The Kebra Nagast, often known as the “national epic of Ethiopia,” is a long text written in Ge’ez in the 1300s which details the history of Ethiopian monarchs who descend from King Solomon.
This narrative is an invention of the fourteenth century meant to support the concept of a "sacred dynasty" anointed by God. The excerpts we’ll focus on most closely involve the relationship between Solomon and Makeda (the Queen of Sheba in the southern Arabian Peninsula), the rise of their son Menelik, the transporting of the Ark of the Covenant to his kingdom in Ethiopia, and the eventual conversion of Ethiopia (the kingdom of Axum) to Christianity in the 300s.
The Kebra Nagast is an exceptionally powerful piece of political ideology and is seen by many modern Ethiopian Orthodox Christians as a historically accurate account attesting to a direct line between ancient, medieval, and modern authority.
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