Chapter V: Part 5

[Footnote 139: Niebuhr, vol. II, 216, gives a full account
of his visit to the tomb. Layard, speaking of Birs Nimroud,
says: "To the south-west in the extreme distance rise the
palm-trees of Kifil, casting their scanty shade over a small
dome, the tomb of Ezekiel. To this spot occasionally flock
in crowds, as their forefathers have done for centuries, the
Jews of Bagdad, Hillah, and other cities of Chaldea.... It
is now but a plain building, despoiled of the ornaments and
MSS. which it once appears to have contained" (_Nineveh and
Babylon_, p. 500). Alcharizi composed a beautiful ode when
visiting this tomb (chap, xxxv, also chap. L).]

[Footnote 140: This Mohammed, as in the case referred to p.
40, must have been a predecessor of the reigning Caliph, as
the Prophet was never in Babylonia, and in no case would he
have granted favours to the Jews. It should be noted that
the British Museum MS. on which our text is based, as well
as the Casanatense MS., generally styles the Prophet
[Hebrew]. The MS., on which the Constantinople _editio
princeps_ is based, had probably all passages where this
epithet or other objectionable remarks were used excised by
the censor, and it will be seen that the passage before us,
with reference to the grant of land by Mohammed, as well as
that further on, referring to Ali, the son-in-law of
Mohammed, do not appear in any of the printed editions. Dr.
Hirschfeld is of opinion that, on the one hand, the epithet
is the translation of the Arabic _majn[=u]n_, a term against
which Mohammed protested several times in the Koran, because
it means he was possessed by a _jinn_, like a soothsayer. On
the other hand, the word was chosen having regard to Hosea
ix. 7. This was done long before Benjamin's time, by Jafeth
and others.]

[Footnote 141: See picture of the traditional tomb of
Ezekiel in the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_, vol. V, p. 315.]

[Footnote 142: The Talmud (Sabbath, II a) speaks of the
destruction of Mata Mehasya. Sura took its place as a centre
of learning.]

[Footnote 143: See Berliner, pp. 45, 47, 54, and 57, for
particulars derived from the Talmud and Midrash as to the
several centres of Jewish learning in Babylonia.]

[Footnote 144: This synagogue is repeatedly mentioned in the
Talmud. Zunz (Note 255) omits mentioning Aboda Zarah, 43 b,
where Rashi explains that Shafjathib was a place in the
district of Nehardea, and that Jeconiah and his followers
brought the holy earth thither, giving effect to the words
of the Psalmist: "For thy servants take pleasure in her
stones, and favour the dust thereof" (Ps. cii. 14).]

[Footnote 145: Benjamin visited the various seats of
learning in the neighbourhood, and thus came again to
Nehardea, which has been already mentioned on p. 34. Rab
Jehuda, not Rab, is there associated with Samuel.]

[Footnote 146: Asher, at this stage of Benjamin's narrative,
has the following note: "For the illustration of that
portion of our text which treats of Arabia, we refer the
reader to the Rev. S.L. Rapoport's paper, 'Independent Jews
of Arabia,' which will be found at the end of these notes."
No such account appeared in the work, but in the _Bikkure
Haittim_ for the year 1824, p. 51, there appears an
interesting essay in Hebrew on the subject by Rapoport, to
which the reader is referred. It is a matter of history that
the powerful independent Jewish communities which were
settled at Yathrib, afterwards called Medina, and in the
volcanic highlands of Kheibar and Teima called the Harrah,
were crushed by Mohammed. Dr. Hirschfeld, in the _Jewish
Quarterly Review_, vol. XV, p. 170, gives us the translation
of a letter found in the Cairo _Genizah_, addressed by
Mohammed to the people of Kheibar and Maqna, granting them
certain privileges from which the Jews, who were allowed to
remain in their homes, benefited. Omar, the second Caliph,
broke the compact, but allowed them to settle at Kufa on the
Euphrates. Although pilgrims pass annually up and down the
caravan tracks to Mecca, the information respecting the old
Jewish sites in the Harrah is most meagre. Edrisi and
Abulfeda throw no light on Benjamin's account. In the year
1904 an able work by Mr. D.G. Hogarth appeared under the
title of _The Penetration of Arabia_, being a record of the
development of Western knowledge concerning the Arabian
Peninsula. He gives a full account of the European
travellers who have described the country. Niebuhr, who
visited Yemen in 1762, repeated the statement made by the
Italian traveller Varthema that there were still wild Jews
in Kheibar. The missionary Joseph Woolf visited Arabia in
1836, and he gives us an account of an interview he had with
some of the Rechabites. No weight, however, can be attached
to his fantastic stories. W.G. Palgrave, who resided for
some years in Syria as a Jesuit, where he called himself
Father Michael (Cohen), was entrusted in 1862 with a mission
to Arabia by Napoleon III in connexion with the projected
Suez Canal; he was one of the few visitors to the Harrah,
but he makes no special reference to the Jews. Joseph Halevi
made many valuable discoveries of inscriptions in South
Arabia, which he traversed in 1869. He visited the oppressed
Jewish community at Sanaa in Yemen; he further discovered
traces of the ancient Minaean kingdom, and found that the
Jews in the Nejran were treated with singular tolerance and
even favour; but he was not able to tell us anything
respecting the Jews of the Harrah.

C.M. Doughty was, however, more successful when visiting
this district in 1875. Of Kheibar he says "that it is now a
poor village whose inhabitants are a terrible kindred,
Moslems outwardly, but, in secret, cruel Jews that will
suffer no stranger to enter among them." See C.M. Doughty's
_Arabia Deserta_, vol. II, p. 129. "Teima is a Nejd colony
of Shammar; their fathers came to settle there not above 200
years past. Old Teima of the Jews, according to their
tradition, had been (twice) destroyed by flood. From those
times there remain some great rude stone buildings. It is
now a prosperous open place" (vol. I, p. 286).

The only writer that casts any doubt upon Benjamin's record
as to independent Jewish tribes in Arabia is R. Jacob Safir,
who visited Yemen and other Arabian ports in the Red Sea in
the year 1864. See chaps. xv and xliii of _Iben Safir_,
Lyck, 1866. Dr. L. Gruenhut, in his introduction, _Die
Reisebeschreibungen des R. Benjamin von Tudela_, Jerusalem,
1903, p. 16, refutes Safir's statements.

In Hogarth's work, p. 282, is shown a print of the Teima
stone, with its Aramaic inscription, considered to belong to
the fourth or fifth century B.C., and on p. 285 will be
found Doughty's interesting sketch of Kheibar.]

[Footnote 147: It is clear that, when speaking of the
population of some of these places, the whole oasis or
district is intended, and not a particular town.]

[Footnote 148: In reading through the foregoing account of
the Jews in Arabia, it is quite clear that Benjamin never
visited the country, nor did he pretend to have done so. In
the words of Mr. C.E. Beazley (The Dawn of Modern
Geography, p. 252), "It is no longer, for the most part, a
record of personal travel; it is rather an attempt to
supplement the first part 'of things seen' by a second 'of
things heard.'" But Beazley is wrong when he characterizes
as "wild" the account of the Jews of Southern Arabia "who
were Rechabites." Does Benjamin say so? There is no such
reading in the MS. of the British Museum. The student, it is
thought, will by this time have come to the conclusion that
it is the oldest and most trustworthy of our available
authorities. The whole misconception has arisen from the
fact that the unreliable MS. E and all the printed editions
have transposed the letters of [Hebrew:] and made [Hebrew:]
of it. Rapoport, in the article already referred to, seems
to suspect the faulty reading: to justify it, he connects
the men of Kheibar with the Rechabites and the sons of Heber
the Kenite, basing his argument upon Jer. xxxv, Judges i.
16, I Sam. xxvii. 10, and I Chron. ii. 55.

Neither Zunz nor Asher makes any comments upon this chapter
of the itinerary. Graetz gives an abstract of Benjamin's
account; he, as well as all other writers, is unable to
identify Tilmas, but is of opinion that Tanai must be Sanaa,
the capital of Yemen, which, however, is twenty-five days'
journey beyond Kheibar. It is well known that Yemen has,
since Bible times, harboured a Jewish population,
who--notwithstanding all oppression, intensified under
Turkish rule--inhabit many of its towns and villages to the
present day. It is comparatively accessible, owing to its
proximity to the sea. We must cherish the hope that Great
Britain, now that it claims the Hinterland of Aden, will
extend its protection to the Jews.

The volcanic highlands (Harrah) of Kheibar were always
inaccessible, owing to their being surrounded by waterless
deserts and fanatic Bedouin tribes.

R. Abraham Farissol, who flourished at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, writes that there was a large number of
Jews in the district, who lived in tents and in wooden
houses or huts. His contemporary, David Reubeni, who crossed
from Arabia to Abyssinia and came to Europe in 1524,
pretended to be brother of Joseph, king of the tribes of
Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh in the desert of Chabor
(Kheibar). Benjamin takes care to qualify his statement as
to the origin of the Jews of Kheibar by adding [Hebrew:]
"_people say_ they belong to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the
half-tribe of Manasseh, whom Salmanesser, King of Assyria,
led hither into captivity."

I would here mention an interesting work of Dr. R. Dozy,
Professor of History and Oriental Languages at Leyden, _Die
Israeliten in Mecca_, 1864. By a series of ingenious
inferences from Bible texts (1 Sam. xxx, 1 Chron. iv. 24-43,
&c.) he essays to establish that the tribe of Simeon, after
David had dispersed the Amalekites who had already been
weakened by Saul, entered Arabia and settled all along in
the land of the Minaeans and at Mecca, where they
established the worship at the Kaaba and introduced
practices which have not been altogether abandoned up to the
present day. Dr. Dozy further contends that after Hezekiah's
reign numerous Jewish exiles came to Arabia.

Hommel, in two articles in Ersch and Gruber's
_Encyclopaedia_, under "Bedouins" and "Anzah," gives full
particulars respecting the Anizeh, otherwise Anaessi,
tribe--that they were in the habit of joining the Wahabees
and other Bedouin tribes in attacking caravans and levying
blackmail. The Turkish Pasha at Damascus had to pay annually
passage-money to ensure the safety of the pilgrims to Mecca.
On one occasion two of the Bedouin sheiks were decoyed by
the Turks and killed; but the Anaessi, aided by other tribes
to the number of 80,000, took ample revenge by pillaging the
Mecca caravan on its return. They seized a quantity of
pearls, and the women were said to have attempted boiling
them with the rice. Seetzen (_Journey through Syria, &c._,
I, ch. i, p. 356) says, "In Kheibar are no Jews now, only
Anaessi." Layard and other modern writers often refer to the
Anizeh Bedouins. Travellers go in dread of them in the
Syrian desert and all along the Euphrates. Doughty mentions
that they, more than any other tribe, resemble the Jews both
in appearance and disposition.

Ritter (_Geographie_, vol. XII), in quoting Niebuhr, makes
mention of the widespread Anizeh tribe of Bedouins who were
anciently known to be Jews. He further states that the Jews
of Damascus and Aleppo shun them as they are non-observant
Jews, considered by some to be Karaites. Does all this give
ground for any presumption that they are or were
crypto-Jews, the descendants of the former Kheibar Jews,
possibly also of those whom Omar allowed to settle at Kufa?

This lengthy note may be closed fitly with the following
mysterious remark in Doughty's usual quaint style (vol. I,
p. 127), in connexion with the murder of a Bagdad Jew who
tried to reach Kheibar: "But let none any more jeopardy his
life for Kheibar! I would that these leaves might save the
blood of some: and God give me this reward of my labour! for
who will, he may read in them all the tale of Kheibar."]

[Footnote 149: It will be seen further on (p. 67) that
Benjamin speaks of Aden as being in India, "which is on the
mainland." It is well known that Abyssinia and Arabia were
in the Middle Ages spoken of as "Middle India." It has been
ascertained that in ancient times the Arabs extensively
colonized the western sea-coast of the East Indies. Cf. the
article "Arabia," in the ninth edition of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_ and Supplement.]

[Footnote 150: The Casanatense MS. here interpolates:
"Thence it takes seven days to Lusis, where there are 2,000
Israelites." Asher substitutes for Lusis Wasit, a place near
the Tigris. I am unable to identify the river Virae, and the
words "which is in the land of Al Yemen" are evidently out
of place.]

[Footnote 151: See Dr. Hartwig Hirschfeld's account of a
Fragment of a Work by Judah Al-harizi, being a description
of a pilgrimage through Mesopotamia with a view to visit
Ezra's grave. The Arab geographer Yakut locates the grave in
the village Maisan on the river Samara near the place where
the Euphrates and Tigris unite (_J. Q.R._, vol. XV, 683).
Layard writes as follows:--"We stopped at the so-called tomb
of the prophet Ezra, about twenty-five miles from the
junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, at Korna. The
building, which is of a comparatively modern date, consisted
of two chambers, an outer one which was empty, and an inner
one containing the tomb built of bricks, covered with white
stucco and enclosed in a wooden case, over which was thrown
a large blue cloth fringed with yellow tassels with the name
of the donor embroidered on it in Hebrew characters. No
trace of either the large synagogue or of the mosque
mentioned by Benjamin now exists, and it may be doubted
whether the present building covers the tomb which was seen
by the Hebrew traveller. We could find no ancient remains
near it, as the Tigris is constantly changing its course,
and was still eating away the bank of alluvial soil, upon
the edge of which the building stood. It is highly probable
that the tomb seen by Benjamin of Tudela had long before
been carried away by the river." Layard's _Early Adventures
in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia_, vol. II, p. 214. See
also an elaborate note of Dr. Benisch, p. 91 of his edition
of Pethachia's Travels, and I.J. Benjamin II, _Eight Years
in Asia and Africa_, p. 167.]

[Footnote 152: As for the river Gozan see p. 33, n. 3, and
p. 58, n. 4. The mountains of Chafton, referred to also in
pp. 54, 55, would seem to include not only the Zagros range,
but also the highlands of Kurdistan.]

[Footnote 153: _Marco Polo_, book II, chap, xlv, says of
Tibet: "In this country there are many of the animals that
produce musk. The Tartars have great numbers of large and
fine dogs which are of great service in catching the
musk-beasts, and so they procure a great abundance of
musk."]

[Footnote 154: The reputed sepulchre of Daniel is situated
between Schuster and Dizful in Persia, close by the river
Shaour, an affluent of the Karun river, which is supposed to
be the Ulai of the Bible, Dan. viii. 2. It is within sight
of the vast mound which denotes the site of Susa, the
ancient Shushan. Here Mme. Dieulafoy in 1881 made extensive
excavations of the palace of the Persian kings, many relics
of which are now on view at the Louvre in Paris.

The tomb of Daniel has been fully described by Layard--see
_Early Adventures_, vol. II, p. 295. It is of comparatively
recent date, not unlike the shrines of Mussulman saints, and
is surmounted by a high conical dome of irregular brickwork,
somewhat resembling in shape a pine cone. The reader is
referred to the beautiful pictorial illustrations of
Daniel's reputed tomb, of the ruins of Susa, and of Schuster
and its bridges in Mme. Dieulafoy's _La Perse, la Chaldee et
la Susiane_, Paris, 1887.

There is nothing to connect the building on the banks of the
Shaour with the tomb of Daniel save the Mussulman tradition.
There are many legends connected with the reputed sepulchre,
one of which is to the effect that the men of Susa diverted
the river in order to bury Daniel's coffin in its bed. See
Guy Le Strange, p. 240.

E.N. Adler, in his recent work _Jews in many Lands_, Jewish
Historical Society of England, p. 224, in describing
Samarkand, writes as follows: "Tradition has it that
Tamerlane had seen the tomb at Susa in Persia, with a
warning inscribed thereon, that none should open its door;
and so he broke it open from behind, and found it written
that Nebi Daniel was there buried. The impetuous conqueror
had the sarcophagus removed with all reverence, and carried
it with him to his own capital to be its palladium. The
sarcophagus is over twenty yards long as beseems a prophet's
stature. It has been recently covered by a brick chapel with
three cupolas, but photographs of the ancient structure can
be had in Samarkand. It is grandly placed at the edge of a
cliff overhanging the rapid river Seop. The local Jews do
not believe the story, nor do they quite disbelieve it, for
I went with two who prayed there at the grave of the
righteous."]

[Footnote 155: The reader will recollect that reference to
this sect has already been made on page 16. See Guy Le
Strange, p. 220 and p. 354.]

[Footnote 156: Amadia (Imadiyah) is a city in Kurdistan in a
mountainous district, north of Mosul. Ben Virga and R.
Joseph Hacohen, the author of _Emek Habacha_, state that
1,000 Jewish families lived in the city at that time. It is
strange that in all the MSS., including Asher's text, this
city is called Amaria instead of Amadia. The mistake
doubtless arose from the fact that the copyists mistook the
[Hebrew letter 'resh'] for a [Hebrew letter 'daleth']. The
scribe of the British Museum MS. had made other errors of
this kind, writing [Hebrew:] for [Hebrew:], [Hebrew:] for
[Hebrew:], &c. See Guy Le Strange, p. 92.]

[Footnote 157: The author of _Emek Habacha_ gives the date
of the Alroy tragedy as 1163. It should, however, be
antedated by a few years. Benjamin must have passed through
Egypt on his return journey some time before Sept., 1171.
See note 2, p. 1. He here tells us that the Alroy
catastrophe took place just ten years before his visit to
Bagdad and the neighbourhood. It is clear therefore that
1160 is the latest date when this event could have taken
place.]

[Footnote 158: This Turkoman may have been the Prince of
Arbela who in 1167 joined Saladin in his successful invasion
of Egypt. He was remarkable for his great strength and
courage (see Bohadin's _Life of Saladin_, Palestine
Pilgrims' Text Society, p. 51).]

[Footnote 159: The accounts given by Ben Virga in _Sheret
Jehudah_, and by Joseph Hacohen in _Emek Habacha_, are
evidently based upon Benjamin's record, and throw no fresh
light on this Messianic movement. Asher, vol. II, note 300,
promises but fails to give the contents of an Arabic
document written by a contemporary, the renegade Samuel Ibn
Abbas, which the savant S. Munk had discovered in the Paris
library; a German translation of this document appears in
Dr. Wiener's _Emek Habacha_, 1858, p. 169. The name of the
pseudo-Messiah is given as Menahem, surnamed Al-Ruhi, but
Munk satisfactorily proves that he is identical with our
David Alroy. Being a young man of engaging appearance and
great accomplishments, he gained considerable influence with
the governor of Amadia, and had a considerable following
among the Jews of Persia. With the intention of occupying
the castle, he introduced a number of his armed adherents
into the town, who were careful, however, to conceal their
weapons. The governor detected the conspiracy, and put Alroy
to death. The excitement among the Jews lasted for a
considerable time. Two impostors, with letters purporting to
emanate from Alroy, came to Bagdad, and worked upon the
credulity of the community. Men and women parted with their
money and jewellery, having been brought to believe that on
a certain night they would be able to fly on angels' wings
from the roofs of their houses to Jerusalem. The only thing
which made the women feel unhappy was the fear that their
little ones might not be able to keep pace with them in the
aerial flight. At daybreak the fraud was discovered, but the
impostors had meanwhile decamped with their treasure. The
chronicler adds that the year in which this occurred was
called The Year of Flight.

De Sacy, in his _Chrestomathie Arabe_, I, p. 363, gives a
similar story, the authorship of which he ascribes to
Schahristani.]

[Footnote 160: Asher, vol. II, p. 167, n. 304, gives
expression to a keen desire for further particulars as to
this tomb. Dr. J.E. Polak, formerly Physician to the late
Shah of Persia, gives the desired information, on p. 26, in
an interesting work on Persia. He writes as follows: "The
only national monument which the Jews in Persia possess is
the tomb of Esther at Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, whither
they have made pilgrimages from time immemorial. In the
centre of the Jewish quarter there is to be seen a low
building with a cupola, on the top of which a stork has
built its nest. The entrance is walled up for the greater
part; there only remains below a small aperture which can be
closed by a movable flat stone serving the purpose of a door
and affording some protection from attacks, which are not
uncommon. In the entrance hall, which has but a low ceiling,
are recorded the names of pilgrims; also the year when the
building was restored. Thence one gains access into a small
four-cornered chamber in which there are two high sarcophagi
made of oak, which are the monuments of Esther and Mordecai.
On both of them are inscribed in Hebrew the words of the
last chapter of the Book of Esther, as well as the names of
three Physicians at whose expense the tomb was repaired."
Dr. Polak states that in the Middle Ages the Jewish
population of Persia was very large, especially in the
southern provinces. In recent years it has greatly
diminished in consequence of dire persecution. He was
assured that not more than 2,000 Jewish families remained in
the country. Eighty years ago the entire community at Meshed
were forcibly converted to Islam. Cf. E.N. Adler, _Jews in
Many Lands_, p. 214.]

[Footnote 161: Referring to Benjamin's statement that
Mordecai and Esther are buried at Hamadan, an interesting
article by Mr. Israel Abrahams upon the subject, with an
illustration of the traditional tomb, as well as a picture
of ancient Susa, will be found in the _Jewish Chronicle_ of
March 19, 1897. In the issue of March 4, 1898, Mr. Morris
Cohen, of Bagdad, furnished a full copy of the inscriptions
in the Mausoleum, but they possess no historical value. The
reputed Prayer of Esther seen there by former travellers is
no longer extant.

The statement of E. Jehiel Heilprin, in the _Seder
Hadoroth_, that Mordecai and Esther are buried at Shomron is
devoid of foundation, and may have arisen through reading
here [Hebrew:] for [Hebrew:]. For information derived from
the works of mediaeval Arab writers respecting Persia and
the adjacent countries the reader should consult Mr. Guy Le
Strange's book, _The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate_. The
maps will be found most useful.]

[Footnote 162: The British Museum version omits this
passage. An inspection of the map will show that Tabaristan
lies a long distance to the north of the trade route which
leads from Hamadan to Ispahan.]

[Footnote 163: The great extent of Ispahan is accounted for
by the fact that it consisted of two towns; the one called
Jay, measured half a league across; the other, Al Yahudiyah,
the "Jew Town" two miles to the westward, was double the
size of Jay. Mukadassi states that the city had been
originally founded by the Jews in the time of
Nebuchadnezzar, because its climate resembled that of
Jerusalem. Le Strange, p. 203.]

[Footnote 164: Lord Curzon, in his work on Persia, devotes
chap. xix in vol. II to a description of the City of
Ispahan, and of his journey there. Chap. xx contains an
account of his journey from Ispahan to Shiraz. The distance
between the two cities is 81 parasangs, equivalent to 312
miles. It will be seen that here, as well as in the cases of
Ghaznah, Samarkand, and Tibet, Benjamin altogether
under-estimates the true distances.]

[Footnote 165: Asher, following the printed editions, quotes
the Jewish population of this place as 8,000, and assumes,
without any justification, that Khiva is here referred to.
He also substitutes Oxus for Gozan. In the Middle Ages the
Oxus was known under the name of Jayhun or Gihon (Gen. ii.
13). The name of the city according to our text is Ghaznah,
which eight hundred years ago was the capital of
Afghanistan. Ibn Batuta says it was ten stages from Kandahar
on the way to Herat. Le Strange (p. 348) writes as follows:
"Ghaznah became famous in history at the beginning of the
eleventh century as the capital of the great Mahmud of
Ghaznah, who at one time was master both of India on the
east and Bagdad on the west." Istakhri says: "No city of
this countryside was richer in merchants and merchandise,
for it was as the port of India." The river Gozan, on which
we are told Ghaznah lies, must appear to the reader to be
ubiquitous. On p. 33 we find the Habor of Kurdistan is its
affluent; on p. 55 it is at Dabaristan; on p. 59 in
Khorasan. There is a simple solution of the difficulty. In
each of the localities Benjamin was told that the river was
called Gozan; for in the Mongolian language "Usun" is the
name for water or river. Thus "Kisil-Usun" means "Red
River." The addition of a "g" before a "u" or "w" is quite a
common feature in language; it occurs, for instance, in the
Romance and Keltic languages.]

[Footnote 166: The British Museum text has: "And he put them
in Halah and in Habor and the mountains of Gozan and the
mountains of the Medes." Having regard to the passages 2
Kings xix. 12 and Isaiah xxxvii. 12, Noeldeke maintains that
there was a tract of land watered by the river Gozan, known
as Gozanitis, which Scripture refers to. See _J. Q.R._,
vol. I, p. 186.

Naisabur is a city near Meshed, and close to high mountains
which are a continuation of the Elburz mountain range.

We draw attention to the cautious manner in which Benjamin
speaks here and elsewhere when alluding to the whereabouts
of any of the ten tribes. The tradition is widespread that
independent Jewish tribes were to be found in Khorasan until
recent times. Mr. E.N. Adler was told that in an Armenian
monastery near Kutais, ancient records are preserved which
conclusively prove that the Jews were paramount in certain
districts three or four centuries ago; _Jews in many Lands_,
p. 178. Cf. _Wo waeren die zehn Staemme Israels zu suchen?_
Dr. M. Lewin, Frankfort, 1901.]

[Footnote 167: It should be remembered that _Cush_ in
ancient Jewish literature does not always signify Ethiopia,
but also denotes parts of Arabia, especially those nearest
to Abyssinia. The name _Cush_ is also applied to countries
east of the Tigris, see p. 63.]

[Footnote 168: Rayy is the ancient city of Rages, spoken of
in the Book of Tobit i. 14. The ruins are in the
neighbourhood of Teheran.]

[Footnote 169: The incidents here related are fully gone
into by Dr. Neubauer in the third of his valuable articles
"Where are the ten tribes?" (_J. Q.R._, vol. I, p. 185).
There can be little doubt that the Kofar-al-Turak, a people
belonging to the Tartar stock, are identical with the
so-called subjects of Prester John, of whom so much was
heard in the Middle Ages. They defeated Sinjar in the year
1141; this was, however, more than fifteen years prior to
Benjamin's visit. To judge from the above passage, where the
allies of the Jews are described as "infidels, the sons of
Ghuz of the Kofar-al-Turak," Benjamin seems to confound the
Ghuzes with the Tartar hordes. Now the Ghuzes belonged to
the Seldjuk clans who had become Mohammedans more than 100
years before, and, as such, Benjamin would never have styled
them infidels. These Ghuzes waged war with Sinjar in 1153,
when he was signally defeated, and eventually made prisoner.
It is to this battle that Benjamin must have made reference,
when he writes that it took place fifteen years ago. See Dr.
A. Mueller's _Islam,_ also Dr. G. Oppert's _Presbyter
Johannes in Sage und Geschichte, 1864._]

[Footnote 170: It will be noted that Benjamin uses here the
terms [Hebrew: ] evidently implying that he himself did not go
to sea.

In the Middle Ages the island of Kish or Kis was an
important station on the trade route from India to Europe.
Le Strange writes, p. 257, that in the course of the twelfth
century it became the trade centre of the Persian Gulf. A
great walled city was built in the island, where water-tanks
had been constructed, and on the neighbouring sea-banks was
the famous pearl-fishery. Ships from India and Arabia
crowded the port. Kish was afterwards supplanted by Ormuz
and Bandar-Abbas; England held possession of the island from
1820 to 1879, and it has recently been visited officially by
Lord Curzon. For a description of the island see _The
Times,_ Jan. 18, 1904.]

[Footnote 171: Katifa or El-Katif lies on the Persian Gulf,
on the East coast of Arabia, near Bahrein. Bochart is of
opinion that this part of Arabia is the land of Havilah,
where, according to Gen. ii. 11 and 12, there is gold,
bdellium, and the onyx stone. Jewish authorities are divided
in opinion as to whether [Hebrew] is a jewel, or the
fragrant gum exuded by a species of balsam-tree. Benjamin
follows Saadia Gaon, who in his Arabic translation of the
Bible renders it [Hebrew], the very word used by our author
here for pearls. Masudi is one of the earliest Arabic
writers who gives us a description of the pearl-fisheries in
the Persian Gulf, and it very much accords with Benjamin's
account. See Sprenger's translation of Masudi's _Meadows of
Gold_, p. 344. At the present time more than 5,000 boats are
engaged in this industry along this coast, and it yields an
annual income of L1,000,000. See P.M. Sykes, _Ten Thousand
Miles in Persia_, 1902.]

[Footnote 172: Khulam, now called Quilon, was a much
frequented seaport in the early Middle Ages where Chinese
shippers met the Arab traders. It afterwards declined in
importance, being supplanted by Calicut, Goa, and eventually
by Bombay. It was situated at the southern end of the coast
of Malabar. Renaudot in a translation of _The Travels of Two
Mohammedan Traders_, who wrote as far back as 851 and 915
respectively, has given us some account of this place; Ibn
Batuta and Marco Polo give us interesting details. Ritter,
in the fifth volume of his Geography, dilates on the
cultivation of the pepper-plant, which is of indigenous
growth. In Benjamin's time it was thought that white pepper
was a distinct species, but Ritter explains that it was
prepared from the black pepper, which, after lying from
eight to ten days in running water, would submit of
being stripped of its black outer covering. Ritter devotes a
chapter to the fire-worship of the Guebers, who, as Parsees,
form an important element at the present day in the
population of the Bombay Presidency. Another chapter is
devoted to the Jewish settlement to which Benjamin refers.
See _Die juedischen Colonien in Indien_, Dr. Gustav Oppert;
also _Semitic Studies_, (Berlin,1897), pp. 396-419.

Under the heading of "Cochin", the Jewish Encyclopaedia
gives an account of the White and Black Jews of Malabar. By
way of supplementing the Article, it may be well to refer to
a MS., No. 4238 of the Merzbacher Library formerly at
Munich. It is a document drawn up in reply to eleven
questions addressed by Tobias Boas on the 12 Ellul 5527 (=
1767) to R. Jeches Kel Rachbi of Malabar. From this MS. it
appears that 10,000 exiled Jews reached Malabar A.C. 68 (i.
e. about the time of the destruction of the Second Temple)
and settled at Cranganor, Dschalor, Madri and Plota. An
extract of this MS. is given in Winter and Wuensche's
_Juedische Literatur_, vol III, p. 459. Cf. article on the
Beni-Israel of India by Samuel B. Samuel, _The Jewish
Literary Annual_, 1905.]

[Footnote 173: The British Museum text has Ibrig, and the
Casanatense has Ibriag: neither can be identified. The
printed editions have [Hebrew:] the islands of Candig, which
Asher thinks may be taken to refer to Ceylon, having regard
to the name of the capital, Kandy. It was not the capital in
Benjamin's time. The difficulty still remains that it does
not take twenty-three days, but about four days, to reach
Ceylon from Quilon. Renaudot states that in the tenth
century a multitude of Jews resided in the island, and that
they took part in the municipal government as well as other
sects, as the King granted the utmost religious liberty. See
Pinkerton's _Travels_, vol. VII, p. 217. A full description
is also given of the ceremonial when any notability proceeds
to immolate himself by committing himself to the flames.]

[Footnote 174: Benjamin's statements as to India and China
are of course very vague, but we must remember he was the
first European who as much as mentions China. Having regard
to the full descriptions of other countries of the old World
by Arabic writers of the Middle Ages, and to the fact that
the trade route then was principally by sea on the route
indicated by Benjamin, it is surprising that we have
comparatively little information about India and China from
Arabic sources. In none of their records is the Sea of Nikpa
named, and it is not improbable that Benjamin coined this
name himself from the root [Hebrew:] which occurs in the
Bible four times; in the Song of Moses (Exod. xv. 8):
[Hebrew:] "The depths were curdled in the heart of the sea"
(not "_congealed_" as the Version has it), Job x. 10:
[Hebrew:] "curdled me like cheese"; and in Zeph. i. 12 and
Zech. xiv. 6. The term "the curdling sea" would be very
expressive of the tempestuous nature of the China Sea and of
some of its straits at certain seasons of the year.]

[Footnote 175: Marco Polo has much to say about the bird
"gryphon" when speaking of the sea-currents which drive
ships from Malabar to Madagascar. He says, vol. II, book
III, chap. 33: "It is for all the world like an eagle, but
one indeed of enormous size. It is so strong that it will
seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the
air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so
killed him, the gryphon swoops down on him and eats him at
leisure. The people of those isles call the bird 'Rukh.'"
Yule has an interesting note (vol. II, p. 348) showing how
old and widespread the fable of the Rukh was, and is of
opinion that the reason that the legend was localized in the
direction of Madagascar was perhaps that some remains of the
great fossil Aepyornis and its colossal eggs were found in
that island. Professor Sayce states that the Rukh figures
much--not only in Chinese folk-lore--but also in the old,
Babylonian literature. The bird is of course familiar to
readers of _The Arabian Nights_.]

[Footnote 176: Neither Al-Gingaleh nor Chulan can be
satisfactorily identified. Benjamin has already made it
clear that to get from India to China takes sixty-three
days, that is to say twenty-three days from Khulam to Ibrig,
and thence forty days to the sea of Nikpa. The return
journey, not merely to India but to Zebid, which Abulfeda
and Alberuni call the principal port of Yemen, seems to take
but thirty-four days. With regard to Aden, the port long in
England's possession, and the so-called first outpost of the
Indian Empire, it has already been explained (p. 50) that
this part of Arabia as well as Abyssinia on the other side
of the Red Sea were considered part of Middle India. Ibn
Batuta says about Aden: "It is situated on the sea-shore and
is a large city, but without either seed, water, or tree.
They have reservoirs in which they collect the rain for
drinking. Some rich merchants reside here, and vessels from
India occasionally arrive." A Jewish community has been
there from time immemorial. The men until recent times used
to go about all day in their Tephillin. Jacob Saphir devotes
vol. II, chaps, i-x of his _Eben Saphir_, to a full account
of the Jews of Aden.]

[Footnote 177: We must take Benjamin's statements here to
mean that the independent Jews who lived in the mountainous
country in the rear of Aden crossed the Straits of
Bab-el-Mandeb and made war against the inhabitants of the
Plains of Abyssinia. J. Lelewel, in a series of letters
addressed to E. Carmoly, entitled _Examen geographique des
Voyages de Benjamin de Tudele_ (Bruxelles, 1852), takes
great pains to locate the land of Hommatum [Hebrew:] in lieu
of which our text reads [Hebrew:] the land of the Plains;
but he quite fails in this and in many other attempts at
identification. The Jews coming from Aden had to encounter
the forces of the Christian sovereign of Abyssinia, and
sought safety in the mountainous regions of that country.
Here they were heard of later under the name of Falasha
Jews. Cf. Marco Polo, vol. III, chap. xxxv. The reader is
referred to Colonel Yule's valuable notes to this chapter.
He quotes Bruce's _Abstract of Abyssinian Chronicles_ with
regard to a Jewish dynasty which superseded the royal line
in the tenth century. See also Dr. Charles Singer's
interesting communication in _J. Q.R._, XVII, p. 142, and
J. Halevy's _Travels in Abyssinia_ (Miscellany of Hebrew
Literature: 2nd Series, p. 175).]

[Footnote 178: Assuan, according to Makrizi, was a most
flourishing town prior to 1403, when more than 20,000 of its
inhabitants perished. Seba cannot be identified. No doubt
our author alludes to Seba, a name repeatedly coupled in
Scripture with Egypt, Cush and Havilah.]

[Footnote 179: Heluan is the present Helwan, fourteen miles
from Cairo, which was greatly appreciated by the early
Caliphs for its thermal sulphur springs. Stanley Lane Poole,
in _The Story of Cairo_, p. 61, tells us of its edifices,
and adds: "It is curious to consider how nearly this modern
health-resort became the capital of Egypt." Heluan is
situated on the right bank of the Nile. One would have
thought that the caravans proceeding to the interior of
Africa through the Sahara Desert would have started from the
left bank of the Nile; but we must remember that ancient
Memphis, which stood on the left bank and faced Heluan, had
been abandoned long before Benjamin's time. Edrisi and
Abulfeda confirm Benjamin's statement respecting Zawila or
Zaouyla, which was the capital of Gana--the modern Fezzan--a
large oasis in the Sahara Desert, south of Tripoli.]

[Footnote 180: This sentence is out of place, and should
follow the sentence in the preceding paragraph which speaks
of the Sultan Al-Habash.]

[Footnote 181: Kutz, the present Kus, is halfway between
Keneh and Luxor. The old town, now entirely vanished, was
second in size to Fostat, and was the chief centre of the
Arabian trade. The distance of Kus from Fayum is about 300
miles. The letter [Hebrew: 'Sin'] denotes 300, not
3.]

[Footnote 182: In the Middle Ages the Fayum was wrongly
called Pithom. E. Naville has identified the ruins of
Tell-el-Maskhuta near Ismailieh with Pithom, the treasure
city mentioned in Exodus i. 11. Among the buildings,
grain-stores have been discovered in the form of deep
rectangular chambers without doors, into which the corn was
poured from above. These are supposed to date from the time
of Rameses II. See _The Store City of Pithom and the Route
of the Exodus_: A Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. E.
Naville, 1885. The Fayum, or Marsh-district, owes its
extraordinary fertility to the Bahr Yussuf (Joseph's Canal).

The Arab story is that when Joseph was getting old the
courtiers tried to bring about his disgrace by inducing
Pharaoh to set him what appeared to be an impossible task,
viz. to double the revenues of the province within a few
years. Joseph accomplished the task by artificially adapting
a natural branch of the Nile so as to give the district the
benefit of the yearly overflow. The canal thus formed, which
is 207 miles in length, was called after Joseph. The
storehouses of Joseph are repeatedly mentioned by Arabic
writers. Cf. Koran xii. 55, _Jacut_, IV, 933 and _Makrizi_,
I, 241.]

[Footnote 183:'Mr. Israel Abrahams, in _J. Q.R._, XVII, 427
sqq., and Mr. E.J. Worman, vol. XVIII, 1, give us very
interesting information respecting Fostat and Cairo, as
derived from Geniza documents, but to comprehend fully
Benjamin's account, we must remember that at the time of his
visit the metropolis was passing through a crisis. Since
March, 1169, Saladin had virtually become the ruler of
Egypt, although nominally he acted as Vizier to the Caliph
El-Adid, who was the last of the Fatimite line, and who died
Sept. 13, 1171, three days after his deposition. The student
is referred to the biography of Saladin by Mr. Stanley Lane
Poole, 1878. Chap, viii gives a full account of Cairo as at
1170 and is accompanied by a map. The well-known citadel of
Cairo, standing on the spurs of the Mukattam Hills, was
erected by Saladin seven years later. The Cairo of 1170,
which was styled El Medina, and was called by Benjamin
[Hebrew:], was founded in 969, and consisted of an immense
palace for the Caliph and his large household. It was
surrounded by quarters for a large army, and edifices for
the ministers and government offices. The whole was
protected by massive walls and imposing Norman-like gates.
The civil population--more particularly the Jews--dwelt in
the old Kasr-esh-Shama quarter round the so-called Castle of
Babylon, also in the city of Fostat, founded in 641, and in
the El-Askar quarter, which was built in 751. These suburbs
went under the name of Misr or Masr, but are called by
Benjamin "Mizraim." Fostat was set on fire on Nov. 12, 1168,
by the order of the Vizier Shawar, in order that it might
not give shelter to the Franks who had invaded Egypt, but
was soon rebuilt in part. It now goes under the name
Masr-el-Atika, and is noted at the present day for its
immense rubbish heaps. See Stanley Lane Poole's _Cairo_, p.
34.]

[Footnote 184: Cf. two elaborate papers by Dr. A. Buechler,
"The Reading of the Law and Prophets in a Triennial Cycle,"
_J. Q.R._, V, 420, VI, I, and E.N. Adler, ib. VIII, 529.
For details as to synagogues, see _J. Q.R._, XVIII, 11;
Letter I of R. Obadja da Bertinoro; _Miscellany of Hebrew
Literature_, p. 133; Joseph Sambari's Chronicle in Dr.
Neubauer's _Anecdota Oxoniensia_, p. 118. Sambari must have
had Benjamin's _Itinerary_ before him, as has been pointed
out by Mr. I. Abrahams, _J. Q.R._, II, 107.]

[Footnote 185: Zunz was the first to put forward the
supposition that R. Nethanel is identical with Hibet Allah
ibn al Jami, who later on became Saladin's physician (Asher,
vol. II, p. 253). Graetz, vol. VI, p. 307, inclines to the
same view. Dr. Steinschneider, _Die arabische Literatur der
Juden_, 1902, p. 178, confirms this opinion, and gives a
detailed account of Hibet Allah's medical and philosophical
works. Dr. Neubauer, in an article, _J.Q.R._, VIII, 541,
draws attention to a Geniza fragment which contains a
marriage contract dated 1160, wherein R. Nethanel is called
a Levite. Benjamin does not style him so here. The same
article contains the so-called Suttah Megillah, on which
Professor Kaufmann comments, _J.Q.R._, X, p. 171. It would
appear that R. Nethanel never attained the dignity of Nagid.
During Benjamin's visit to Egypt Sutta, in his capacity of
Chief Collector of Taxes, filled nominally that office.
Later on, after Sutta's fall, the dignity of Nagid was
offered to Moses Maimonides, but was not accepted by him.]

[Footnote 186: This term (which is not given in the printed
editions) means that the people were followers of Ali, the
son-in-law of Mohammed, founder of the Shiite sect.]

[Footnote 187: This same Nilometer is readily shown to the
visitor at the south end of the Island of Roda, which is
accessible by means of a ferry-boat from the Kasr-esh Shama,
not far from the Kenisat Eliyahu, where the Geniza
manuscripts were found. See E.N. Adler's _Jews in Many
Lands_, p. 28, also _J.Q.R._, IX, 669. The Nilometer is in a
square well 16 feet in diameter, having in the centre a
graduated octagonal column with Cufic inscriptions, and is
17 cubits in height, the cubit being 21-1/3 inches. The
water of the Nile, when at its lowest, covers 7 cubits of
the Nilometer, and when it reaches a height of 15-2/3 cubits
the Sheikh of the Nile proclaims the Wefa, i.e., that the
height of the water necessary for irrigating every part of
the Nile valley has been attained. The signal is then given
for the cutting of the embankment. We know that the column
of the Nilometer has been frequently repaired, which fact
explains the apparent discrepancy between the height of the
gauge as given in Benjamin's narrative and the figures just
mentioned.]

[Footnote 188: It has only been established quite recently
that the periodical inundations of the Nile are not caused
by the increased outflow from the lakes in Central Africa,
inasmuch as this outflow is quite lost in the marshy land
south of Fashoda. Moreover, the river is absolutely blocked
by the accumulation of the Papyrus weed, known as Sudd, the
[Hebrew: eis] of Scripture, Exod. ii. 3-5. The inundations
are brought about purely by the excessive rains in the
highlands of Abyssinia, which cause the flooding of the Blue
Nile and the Atbara in June and July and of the lower Nile
in August and September.]

[Footnote 189: In a Geniza fragment C quoted by Dr. Neubauer
in _J.Q.R._, IX, p. 36, this city is called [Hebrew:].
Probably the first two letters denote that it is an island.
Compare the passage in Schechter's _Saadyana_, pp. 90, 91,
[Hebrew:].]

[Footnote 190: Ashmun is described by Abulfeda as a large
city. We read in a Geniza fragment that David ben Daniel, a
descendant of the Exilarch, passed through this place on the
way to Fostat, _J.Q.R._, XV, 87. The fourth channel is the
Tanitic branch. See p. 78, n. 2.]

[Footnote 191: See Koran xii. 55. Sambari, who being a
native of Egypt knew Cairo well, explains very fully, p.
119, that Masr-el-Atika is not here referred to, but ancient
Memphis, the seat of royalty in Joseph's time. He explains
that it was situated on the left side of the Nile, two
parasangs distant from Cairo. See Reinaud's _Abulfeda_, vol.
II, p. 140.]

[Footnote 192: See _Makrizi_, vol. II, 464, and _J.Q.R._,
XV, p. 75; also XIX, 502.]

[Footnote 193: E. Naville in his _Essay on the Land of
Goshen_, being the fifth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration
Fund, 1887, comes to the conclusion that the land of Goshen
comprised the triangle formed by Bilbais, Zakazig, and
Tel-el-Kebir. He is of opinion that the land of Ramses
included the land of Goshen, and is that part of the Delta
which lies to the eastward of the Tanitic branch of the
Nile. The capital of the province--the Egyptian nome of
Arabia--was the Phakusa of the Greeks. A small railway
station is now on the spot, which bears the name Ramses. Cf.
Gen. xlvii. 11.]

[Footnote 194: Ain-al-Shams was situated three parasangs
from Fostat, according to Jacut (III, 762), who records that
in his day the place showed many traces of buildings from
Pharaoh's time. Benha is now a somewhat important railway
station about thirty miles north of Cairo. Muneh Sifte is a
station on the Damietta arm of the Nile.]

[Footnote 195: Samnu is perhaps Samnat, Dukmak, V, 20. On
Damira see Schechter, _Saadyana_, p. 82; Worman, _J.Q.R._,
XVIII, 10. The zoologist Damiri was born here. Lammanah in
the other versions is Mahallat or Mehallet-el-Kebir,
mentioned by Abulfeda as a large city with many monuments,
and is now a railway station between Tanta and Mansura.
Sambari (119, 10) mentions a synagogue there, to which Jews
even now make pilgrimages (Goldziher, _Z.D.P.G._, vol.
XXVIII, p. 153).]

[Footnote 196: In the Middle Ages certain biblical names
were without valid reason applied to noted places. No-Ammon
mentioned in Scripture (Jer. xlvi. 25 and Nahum iii. 8),
also in cuneiform inscriptions, was doubtless ancient
Thebes. See Robinson, _Biblical Researches_, vol. I, p. 542.
Another notable example is the application of the name of
Zoan to Cairo. Ancient Tanis (p. 78) was probably Zoan, and
we are told (Num. xiii. 22) that Zoan was built seven years
after Hebron. It can be traced as far back as the sixth
dynasty--over 2,000 years before Cairo was founded.]

[Footnote 197: Josephus, who had the opportunity of seeing
the Pharos before it was destroyed, must likewise have
exaggerated when he said that the lighthouse threw its rays
a distance of 300 stadia. Strabo describes the Pharos of
Alexandria, which was considered one of the wonders of the
world. As the coast was low and there were no landmarks, it
proved of great service to the city. It was built of white
marble, and on the top there blazed a huge beacon of logs
saturated with pitch. Abulfeda alludes to the large mirror
which enabled the lighthouse keepers to detect from a great
distance the approach of the enemy. He further mentions that
the trick by which the mirror was destroyed took place in
the first century of Islamism, under the Caliph Valyd, the
son of Abd-almalek.]

[Footnote 198: It will be seen that the list of names given
in our text is much more complete than that given by Asher,
who enumerates but twenty-eight Christian states in lieu of
forty given in the British Museum MS. In some cases the
readings of _R_ and _O_, which appear to have been written
by careful scribes, and are of an older date than _E_ and
the printed editions, have been adopted. In our text,
through the ignorance of the scribe, who had no gazetteer or
map to turn to, some palpable errors have crept in. For
instance, in naming Amalfi, already mentioned on p. 9, the
error in spelling it [Hebrew:] has been repeated. Patzinakia
(referred to on p. 12, as trading with Constantinople) is
there spelt [Hebrew:] not [Hebrew:]. [Hebrew:] may be read
[Hebrew:]; I have rendered it Hainault in accordance with
Deguigne's _Memoir_, referred to by Asher. Maurienne
(mentioned p. 79) embraced Savoy and the Maritime Alps. It
was named after the Moors who settled there.]

[Footnote 199: Simasin or Timasin is doubtless near Lake
Timsah. Sunbat is spoken of by Arabic writers as noted for
its linen manufactures and trade.]

[Footnote 200: Elim has been identified with Wadi Gharandel.
It is reached in two hours from the bitter spring in the
Wadi Hawara, believed to be the _Marah_ of the Bible.
Burckhardt conjectures that the juice of the berry of the
gharkad, a shrub growing in the neighbourhood, may have the
property, like the juice of the pomegranate, of improving
brackish water; see p. 475, Baedecker's _Egypt_, 1879
edition. Professor Lepsius was responsible for the chapter
on the Sinai routes.]

[Footnote 201: A journey of two days would bring the
traveller to the luxuriant oasis of Firan, which ancient
tradition and modern explorers agree in identifying as
Rephidim. From Firan it is held, by Professor Sayce and
others, that the main body of the Israelites with their
flocks and herds probably passed the Wadi esh-Shekh, while
Moses and the elders went by Wadi Selaf and Nakb el-Hawa.
The final camping-ground, at which took place the giving of
the Law, is supposed to be the Raha plain at the foot of the
peak of Jebel Musa. It may be mentioned that some explorers
are of opinion that Mount Serbal was the mountain of
revelation. There are authorities who maintain that Horeb
was the name of the whole mountain range, Sinai being the
individual mountain; others think that Horeb designated the
northern range and Sinai the southern range. See Dr.
Robinson's _Biblical Researches_, vol. I, section iii: also
articles _Sinai_ in Cheyne's _Encyclopaedia Biblica_ and
Dean Stanley's _Sinai and Palestine_.]

[Footnote 202: The monastery of St. Catherine was erected
2,000 feet below the summit of Jebel Musa. It was founded by
Justinian to give shelter to the numerous Syrian hermits who
inhabited the peninsula. The monastery was presided over by
an Archbishop.]