Eight Years in Asia and Africa from 1846 to 1855

BENJAMIN, Israel Joseph

Hanover

1859-1860

FIRST English edition. At conclusion, folding map of author’s travels through Asia and Africa.

Freimann, p. 166

In emulation of the medieval Spanish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, the self-styled Benjamin II, Rumanian interloper Israel Joseph Benjamin recorded his travels through Egypt, Eretz Israel, Syria, Armenia, Iraq, Kurdistan, Persia, India, and China. He returned via Afghanistan reaching Vienna in the year 1851, only to set out again on a second voyage from Italy to North Africa. His reports earned the praise of the German scholar A. von Humboldt. The first appearance of this work was the French edition of 1856, Cinq années de voyage en orient 1846-1851. Benjamin II also embarked on a three-year journey through the United States. His travelogue appeared in 1862 under the title Drei Jahre in Amerika. Benjamin died in London in abject poverty while making preparations for a second journey to the Orient. See EJ, Vol. IV, cols. 526-7