Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
The Abyssinians, both Jews and Christians, believe the xlvth psalm
to be a prophecy of this queen’s voyage to Jerusalem; that she was
attended by a daughter of Hiram’s from Tyre to Jerusalem, and that the
last part contains a declaration of her having a son by Solomon, who
was to be king over a nation of Gentiles.
To Saba, or Azab, then, she returned with her son Menilek, whom, after
keeping him some years, she sent back to his father to be instructed.
Solomon did not neglect his charge, and he was anointed and crowned
king of Ethiopia, in the temple of Jerusalem, and at his inauguration
took the name of David. After this he returned to Azab, and brought
with him a colony of Jews, among whom were many doctors of the law of
Moses, particularly one of each tribe, to make judges in his kingdom,
from whom the present Umbares (or Supreme Judges, three of whom always
attend the king) are said and believed to be descended. With these
came also Azarias, the son of Zadok the priest, and brought with him a
Hebrew transcript of the law, which was delivered into his custody, as
he bore the title of Nebrit, or High Priest; and this charge, though
the book itself was burnt with the church of Axum in the Moorish war
of Adel, is still continued, as it is said, in the lineage of Azarias,
who are Nebrits, or keepers of the church of Axum, at this day. All
Abyssinia was thereupon converted, and the government of the church and
state modelled according to what was then in use at Jerusalem.
By the last act of the queen of Saba’s reign, she settled the mode of
succession in her country for the future. First, she enacted, that the
crown should be hereditary in the family of Solomon for ever. Secondly,
that, after her, no woman should be capable of wearing that crown or
being queen, but that it should descend to the heir male, however
distant, in exclusion of all heirs female whatever, however near; and
that these two articles should be considered as the fundamental laws
of the kingdom, never to be altered or abolished. And, lastly, That
the heirs male of the royal house, should always be sent prisoners to
a high mountain, where they were to continue till their death, or till
the succession should open to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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