Also called Petachiah ben Yakov, Moses Petachiah, or Petachiah of Regensburg; Bohemian rabbi of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. He is best known for his extensive travels throughout Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Bohemia Historical map of Bohemia Bohemia is also a place in the State of New York in the United States of America: see Bohemia, New York. ... Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished,. In the ancient Judean schools the sages were addressed as רִבִּי... Eastern Europe is, by convention, that part of Europe from the Ural and Caucasus mountains in the East to an arbitrarily chosen boundary in the West. ... The Caucasus , a region boardering Asia Minor, is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which includes the Caucasus mountains and surrounding lowlands. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...

Petachiah was born in Ratisbon, Bavaria. He was the brother of Rabbi Yitzhak ha-Lavan ("the White") ben Yakov, a renowned Jewish jurist. During his childhood he was probably tutored by such scholars as Judah the Pious (Yehuda ben Shmuel). He was the author of several glosses on the Talmud. As a young man he left Ratisbon, a city whose Jewish community was so renowned for its piety and learning that it was sometimes called the "Jewish Athens", and settled in Prague. Regensburg (English formerly Ratisbon, Latin Ratisbona, Czech Řezno) is a city (population 146,824 in 2002) in Bavaria, south-east Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. ... With an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ...

The date of his travels is uncertain. He probably set out from Prague sometime between 1170 and 1180, and was certainly in Jerusalem prior to 1187, since he describes it as being under the control of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. As Judah the Pious is supposed to have written the surviving edition of Petachiah's travelogue, he must have returned to Ratisbon prior to that sage's death in 1217. Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם Yerushalayim; Arabic: القدس al-Quds; see also names of Jerusalem) is an ancient Middle Eastern city of key importance to the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. ... The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a short-lived country established in the 12th century by the First Crusade. ...

Petachiah traveled east from Bohemia, through Poland, Ruthenia, southern Russia (which he called Kedar), and the Crimea. He describes the remnants of the Khazars and the early Crimean Karaite community. He then went south through the Kipchak khanates and the Caucasus into Armenia, sojourning for a while in Nisibis. From there he travelled to Mesopotamia, visiting Nineveh, Sura, Pumbedita, and Baghdad before moving on to Persia. Turning westward, he journeyed up the Euphrates and into Syria, visiting Aleppo and Damascus. He travelled on to the Land of Israel, visiting holy sites in the Galilee and Judea, from whence he may have taken to the sea, because the next place he describes is Greece. From there, presumably, he returned home via the Balkans. Ruthenia is a name applied to parts of Eastern Europe which were populated by Eastern Slavic peoples, as well as to various states that existed in this territory in the past. ... Kedar is the son or grandson of Ishmael. ... The Crimea (officially Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukrainian transliteration: Avtonomna Respublika Krym, Ukrainian: Автономна Республіка Крим, Russian: Автономная Республика Крым, pronounced cry-MEE-ah in English) is a peninsula and an autonomous republic of Ukraine on the northern coast of the Black Sea. ... The site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel. ... Karaim or Qaraylar, a Karaite Jewish community of Eastern Europe. ... Kipchaks (also Kypchaks, Qipchaqs) are an ancient Turkic people, first mentioned in the historical chronicles of Central Asia in the 1st millennium BC. Their language was also known as Kipchak. ... Nisibis (Nusaybin, province Mardin, south-eastern Turkey) is the ancient Mesopotamian city, which Alexanders successors refounded as Antiochia Mygdonia and is mentioned for the first time in Polybius description of the march of Antiochus against the Molon (Polybius, V, 51). ... Mesopotamia ( Greek: Μεσοποταμία, translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan the Land between the Rivers or the Aramaic name Beth-Nahrin two rivers) is a region of Southwest Asia. ... This article is about the ancient Middle Eastern city of Nineveh. ... See also: Sura (disambiguation). ... ... A street map of Baghdad Average temperature (red) and precipitations (blue) in Baghdad Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and the Baghdad Province. ... Persia and Persian can refer to: the Western name for the state of Iran. ... Boat on the Shatt-al-Arab The Euphrates (the traditional Greek name for the river, which is in Old Persian Ufrat, Aramaic Prâth/Frot, in Arabic Al-Furat الفرات, in Turkish Fırat and in ancient Assyrian language Pu-rat-tu) is the westernmost of the two great rivers that define... Old Town Aleppo viewed from the Citadel Aleppo is also the name of two townships in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. ... Damascus by night, the green spots are minarets Damascus (Arabic officially دمشق Dimashq, colloqially ash-Sham الشام) is the capital city of Syria and one of the worlds oldest cities. ... The Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael) is the land that made up the ancient Jewish Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. ... Galilee (Hebrew hagalil הגליל, Arabic al-jaleel الجليل), meaning circuit, is a large area located in what is currently northern Israel (Tzafon), traditionally divided into three parts: Upper Galilee, Lower Galilee and Western Galilee. ... Desert hills in southern Judea, looking east from the town of Arad Judea or Judaea (יהודה Praise, Standard Hebrew Yəhuda, Tiberian Hebrew Yəhûḏāh) is a term used for the mountainous southern part of historic Palestine, an area now divided between Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. ... The Balkans is the historic and geographic name used to describe southeastern Europe (see the Definitions and boundaries section below). ...

The date of Petachiah's death is unknown.