“The journeys of my soul in this land of Canaan” by Yitshak ben Sirota
Isaiah Gruber
Image Caption
Yitshak’s travels. Cartographic illustration by Sonya Dimand.Yitshak ben Sirota is an imagined Jew (composite historical figure) of eleventh-century Eastern Europe. His own travels and the stories he hears from others cover Rus’, Poland, Byzantium, and Western Europe. Yitshak’s imagined autobiographical account corresponds closely with extant documentary evidence and provides information and perspective on the contemporary interactions of men and women, Jews and Christians, masters and slaves, and other groups. In high and late medieval Hebrew literature, the Biblical term “Canaan” designated the Slavic lands (just as “Ashkenaz” denoted the German lands). Yitshak employs this and other contemporary terminology, and his “Canaanites” are therefore Slavs. More specifically, by “Greek Canaan” he means the East Slavic territories where the population followed the Greek (Orthodox Christian) rite.
Like many medieval travelogues and other writings, Yitshak’s tale intermingles a record of events and peregrinations with assorted explanations and interjections. As a human narrator, Yitshak necessarily speaks from his own perspective and with imperfect knowledge. His notions of relevance and significance may sometimes differ from those of a modern reader. However, his portrayals are based on real stories and are consistent with actual historical possibility. The glossary and endnotes (supplied by a later editor, perhaps the same individual who translated the text from the original Hebrew) provide a guide for readers who may not grasp all of Yitshak’s idioms and allusions or who wish to consult extant historical documents in order to verify the essential aspects of his story. The abbreviation “R.” means “Rabbi.”
Notes
- Most of the relevant sources have recently been collected and published (in the original languages and English translation) in: Alexander Kulik, Jews in Old Rus’: A Documentary History [forthcoming]. For the term “Greek Canaan,” see Kulik §II.5.1.1.B.
Further Reading
Cohen, Mark. The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages: An Anthology of Documents from the Cairo Geniza. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.
Golb, Norman and Omeljan Pritsak. Khazarian Hebrew Documents of the Tenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982.
Heppell, Muriel. The Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery. Cambridge, MA: Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University, 1989.
Kulik, Alexander. Jews in Old Rus’: A Documentary History. Forthcoming.
Rotman, Youval. Byzantine Slavery and the Mediterranean World. Trans. Jane Marie Todd. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.