Menelik I

Menelik I (called Bäynä Ləkḥəm in the Kəbrä Nägäśt; also named Ebna la-Hakim, Arabic: Ibn Al-Hakim, "Son of the Wise"), first Jewish Emperor of Ethiopia, is traditionally believed to be the son of King Solomon of ancient Israel and Makeda, ancient Queen of Sheba (in modern Yemen). He is alleged to have ruled around 950 BC, according to traditional sources. Tradition credits him with bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia, following a visit to Jerusalem to meet his father upon reaching adulthood. According to the Kebra Nagast, King Solomon had intended on sending one son of each of his nobles and one son each of each temple priest with Menelik upon his return to his mother's kingdom. He is supposed to have had a replica made of the Ark for them to take with them. Upon the death of Queen Makeda, Menelik assumed the throne with the new title of Emperor and King of Kings of Ethiopia.

According to "legend", he founded the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia that ruled Ethiopia with few interruptions for close to three thousand years (and 225 generations later ended with the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974).

A counterpoint to this legend is that kings of Ethiopia are only attested in record from the 700's BC, when the was a kingdom named D'mt located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia that existed during the late 8th to 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom exist. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before the Kingdom of Axum was established on the Red Sea coast in the 400's BC, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the united Aksumite kingdom possibly around the beginning of the 1st century AD.

In reality, the medieval incarnation of the Solomonic dynasty didn't come into power until 1262 AD, claiming descent from the Kings of Aksûm. The dynasty, a bastion of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, came to rule Ethiopia on 10 Nehasé 1262 AD EC (August 10, AD 1270) when Yekuno Amlak overthrew the last ruler of the Zagwe dynasty. Their predecessors, the Zagwe dynasty, were said to not be of "the house of Israel" (i.e. of Solomon and Menelik). The claims of descent of the Aksûmite Kings preceding the Zagwe dynasty are uncertain, though early pagan inscription denote the King as "son of the unconquerable [god] Mahrem" (translated in Greek as Ares), while medieval Ethiopian sources ascribe them a similar claim of descent. This is consistent with the earliest records that testify that one half of Ethiopians followed the laws of Moses, while the other half worshipped pagan gods.

See also

• Menelik II of Ethiopia (1844–1913)