The Glory of Kings

[Isaac ad]mitted that the royal line was broken and allowed the Zâguê kings to rule over Ethiopia until the reign of Yĕkûnô ’Amlâk, who restored the Solomonic line in 1270. He makes no attempt to justify God’s actions in this matter or to explain them. We learn, however, from the first section of the colophon A concluding statement in a manuscript providing details about its authorship and production that he wondered why God had neglected to have the Arabic version of the KEBRA NAGAST translated into the "speech of Abyssinia" The Ge'ez or Ethiopic language at an earlier date. He also wondered why ’Abu’l-’Izz and ’Abu’l-Faraj, who made the Arabic translation from the Coptic, did not create a version in Ethiopic as well.

In the explanation he attempts to give, he reminds us that the Arabic translation appeared while the Zâguê kings were still reigning. Since the KEBRA NAGAST was written to glorify the Solomonic line of kings, and its editors and translators regarded the Zâguê kings not only as non-Israelites but as "transgressors of the Law," the publication of a translation in the local language while the Zâguê were still on the throne would have led to the torture and death of its creators and the destruction of their work.

There is a legend in Ethiopian literature that when God created Adam, He placed a "Pearl" in his body. He intended for this Pearl to pass from Adam through a series of holy men, one after another, until the appointed time when it would enter the body of Hannâ¹ and form the substance of her daughter, the Virgin Mary. This "Pearl" passed through the body of Solomon, an ancestor of Christ. Since both Christ and Menyelek (the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba) were sons of Solomon, Ethiopian tradition considers them to be related to each other. Because Christ was the Son of God, and Menyelek was a kinsman of Christ, Isaac the Ethiopian held that Menyelek was divine. And Isaac...

¹ See the History of Hannâ, edited and translated by myself, in Lady Meux Manuscripts 2–5, page 164.