Moses ben Mordecai Bassola
Moses ben Mordecai Bassola, also known as Moses Bassola, Moshe Basola, Basilea, or Basila (Hebrew באסולה or simply: משה באסולה; alternative Hebrew spelling: באזלה ,איש באזולה ,ב(א)סולה ,באסל ,באזילא); was born in 1480 in Pesaro, Italy, and died in 1560. He was a rabbi and a cabalist. His travel book has been published in English and modern Hebrew by Abraham David under the title In Zion and Jerusalem: The Itinerary of Rabbi Moses Basola. Biography Since he called himself Ẓarfati (the Frenchman), his family most likely originated from France. R. Moses was the son of a famous rabbinical family in the Land of Israel and in Italy, living between the 15th century to the 18th century. His last name shows that the family probably originated from Basel (the Latin form of the name is Basilea) in Switzerland. He served in his youth in his hometown of Pesaro as a rabbi. Levant tour (1521–1523) In 1521, he sailed to the Ottoman Levant via Cyprus and Crete and toured it for a year and a half. His impressions from this visit are documented in his book Sefer , in which he describes various sites in Ottoman Palestine (partial list), such as Bar'am,