Kebra Nagast: Ethiopia's Book of the Glory of Kings

The Kebra Nagast (“The Glory of the Kings”) is a work written in Ge’ez, the classical language of Ethiopia, and compiled around 1314–1322. It tells how the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon, bore him a son, Menelik I, and how Menelik brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Ethiopia. The book became the charter of Ethiopia’s Solomonic dynasty and one of the most influential texts in the country’s history.

Background: a dynasty in need of a story

In 1270 Yekuno Amlak overthrew the Zagwe kings and founded what became known as the Solomonic dynasty. The new rulers claimed to restore the ancient royal line of Aksum, which had been displaced by the Zagwe.

The idea that Ethiopia’s kings descended from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was probably older, and the Bible’s brief account of Sheba’s visit to Solomon (1 Kings 10) had long fired imaginations. But it was in the early 14th century, during the reign of the powerful emperor Amda Seyon (1314–1344), that this tradition received its classic written form.

Compilation and authorship

According to its colophon (the closing note of a manuscript), the Kebra Nagast was put together by a group of scholars led by Yeshaq, a nebura’ed, or senior cleric, of Aksum. It was dedicated to Ya’ibika Egzi, governor of the province of Enderta in Tigray. On this basis most scholars date the work to between about 1314 and 1322.

The colophon also claims that the text was first written in Coptic, translated into Arabic and then into Ge’ez. Many scholars doubt that a single Coptic original existed. Instead they see the Kebra Nagast as a skilful compilation drawing on the Bible, Jewish and Christian legends, apocryphal works and Arabic sources, shaped to serve Ethiopian purposes.

Interestingly, Ya’ibika Egzi was a regional lord who later rebelled against Amda Seyon. The book may therefore reflect the interests of northern Tigrayan elites and the church of Aksum as well as the royal court.

The story

The Kebra Nagast has 117 chapters. It is framed as a discussion among the 318 bishops at the Council of Nicaea, where one speaker reveals the true glory of the kings of Ethiopia.

At its heart is the story of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, who hears of Solomon’s wisdom from a merchant named Tamrin and travels to Jerusalem. Solomon receives her with honour, and she accepts the God of Israel. Before she leaves, Solomon tricks her into spending a night with him, and she returns home pregnant.

Her son, Menelik (called Bayna Lehkem, “son of the wise man”), travels to Jerusalem as a young man to meet his father. Solomon anoints him king of Ethiopia and sends the firstborn sons of Israel’s nobles with him. Before they leave, Azariah, son of the high priest, secretly takes the Ark of the Covenant, called Zion, and replaces it with a copy. By God’s will the Ark travels to Ethiopia, and Solomon cannot recover it.

The final parts contain prophecies and a vision of the future in which the kings of Ethiopia and of “Rome” (the Byzantine Empire), both descended from Solomon, act together against the enemies of the faith, with Ethiopia presented as the more glorious.

Meaning and political role

The message is clear: God’s favour has passed from Israel to Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s rulers are the true heirs of David and Solomon, and Ethiopia is the new Zion, guardian of the Ark.

This gave the Solomonic dynasty a sacred legitimacy that its Zagwe predecessors had lacked. The monarchy, the Orthodox Church and the idea of the nation were bound together. Every Ethiopian Orthodox church contains a tabot, a consecrated tablet representing the Ark, which makes the story part of daily worship.

The book’s authority lasted for centuries. Ethiopia’s constitutions of 1931 and 1955 stated that the emperor descended from Menelik I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Sources and literary character

The Kebra Nagast is not a single continuous narrative but a compilation of stories, sermons, biblical interpretation and prophecy. Its authors drew on the Old and New Testaments, on Jewish legends about Solomon, on early Christian writings and on traditions known in the Arabic-speaking Christian world. Parts of it resemble stories found in the Qur’an and in Islamic legend about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, called Bilqis in Arabic tradition.

The text often reads like a commentary. Episodes from the Bible are reinterpreted as signs pointing forward to Christ, to the Virgin Mary and to Ethiopia’s special destiny. The Ark itself, called Zion, is treated both as a physical object and as a symbol of the Virgin Mary, who carried Christ as the Ark carried the tablets of the Law.

Scholars debate how much of the material is older than the 14th century. Some elements, such as the claim of descent from Solomon, may go back to the late Aksumite period or the Zagwe era. What is clear is that the compilers shaped these strands into a powerful whole at a time when the new dynasty needed to secure its authority.

Influence on art and literature

The Kebra Nagast inspired Ethiopian art for centuries. The story of the Queen of Sheba became a favourite subject of church painters and, in the 19th and 20th centuries, of popular painters who told it in rows of comic-strip-like panels, from Makeda’s journey to Menelik’s return with the Ark. Such paintings were sold widely, including to foreign visitors.

Later Ethiopian chronicles, royal titles and coronation rituals drew on the book. Emperors styled themselves descendants of the house of David, and the Lion of Judah became a royal emblem. The Kebra Nagast thus helped shape how Ethiopians wrote their history and how their rulers presented themselves to the world.

The Ark in Aksum

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church holds that the Ark of the Covenant is kept in Aksum, at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. Since the 1960s it has been housed in a separate chapel built under Emperor Haile Selassie. A single monk guards it for life, and no one else may see it.

Because the object cannot be examined, its nature and age are unknown. Historians note that the Kebra Nagast is the earliest full written statement of the claim, written some two thousand years after the events it describes.

European interest and translations

Europeans learned of the Kebra Nagast from the 16th century onwards. During the British expedition to Magdala in 1868, two manuscripts were taken to the British Museum. In 1872 Emperor Yohannes IV asked for the return of one copy, saying that his people would not obey him without it, and it was sent back.

The German scholar Carl Bezold published a critical edition in 1905, and E. A. Wallis Budge’s English translation of 1922 brought the work to a wide audience. In the 20th century the book became especially important to the Rastafari movement, which reveres Haile Selassie as a descendant of Solomon.

Timeline

• 4th century: Christianity becomes the religion of the Kingdom of Aksum.
• 1270: Yekuno Amlak founds the Solomonic dynasty.
• 1314: Amda Seyon becomes emperor.
• c. 1314–1322: Yeshaq of Aksum and his colleagues compile the Kebra Nagast.
• 1868: British forces take manuscripts from Magdala.
• 1872: Emperor Yohannes IV obtains the return of a copy from the British Museum.
• 1905: Carl Bezold publishes a critical edition.
• 1922: Budge’s English translation appears.
• 1974: The fall of Haile Selassie ends the Solomonic monarchy.

Why it matters

The Kebra Nagast turned a biblical episode into the founding myth of a nation. For more than 650 years it justified the rule of Ethiopia’s emperors and shaped the country’s religion, art and sense of identity, and it continues to influence Ethiopian Christianity and the Rastafari movement worldwide.