FARISSOL, ABRAHAM.

The Igereth Orchoth Olam is a pioneering work on geography. First published in Ferrara in 1524, it is the first Hebrew book to contain a description of America (chap. 29). Besides its rudimentary description of the “Erets Chadasha”(New World), the book also contains a valuable reference to the enigmatic personality David Reubeni (chap. 14). Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol (c. 1451-c. 1525) was born in Avignon, but spent most of his life in Ferrara and Mantua. For a thorough account of his life and achievements, see David B. Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew: The Life and Thought of Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol (1981). See also André Neher, Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century (1986), pp. 122-135; and EJ, Vol. VI, cols.1184-1185. According to the preface to the second work, Albert Bobowski was a Polish interloper in the Ottoman Empire who, in recognition of his linguistic ability, was given the title “Turjeman Bashi” (chief interpreter) by Sultan Mohammed IV. Bobowski recorded Muslim practices, including the hajj to Mecca and the Muslim rite of circumcision.