Account of His Travels

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.