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Stray Notes on Aksum and Himyar

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Stray Notes on Aksum and Himyar Dan D. Y. Shapira Open University of Israel, Raíanannah STRAY NOTES ON AKSUM AND HIMYAR Aharon-Shemuel Rokhlin in memoriam I The Ethiopian civilization is a part of the Mediterranean one, and as such, it absorbed the basic Mediterranean-Biblical racial myth of color. However, the Mediterranization of Ethiopia happened only after their conversion to Christianity. The Ethiopians regard themselves as Israel thrice: as physical descendents of Menelik’s Levites and Israelites, according to the Kebra Na- gast; as Israel in spirito, Christians, who inherited the place of the carnal Israel; and, after Chalcedon, as the only true Christian church. A more an- cient, non-Mediterranean, component of Ethiopian civilization goes back to their Sabean, South-Arabian heritage. It was from Yemen that the Ethiopians got their language, their script and their historical tradition. This duality — and secondary nature — of the Ethiopian self-view prompted the inhabitants of this African land to stress, over centuries, that they, and they only, are the legitimate heirs of the source-cultures of their unique civilization. It is why Ethiopia, since the Aksumite times, claimed the legacy of both Saba and Israel. The (forged) Ethiopian legacy of the Queen of Sheba was the entrance ticket of these Semitized Chamites into the Judeo-Christian world, and the additional stress of their Israelite origins evidently raised their status in Chris- tendom. The basics of both claims are set in the Ethiopian book of uncertain date, The Glory of the Kings (Kebra Nagast).1 This composition was usually said to contain two «cycles» of traditions, that of the Queen of Sheba (ch. 21b, 22a–28, 29b–34a, 35–43, 54a–63, 84a–93, 94; this «cycle» is suppos- edly free of any Christian connection) and that of Caleb, the legendary 6th century king of Ethiopia (*Aksum), whom the scholars identified with Ella Asbaha (ch. 1a–21, 63b–83, 93b, 95a–117, 117b and the colophon, with pas- sages inserted in ch. 30, 33, 52, 44, 59; it was said that the staff of the alleged 1 For the text and the German translation, see C. BEZOLD, Kebra Nagast: Die Herrlichkeit der Könige (Munich, 1905); cf. Th. NÖLDEKE, A review of Bezold’s Ke- bra Nagast // Vienna Oriental Journal XIX (1905); for an English translation, see Sir E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, The Queen of Sheba and her only son Menyelek I (Oxford, 1932). For the meaning of the name, compare now M. KROPP, Zur Deutung des Titels «Kebra Nagast» // OC 80 (1996) 108–115. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 04:24:36AM via free access 434 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum translator from Arabic, Isaac the Priest, was responsible for historical inaccu- racies in ch. 113–116). Some scholars, and especially the Palestinian-American student of Na- gran and pre-Islamic Arabian Christianity, Irfan Shahid, looked for reflec- tions of historical data, namely the Aksumite-Himyarite hostilities in the first quarter of the 6th century, in the «Caleb cycle», and especially, in ch. 113– 117.2 The following is the English translation of the chs. 113–117, adopted, with minor changes, from Budge.3 Ch. 113, end: «Now this hath God showed me [to St. Gregory; DSh] in the pit. And as concerning the King of ETHIOPIA, and ZION, the Bride of heaven, and her chariot whereby they move, I will declare unto you that which my God hath revealed unto me and hath made me to understand. [ETHIOPIA] shall continue in the orthodox faith until the coming of our Lord, and she shall in no way turn aside from the word of the Apostles, and it shall be so even as we have ordered until the end of the world». And one answered and said unto the Worker of Wonders (i. e., GREGORY), «Now when SAMÂLYÂL cometh, who is the False Christ, will the faith of the people of ETHIOPIA be destroyed by his attack?» And GREGO- RY answered and said, «Assuredly not. Hath not DAVID prophesied say- ing, “ETHIOPIA shall make her hands come to God?” [Psalm lxviii. 31] And this that he saith meaneth that the ETHIOPIANS will neither pervert nor change this our faith and what we have ordered, and the faith of those who were before us, the teachers of the Law of the Apostles». Ch. 114: And the Tabernacle of the Law of God, the Holy ZION, shall remain here until that day when our Lord shall dwell on Mount ZION; and ZION shall come and shall appear unto all prepared, with three seals — even as MOSES gave her — as it saith in the Old Law and in the New, «At the testimony of two or three [witnesses] everything shall stand». And then, saith ISAIAH the Prophet, «The dead shall be raised up, and those who are in the graves shall live, for the dew which [cometh] from Thee is their life». And when the dead are raised up, His mercy whereby He watereth the earth shall cease; they shall stand up before Him with the works which they have done. And ENOCH and ELIAS shall come, being alive, so that they may testify, and MOSES and AARON from the dead shall live with everyone. And they shall open the things that fetter her (i. e., ZION), and they shall make to be seen the JEWS, the crucifiers, and they shall punish them and chide them because of all that they have done in perverting the Word of God. And the JEWS shall see what He wrote for them with His hand — the Words of His Commandment, and the manna wherewith He 2 Cf. I. SHAHID, The Kebra Nagast in the Light of Recent Research // Mus 89 (1976) 133–178. 3 WALLIS BUDGE, The Queen of Sheba... 221–227. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 04:24:36AM via free access D. D. Y. Shapira 435 fed them without toil [on their part], and the measure thereof; the GÔMÔR, and the spiritual ZION, which came down for their salvation, and the rod of AARON, which blossomed after the manner of MARY. Ch. 115: And He shall answer and say unto them, «Why did ye deny Me, and entreat Me evilly and crucify Me, [seeing that] I did all this for you, and that by My coming down [from heaven] I delivered you from SATAN and from the slavery of SATAN, and that I came for your sakes? Look ye and see how ye pierced Me with nails and thrust the spear through Me». And the Twelve Apostles shall be raised up, and they shall pass judgement upon them, and shall say unto them, «We would have made you hear, but ye would not hear the prophecy of the Prophets and the preaching of us the Apostles». And the JEWS shall weep and repent when it shall be useless to do so, and they shall pass into everlasting punishment; and with the Devil, their father who had directed them, and his demons who had led them astray, and with the wicked they shall be shut in. And those who have believed and who have been baptized in the Holy Trinity, and have received His Body and His Blood, shall become His serv- ants with their whole heart, for «there is no one who can hate His Body altogether». The Body of CHRIST crieth out in our Body, and He hath compassion because of His Body and Blood, for they have become His sons and His brethren. And if there be some who have sinned they shall be judged in the fire according to the quantity of their sins; he whose burden of sin is light his punishment shall be light, and he whose burden of sin is heavy, exceedingly great shall his punishment be. One day with God is as a period of ten thousand years; some there shall be who shall be punished for a day; and some for half a day, and some for three hours of a day, and some for one hour of a day; and some there shall be who shall be tested and who shall be absolved from their transgressions. Ch. 116: And the Archbishops answered and said unto GREGORY, the Worker of Wonders, «Behold now, thou hast told us concerning the van- quisher of the enemy of RÔMÊ, and now [tell us] of the chariot of ETHI- OPIA and whether it shall remain henceforward, to the Coming of CHRIST, as thou hast told us concerning ZION, and concerning the faith of the peo- ple of ETHIOPIA, and likewise if their chariot shall remain». And GRE- GORY said unto them, «It shall assuredly not disappear. And again, heark- en ye unto me and I will declare this unto you: A few JEWS shall lift up their heads against our faith in NÂGRÂN and in ARMENIA in the days after this, and this God will do by His Will so that He may destroy them, for ARMENIA is a territory of RÔMÊ and NÂGRÂN is a territory of ETHI- OPIA». Ch. 117: And the King of RÔMÊ, and the King of ETHIOPIA, and the Archbishop of ALEXANDRIA — now the men of RÔMÊ were orthodox — were informed that they were to destroy them. And they were to rise up to Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 04:24:36AM via free access 436 Scrinium II (2006). Universum Hagiographicum fight, to make war upon the enemies of God, the JEWS, and to destroy them, the King of RÔMÊ will destroy ‘ÊNYÂ [*Armenia?], and the King of ETHIOPIA will destroy PINHAS (PHINEHAS);4 and they were to lay waste their [Jewish] lands, and to build churches [«houses of Christianity] there, and they were to cut to pieces the kings of the JEWS at the end of this Cycle in twelve cycles of the moon.
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