[Footnote 167:  It should be remembered that Cush in ancient Jewish literature does not always signify Ethiopia, but also denotes parts of Arabia, especially those nearest to Abyssinia.  The name Cush is also applied to countries east of the Tigris, see p. 63.]

     [Footnote 168:  Rayy is the ancient city of Rages, spoken of
     in the Book of Tobit i. 14.  The ruins are in the
     neighbourhood of Teheran.]

[Footnote 169:  The incidents here related are fully gone into by Dr. Neubauer in the third of his valuable articles “Where are the ten tribes?” (J.  Q.R., vol.  I, p. 185).  There can be little doubt that the Kofar-al-Turak, a people belonging to the Tartar stock, are identical with the so-called subjects of Prester John, of whom so much was heard in the Middle Ages.  They defeated Sinjar in the year 1141; this was, however, more than fifteen years prior to Benjamin’s visit.  To judge from the above passage, where the allies of the Jews are described as “infidels, the sons of Ghuz of the Kofar-al-Turak,” Benjamin seems to confound the Ghuzes with the Tartar hordes.  Now the Ghuzes belonged to the Seldjuk clans who had become Mohammedans more than 100 years before, and, as such, Benjamin would never have styled them infidels.  These Ghuzes waged war with Sinjar in 1153, when he was signally defeated, and eventually made prisoner.  It is to this battle that Benjamin must have made reference, when he writes that it took place fifteen years ago.  See Dr. A. Mueller’s Islam, also Dr. G. Oppert’s Presbyter Johannes in Sage und Geschichte, 1864.]

     [Footnote 170:  It will be noted that Benjamin uses here the
     terms [Hebrew:  ] evidently implying that he himself did not go
     to sea.

In the Middle Ages the island of Kish or Kis was an important station on the trade route from India to Europe.  Le Strange writes, p. 257, that in the course of the twelfth century it became the trade centre of the Persian Gulf.  A great walled city was built in the island, where water-tanks had been constructed, and on the neighbouring sea-banks was the famous pearl-fishery.  Ships from India and Arabia crowded the port.  Kish was afterwards supplanted by Ormuz and Bandar-Abbas; England held possession of the island from 1820 to 1879, and it has recently been visited officially by Lord Curzon.  For a description of the island see The Times, Jan. 18, 1904.]

[Footnote 171:  Katifa or El-Katif lies on the Persian Gulf, on the East coast of Arabia, near Bahrein.  Bochart is of opinion that this part of Arabia is the land of Havilah, where, according to Gen. ii. 11 and 12, there is gold, bdellium, and the onyx stone.  Jewish authorities are divided in opinion as to whether [Hebrew] is a jewel,