Travels and Adventures of the Rev. Joseph Wolff, D.D., LL.D.

An invigorating 1861 account of a Jewish Christian convert's missionary work in the Middle East, India, Africa and the USA.

A Jewish Christian convert, Joseph Wolff (1795–1862) served as a missionary in the Middle East, India, and the United States, suffering shipwreck, enslavement, and a 600-mile march without clothing following a robbery. Published in 1861, this work, though characteristically orientalist, remains an invigorating read.Published in 1861, this work in the third person, dictated by Joseph Wolff (1795–1862) to friends, is an epic miscellany of stories. Wolff, the son of a rabbi, had a peripatetic Middle European childhood. He converted to Christianity in 1812, studying Near Eastern languages in Vienna and Tübingen, and theology in Rome - until he was expelled by the Inquisition for heretical views. He eventually moved to England, working for the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. Beginning his mission in the Middle East, he later travelled to Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India, and the United States, where he preached to Congress. His eventful career saw him variously shipwrecked, enslaved, and forced to walk without clothes for 600 miles following a robbery. In 1847 he settled more quietly in a Somerset vicarage. Though characteristically orientalist (and with possible embellishments), this work remains an invigorating depiction of a lifetime's adventure.