J. J. Benjamin

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J. J. Benjamin

J. J. Benjamin (b. Falticeni

Falticeni

Falticeni is a city in Suceava County, Romania, capital of the former Baia County . As of 2003 the population is 28,899, and the city covers an area of 28,76 km?, of which 25% are orchards and lakes....
, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
, 1818 – d. London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, May 3, 1864) was a Romanian-Jewish

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
historian.
ravelled extensively in the Middle East, making copious notes of his observations of the societies he visited. His logs provide first hand record of mid-19th century life in the middle east which were studied by eminent scholars like Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

was a German people natural scientist and List of explorers, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguistics, Wilhelm von Humboldt ....
, August Heinrich Petermann, and Richter.

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Encyclopedia

J. J. Benjamin (b. Falticeni

Falticeni

Romania

London

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
historian.

Life and travels

He travelled extensively in the Middle East, making copious notes of his observations of the societies he visited. His logs provide first hand record of mid-19th century life in the middle east which were studied by eminent scholars like Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

Benjamin of Tudela

Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Kingdom of Navarre, sometimes called "Rabbi", was a medieval explorer from Spain who traveled through Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century....
, the famous twelfth century Jewish traveler, he set out in 1844 on a search for the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
. This search took him from Vienna to Constantinople in 1845, with stops at several cities on the Mediterranean. He arrived in Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
in June, 1847, and proceeded via Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , which means "the triumphant", is the Cairo and largest city of Egypt.It is the most populous metropolitan area in Egypt and is also one of the most populous in the world....
to the Levant

Levant

The Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by the Arabian Desert, and on the west by the M...
. He then traveled through Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, Babylonia

Babylonia

Babylonia was a state in Lower Mesopotamia , Babylon as its franklin. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad....
, Kurdistan

Kurdistan

Kurdistan is an extensive plateau and mountainous area in the Middle East, inhabited mainly by Kurdish people. It covers parts of eastern Turkish Kurdistan, northern Iraqi Kurdistan, northwestern Iranian Kurdistan and smaller parts of northern Syria and Armenia....
, Persia, the Indies

Indies

The Indies or East Indies is a term used, in a wider sense, to describe the lands of South Asia and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and Indonesia....
, Kabul

Kabul

Kabul is the Capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of approximately three million. It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 foot above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River....
, and Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, returning June, 1851, to Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
, and then back to Vienna where he stayed briefly before heading to Italy. There he embarked for Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
and Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
.

He then travelled to France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
in 1853 where he published his travel notes and logs under the title "Cinq Années en Orient" (1846-51) (5 years in the Orient) , then "Acht Jahre in Asien und Afrika" (Hanover, 1858) (Eight years in Asia and Africa).

In 1859 Benjamin undertook another journey, this time to America, where he stayed three years. The result of his observations there he published on his return, under the title "Drei Jahre in Amerika" (Hanover, 1863) (Three years in America).

Upon his return to London in 1862, he drew another plan to return to Asia and Africa but fell ill and died early in 1863 before being able to undertake his next journey.

Bibliography in English

Five years in the Orient (1846-51)
Eight years in Asia and Africa (Hanover, 1858)
Description of the Polish-Cossack war and of the suffering the Jews in Poland during the years 1648-53
Report of a contemporary of L Lelewel examining his French translations, edited by J. J. Benjamin II (Hanover, 1863)
A German edition of Rabbi Nathan Nata Hanover's work on the insurrection of the Cossacks in the seventeenth century.