unusual happens I do not return to Mizr until the afternoon. Then I am almost dying with hunger; I find the antechambers filled with people, both Jews and Gentiles, nobles and common people, judges and bailiffs, friends and foes—a mixed multitude, who await the time of my return. I dismount from my animal, wash my hands, go forth to my patients, and entreat them to bear with me while I partake of some slight refreshment, the only meal I take in the twenty-four hours. Then I go forth to attend to my patients, write prescriptions and directions for their several ailments. Patients go in and out until nightfall, and sometimes even, I solemnly assure you, until two hours and more in the night. I converse with and prescribe for them while lying down from sheer fatigue; and when night falls I am so exhausted that I can scarcely speak. In consequence of this, no Israelite can have any private interview with me, except on the Sabbath. On that day, the whole congregation, or, at least, the majority of the members, come unto me after the morning service, when I instruct them as to their proceedings during the whole week; we study together a little until noon, when they depart. Some of them return, and read with me after the afternoon service until evening prayers. In this manner I spend that day. I have here related to you only a part of what you would see, if you were to visit me.

Now, when you have completed for our brethren the translation you have commenced, I beg that you will come to me, but not with the hope of deriving any advantage from your visit as regards your studies; for my time is, as I have shown you, so excessively occupied.

[Maimonides now proceeds to specify all the philosophical works Ibn Tibbon should study, and cautions him not to waste his time with certain others.] .

He, Aristotle, indeed arrived at the highest summit of knowledge to which man can ascend, unless the emanation of the Divine Spirit be vouchsafed to him, so that he attains the stage of prophecy, above which there is no higher stage.

And the works of Ibn Sina, although they contain searching investigations and subtle thought, do not come up to the writings of Abunazr Alfarabi. Still they are useful, and it is right that you should study them diligently.

I have now indicated to you the works you should study, and to which you should devote your intellect. May your happiness, my son and pupil, increase, and salvation be granted to our afflicted people. Written by Moses, the son of Maimun, the Sephardi, on the 8th of Tishri, 1511, according to the Seleucide era.5

5 Corresponding to September 30th, 1199.

THE TRAVELS OF
BENJAMIN OF TUDELA

"Palestine is destined to be the center of the globe."

"The above-mentioned Rabbi Benjamin was a man of wisdom and understanding, and of much information; and after strict inquiry his words were found to be true, and correct; for he was a true man."

BENJAMIN OF TUDELA

HEBREW PREFACE

This book contains the reports of Rabbi Benjamin, the son of Jonah, of blessed memory,' of Tudela, in the kingdom of Navarre. This man traveled through many and distant countries, as related in the following account, and took down in writing in each place what he saw or what was told him by men of integrity, whose names were known in Spain. Rabbi Benjamin also mentions some of the principal men in the places he visited; and when he returned, he brought this report along with him to the country of Castile in the year 933 (A.D. 1173). The above-mentioned Rabbi Benjamin was a man of wisdom and understanding, and of much information; and after strict inquiry his words were found to be true and correct, for he was a true man.

TRAVELS OF RABBI BENJAMIN, OF BLESSED MEMORY

Thus says Rabbi Benjamin, son of Jonah, of blessed memory. I first set out from the city of Saragossa, and proceeded down the river Ebro to Tortosa. Two days' journey brought me to the ancient city of Tarragona, which contains many cyclopean and pelasgic remains, and similar buildings are found nowhere else in the whole kingdom of Spain. This city stands on the coast. Two days thence is Barce lona, in which place there is a congregation of wise, learned, and princely men, such as R. Shesheth, R. Shealthiel, and R. Solomon, son of R. Abraham, son of Chisdai, of blessed mem

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1 The expression of blessed memory " is generally added by Jews when mentioning the "honored dead" (see Proverbs x. 7), and recurs frequently in the following narrative.

2 This city was one of great antiquity; and at this time the remains of its ancient walls appear to have been very remarkable. Destroyed at an earlier period by the Saracens, Tarragona was rebuilt in the twelfth century.