Benisch, A. (Ed.) Travels of Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon

(TRAVEL)

The Jewish Chronicle Office

London

1856

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Hebrew and English translation face-`a-face

Vinograd, London 573

In the latter end of the twelfth century, Rabbi Pethachia of Regensburg travelled through Poland, Russia, Tartary, Crimea, Khazaria, Armenia, Babylonia, Kurdistan, Syria, the Holy Land and Greece. Pethachia waxes most grandiloquent when describing the splendor of Baghdadi Jewry, led by Samuel ben Ali Halevi (an ideologic combatant of Maimonides). Pethachia was the son of Jacob ha-Lavan and brother of Isaac ha-Lavan of Prague, both members of the renowned Tosafist school of Talmudic scholars. It is thought that the actual transcription of Pethachia’s travelogue was done by Judah the Chasid of Regensburg (see pp. 12-13). The translator, A. Benisch, was editor, first of The Hebrew Observer (1853-4), and later of The Jewish Chronicle (1875-8). See C. Roth, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, pp. 183-5