Eight Years in Asia and Africa, from 1846 to 1855 ... With a preface by Dr. Berthold Seemann. With a map, wood-cuts ... Second edition in the English language. With notes and emendations by the author, etc

Preface

BY DR BERTHOLD SEEMANN WITH A MAP, WOOD-CUTS, AND CORRESPONDING NOTES FROM BENJAMIN OF TUDELA, R. PETACHIA PEDRO TEIXEIRA AND RITTER'S ERDKUNDE. SECOND EDITION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WITH NOTES AND EMENDATIONS BY THE AUTHOR DURING HIS STAY IN AMERICA. HANOVER. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. The author reserves tojijmself the right of translating.

PREFACE.

. Une of the most pleasing contemplations of our time is to see abuses, which have existed for thousands of years cor rected, and prejudices sanctioned by numberless centuries removed. The sun of enlightenment begins to reach the remotest parts of the earth, and warms with its rays objects and conditions, which appeared to have been condemned for ever to an icy deathlike life. In simple words: Science now more than ever makes its salutary influence felt, and all that does not possess it for a foundation, finds its very existence threatened. Whereever science can be applied one knows beforehand to which side victory will finally incline; and it is this conviction that ever spurs on to fresh exertions, and ever inspires fresh courage for continued combat against everything false and bad whether it^appears to us in the form of prejudice, abuse, oppression or vice. — The parts visited by Mr. J. J. Benjamin, namely the countries of the East, offer to such exertion an immeasurable field ; all that debases mankind has held there for centuries an undisturbed sway, and created such confusion in the notions of right and wrong, that for the present one dare not hope for a speedy removal of this fearful condition of society.

Fanaticism stands forth there in its most repulsive form, and often with bloody finger tracesthe horrors of its errors on the pages of history. Might takes the precedence of right; and he, who possesses not the former, can never obtain the latter. Before all others it is especially so among the Jews, who, everywhere dispersed and in no place forming a people, are exposed to all the wretchedness of arbitrary government. Only in a few places, such as Bagdad, they enjoy a happier condition, and develop an activity and prosperity, which is as advantageous to themselves, as it is to the places in which they have settled. In most places however our Benjamin found his co-religionists crushed under the weight of arbitrary oppression; here and there even in absolute slavery, and others again he found belong ing only in name to that great race, whose traditions have exercised the most abiding influence upon mankind.

The most profound sorrow takes possession of the philanthropist at the description of such a condition ; and filled with pity he looks around for the means to remedy so deplorable a state of things. Happily these lie nearer than a superficial consideration of the subject would incline us to imagine ; they consist first in the removal of prejudices, under which the Jews still groan even in some of the most enlightened parts of Europe. Every man of enlightenment, in whatever circle of society he may move, can do something towards effecting this; and as the great statesman, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe assured the British Parliament on the 27th April 1858, it is our failure hitherto in removing the fetters of prejudice in Western Countries, that binds the hands of the friends of the religious freedom and political equality of the Jews in the East. — When the furtherance of such a sacred purpose is in question, surely it behoves every enlightened man to contribute joyfully his mite.

Arguments in favour of his doing so are not wanting; for the learning of the last years has supplied them abundantly. Besides the Jews, in every place where they have been put on a footing of equality with other religious denominations, have developed an industry, attended by the most happy results for those countries which have accorded this act of justice ; and this has authorised the political economist to ask with good V reason: „If it would not be more advantageous to encourage by liberal concessions such an active intelligent people, rather than to restrict them in their material and mental progress?" — The Jews of our time have been most successful in their exertions in science and art, and many of the most esteemed names among poets and authors, have been pointed out by them with just pride as their brethren in faith.

What this highly gifted people have effected under the most unfavourable circumstances, under continual op pression and clogging prejudices, historians have sufficiently proven. But what, as free men, they could effect for mankind and the world, bids defiance to every calculation; it points out the elements of a power which no political economist or politician, who would not lay themselves open to the charge of shortsightedness, dare undervalue. Whereever these people are found, even if it be in the most depressed state', they furnish matter for reflection, and show themselves capable of extraordinary developement. Apart from their Biblical history, great interest has always been connected with the Jews in their separation and dispersion; and to ascertain which country received the ten lost tribes of Is rael is a scientific problem, the solution of which possesses general importance. — To this end Benjamin's „Eight years in Asia and Africa" furnishes an unpretending but never theless a valuable contribution, which as such merits recom mendation, even to those, who do not belong to the same faith as the estimable author.

May these few words serve to recommend this book and be a helping hand , which one traveller willingly lends to another when accidentally meeting before parting by different paths to continue their earthly wanderings towards the same goal. 22. Canonbury Square, Islington, London. May 3, 1858. Berthold Seemann, Ph. d., f. l. s., Adjunctus Praesidii of the Imperial Leopoldino- Caroline Academy. AUTHOR'S

PREFACE.

. While the present work was in course of printing, the author had the honour of laying parts of it before several of the most renowned men of science, whose favourable opinions he prefixes to his own introduction; as in them he finds the best proof that his endeavours have not been quite destitute of result. I. Extract from a letter of His Excellency Baron Alexander v. Humboldt, Member of the King's Privy Council, and Chamberlain to His Majesty, at Berlin. Acknowledging the noble purpose which has actuated you in your travels' in distant lands to ascertain the con dition of a scattered and oppressed people, I have read with much interest several portions of your book. You portray conditions of degradation in the oppressed, and of arbitrary power in the oppressors, which are but little -known in Europe, and which will assuredly and with justice induce many to peruse your work.

May your new undertakings be likewise attended with success ! Berlin, March 15lh 1858. Alexander von Humboldt. Opinion of Professor Dr Carl Ritter in Berlin Several chapters which I have read from proof sheets of an oriental journey of Mr. Benjamin have much inter ested me. They describe in very clear and simple language the adventures and experience of the author; and altho' written in a special point of view, they are yet in the warmest interest of his brethren and companions in the faith. By awakening interest in the west they are calculated to con tribute in no slight degree to new and more complete journies and researches for the improvement of their state in East; and every real exertion in behalf of their oppressed condition must be attended with fruitful result for a better future.

Berlin, March 30th 1858. C. Ritter, Dr. & Prof. phil. Member of the Academy of Sciences. III. Opinion of Professor Dr H. Petermann in Berlin. The travels of Mr. J. J. Benjamin, which he undertook in the same spirit as his celebrated namesake of Tudela, give interesting disclosures respecting the dispersion of his brethren in the faith in the different countries he has visited, their communities, customs and traditions, and may serve, by being brought into comparison with the work of that Rabbi, to show how the Israelitish population in the east has in one part increased and in another decreased. Not withstanding his partiality for his brethren he does not conceal their faults, their want of education and their superstition, when they comes to his view; and altogether his accounts bear the stamp of truth and credibility ; so that the work, written as it is with freshness and liveliness, will gain the interest of many readers.

This at any rate I heartily wish. — I can corroborate much of it by my own experience. Berlin, March 29lh 1858. H. Petermann. IV. Opinion of Dr A. Helflferich in Berlin. To judge from what he has already accomplished, a second accurate research of Asia by Mr. Benjamin would, in my opinion, lead to even more satisfactory results. He is perfectly conversant with the condition of things in that country, and just the man to draw forth information respecting the now completely lost remnant not only of the Jews, but likewise of the Nestorians of Central-Asia. An invaluable acquisition of manuscripts could be then expected, which could not fail to be welcome to every friend of civilisation. The more difficult it is to make researches amid the ruins of antiquity the more sincerely is it to be wished that many others would not shun the danger attending of a journey to these clouded but memorable countries ; the way and manner in which Mr. Benjamin has understood his undertaking, and in part has already accomplished it, justifies us in forming great hopes for the future.

May the expectations of the worthy traveller himself be fulfilled! Berlin, April 10lh 1858. Adolph Helfserich. V. Opinion of Dr Magnus in Breslau. Being requested by Mr. Benjamin from Moldavia to give my opinion of his book of travels, concerning his eight years' wanderings and adventures in Asia and Africa, which will shortly appear complete in print, I can assert with the fullest confidence, as far as I have had an opportunity of looking through them, that his accounts are not only adapted to every educated person and as interesting and entertaining as well as instructive, but they are likewise a valuable acquisition to science in so far as they describe from the author's own observation, the state of the Jews in the above mentioned countries at the present time. Mr. Benjamin's work possesses peculiar interest from the un assuming spirit and simple language in which it is written and it reminds us of the book of travels of his celebrated brother in the faith and namesake of the 12th century; of the Massaot of Benjamin of Tudela, by the side of which it worthily deserves a place.

Breslau, June 15th 1858 Dr E. J. Magnus, Prof. of Eastern and Eabbinical Literature at the University of Breslau. Space does not permit me to print with the above the opinions of other learned men of our time. After such recommendations I hardly dare venture myself, and in fact I deem it superfluous, to say more of the work in question. After the exertions of several years I have found in them not only the richest reward for all my labours, but the stimulas necessary for the publication of this work, as well as a spur for unceasing efforts in the prosecution of that which I have begun. In laying the results of my eight years' researches be fore the general reader as well as before all my brethren X in the faith, I venture to reckon on the indulgent opinion of all those who know the difficult and almost impracticable task devolving upon me.

Since the days of the venerable and celebrated Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, no one has ex clusively devoted himself to such a solemn undertaking, and this secular interruption of a highly important enterprise, increases the natural and numerous difficulties which oppose themselves to the prosecution of the matter. Notwithstanding all obstacles I had to encounter, I be lieve I have still succeeded in throwing some light on the remnant of a people, whose long exile of hundreds of years has only appeared in the annals of history; of a people, ♦vho deserve the researches and sympathy of all who are impressed with a knowledge of the high mission which Providence has assigned them. I have endeavoured by a faithful description of their present condition, and by an investigation of their ancient traditions, to draw them forth from their night of forgetfulness, and happy shall I esteem myself if thereby I have been able to awaken some sympathy for them and to obtain some amelioration of their material condition together with some of the benefits of civilisation, and in particular religious toleration.

Above all others, however, I wish to awaken the sympathy of my fellow-believers in Europe for their unhappy brethren, who are exiled in those inhospitable countries, which are seldom, if ever traversed by the foot of a European and who notwithstanding the direst persecution, oppression, pillage and murder practised against them for hundreds of years by fanaticism and barbarism, have still remained stedfast to the faith of their fathers. If anything effectual should be achieved by my narration of facts; I shall not regard the troubles and dangers of a long and wearisome journey as having been in vain. Besides this great and chief object of my wanderings in the East, I have endeavoured, by the introduction of historical, geographical, statistical, and other notices, to give in their proper places in my work, some information until now unknown, respecting the countries I have visited, and I hope it will be everywhere welcome.

The original French edition of this work contains only an account of my journey in Asia; and as I was not able to superintend personally the printing of it, a number of mistakes in the events narrated, as well as in the geogra phical names, have crept in. The present English edition contains besides the travels in Asia, accounts of my wan derings in Africa; and is likewise throughout corrected and improved. After having ceased for a time my wanderings and researches for the purpose of publishing this work, I intend again to resume them. — In a short time I shall with God's help undertake a second journey to the East, for which I am furnished with a number of important instructions for my researches from esteemed persons, and hope after the completion of my journey to be able to furnish a more exact and valuable work.

Hannover, May 1859. Israel Joseph Benjamin. INDEX. Page Introduction. Pedro Teixeira A sketch of travel, by Dr. M. Kayserling XVII Chapter I. Departure from the Moldau. — Object of the journey. — Journal. — Tomb of the Rabbi Jacob bal Haturim. — Arrival at Jerusalem 1 Chapter II. Jerusalem 15 Chapter III. Zion 32 Chapter IV. Hebron (called by the Arabs Chalil) 37 Chapter V. Sichem. — Samaria. — Zephath. — Miron 44 Chapter VI. The state of the Jews in Palestine 54 Journey through the mountain of Lebanon 58 Chapter VII. Damascus 63 Aleppo 68 Ursa , 76 Siwerek. Tshermuk 79 Chapter VIII. Diabekr 83 Tselma. — The villages of the Jews 89 Dschesireh — Saehu 91 Chapter IX. First journey in the mountains of Kurdistan .... 95 Alkush - 98 Chapter X. Second journey in the mountains of Kurdistan .... 103 Birsani 105 Sindu. — Journey in the mountain 107 Chapter XI.

Mosul 113 Chapter XII. Third journey in the mountains of Kurdistan ... 120 Chapter XIII. I. Descent of the Kurdish Jews. The Nestorians. II. Vassalage and imports. III. Slavery. IV. Claims of the master. V. State of ignorance vespeeting religion. Psge VI. Industry and labour. VII. Biblical precepts, which the Jews and other nations follow. VIII. Review in a religious and moral point of view. Observations respecting the customs practised against the Mosaic law 123 Chapter XIV. Kirkuk 135 Chapter XV. Bagdad 140 The ruins of Babylon. — Hillah 153 Chapter XVI. Kabur-Kefil 156 Mesched Ali. — Kelbella 163 Chapter XVII. From Bagdad to Bassora. — The desert El Ozeir (called by the Arabs Deser Asar) 166 Koath. — Suk-e-Schejuch. — Gumruk. — Gorna 168 Bassora 169 Chapter XVIII. The East Indies 173 Chapter XIX. 1.

The Bene-Israel 177 Chapter XX. 2. The Canarinz « 181 Chapter XXI. 3. The black Jews of Cochin 183 Chapter XXII. Journey to Cabul. — The tribes of India 193 4. The Banians 194 5. The Parsees 196 6. The Hindoos 197 Chapter XXIII. Cabul 198 Chapter XXIV. The Jews in China 202 Chapter XXV. The Jews of Yeniin (Yemen), in Afghanistan and Tartary 213 j Chapter XXVI. The Jews in Persia 221 Chapter XXVII. Journey from Maskat to Abeshur 224 Chapter XXVIH. Journey through the desert to Shiraz 227 Chapter XXIX. Shiraz — Deplorable condition of the Jews . . . 229 Chapter XXX. Ispahan 234 Chapter XXXI. Mesched. — Kashan. — Yezd 241 Chapter XXXII. Teheran 244 Chapter XXXIII. Hamadan 248 Chapter XXXIV. Persia; its culture, customs and habits. — Return to Bagdad 253 Chapter XXXV. The condition of the Jews in Persia. — Petition to the Sultan, to the Emperor of the French, and to the Queen of Great Britain 257 Chapter XXXVI.

Concluding reflections 266 Chapter XXXVII. Return to Constantinople 273 Chapter XXXVIII. Journies in Africa. I. Egypt 277 Chapter XXXIX. II. Trabolus (Tripoli di Berberice) 285 Chapter XL. III. Tunis Page Chapter XLI. IV. Algeria 308 Chapter XLII. V. Morocco 319 Chapter XLIII. General reflections respecting the Jews of North Africa 326 The Portuguese conquests and discoveries with respect to the Jews. By Dr. M. Kayserling 336 Conclusion 353 Chapter XLIV. Instructions from German and French learned men and Orientalists respecting the researches ofthe next journey. — Memoir of the Dutch Chief Rabbis

Introduction

to benjamin's account of „elght years in Asia and Africa." Pedro Teixeira. By Dr. M. Kayserling.1 An unsettled and wandering life has been the appointed lot of the Jews for thousands of years, as in their early state, so too in later years, after disappearing from the list of nations, this unhappy people, accustomed to expulsion and exile, led a nomadic life and wandered from place to place and from country to country, dependent on the policy and caprice of various Governors and Princes. This unsettled, wandering life, which increased the suf ferings of these despised outcasts, did not further the cause either of science or literature. How can he who is driven forth as an exile, have an eye for any spot but that on which he can rest his weary foot? How can the wanderer, fleeing from danger, seek on his long and weary journey any other place than that which protects him from his pursuers? — Those, who reflect on this, have no right to wonder, after all the journeys and wanderings, which the 1 This sketch has been published at the wish, and for the benefit of Mr. Benjamin.

As an addition to the history and geography of the Jews, may it find a friendly reception. Jews more than all nations have been forced to undertake, that the science of geography should have been so little benefitted. Talents and powers of observation were cer tainly not wanting to the travellers, but they were so entirely taken up by themselves and their own fate, that they cared but little for that which surrounded them. It was in Spain that the history of Jewish travel like everything else was early encouraged. It is more than a mere metaphor to designate the Pen insula of Hesperia as the seat of the best informed and most learned Jews of the middle ages. Besides the profoundest study of the Talmud, philosophy, medecine, natural history and astrology were also cultivated and fostered by them ; and it is from the Spanish Jews, that we have the first accounts of their travels.

Benjamin de Tudela, the well known Jewish travellei, was the first to direct his attention to his exiled brethren, and the incidents and results of his journey are related in that celebrated and valuable work, which bears his name, and has secured for him an undying reputation. From Spain, his native country, Ckarisi began his wanderings. Having travelled through Spain and Provence, he visited Alexandria, and took up his residence in the Holy City, in that land, glorious on account of the sacred places it contains; from thence he proceeded to Persia, and through Greece retourned to his own hand. The Jew, Parchi, was also a native of Spain. He journeyed through Egypt ; and it is to him we are indebted for the accurate knowledge we possess of the condition of Palestine in his time. The Jews of the Peninsula were learned men ; and altho' the greater number of them had long been oppressed and insulted, yet for centuries they had been respected for their scientific acquirements.

Not only did they serve kings and rulers as ministers of finance and treasurers, as taxcollectors and stewards, — not only did they entertain lords and ladies in courts and in palaces with their songs and poetry, but they were also the teachers of kings and princes, yes, they — the Jews — were the guardians and propagators of knowledge in a Christian land. When the Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, celebrated alike for his heroic conquests and his love for geography, turned his thoughts towards Africa, in order to discover the gold districts there, it was from the Jews that he obtained information concerning the places they had visited in their commercial journeys, and every Jewish tra veller was sure to find an hospitable welcome at Algarve, the country seat of this studious prince.

It would be worse than ingratitude if, in recalling to mind the earliest discoveries of the Portuguese, we did not also remember the Jews, — the important communications they made and the advice they tendered. A long line of learned geographers sprang from the Portuguese nation; and the widely extended connections, which the new discoverers cemented with the people of Asia and Africa, could not but further the interests of science. To the Portuguese, who have enriched the science of geography by their works, and who, on account of their travels, have been classed among the of the world", belongs the name oi Pedro Teixeira, — a man whose memory we wish to revive by this sketch, and whose discoveries and reflections, as far as they relate to the Jews and their antiquities, we wish once more in our time to bring before the world.

His name is well known in geographical literature.1 Our Pedro Teixeira 2 belonged to one of those Portu guese Jewish families, who dared not openly avow their religion, or educate their children in the faith of their 1 We will here only mention Leiois Teixeira who in 1598 (1602) wrote a „nueva Geografia y Ilydrografia del Orbe " A Pedro Teixeira travelled along the whole Spaniseh coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and published a „Descripcion de la costa de Espana.u He died in the 70th year of the 17"' century. 2 Not Teiveira, Teirera, Texera, as Wolff (according to Barrios) bibl. XX fathers. Many a youth of this race has only on receiving the last blessing of his dying father been informed of his true descent, and of the religion, to which his parents, from their inmost conviction, had remained faithful, and for which their forefathers had endured tortures and martyrdoms of every description.

This legacy of the heart, if we may thus express ourselves, was willingly received by many; and many only had the glimmering spark of love to Judaism rekindled in their hearts, when the time appeared drawing near when they would have to give an account to their maker of what they had done and left undone with regard to the guardianship of the legacy bequeathed to them, when they were about to rejoin in another world those whom they had fondly loved. Thus it was with our Pedro Teixeira. Although born of Jewish parents, who in all probability resided in Lisbon, he was yet not educated in the Jewish faith. Notwithstanding his submission to the will of the Almighty, which seemed to have been innate in him, and which may be traced in almost every leaf of his book of travels, — notwithstanding his indwelling conviction that everything that happened to or befel him and that everything he received and enjoyed, proceeded from the hand of his Creator — a conviction, which may be more than once traced in Teixeira — we still think that we are able to infer from his narrative, that during a great part of his life — during his travels — that preceded his arrival in Antwerp, he was a Christian, and even a devout Catholic. hebr.

III. 922, IV. 593 and Zunz in his excellent treatise „on the geographical literature of the Jews" — in Asher's Edition of Ben jamin of Tudela (Berlin 1840) II, 282, assert. — Many german-polish Jews often pronounce the syllable ei as e; and thus Spanish names like Teixeira, Morteira were read and written by them as Texera and Mortera. Besides this the aforesaid Barrios (Triumpho del Gioverno Popular 10, 17) calls him likewise Pedro Teyxeyra (sic). Tho learned Thomas de Pinedo, the editor and commentator of Stephanus Byzantinus, frequently mentions our traveller in his com mentary. It was at Antwerp, the oldest dutch settlement of the spanish-portuguese exiles, that Pedro took up his abode after the termination of his journey. There he published his va luable work on the origin and order of succession of the kings of Persia and Harmez; there he wrote his „ Travels from India to Italy" ; l — and there, not at Verona,2 most probably towards the middle of the 17th century he died in the Jewish faith, and was gathered to his fathers in a better world.

Without enlarging further on the above mentioned historical work of Teixeira, who, from his earliest youth, had devoted himself to the study of history, we will resume our notice for a time of the learned and celebrated traveller himself. In September 1601 Pedro returned from his first long journey to the Philippine Isles, China and a portion of the New World, which had extended over a year and a half, and which he had undertaken, as he himself expressed, to pass his time in and become acquainted with new countries. After a residence of two years and a half in Lisbon, he started on a second journey of scientific research to India, Persia and other countries. Teixeira was admirably fitted for such an undertaking by his possessing the talent, not enjoyed by all travellers, of observing everything worthy of note, and intuitively understanding it.

We will not here 1 The title of his work, which is now before us, is: „Relaciones de Pedro Teixeira d'el Origen, descendencia y succession de Ios Reyes de Persia y de Harmuz, y de un viage hecho por el mismo autor dende la India Oriental hasta Italia etc. Amberes Hieronymus Verdussen 1610." 2 The Spanish poet Daniel Levi de Barrios — about him and his poems more in our forthcoming work : „Eomanische Poesien der Juden in Spanien" — mentions Verona as the place of his death ; comp. Relacion de Ios Poetas Fspanoles, 58 : „Pedro Teireira (Teixeira) .... murio en Verona." So likewise Wolff 1. c. III. 922; Zunz 1. c. ; Steinschneider literature" (London 1857) 258. — Barrios, a reliable authority , as long as he confines himself to speaking of persons and events of his own time, was not well informed on this point ; and the statement respecting it of the Portuguese Biographer Barbosa certainly deserves more credence.

Barbosa remarks in his Bibl. lusit. (Lisboa 1747) III. 622: „Vizitou Veneza, donde por terra veyo a Anveres e nesta cidade fez o seu domicilio ate a morte." endeavour to ascertain if it was the ancient Jewish spirit which incited him to consider the Jewish relics of olden times as worthy of notice, or if it was out of respect to the fathers of his race that his enquiring eye sought out those sacred places where the remains of those belonging to his tribe reposed. It is enough for our purpose to know that his simple unprejudiced view only bears the higher stamp of the superiority of his scientific acquirements and proves beyond doubt that Teixeira, in his travels and in his book, thought of Jewish antiquities and of the Jews themselves; and for this his brethren in the faith are bound to feel grateful to him.

That this reliable Author, as Menassah ben Israel calls him,1 gives his information from his own observation, and not from any descriptions made by the Jewish merchant of Tudela, scarcely needs mention. It is true that Benjamin's book of travels was in print in his time and had even passed through many editions. Yet without wishing to detract from Pedro's learning, we believe ourselves justified in asserting that to him Benjamin's writings would have been of little value, as he did not understand Hebrew : and the first translation of the former's work, by the learned Benedictine Arias Montano, was unlikely to have been in his possession. With the sincerest regret that our Portuguese traveller does not speakjmore explicitly of those of his persuasion in Persia and India, we now take leave of him.2 Teixeira understood his task; and the able manner in which it has been accomplished has been fully acknowledged.

May the traveller of the 19th century likewise have cause to rejoice in the favour of his readers. Berlin, June 2ni 1858. Dr. j/. Kayserling. 1 Spes Israelis c. 26. Teixeira's notes of this journey, especially those relating to the monuments of the Jews, and his accounts of his brethren in the faith, we have added in their proper places to our work. — The course of his journey was from India to Europe, consequently in a contrary direction to our own ; and therefore it is that we have chosen this method ot arrangement.