Sheba (; he, ''Šəḇāʾ''; ar, سبأ ''Sabaʾ''; Ge'ez: ሳባ ''Saba'') is a kingdom mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Old Testament) and the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

. Sheba features in

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, Muslim, and Christian traditions, particularly the Ethiopian

Orthodox Tewahedo {{Short description, Collective term for Oriental Orthodox Churches in Eritrea and Ethiopia Orthodox Tewahedo refers to two Oriental Orthodox Christian denominations with shared beliefs, liturgy, and history. The Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon is ...

tradition. It was the home of the biblical "

Queen of Sheba The Queen of Sheba ( he, מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא‎, Malkaṯ Šəḇāʾ; ar, ملكة سبأ, Malikat Sabaʾ; gez, ንግሥተ ሳባ, Nəgśətä Saba) is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the original story, she bring ...

", who is left unnamed in the Bible, but receives the names ''Makeda'' in Ethiopian and ''Bilqīs'' in Arabic tradition. According to

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

it was also the home of the biblical " Princess Tharbis" said to have been the first wife of Moses when he was still a prince of Egypt. There are competing theories of where this kingdom was, with some placing it in either South Arabia or the Horn of Africa.

Encyclopedia Britannica An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articl ...

posits that the biblical narrative about the kingdom of Sheba was based on the ancient civilization of

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Şaba (Romanian for Shabo), a town of the Odesa Oblast, Ukraine * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Saba (river), ...

(

Old South Arabian Old South Arabian (or Ṣayhadic or Yemenite) is a group of four closely related extinct languages spoken in the far southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script. There were a number of othe ...

: 𐩪𐩨𐩱 ''S-b-ʾ'') in South Arabia. This view is echoed by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman who write that "the Sabaean kingdom began to flourish only from the eighth century BCE onward" and that the story of Solomon and Sheba is "an

anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...

seventh-century set piece meant to legitimize the participation of Judah in the lucrative Arabian trade".

Biblical tradition

The two names Sheba (spelled in Hebrew with '' shin'') and Seba (spelled with '' samekh'') are mentioned several times in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

with different genealogy. For instance, in the

Generations of Noah The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or Origines Gentium, is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible (Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after the Flood, focusing on the major known socie ...

Seba, along with Dedan, is listed as a descendant of Noah's son

Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term "ham ...

(as sons of

Raamah Raamah ( he, , ''Raʿmā'') is a name found in the Torah, meaning "lofty" or "exalted", and possibly "thunder". The name is first mentioned as the fourth son of Cush, who is the son of Ham, who is the son of Noah in Gen. 10:7, and later appears ...

, son of Cush). Later on in the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...

, Sheba and Dedan are listed as names of sons of

Jokshan Jokshan ( ar, يقشان, ''yoqšān''). According to the Bible he was a son of Abraham (Avraham) and his wife or concubine Keturah, whom he wed after the death of Sarah. Jokshan had five brothers: Zimran, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah; as we ...

, son of

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...

. Another Sheba is listed in the Table of Nations as a son of

Joktan Joktan (also written as Yoktan; ; ar, يقطان, translit=Yaqṭān) was the second of the two sons of Eber (Book of Genesis 10:25; 1 Chronicles 1:19) mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He descends from Shem, son of Noah. In the Book of Genesis 10:25 ...

, another descendant of Noah's son

Shem Shem (; he, שֵׁם ''Šēm''; ar, سَام, Sām) ''Sḗm''; Ge'ez: ሴም, ''Sēm'' was one of the sons of Noah in the book of Genesis and in the book of Chronicles, and the Quran. The children of Shem were Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lu ...

. There are several possible reasons for this confusion. One theory is that the Sabaeans established many colonies to control the trade routes and the variety of their caravan stations confused the ancient

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

, as their

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

was based on geographical and political grounds and not necessarily racial. Another theory suggests that the

Sabaeans The Sabaeans or Sabeans ( Sabaean:, ; ar, ٱلسَّبَئِيُّوْن, ''as-Sabaʾiyyūn''; he, סְבָאִים, Səḇāʾīm) were an ancient group of South Arabians. They spoke the Sabaean language, one of the Old South Arabian langu ...

hailed from the southern

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

and established their kingdom on the ruins of the

Minaeans The Minaean people were the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ma'in ( Minaean: ''Maʿīn''; modern Arabic ''Maʿīn'') in modern-day Yemen, dating back to the 10th century BCE-150 BCE. It was located along the strip of desert called Ṣayhad ...

. The most famous claim to fame for the biblical land of Sheba was the story of the

, who travelled to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

to question King Solomon, arriving in a large caravan with precious stones, spices and gold (). The

apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

l Christian Arabic text ''Kitāb al-Magall'' ("Book of the Rolls"), considered part of

Clementine literature Clementine literature (also called Clementina, Pseudo-Clementine Writings, Kerygmata Petrou, Clementine Romance) is the name given to the religious romance which purports to contain a record made by one Clement (whom the narrative identifies as ...

, and the Syriac ''

Cave of Treasures The ''Cave of Treasures'' (Syriac ''M'drāth Gazzē'', Arabic ''Maghārat al-Kunūz'', Ge'ez ''Baʿāta Mazāgebet'' Tigrinya መዝገብ ገዛ ) sometimes referred to simply as ''The Treasure'', is an apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical work, th ...

'', mention a tradition that after being founded by the children of Saba (son of Joktan), there was a succession of 60 female rulers up until the time of Solomon.

, in his '' Antiquities of the Jews'', describes a place called Saba as a walled, royal city of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

that Cambyses II renamed as

Meroë Meroë (; also spelled ''Meroe''; Meroitic: or ; ar, مرواه, translit=Meruwah and ar, مروي, translit=Meruwi, label=none; grc, Μερόη, translit=Meróē) was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east ...

. He writes that "it was both encompassed by the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

quite round, and the other rivers, Astapus and Astaboras", offering protection from both foreign armies and river floods. According to Josephus it was the conquering of Saba that brought great fame to a young Egyptian prince, simultaneously exposing his personal background as a slave child named Moses.

Muslim tradition

In the

, Sheba is mentioned in surat '' an-Naml'' in a section that speaks of the visit of the

to Solomon. The Quran mentions this ancient community along with other communities that were destroyed by God. Bilquis

Hafiz - Left Side of a Double-page Illustrated Frontispiece Depicting Queen Sheba (Bilqis) Enthroned - Walters W6313A - Full Page

In the

, the story essentially follows the Bible and other Jewish sources. Solomon commanded the Queen of Sheba to come to him as a subject, whereupon she appeared before him (''an-Naml'', 30–31, 45). Before the queen had arrived, Solomon had moved her throne to his place with the help of one who had knowledge from the scripture(''Quran'' 27:40). She recognized the throne, which had been disguised, and finally accepted the faith of Solomon. Muslim commentators such as al-Tabari,

al-Zamakhshari Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari (; 1074 –1143) was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian peoples, Iranian descent. He travelled to Mecca, Makkah and settled there for five years and has been known since then as Jar Allah ‘God's Ne ...

al-Baydawi Qadi Baydawi (also known as Naṣir ad-Din al-Bayḍawi, also spelled Baidawi, Bayzawi and Beyzavi; d. June 1319, Tabriz) was a Persian jurist, theologian, and Quran commentator. He lived during the post- Seljuk and early Mongol era. Many commen ...

supplement the story at various points. The Queen's name is given as ''Bilqis'', probably derived from Greek παλλακίς or the Hebraised ''pilegesh'', "concubine". According to some he then married the Queen, while other traditions assert that he gave her in marriage to a tubba of Hamdan. According to the Islamic tradition as represented by al-Hamdani, the queen of Sheba was the daughter of Ilsharah Yahdib, the Himyarite king of Najran. Although the Quran and its commentators have preserved the earliest literary reflection of the complete Bilqis legend, there is little doubt among scholars that the narrative is derived from a Jewish

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

. Bible stories of the Queen of Sheba and the ships of

Ophir Ophir (; ) is a port or region mentioned in the Bible, famous for its wealth. King Solomon received a shipment from Ophir every three years (1 Kings 10:22) which consisted of gold, silver, sandalwood, pearls, ivory, apes, and peacocks. ...

served as a basis for legends about the Israelites traveling in the Queen of Sheba's entourage when she returned to her country to bring up her child by Solomon. There is a Muslim tradition that the first Jews arrived in Yemen at the time of King Solomon, following the politico-economic alliance between him and the Queen of Sheba. Muslim scholars, including Ibn Kathir, related that the people of Sheba were

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

from South Arabia.

Ethiopian and Yemenite tradition

In the medieval Ethiopian cultural work called the

Kebra Nagast The Kebra Nagast, var. Kebra Negast ( gez, ክብረ ነገሥት, ), or The Glory of the Kings, is a 14th-century national epic from Ethiopia, written in Ge'ez by Nebure Id Ishaq of Axum, by the office of Abuna Abba Giyorgis and at the command ...

, Sheba was located in Ethiopia. Some scholars therefore point to a region in the northern Tigray and Eritrea which was once called Saba (later called Meroe), as a possible link with the biblical Sheba. Donald N. Levine links Sheba with Shewa (the province where modern

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

is located) in Ethiopia. Traditional Yemenite genealogies also mention Saba, son of

Qahtan The terms Qahtanite and Qahtani ( ar, قَحْطَانِي; transliterated: Qaḥṭānī) refer to Arabs who originate from South Arabia. The term "Qahtan" is mentioned in multiple ancient Arabian inscriptions found in Yemen. Arab traditions b ...

; Early Islamic historians identified Qahtan with the Yoqtan (

) son of

Eber Eber ( he, , ʿĒḇer; grc-x-biblical, Ἔβερ, Éber; ar, عٰابِر, ʿĀbir) is an ancestor of the Ishmaelites and the Israelites according to the "Table of Nations" in the Book of Genesis () and the Books of Chronicles (). Lineage ...

( Hūd) in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' James A. Montgomery finds it difficult to believe that Qahtan was the biblical

based on

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

Speculation on location

The location of the kingdom mentioned in the Bible was long disputed. Owing to the connection with the Queen of Sheba, the location has become closely linked with national prestige, and various royal houses claimed descent from the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. According to the medieval Ethiopian work ''

'', Sheba was located in Ethiopia. Ruins in many other countries, including Sudan,

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

have been credited as being Sheba, but with only minimal evidence. Even a massive earthen monument of the Yoruba people in Nigeria known as

Sungbo's Eredo Sungbo's Eredo is a system of defensive walls and ditches that is located to the southwest of the Yoruba town of Ijebu Ode in Ogun State, southwest Nigeria (). It was built in 800–1000 AD in honour of the Ijebu noblewoman Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo. ...

is held by Yoruba oral tradition to have been built in honour of the powerful aristocrat

Oloye Oba means ″ruler″ in the Yoruba and Bini languages of West Africa. Kings in Yorubaland, a region which is in the modern republics of Benin, Nigeria and Togo, make use of it as a pre-nominal honorific. Examples of Yoruba bearers include Oba ...

Bilikisu Sungbo, who is often said to have been Queen Bilqis."Archaeologists find clues to Queen of Sheba in Nigeria", ''Nigeria News'', 4 June 1999.

References

Bibliography

*Alessandro de Maigret. ''Arabia Felix'', translated Rebecca Thompson. London: Stacey International, 2002. *

Andrey Korotayev Andrey Vitalievich Korotayev (russian: link=yes, Андре́й Вита́льевич Корота́ев; born 17 February 1961) is a Russian anthropologist, economic historian, comparative political scientist, demographer and sociologist, ...

''Ancient Yemen''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995
. *Andrey Korotayev. ''Pre-Islamic Yemen''. Wiesbaden:

Harrassowitz Harrassowitz Verlag is a German academic publishing house, based in Wiesbaden. It publishes about 250 scholarly books and periodicals per year on Oriental, Slavic, and Book and Library Studies. The publishing house is part of the company Otto Ha ...

Verlag, 1996. . *Kenneth A. Kitchen: The World of Ancient Arabia Series. Documentation for Ancient Arabia. Part I. Chronological Framework & Historical Sources. Liverpool 1994. *Andrey Korotayev. ''Pre-Islamic Yemen''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1996, . *Walter W. Müller: Skizze der Geschichte Altsüdarabiens. In: Werner Daum (ed.): ''Jemen''. Pinguin-Verlag, Innsbruck / Umschau-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1987, , S. 50–56. *Walter W. Müller (Hrsg.), Hermann von Wissmann: Die Geschichte von Sabaʾ II. Das Grossreich der Sabäer bis zu seinem Ende im frühen 4. Jh. v. Chr. (= Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften,Philosophisch-historische Klasse. Sitzungsberichte. Vol. 402). Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1982, . *Jaroslav Tkáč: Saba 1. In: ''Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft'' (RE). Band I A,2, Stuttgart, 1920, Pp. 1298–1511. *Hermann von Wissmann: ''Zur Geschichte und Landeskunde von Alt-Südarabien'' (Sammlung Eduard Glaser. Nr. III = Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte. Band 246). Vienna: Böhlaus, 1964. *Hermann von Wissmann: Die Geschichte des Sabäerreiches und der Feldzug des Aelius Gallus. In: Hildegard Temporini: ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt''. II. Principat. Ninth volume, First halfvolume. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1976, , p. 308 *Pietsch, Dana, Peter Kuhn, Thomas Scholten, Ueli Brunner, Holger Hitgen, and Iris Gerlach. "Holocene Soils and Sediments around Ma’rib Oasis, Yemen, Further Sabaean Treasures." ''The Holocene'' 20.5 (2010): 785-99. Print. *"Saba'", ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2013. Web. 27 September 2013.

External links

"Queen of Sheba mystifies at the Bowers"
– UC Irvine news article on Queen of Sheba exhibit at the Bowers Museum

from the ''Saudi Aramco World'' online – March/April 1978
Queen of Sheba Temple restored (2000, BBC)
*William Leo Hansberry, E. Harper Johnson
"Africa's Golden Past: Queen of Sheba's true identity confounds historical research"
''

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when ...

'', April 1965, p. 136 — thorough discussion of previous scholars associating Biblical Sheba with Ethiopia. {{Authority control Ancient peoples Arabian Peninsula Hebrew Bible places Sabaeans Quranic places African civilizations Book of Genesis South Arabia Former kingdoms