Part 1 Sheba

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©2005 by Bernard LeemanAll rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form,without written permission from the author

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Cover: The Queen of Sheba’s Bath at Aksum, Ethiopia

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rofessional archaeology in the Holy Land datesfrom the 1920s and has been characterized by Jewish and Christian attempts to substantiate the

Biblical record. While evidence has been unearthed thatsupports the account of the post-Babylonian captivity,renown archaeologists such as Kenyon, Pritchard, Thompson, Glock, Hertzog, Silberman, and Finkelsteinhave concluded that the Old Testament is either afantasy or highly exaggerated. Joshua’s invasion of Canaan has been reinterpreted as a peaceful migrationand no traces have been found of the massive publicworks allegedly contracted in Jerusalem by Solomon orin Samaria by Omri. If these monarchs existed, theywould have been little more than petty village headmenwith imaginative publicists. This so-called minimalist outlook is fiercely challenged by others who believethat the evidence to support the Old Testament hasliterally yet to be uncovered.

P

This book examines evidence connected with thelife of Queen of Sheba, including Sabaean inscriptionson the Ethiopian plateau, aspects of the Ancient WestArabian language, and geographical references in Ge’ezKebra Nagast to offer a third alternative. It argues thattheOld Testament is an accurate account but its eventsprior to 586 BCE took place not in Palestine but inWestArabia, , and to a lesser extent in Ethiopia and Eritrea.It suggests that scholars are unwilling to consider sucha strong possibility because, if true, it would not only

completely undermine the raison d’être of the State of Israel but also force a total reassessment of Biblical,Arabian, and North East African history.

By accepting African traditions in providing asolution to the bitter division in Biblical scholarship,this book ranks with Martin Bernal’s Black Athena inits degree of controversy and presenting evidence thatmost scholars should address.



The Author

Bernard Leeman holds Bachelor and Doctoratedegrees in African History from London and BremenUniversities, and a Masters in Applied Linguistics fromthe University of the Northern Territory, Australia. Hebegan his academic career teaching at AsmaraUniversity, Eritrea. In 2001 he was Visiting Fellow atOxford University, and from 2002 to 2004 taught atLondon University’s School of Oriental and AfricanStudies.



CONTENTS

Maps___________________________________________ii

Acknowledgments ________________________________iii

Introduction _____________________________________iv

CHAPTER 1:Sheba, Zionism, and the Old Testament________1

CHAPTER 2: The Search for Evidence___________________31

CHAPTER 3:Writing the Old Testament__________________53

CHAPTER 4: The Queen of Sheba_______________________73

CHAPTER 5 The Kebra Nagast________________________114

CHAPTER 6Western Arabia and the Sheba-Menelik Cycle___161

CHAPTER 7 The Ark of the Covenant and JudaicInfluences________________________________226

APPENDIX AComparison of Subject Material Describingthe Queen of Sheba’s Visit to Solomon’s Court___255

APPENDIX B The Ge’ez (Ethiopic)Alphabet_________________________________257



QUEEN OF SHEBA AND ISRAEL ii

APPENDIX C The Ge’ez (Ethiopic) Numerals ______________258

APPENDIX DGe’ez transcript of sections of the Sheba-MenelikCycle of the Kebra Nagast_ ___________________________ 259

BIBLIOGRAPHY___________________________________270

INDEX___________________________________________280

MAPS

MAP 1Major locations mentioned in the text________________viii

Map 2 The Promised Land according to the Salibi Hypothesis___ix

Map 3Solomon’s Kingdom according to the Salibi Hypothesis___x

Map 4Ethiopian and Eritrean languages___________________xi

Map 5Menelik’s journey with Jerusalem sited in Palestine____98

Map 6Arabic dialects of Western Arabia_________________147

Map 7Menelik’s journey with Jerusalem in Arabia_________169



QUEEN OF SHEBA AND ISRAEL iii

Acknowledgments

should like to thank the following for their help andencouragement:

Elizabeth Abede, Fessehaye Abraham, Sofia Abraham,Peter Alexander, Laetitia Amon-Tanoh, David Appleyard,Douglas Archer, Antonio Arnazi-Villena, LetebrehanAssefaw, Tekie Asyhun, Seife Berhe, Lin Boyle, DavidDeaton, Jane Delahunty-Goodman, John Distefano, DavidDorward, Rodolpho Fattovich, Tigisti Fesshaye, DavidFisher, Asmeret Ghebreizgiabiher, Richard Gibson, Bill

Glanzman, Richard Greenfield, Bjoerne Grimsrud, BinkHallum, Harald Hammarström, Janet Hanley, MoktarHassan, Bernd Heine, David Hubbard, Grover Hudson,Miri Hunter-Haruach, Ararat Iyob, Debbie Jordan, WillKabaruka, Ed Keall, Ashenafi Kebede, Aubine Kirkley,Michael Kirkley, Ernst Knauf, Sergey Kotelnikov, AsliKylemariam, Kim Hang Eui, Kim Kyong Hyo, PotlakoLeballo, Lee So Young, Margaret Leeman, Trilas MateshaLeeman, Wolf Leslau, Yoseph Libsekal, Alf Lindberg,

Marcia Marsh-Hinds, Ntsukunyane Mphanya, StuartMunro-Hay, Julius Nyang’oro, Gerald Obermeyer, AileenPage, Richard Pankhurst, Tudor Parfitt, Park Kyoung Ran,Roy Pateman, Rosey Peacock, Tony Peacock, ElisabethPfützner, Helmut Pfützner, Pham Thi Huan, James Quirin,Ken Rook, Eric Ross, Kamal Salibi, Gordon Sato, NicoleSaulsberry, Peter Schmidt, Huda Seif, Kay Shelemay, JohnShoup, Neil Silberman, Zecarias Russom, Stephen Tavener, Tiberh Tesfamariam, Donica Tesfamariam, Desmond

Thomas, Thomas Thompson, Enzio Tonini, EdwardUllendorf, Simona Vitale, Elvie Weldon, Else Yttredal,Selamawit Zewolde.

I



Introduction

his book is designed to introduce college-levelstudents to Old Testament history and to showthat in western Arabia and in the Horn of Africa

evidence relating to the Queen of Sheba indicates thatthe Promised Land was most likely in western Arabia,not in Palestine.

TMy research on the Queen of Sheba was originally

inspired by the legend in my home region of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, that Menelik, son of Solomonand the Queen of Sheba, was buried in the crater of Kibo, the highest of Kilimanjaro's three peaks. The localChagga word for God is Ruwa/Looa, adopted from aCushitic people who settled there around 1000 yearsB.C.E. These Cushitic speakers, although later absorbedby Bantu-speaking settlers, nevertheless maintainedtheir own, separate Mbulu identity south of Arusha.Ruwa/Looa is a feminine noun and phoneticallyidentical to the Hebrew word for Holy Spirit, also afeminine noun.

My research produced nothing more than legendsthat long ago a great king was buried on the mountainand that a sacred book had been placed in the crater. Myinterest did however lead me to the Kebra Nagast, theancient Ge’ez manuscript, which, from ca. A.D. 1314

until 1974, served as one of the most importantdocuments in Ethiopian constitutional history. TheKebra Nagast is a combination of three ancientmanuscripts, written at different times, and finallyintertwined in a single document, edited in the firstyears of the fourteenth century A.D. The oldest sectionof theKebra Nagast is theSheba-Menelik Cycle, whichtells the story of the meeting, ca. 950 B.C.E., of KingSolomon and the Queen of Sheba, the birth of their son



QUEEN OF SHEBA AND ISRAEL v

Menelik, and the establishment of an Israelite state inEthiopia. The second part of the Kebra Nagast is the

Caleb Cycle, which deals with sixth-century A.D.Byzantine, southern Arabian and Aksumite (earlyEthiopian) political and religious issues. The third part isa brief account of how the Kebra Nagast was finallyedited in Aksum, ca. A.D. 1314.

After reading the Sheba-Menelik Cycle, my initialreaction was one of disappointment, for its geographicalreferences made no sense. Consequently, I rejected it ashaving no historical merit.

From 1974 to 1975, I taught in Jizan insouthwestern Saudi Arabia and was puzzled by theremains of substantial but uninvestigated ancient urbansettlements scattered about that region. I found that thereis very little literature on the pre-Christian history of theregion between Jeddah and the Yemen. Arab legendsabout an ancient Israelite presence in the region werenot at that time taken seriously by Western academics.

My interest in the Sheba-Menelik Cycle revived

following the 1985 publication of Kamal Salibi’s TheBible Came from Arabia. I sent Professor Salibi the listof locations mentioned in the Sheba-Menelik Cycle. Hereplied, confessing he was not conversant with theSheba-Menelik Cycle's content; nevertheless heprovided a map marking the place names. This mapconvinced me that the Sheba-Menelik Cycle was a truestory, for its narrative matched Old Testament locations

in western Arabia not Palestine.Place names, Arabian traditions, and the lack of

archaeological remains in Palestine/Israel did not offersufficient proof to argue the case of a western Arabianlocation for the Old Testament, and it would take muchmore research to uncover more convincing evidence. Ihad already spent several years in the most unpromisingcircumstances undertaking research for a Ph.D. in



QUEEN OF SHEBA AND ISRAEL vi

modern southern African politics. I had never receivedany financial assistance for my doctoral research, and

much of my work was undertaken clandestinely inSouthern Africa during military service against theapartheid regime. Research on the Sheba-Menelik Cycle presented similar problems, mostly because of the Saudigovernment's hostile attitude, the Ethiopian civil war,and the Eritrean war of independence.

I eventually immigrated to Australia and wasfortunately able to utilize the excellent facilities of theAustralian National University during my service in

Canberra for the Australian Army, the CommonwealthDepartment of Education, and as Australian Capital Territory representative of the African StudiesAssociation of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP).In 1994, I presented my views at the AFSAAPConference at La Trobe University, Australia. As aconsequence Professor Ashenafi Kebede of FloridaState University invited me to join the EthiopianResearch Council. In 1996, I went to the Asmara

University, Eritrea, as assistant professor and deputyhead of the History section, as well as a lecturer inphonetics and phonology in the English Department.During my stay at Asmara I copied out the entire Ge'eztext of the Kebra Nagast and also checked Bezold'sGerman translation against Wallis Budge's Englishversion. I shall always be grateful to all those whoencouraged my work, particularly students at AsmaraUniversity who asked for repeat lectures; and Dr

Desmond Thomas of the School of Oriental and AfricanStudies, London University, for using a 2003 video of my lecture on the Queen of Sheba as part of theacademic oral presentation training course.

This book evolved from the AFSAAP conferencepaper, and lectures I gave at Asmara and at universities,schools, and public meetings in Ethiopia, Tanzania,Kenya, Australia, the USA, South Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Morocco, and England. In my



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continuous work on this project, what strikes me most ishow the story of the Queen of Sheba evokes enthusiasm

even in societies with little or no Biblical tradition. Shewas young, beautiful, loved learning more than positionand wealth, and symbolizes a long lost gentler moretolerant world that continues to inspire idealists today.



QUEEN OF SHEBA AND ISRAEL viii

MAP 1

Major locations mentioned in the text



QUEEN OF SHEBA AND ISRAEL ix

MAP 2

The Promised Land according to the Salibi Hypothesis



QUEEN OF SHEBA AND ISRAEL x

MAP 3

The marked area is the region that contains the “Hebrew-

isms” recorded by Rabin in Ancient West Arabian, the Old Testament place names noted by Salibi, iron deposits, andan ancient Ark culture. It also straddles the lucrativeincense, gold, precious stones, and luxury goods traderoutes from Sabaea (Sheba). This area was temporarilyabandoned by Egyptian and Assyrian imperial control ca.1000-920 BCE, the same years as the zenith of the Israelitestates under David and Solomon.



QUEEN OF SHEBA AND ISRAEL xi

MAP 4

The Semitic Languages of Ethiopia and Agaw (CentralCushitic) remnant isolates



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Part 1 Sheba