Makeda, the Queen of Sheba

The Christian Bible describes in several different books how the Queen of Sheba, attracted by stories she heard about the wisdom of King Solomon of Jerusalem, visited him with many of her attendants and presented to him many gifts. The king was generous in return. According to the Gospel of St. Matthew, she had come to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Biblical chronology puts this event at about 970 BC.

In Ethiopia, the queen is considered one of their own and is named Makeda. The ancient text Kebra Nagast, or “Book of the Glory of Kings,” tells a more involved story. The Queen came to Solomon, and Solomon seeing she was beautiful seduced her. On her return journey, she bore him a son whom she named Menelik. When Menelik was old enough, Makeda sent him to Solomon’s court, as he had requested, so that Menelik could be educated there. But finally, he wished to return to his mother’s land. Solomon agreed, but when Menelik left with his many assistants and servants, the company stole the sacred Ark of the Covenant from the Temple in Jerusalem and brought it to a temple in the city of Aksum.

Ethiopians believed that the Ark had indeed come to Ethiopia and that Menelik, who succeeded his mother as Menelik I, was the founder of the “Solomonic Dynasty” of Ethiopian Emperors. Therefore, according to tradition, most of the emperors in Ethiopia have been descended from the Jewish king, Solomon, through their Queen, Makeda.

Makeda’s story is not always so simple, however. Some versions say that she tried to refuse Solomon’s desires because she wished to rule her country as a virgin. Eventually, he tricked her into sleeping with him. But before he succeeded in winning Makeda, Solomon also slept with her slave. Both women bore sons by Solomon, and descendents of the slave’s son eventually became the emperors of the Zagwé dynasty during the 11^th to 13^th centuries. After the end of the Zagwé line, tradition affirms that the Solomonic line was reestablished.

 

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