B2A

1. Benjamin of Tudela is not a historical person, but I didn't pull his name out of a hat. In OTL, a Jewish traveler of the same name traveled through the East between 1160 and 1173, and wrote a diary of his travels through the Holy Land, Persia, Greece, Arabia and other countries. Some scholars believe that he may even have approached China, although it is more likely that the descriptions of China in his diaries are drawn from secondhand accounts.

Benjamin's namesake in the Submission universe obviously isn't the same person -- the historical Benjamin lived 150 years later, was a rabbi rather than a merchant, traveled to different places, and never adopted Karaism. A Tudela-born Jew in SE 190, however, is practically destined to wander, and IMO the name is a fitting one for a great Jewish traveler.

Return to The Journey South.