The oldest story Ethiopia ever told
A queen travels north to test the wisest king alive. She leaves carrying his child.
Years later their son returns to Jerusalem, and when he goes home again the Ark of the Covenant goes with him.
For seven hundred years the Kebra Nagast has been read as the founding history of the Ethiopian nation and the sacred inheritance of its kings. Written in Ge'ez and preserved in the monasteries of Axum, it tells how Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, journeyed to the court of Solomon, how their son Menelik was born, and how the Ark of the Covenant came to rest in Ethiopia. It is scripture, chronicle, and national epic at once, and it still shapes how millions of people understand their own history.
Most English versions of this text are more than a century old. The language is dense, the sentences run long, and the story that made the work famous is buried under archaic phrasing. This edition changes that.
What you will find inside
● The complete epic, retold from beginning to end with nothing important left out
● Clear modern English that reads at a natural pace without flattening the weight of the original
● A historical introduction explaining where the text came from, when it was compiled, and why it carries the authority it does
● The full arc of the story: Sheba's journey, Solomon's court, the birth of Menelik, the taking of the Ark, and the founding of the Solomonic line
● Context for the traditions that grew from the text, in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and beyond
Who this is for
Readers of ancient and sacred literature. Anyone drawn to the Ark of the Covenant and the questions that surround it. Students of African history who want the sources rather than the summaries. Members of the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition and readers of the diaspora who grew up hearing pieces of this story and want the whole of it. And anyone who has ever wondered what actually happened between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
You do not need any background in theology or ancient history to follow it. The introduction gives you everything you need, and then the story takes over.
An ancient epic, told plainly, exactly as it deserves to be read.