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The Gemara in Rosh Hashana 26a says:

ואמר רבי עקיבא כשהלכתי לאפריקי...

Rabbi Akiva said: when I went to Afriki

Is this referring to the continent of Africa?

Was Africa in this time period known by that name?

Are there any other Gemaras which talk about a trip to Africa that the Tanaim went on?

Isaac Moses
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Shoel U'Meishiv
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    טט פת בלשון אפריקי Did you try a simple search for the word? https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=003922636974222575695%3Adxq675sw--g&ie=Windows-1255&hq=inurl%3A%2Fb%2F&q=%EC%E0%F4%F8%E9%F7%E9&sa=+%E7%F4%F9%21+#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99&gsc.page=1 – Double AA May 17 '17 at 14:18
  • @DoubleAA bkitzur, I looked in physical indexes but not a word search – Shoel U'Meishiv May 17 '17 at 14:30
  • The word germamia appears in the Gemara and the Vilna Gaon corrects it to say germania, in reference to Germany, so I wouldn't be surprised if Africa appeared as well. – ezra May 17 '17 at 14:58
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    Mihi ne illud quidem accidit, ut Alexandrino atque Africano bello interessem. But I had not even the good fortune to share in the Alexandrian or African war. -- From Book 8 of Gallic Wars, by Julius Caesar – Chaim May 17 '17 at 15:00
  • @Chaim cool! So in tannaic times Africa was th established name. – Shoel U'Meishiv May 17 '17 at 15:04
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    I think place names are often a hard problem. – Chaim May 17 '17 at 15:14
  • See https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/47480/source-for-africans-being-caananites/47481#comment124900_47481 "Afriki in Chazal usually refers to Phrygia, not to Africa." – Scimonster May 17 '17 at 17:21
  • On that same page, R'Akiva says he went to Gaul. The safest way to get from North Africa to France would be through Sicily and Italy. – Clint Eastwood Feb 07 '24 at 03:47

1 Answers1

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Yes! we definitely find this name in other Rabbinic literature. See Sanhedrin 94a. Yerushalmi Sheviis chapter 6.

Yitzchak Meitlis in the appendix to his book Excavating the Bible writes that this refers to Africa as the same story is found in the works of Procopius (Byzantine historian) where it is related that the Canaanites were afraid of Joshua Bin Nun (Girgashites according to Yerushalmi) and settled in Libya.

Bach
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