Menelik I


Menelik I, or Menilek was the first emperor of Ethiopia. In the 10th century BC, he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel and of Makeda, the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba

Life

According to the medieval African book of the Kebra Nagast, translated into Geʽez in 1321 CE, this man's name was Bäynä Ləḥkəm . He was conceived when his father Solomon tricked his visiting mother, the Queen of Sheba, into sleeping with him. His mother raised him as a Jew in Ethiopia and he only traveled to Jerusalem to meet his father for the first time when he was in his twenties. While his father begged Menelik to stay and rule over Israel, Menelik told him that he wanted to return to Ethiopia. So, Solomon sent many Israelites with him, to aid him in ruling according to biblical standards, and they, aggrieved at being exiled forever, King Solomon gave his Ark of the Covenant to his son as gift for being his son and being king of Ethiopia. Menelik then became king of Ethiopia, upon the death of his mother.

Dynasty

According to legend, Menelik I founded the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia that ruled Ethiopia with few interruptions for close to three thousand years. This ended 225 generations later, with the deposition of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. However, historical records show that the Solomonic dynasty began in 1262 CE, when Yekuno Amlak, who claimed descent from the Kings of Aksum and Solomon and Sheba, overthrew the last ruler of the Zagwe dynasty, dismissing them as not of "the house of Israel". To date, there is no evidence that the people of highland Ethiopia were Jews before the fourth century CE.

Popular culture

Much tourist art in Ethiopia depicts the narrative about Menelk I in a series of , 44 scenes, eleven for each of four lines. The story depicted on them is the oral version, not the medieval text version.
2004 short documentary, Menelik I, was filmed in Ethiopia. It tells the story of the son of the Queen of Sheba through tableau images and music.