Menelik I

Menelik I (Ge'ez: ምኒልክ, Mənilək) was the legendary first Emperor of Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel and of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba.

Life
According to the medieval Ethiopian book, the Kebra Nagast, written in Geʽez in 1321 CE,  his name was Bäynä Ləḥkəm (from ابن الحكيم, Ibn Al-Hakim, "son of the wise" ). He was conceived when his father Solomon tricked his visiting mother, the Queen of Sheba, into sleeping with him. His mother raised him as Jewish in her homeland, and he only traveled to Jerusalem to meet his father for the first time when he was in his twenties. While his father begged Menelik to stay and rule over Israel, Menelik told him that he wanted to return home. Thus, Solomon sent many Israelites with him, to aid him in ruling according to biblical standards; which were aggrieved at being exiled forever. One recount is that King Solomon gave the Ark of the Covenant to his son, while another states that Menelik and his Israelite companions took the Ark with them; and Solomon attempted to regain the ark but was unable to, due to its supernatural properties aiding Menelik. Upon the death of his mother, or upon her abdication in his favor, Menelik was crowned King of Ethiopia. According to one Ethiopian tradition, Menelik was born at Mai-Bela near the village of Addi-Shmagle, located north west of Asmara, in Eritrea.

Dynasty
According to legend, Menelik I founded the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia that ruled Ethiopia with few interruptions for close to three thousand years. This ended 225 generations later, with the deposition of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. Historical records show that the Solomonic dynasty was restored, based on the traditional narrative, in 1262 AD, when Yekuno Amlak, who claimed descent from biblical Solomon and Sheba, overthrew the last ruler of the Zagwe dynasty, dismissing them as not of "the house of Israel" (i.e., of Solomon). and re-established the Solomonic Dynasty in 1270 AD. Acts 8:26–40 depicts a 1st century account of a eunuch of Candace, Queen of Ethiopians on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, encountering Saint Philip in Samaria.

Popular culture
Much tourist art in Ethiopia depicts the narrative about Menelik I in a series of panels, 44 scenes, eleven for each of four lines. The story depicted on them is the oral version (beginning with a backstory on Sheba and including an Ethiopian maid who also becomes pregnant by Solomon), not the medieval text version.

2004 short documentary, Menelik I, was filmed in Ethiopia. It tells the story of the son of the Queen of Sheba through tableau images and music.

Tomb
A site known as the tomb of Menelik I is located 2 Kilometres west of Axum. A German expedition in 1906 discovered walls and a room at the site. The clergy of Axum collected bones that were alleged to belong to Menelik I and placed them in the Axum Sion Cathedral.

Ark of the Covenant
According to Ethiopian tradition, the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia by first born sons of the Israelites who accompanied Menelik on his return from Jerusalem. The Ark is believed to be held in Axum and no one is allowed to enter the shrine it is held in except for one monk who is assigned to look after it for life and is not allowed to leave the courtyard of the church. During the persecution of Gudit in the 10th century and the Ethiopian-Adal war in the 16th century the Ark was moved south to Lake Ziway and later brought back to Axum.