Description:
(Merchant)
Eldad ben Maḥli ha-Dani was a ninth-century Jewish merchant, traveller, and philologist known for his Hebrew narrative Sefer Eldad. He claimed to be a citizen of an "independent Jewish state" in East Africa, inhabited by people from the lost Tribes of Dan, Asher, Gad, and Naphtali. Eldad traveled to Babylonia, Kairouan, and Iberia, spreading accounts of the Ten Lost Tribes and halakhot. He was recognized as an authority on linguistic difficulties by leading medieval Jewish grammarians and lexicographers, although his halakhot on shechita differed from Talmudic ordinances.
