer us to this Per- 
formance of his as a Proof of it. But granting that he did 
not merit thefe Praifes, yet there is fomething furely due to 
him for the Lights he has communicated to the World. It 
is from him, as from an impartial Perfon, that we learn 
the true State of Affairs at Confiantinople within the Com- 
pafs of this Period, the immenfe Wealth and Luxury of its 
Inhabitants, and their extenfive Commerce throughout the 
whole Eaft. 
His Travels from that City to Bajfora fhew plainly, that 
the Communication was open, fince otherwife it would have 
been impoffible for a private Traveller to have proceeded 
through the whole Kingdom of Perfia in the Manner he 
. did. Some Objections have been made to his Account of 
the Jews fettled in the Mountains of Nijbor , which from 
his Relation appear to have been upon the Borders of the 
the Kingdom of Thibet ; yet if we refleCt upon what our 
Arabian Travellers have told us of the Number of Jews 
fettled in the Empire of China before this Time, and re- 
member that the Emperor Heraclius had long before driven 
them out of all the Greek Empire, we fhall fee many Rea- 
sons to think this Account of his probable enough. It is 
true, that R. Mofes and our Author may be fofpeCted of 
magnifying thefe Settlements, and of making this Colony 
of Jews more confiderable than it really was ; but that we 
fhould regard the whole as a FiCtion, I mult confefs I fee 
no juft Grounds. It is very likely, though Benjamin does 
not fay it, that he received from the fame Perfon what he 
relates of China , and of the icy Sea to the North of that 
Country, which (hews there had been a confiderable Com- 
merce carried on that Way, though Benjamin could give 
but a dark Account of it. 
We are indebted to him likewife for a Piece of Hiftory, 
which for any thing I know is not to be met with elfe- 
where, I mean the Settlement of the Perfees , who were the 
old Perjians or Worfhippers of Fire, in feveral Elands of the 
Eaji-Indies , of which we fhall make fome Ufe in another 
Place. The Account he has given us of Ethiopia , and of the 
JewiJh Colonies in that Country, is fo confident with the 
ancient and modern Hiftory of that Empire, that there is not 
the leaft Reafon to doubt the Truth of it, or of what he fays 
as to the Pafifage of the Caravans through the Defarts. It 
is evident from thence, that there was by this Means a 
large Commerce carried on between this Country and 
Egypt, in Slaves, Gold, Ivory, and perhaps alfo in fome 
Indian Commodities 5 and it is likewife clear, that there 
was a great Trade between that Country and the oppofite 
Coaft of Arabia . If our Author had travelled as a Mer- 
chant, he might very poffibly have given us many more 
curious Particulars on this SubjeCt j but as he did not, we 
mull be content with thofe he has delivered occafionally^ 
and as they ftruck him in his Paffage. 
There are great Exceptions taken at his fihort Account 
of the Government of Egypt , when he was in it ; and fome 
of his Tranfiators have inclined to give him up in this Par- 
ticular, though without any great Reafon. It is plain 
enough from the reft of his Work, that he did not fet up 
for a great Politician, or pretend to defcribe the Conftitu- 
tions of the States through which he palfed, but only to 
mention in general what he underftood of fuch Matters. It 
is alfo certain, that without changing his Words, we may 
give a clear and fatisfaCtory Account of this Matter, which 
amounts to no more than this : That the then Mailers of 
Egypt , though they were Mohammedans , were yet treated 
as Hereticks, or Rebels, on account of their difowning the 
Khaliff at Bagdat , and that on this Account there was an 
inveterate Hatred between the Subjects of the Khaliff of 
Babylon , and the Mohammedans in Egypt, as to which there 
can be no doubt at all. 
The fingle Difficulty in this Cafe is our Author’s calling 
the Commander of the Faithful in Egypt Ali the Son of 
Abitalab from whence it is inferred, that he makes him 
the Monarch then reigning, which would have been a moll 
notorious Abfurdity. But the Truth of the Matter is, our 
Author fays no fuch thing : He only mentions All die Son 
of Abitalab as having been once Commander of the Faith- 
ful in Egypt ; and the Reafon of his mentioning it is very 
plain, viz. in order to account for the Difference between 
the Mohammedans in Afia and Egypt , and the latter being 
ftiled Rebels by the former on account of their taking the 
Part of this Ali. 
But the greateft Difficulties that occur in our Author’s 
Work, fome of which, it mull be owned, are not to be 
got over, arife from his ufing fcriptural Names for the 
Countries and Places through which he paffed ; and thefe, 
according to the Notions of the Rabbins, for want of being 
thoroughly acquainted with which, it is impoffible for any 
Tranllator to be perfectly fore as to his Meaning. But if 
we fhould be fomewhat miftaken in the Names of the feve- 
ral Countries from which Ships came to Alexandria , yet 
we mull be right in the main ; and the Reader may reft 
fatisfied from thence, that at the Time of our Author’s 
being there, the Port of Alexandria was the Centre of Com- 
merce between Christendom and the Indies . All the Fables 
that he relates about the magical Mirror there cannot pre- 
judice this Truth •, for though our Author might be, as to 
be fure he was, a very indifferent Hiftorian, a bad Mathe^ 
matician, and a credulous Writer, yet he could not be mi- 
ftaken about Things he faw, or be Induced to fet down the 
Names of Nations never heard of at Alexandria. Befides, 
he is remarkably accurate in this Account ; and the Lift he 
has given us is more methodical than any other Paffage in 
his Book, which feems to have been owing to his making 
an Enquiry at Alexandria, as to the feveral Foreign Lodges 
or Factories eftablifhed there. 
On the whole, as thefe Travels plainly demonftrate that 
it was both poffible and practicable for a Perfon to travel 
in the midft of the twelfth Century from Spain thro’ Italy 
and Greece into the remote Parts of Afia, and to return 
from thence through Ethiopia and Egypt into Europe , it 
was requifite, that in a Collection of this kind, fuch a Per- 
formance Ihould not be omitted ; and if not omitted, it 
ought, furely to appear in the bell Drefs we could poffibly 
give it, which mull be an Apology to the Reader for our 
having taken fo much Pains therewith, and having dwelt 
upon it fo long. 
SECTION 
