Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela was a Spanish Rabbi whose diary ('Massdoth') of his extensive travels
between 1160 and 1173 CE from Spain across the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy to eastern Mediterranean lands is
a fundamental source of information regarding the distribution of
Jewish communities in the Mediterranean area, as well as for the political situation
in the Holy Land
(
Guidoboni and Comastri, 2005:861).