Scholar and author. Azulai, known by his initials as Hida, traveled extensively throughout Europe. He was sent by the Jewish community in Jerusalem to gather funds for the poor scholars in the Holy Land. Azulai had received a thorough training in Talmud and Kabbalah and was endowed with a keen historical sense. He utilized his travels to visit famous libraries and to gather valuable information for his most important work, Shem Ha-Gedolim, in which he listed 1,500 scholars and authors and more than 2,000 books written from Talmudic times to his own day.