Estori, Isaac ben-Moses, ha-Parchi

(1280–c. 1355)

   Topographer of Palestine. Estori was descended from a rabbinic family which probably came from Florence in Spain - hence the name Parchi, which is a hebraized form of the Spanish flor, flower. His grandfather sent him to Montpellier, where he seems to have studied medicine. With the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306, he travelled in Spain and in 1313 went to Palestine. He settled in Bet She’an and earned a living practising medicine. For the next seven years he travelled the length and breadth of Palestine, identifying ancient biblical and talmudical towns, places and borders. He based his identifications on Arab names, a method still employed by modern research. In 1322 he summed up his findings in his work Sefer Kaftor va-Ferach, which was printed in Venice in 1549. This work contained valuable information not only on the topography of the country, but on the various sects existing then. It described the clothes they wore and made a comparison of weights, measures and coins that he found in use with those of the Bible and the Talmud. He studied plants and tried to identify them with those mentioned in the Bible.