Eldad ha-Dani

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Eldad ben Maḥli ha-Dani (Hebrew: אֶלְדָּד בֶּן מַחְלִי הַדָּנִי, lit. 'Eldad son of Mahli the Danite') (fl. c. 851 – c. 900) was a ninth-century Jewish merchant, traveller, and philologist. Though probably originally from South Arabia, he professed to be a citizen of an "independent Jewish state" in East Africa, inhabited by people claiming descent from the lost Tribes of Dan, Asher, Gad, and Naphtali. Eldad visited Babylonia, Kairouan, and Iberia, where he spread his accounts of the Ten Lost Tribes and halakhot which he claimed he had brought from his native country. Eldad's Hebrew narrative Sefer Eldad established his reputation as a philologist whom leading medieval Jewish grammarians and lexicographers quoted as an authority on linguistic difficulties. His halakhot, which deal with the laws of shechita, differ in many places from the Talmudic ordinances but have similarities with the halakhot of the Beta Israel, Eldad's Halakhot is introduced in the name of Joshua ben Nun, or, according to another version, of Othniel Ben Kenaz. Eldad's accounts soon spread, and, as usual in such cases, were remolded and amplified by copyists and editors. There are numerous differing versions in several languages.