to set fire to the city rather
than that it should fall into the hands of the Christians. To this
very day many traces may be seen in the neighbourhood of Cairo of this
conflagration. Nureddin's army, in which Saladin held a subordinate
command, by a timely arrival on the scene forced the Franks to
retreat, and the Saracens were acclaimed as deliverers.

The nominal ruler of Egypt at that time was El-Adid, the Fatimite
Caliph, and he made Saladin his Vizier, little thinking that that
modest officer would soon supplant him. So efficiently did Saladin
administer the country that in a few months it had regained its
prosperity, despite the five years' devastating war which had
preceded.

At this juncture the traveller Rabbi Benjamin came to Egypt. Some
three years earlier he had left his native place--Tudela, on the Ebro
in the north of Spain. After passing through the prosperous towns
which lie on the Gulf of Lyons, he visited Rome and South Italy. From
Otranto he crossed over to Corfu, traversed Greece, and then came to
Constantinople, of which he gives an interesting account. Very
telling, for example, are the words: "They hire from amongst all
nations warriors called Barbarians to fight with the Sultan of the
Seljuks; for the natives are not warlike, but are as women who have no
strength to fight." After visiting the Islands of the Aegean, as well
as Rhodes and Cyprus, he passed on to Antioch, and followed the
well-known southern route skirting the Mediterranean, visiting the
important cities along the coast, all of which were then in the hands
of the Franks.

Having regard to the strained relations between the Christians and
Saracens, and to the fights and forays of the Latin knights, we can
understand that Benjamin had to follow a very circuitous way to enable
him to visit all the places of note in Palestine. From Damascus, which
was then the capital of Nureddin's empire, he travelled along with
safety until he reached Bagdad, the city of the Caliph, of whom he has
much to tell.

It is unlikely that he went far into Persia, which at that time was in
a chaotic state, and where the Jews were much oppressed. From Basra,
at the mouth of the Tigris, he probably visited the island of Kish in
the Persian Gulf, which in the Middle Ages was a great emporium of
commerce, and thence proceeded to Egypt by way of Aden and Assuan.

Benjamin gives us a vivid sketch of the Egypt of his day. Peace and
plenty seemed to prevail