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ELDAD BEN MAHLI

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 165 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ELDAD See also:

BEN MAHLI , also surnamed had-Dani, See also:Abu-Dani, See also:David-had-Dani, or the Danite, Jewish traveller, was the sup-posed author of a Jewish travel-narrative of the 9th See also:century A.D., which enjoyed See also:great authority in the See also:middle ages, especially on the question of the Lost Ten Tribes. Eldad first set out to visit his See also:Hebrew brethren in See also:Africa and See also:Asia. His See also:vessel was wrecked, and he See also:fell into the hands of cannibals; but he was saved by his leanness, and by the opportune invasion of a neighbouring tribe. After spending four years with his new captors, he was ransomed by a See also:fellow-countryman, a See also:merchant of the tribe of See also:Issachar. He then (according to his highly fabulous narrative) visited the territory of Issachar, in the mountains of See also:Media and See also:Persia; he also describes the abodes of Zabulon, on the " other See also:side " of the Paran Mountains, extending to See also:Armenia and the See also:Euphrates; of See also:Reuben, on another side of the same mountains; of See also:Ephraim and See also:Half See also:Manasseh, in See also:Arabia, not far from See also:Mecca; and of See also:Simeon and the other Half of Manasseh, in Chorazin, six months' See also:journey from See also:Jerusalem. See also:Dan, he declares, sooner than join in See also:Jeroboam's See also:scheme of an Israelite See also:war against See also:Judah, had migrated to See also:Cush, and finally, with the help of Naphthali, See also:Asher and See also:Gad, had founded an See also:independent Jewish See also:kingdom in the See also:Gold See also:Land of Havila, beyond See also:Abyssinia. The tribe of See also:Levi had also been miraculously guided, from near See also:Babylon, to Havila, where they were enclosed and protected by the mystic See also:river Sambation or See also:Sabbation, which on the See also:Sabbath, though See also:calm, was veiled in impenetrable mist, while on other days it ran with a fierce untraversable current of stones and See also:sand. Apart from these tales, we have the genuine Eldad, a celebrated Jewish traveller and philologist; who flourished c. A.D. 83o–89o; to whom the See also:work above noticed is ascribed; who was a native either of S. Arabia, See also:Palestine or Media; who journeyed in See also:Egypt, See also:Mesopotamia, See also:North Africa, and See also:Spain; who spent several years at See also:Kairawan in See also:Tunis; who died on a visit to See also:Cordova, and whose authority, as to the lost tribes, is supported by a great Hebrew See also:doctor of his own See also:time, Zemah See also:Gaon, the See also:rector of the See also:Academy at Sura (A.D. 889–898).

It is possible that a certain relationship exists (as suggested by Epstein and supported by D. H. See also:

Muller) between the famous apocryphal See also:Letter of Prester See also:John (of c. A.D. 1165) and the narrative of Eldad; but the See also:affinity is not See also:close. Eldad is quoted as an authority on linguistic difficulties by the leading See also:medieval Jewish grammarians and lexicographers. The work ascribed to Eldad is in Hebrew, divided into six chapters, probably abbreviated from the See also:original See also:text. The first edition appeared at See also:Mantua about 1480; the second at See also:Constantinople in 1516; this was reprinted at See also:Venice in 1544 and 1605, and at Jessnitz in 1722. A Latin version by Gilb. Genebrard was published at See also:Paris in 1563, under the See also:title of Eldad Danius de Judaeis alausis eorumque in Aethiopia . imperio, and was afterwards incorporated in the translator's Chronologia Hebraeorum of 1584; a See also:German version appeared at See also:Prague in 1695, and another at Jessnitz in 1723. In 1838 E. Carmoly edited and translated a See also:fuller recension which he had found in a MS. from the library of Eliezer Ben See also:Hasan, for-warded to him by David Zabach of See also:Morocco (see Relation d'Eldad le Danite, Paris, 1838).

Both forms are printed by Dr See also:

Jellinek in his See also:Bet-ha-iltidrasch, vols. ii. p. 102, &c., and iii. p. 6, &c. (See also:Leipzig, 1853–1855). See also Bartolocci, Bibliotheca magna Rabbinica, i. 101-130; See also:Furst, Bibliotheca Judaica, i. 30, &C.; See also:Hirsch See also:Graetz, Geschichte der Juden (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1895), v. 239-244; See also:Rossi, Dizionario degli Ebrei; See also:Steinschneider, See also:Cat. librorum Hebraeorum in bibliotheca Bodleiana, cols. 923-925; See also:Kitto's Biblical Cyclepaedia (3rd edition, sub nomine) ; Abr. Epstein, Eldad ha-Dani (See also:Pressburg, 1891) ; D. H. Muller, " See also:Die Recensionen and Versionen See also:des Eldad had-Dani," in Denkschriften d.

Wiener Akad. (Phil.-Hist. Cl.), vol. xli. (1892), pp. I-80.

End of Article: ELDAD BEN MAHLI

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