Petachiah of Regensburg פתחיה מרגנסבורג
traveller; Sivuv ha-Rav Petachiah, an account of the communities of the East
The journey fell roughly in 1170–1187. The route, as described, ran: Bohemia, Poland, Rus, the Crimea, the Caucasus, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Syria, the Land of Israel, and back through Greece and the Balkans. He saw the Babylonian academies in their last centuries, the graves of prophets, communities of which the West knew only by hearsay.
His brother was Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Lavan, a halakhist and a leading authority among the Jews of Prague.
The notes do not survive in their original form. Part he left behind in Bohemia, and the text was gathered and prepared by his countryman Judah ben Samuel he-Hasid—Judah the Pious. What we have is held to be an abridgement: an editor stands between the journey and the book, and the traveller's observations cannot be separated from the editor's work.
His dates are not established; the Jewish Encyclopedia says only that he was active between 1175 and 1190. First printed at Prague in 1595; the Hebrew-English edition, London, 1856.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Sivuv ha-Rav Petachiah, first ed. Prague, 1595 — the account of the eastern communities, the Babylonian academies and the holy places
Scholarship
- Jewish Encyclopedia, “Pethahiah b. Jacob ha-Laban” — activity between 1175 and 1190; the loss of part of the notes and the text's preparation by Judah he-Hasid
Basis: documents and evidence.