“The Scepter Shall Not Depart from Judah”: Jews and Imperial Power in Benjamin of Tudela’s Book of Travels

Abstract

This paper, written as a final project for Professor Shay Rabineau's class “Walking the Land,” examines the relationship of medieval Jews to the imperial powers to which they were subject, as expressed in Benjamin of Tudela's Book of Travels. It focuses on the two imperial cores of Rome and Baghdad, and contextualizes the representation of these two cities within the world of imperial power in which the text was produced. As a work of medieval travel literature, I analyze the Book of Travels not as a factual account of history, but rather as a discursive and imaginative text which seeks to categorize and make comprehensible the world inhabited by medieval Jewry. I argue that the representations of imperial power and Jewish status in Rome and Baghdad on their face reflect a desire on the part of medieval Jews for respect, honor, and dignity from the non-Jewish rulers to whom they were subject. However—as can be gleaned from Benjamin of Tudela’s reproachful account of messianic claimant David Alroy—the glowing accounts of these twin imperial cores is also a way of encouraging Jews not to disrupt the delicate balance of power in their world. Ultimately, the Book of Travels portrays a complex matrix of Jewish attitudes towards imperial power, including aspiration, fear, and strategically-suppressed antagonism.