Petachiah of Regensburg

[1] He is best known for the description he wrote to document his extensive travels during the late twelfth century throughout Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the Middle East.

His work was later published, apparently in an abridged form, in a travelogue that eventually became known under the title Travels of Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon.

He was the brother of Isaac ben Jacob ha-Lavan ("the White"), a renowned rabbi and Jewish jurist, chief rabbinical authority of the Jews of Prague in that period.

As Judah the Pious is supposed to have made the surviving manuscript copy of Petachiah's travelogue, the latter must have returned to Regensburg prior to that sage's death in 1217.

[1] Petachiah travelled east from Bohemia through Poland, Ruthenia, southern Ukraine (which he called Qedar), and Genoese Gazaria in Crimea.