square brackets is inserted from the Oxford MS. The city of Tur, which Benjamin calls Tur-Sinai, is situated on the eastern side of the Gulf of Suez, and affords good anchorage, the harbour being protected by coral reefs.  It can be reached from the monastery in little more than a day.  The small mountain referred to by Benjamin is the Jebel Hammam Sidna Musa, the mountain of the bath of our lord Moses.]

[Footnote 204:  Tanis, now called San, was probably the Zoan of Scripture, but in the Middle Ages it was held to be Hanes, mentioned in Isa. xxx. 4.  It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tanitic branch of the Nile, about thirty miles south-west of the ancient Pelusium.  The excavations which have been made by M. Mariette and Mr. Flinders Petrie prove that it was one of the largest and most important cities of the Delta.  It forms the subject of the Second Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1885.  The place must not be confounded with the seaport town Tennis, as has been done by Asher.  In the sixth century the waters of the Lake Menzaleh invaded a large portion of the fertile Tanis territory.  Hence Benjamin calls it an island in the midst of the sea.  In a Geniza document dated 1106, quoted by Dr. Schechter, Saadyana, p. 91, occurs the passage:  [Hebrew:] “In the city of the isle Hanes, which is in the midst of the sea and of the tongue of the river of Egypt called Nile.”]

     [Footnote 205:  The straits of Messina were named Faro.  Lipar
     has reference, no doubt, to the Liparian Islands, which are
     in the neighbourhood.]

     [Footnote 206:  Cf.  Bertinoro’s interesting description of
     the synagogue at Palermo, which he said had not its equal,
     Miscellany of Hebrew Literature, vol.  I, p. 114.]

     [Footnote 207:  Hacina is the Arabic for a fortified or
     enclosed place.]

[Footnote 208:  Buheira is the Arabic word for a lake.  The unrivalled hunting grounds of William II are well worth visiting, being situated between the little town called Parco and the magnificent cathedral of Monreale, which the king erected later on.]

[Footnote 209:  King William II, surnamed “the Good,” was sixteen years old when Benjamin visited Sicily in 1170.  During the king’s minority the Archbishop was the vice-regent.  He was expelled in 1169 on account of his unpopularity.  Asher asserts that Benjamin’s visit must have taken place prior to this date, because he reads [Hebrew:] This is the domain of the viceroy. The Oxford MS. agrees with our text and reads [Hebrew:] This is the domain of the king’s garden. Chroniclers tell that when the young king was freed from the control of the viceroy he gave himself up to pleasure and dissipation.  Asher is clearly wrong, because a mere boy could not have indulged in those frolics.  The point is of importance, as it absolutely fixes the date of