It is affirmed, that the revenue of the city only, from its markets, harbour, and tribute of merchants, amount to 20,000 crowns daily.  The Greek inhabitants of this city and country are exceedingly rich in gold and jewels, and are sumptuously dressed in crimson garments, intermingled with gold, or splendidly embroidered, and are all carried on horses, as if they were the children of kings.  The country itself is very extensive, and abounds with all sorts of fruits, and has great plenty of corn, wine, and cattle of all kinds, and a finer country is nowhere to be found.  The people are learned also, and skilful in the philosophy of the Greeks:  but giving themselves up entirely to luxury, they eat and drink every man under his own vine, and under his own fig-tree.  They have mercenary soldiers, hired from all nations, whom they call Barbarians, to fight against the soldan, king of the children of Togorma, who are commonly called Turks; for the Grecians themselves, through sloth and luxury, have become quite effeminate and unfit for wars, and entirely devoted to pleasure.

No Jews are permitted to dwell in the city, but are obliged to reside in Pera, on the other side of the sea of Sophia, and are not even allowed to come to the city, except in boats, for the sake of commerce.  In Pera there are about 2000 Jewish Rabbinists, disciples of the wise men; among whom are Abtalion the Great, Rabbi Abdias, Aaron Cuspus, Joseph Starginus, and Eliakim the governor, who have the chief authority.  Besides these, there are 500 Karaites[8], who are separated from the Rabbinists by a wall.  Among the Jews there are some manufacturers of silken garments, and many very rich merchants.  No Jew is permitted to ride on horseback, except Solomon, the Egyptian, who is physician to the Emperor, and through whose interest the Jews are comforted and eased in their captivity, which is very grievous; for they are much hated by the Grecians, who make no distinction between the good and the evil among them, and insult and beat them in the streets.  They are worst used by the tanners, who pour out the filthy water in which they have dressed their skins into the streets before their doors.  Yet, among the Jews there are some very rich men, as I have said before; good and merciful men, who observe the commandments, and who patiently endure the miseries of the captivity.

From Constantinople, Benjamin continued his journey to Tyre, Jerusalem, and the Holy Land, and thence to Damascus, Balbeck, and Palmyra, which he calls Tadmor, and in which, he says, there then were 2000 Jews.  He next gives an account of Bagdat, the court of the caliph, and the condition of the Jews there.  He afterwards gives an account of a country which he calls Thema, where he places a whole nation of Jews, which some have deemed an entire forgery[9].  He next proceeds to Botzra, Balsora or Bassora, on the Tigris, and thence to Persia, of which he gives the following account.