R. Isaac ben Michael Badhav, (1859–1947), Jerusalem rabbi and scholar was born in Jerusalem, and was the maternal grandson of R. Isaac Covo. He attended the bet ha-midrash Doresh Zion and in the yeshivah Shevet Ahim. R. Badhav was one of the founders of the Jerusalem Hevrat Shomerei Mitzvah u-Malbishei Arumim. In 1887 he was sent on a mission to Tripoli by the Beth El congregation, returning in 1889. In 1901 he was appointed teacher in the bet ha-midrash of Hayyim Hezekiah Medini, Sedei Hemed in Hebron, but he remained there for a short time only, returning to Jerusalem. He lived in poverty all his life. Badhav devoted himself to collecting old Hebrew books and manuscripts and assembled a large library containing exceptionally important documentary archives which included ancient and valuable documents and records, which he described in catalogs published in 1900 and 1910.

These manuscripts which contain materials dealing with the fields of halakhah, aggadah, philosophy, grammar, Kabbalah, geonica, medieval literature, history, poetry, and folklore are of great importance, because some of them are unique. Badhav also published many pamphlets containing laws and customs, poems and parables, amulets, prayers, petitions and memoirs, as well as responsa of early authorities, including some of the responsa of Maimonides. He translated into Ladino various historical studies. Because of his lack of means the pamphlets were issued in an irregular and haphazard manner. Several of his most important books are still in manuscript form.

שנת ובדבר ה'ז'ה' ת'א'ר'י'כ'ו' ימים ושנים [תרנ"ד,