Rabbi Benjamin ben Jonah (called Benjamin of Tudela
too), was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia and Africa.
He visited Constantinople in 1161 (during the reign of
Manuel I Komnenos), and he wrote this impressions (Wallbank, W. et al 1984, P.
173):
“It is a busy city, and merchants come to it
from every country by sea or land, and there is none like it in the world
except Bagdad, the great city of Islam.
The Greek inhabitants are very rich in gold and precious stones, and
they go clothed in garments of silk with gold embroidery, and they ride horses,
and look like princes. Indeed, the land is very rich in all cloth stuffs, and
in bread, meat, and wine.
Wealth like that of Constantinople is not to be found in the whole
world. Here also are men learned in all the books of the Greeks, and they eat
and drink every man under this vine and his fig-tree.”
His findings are interesting, no doubt it was the New
York of the Middle Ages.
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