Abrahamic coexistence in the twelfth-century Middle East? Jews among Christians and Muslims in a travel account by a Navarrese Jew, Benjamin of Tudela

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to look into the life of Jewish communities in the Christian and Muslim Middle East in the twelfth century and to contribute more widely to interreligious understanding of the common Past. To this end, the legislation relative to Jews as a minority will be contrasted with an account of a Sephardic traveller, Benjamin of Tudela, who described his experience of the encounter with the Jewish diaspora and left a unique source for the study of mutual perceptions between Christian and Muslim societies on one hand and Jewish communities living under their rule on the other.

Keywords:

• Benjamin of Tudela
• Jews
• Middle Ages
• Middle East
• legal status
• travel literature