Account of the Travels of Eldad ha-Dani

Eldad ha-Dani

9th Century

And now we shall tell our brethren, the tribes of Jeshurun, of Eldad the Danite, who relates all this, how he went forth in all the countries after being separated from the tribe of Dan and the Lord miraculously saved him in many places and from many troubles, which passed over him, till he came to this land, so that he might go and tell all the…

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Eldad’s “Account of His Travels” attracted so many embellishments in the medieval period that it is exceedingly difficult to reconstruct the original. What is clear, however, is that the image of Eldad, and his depiction of the lost tribes of Israel, had significant messianic implications for many medieval Jews.

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Early Medieval History and Travel Writing

7th to 12th Century

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Eldad ha-Dani

9th Century

In the middle of the ninth century, a mysterious figure by the name of Eldad ben Maḥli ha-Dani appeared in Qayrawān, Ifrīqiya (now Tunisia.) The Jews of Qayrawān found many of his claims bewildering, and they wrote to the gaon, Tsemaḥ ben Ḥayim, for help in understanding his assertions. Eldad ha-Dani claimed to be a descendant of the tribe of Dan and asserted that he had lived under the rule of a Jewish king in Havilah (a biblical place mentioned briefly in Genesis 2:11), near Ethiopia, adjacent to the legendary river of stones surrounded by fire, the Sambatyon. He is known for “Account of His Travels,” a fantastical depiction of a journey in which he allegedly encountered the lost tribes of Israel, and some laws of ritual slaughter.

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