[Footnote 148:  In reading through the foregoing account of the Jews in Arabia, it is quite clear that Benjamin never visited the country, nor did he pretend to have done so.  In the words of Mr. C.E.  Beazley (The Dawn of Modern Geography, p. 252), “It is no longer, for the most part, a record of personal travel; it is rather an attempt to supplement the first part ‘of things seen’ by a second ’of things heard.’” But Beazley is wrong when he characterizes as “wild” the account of the Jews of Southern Arabia “who were Rechabites.”  Does Benjamin say so?  There is no such reading in the MS. of the British Museum.  The student, it is thought, will by this time have come to the conclusion that it is the oldest and most trustworthy of our available authorities.  The whole misconception has arisen from the fact that the unreliable MS. E and all the printed editions have transposed the letters of [Hebrew:] and made [Hebrew:] of it.  Rapoport, in the article already referred to, seems to suspect the faulty reading:  to justify it, he connects the men of Kheibar with the Rechabites and the sons of Heber the Kenite, basing his argument upon Jer. xxxv, Judges i. 16, I Sam. xxvii. 10, and I Chron. ii. 55.

Neither Zunz nor Asher makes any comments upon this chapter of the itinerary.  Graetz gives an abstract of Benjamin’s account; he, as well as all other writers, is unable to identify Tilmas, but is of opinion that Tanai must be Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, which, however, is twenty-five days’ journey beyond Kheibar.  It is well known that Yemen has, since Bible times, harboured a Jewish population, who—­notwithstanding all oppression, intensified under Turkish rule—­inhabit many of its towns and villages to the present day.  It is comparatively accessible, owing to its proximity to the sea.  We must cherish the hope that Great Britain, now that it claims the Hinterland of Aden, will extend its protection to the Jews.

     The volcanic highlands (Harrah) of Kheibar were always
     inaccessible, owing to their being surrounded by waterless
     deserts and fanatic Bedouin tribes.

R. Abraham Farissol, who flourished at the beginning of the sixteenth century, writes that there was a large number of Jews in the district, who lived in tents and in wooden houses or huts.  His contemporary, David Reubeni, who crossed from Arabia to Abyssinia and came to Europe in 1524, pretended to be brother of Joseph, king of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh in the desert of Chabor (Kheibar).  Benjamin takes care to qualify his statement as to the origin of the Jews of Kheibar by adding [Hebrew:] “people say they belong to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, whom Salmanesser, King of Assyria, led hither into captivity.”

I would here mention an interesting work of Dr. R. Dozy, Professor of History and Oriental Languages at Leyden, Die Israeliten