Sheba
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- For other uses, see Sheba (disambiguation).
Sheba (from the English transcription of the Hebrew name sh'va: שבא, and Saba, Arabic: سبأ, also Saba, Amharic: ሳባ) is a southern kingdom mentioned in the Jewish scriptures (Old Testament) and the Qur'an. The actual location of the historical kingdom is disputed between Ethiopia and Yemen. However, it is possible that it could have been situated in Ethiopia and Yemen.
In the Old Testament genealogy of the nations (Genesis 10:7), Sheba, along with Dedan, is listed as one of the descendants of Noah's son Ham (i.e. son of Raamah son of Cush son of Ham). In Genesis 25:3, Sheba and Dedan are listed as sons of Jokshan. Another Sheba is listed in the Genesis 10 genealogy as a descendant of Noah's son Shem, i.e. a Semite. (There the genealogy lists Sheba as son of Joktan son of Eber son of Shelah son of Arphaxad son of Shem.)
The nation makes its first appearance in world literature in the form of the Queen of Sheba (named Makeda in Ethiopian tradition and Bilqis in Islamic tradition), who travels to Jerusalem to behold the fame of King Solomon (ca. 980 BC) (1 Kings 10). According to some traditions (the Biblical passage is silent), she either weds or has an affair with Solomon, eventually returning home with their child (Menelik, in Ethiopian tradition). The location of Sheba has thus become closely linked with national prestige, as various royal houses have claimed descent from the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. Long the most vigorous claimant has been Ethiopia and Eritrea, where Sheba was traditionally linked with the ancient Axumite Kingdom. As Ethiopia has remained a Christian state, the connection to Sheba has been an important one, especially to the ruling family, the Solomonic dynasty. The tradition that the biblical Queen of Sheba was a ruler of Ethiopia who visited King Solomon in Jerusalem in ancient Israel is supported by the 1st century ad Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who identified Solomon’s visitor as a queen of Egypt and Ethiopia. Also, there has been surmounting evidence of a region in northern Tigray and Eritrea which called itself Saba. While yet most scholars would call it Ethiopian Saba, which supports the fact that Sabean culture existed both in Ethiopia and Yemen, without one colonizing the other.
Recent archaeological evidence has not given strong support to the Ethiopian claim, however[citation needed], and today most scholars believe that, at most, the kingdom of Sheba controlled some coastal regions of Ethiopia and Eritrea while being centered on the southwestern tip of the Arabian peninsula, modern Yemen. Linguistic evidence also points to a close historical relationship between the two sides of the Red Sea, as South Semitic languages are found only in two places: southern Arabia (modern Yemen and Oman), and the Horn of Africa (Eritrea and Ethiopia). The modern Ge'ez alphabet is also descended from the old South Arabian alphabet.
Modern scholars tend to think a link to the Sabaeans of southern Arabia, who inhabited the same region, is the most probable. However, Ethiopisant Donald Levine argued in favor of one Ethiopian tradition that "Sheba is Shewa!"
Ruins in many other countries including Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, and Iran have been credited as being Sheba, but with only minimal evidence, and there has even been a suggestion of a link between the name Sheba and that of Zanzibar.
[edit] See also
N.B.: Genesis X:27
[edit] External links
- "Queen of Sheba mystifies at the Bowers" - UC Irvine news article on Queen of Sheba exhibit at the Bowers Museum
- "A Dam at Marib" from the 'Saudi Aramco World' online - March/April 1978
