(TRAVEL).

The Portuguese Marrano explorer Pedro Teixeira (1570-1650), a native of Lisbon, circumnavigated the globe. His first journey took him to China and the Philippines, from there to the Americas, and finally back to Lisbon in 1601. His second journey (1603-1609) took him to India, Persia and the Near East.  The first part of this work is a history of Persia and its monarchy based on, and largely translated from, the Persian chronicle of the noted fifteenth century historian Mir Khavand. The second part is an account of the rulers of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, and the third part contains a fascinating account of Teixeira’s travels in the Far and Near East. In his travelogue, Teixeira also comments upon conditions in the Jewish communities along the way, such as Baghdad and Aleppo (pp. 174-76). In Efegél (Al Kifl, Iraq) he visits the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel (p. 102); reports that in Baghdad he came across a dozen Jewish families who affirmed that they were descended from the first Babylonian captivity (p. 121); records a visit to the tomb of Joshua the High Priest in Baghdad, to which are attributed miracles (p. 124). Teixeira notes that the Jews who were traveling together with him in the same caravan stopped Friday afternoon: “The Jews remained there because the following day was Saturday when they could not travel” (p. 94). The travelogue also contains information concerning the New World, especially Mexico and Cuba (see pp. 57-61). Furthermore, the work is the earliest European text to make mention of Qatar (in relation to pearl fisheries of the region).