“You will be traveling through the Languedoc, where Dualism flourishes. Our flesh and bone, they say, come from Satan, and our angelic spirit from Jesus.”
It is a warning to a Jewish rabbi entering the land of the Cathars, the heretic Catholic sect challenging the authority of the Pope. Thus begins the journey of Benjamin of Tudela in 1159, a century before Marco Polo would embark on his famous travels to the Orient, at the time the first bridge is built across the Thames in London and Henry II conspires in the murder of Thomas Beckett in the cathedral at Canterbury.
Benjamin is a rabbi and a gem merchant from northeastern Spain who sets out on a 13-year journey through France, Italy, and Persia, all the way to the western borders of China in pursuit of stones with medicinal properties and a beautiful woman, a Sicilian gemologist who has captured his heart. Benjamin’s sidekick, Pedro Paz, narrates the adventures, and has at his side a young Jewish woman seeking to rescue her sister from the Cathars of Languedoc. Based upon the itinerary recorded by the real-life Benjamin of Tudela, the journey becomes a foray into the theological and the personal, into medieval Judaism and the mysteries of the heart, all while confronting the enchanted medieval world of forests, fortune tellers, Roman cave ruins, caravans, castles, and Christian zealots.
By Paul M. Levitt
2026
“As intricate and beautiful as a medieval tapestry, Paul Levitt weaves the chronicle of Benjamin of Tudela’s adventures in the 12th century. Told from the perspective of the titular gemologist’s Arab apprentice, Pedro Paz, the world of the Middle Ages is not one, but many. Reality and magic coexist and, at times, support one another as the two travelers make their way from Tudela, Spain, to China and back. On their 13-journey, ‘a journey like no other ever chronicled,’ they encounter Crusaders, theologians, caravans of travelers, seers, inquisitors, the nobility and the desperate. Levitt’s prose sings each adventure to life, bringing us along on this extraordinary journey; one that is very much like a magic carpet ride. Beautiful, enchanting, historical, and uplifting, this is a novel you will never forget.”
—Kristine Doll, Professor of World Languages and Culture at Salem State University, Salem, MA Poet and Translator (Catalan/English/Spanish) Recipient of several prizes, including the Bogdani Prestigios Prize for Poetry.
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