The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
Today's date is: 5/12/2025
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| 28 It is possible that it was a common belief among Jews that the name of the city was changed by the Persian king, Cambyses, when he invaded Ethiopia in the sixth century and that Josephus was merely echoing a popular tradition. There appears to be no historical evidence to support this tradition and, indeed, its accuracy is doubtful because the Ethiopian capital had previously been at Napata until it was moved to a new site further up the Nile at Meroe about the time of Cambyses' invasion, which was some 400 years after the queen was supposed to have lived. The point, however, is that in the popular mind the chief city of Ethiopia was known as Sheba or Saba at the time of King Solomon while the capital of the Sabaean kingdom in south-west Arabia, called Marib, situated about seventy miles east of Sanaa, did not reach a high point of its civilisation until about the fifth century BC. The Sabaeans founded colonies on the west side of the Red Sea and this emigration across the water could perhaps account for the presence of the name of Sheba in the genealogies of both Ham and Shem. It is also worth noting the similarity between the name of Assab ( or Sabae) on the Red Sea coast and Saba, to which Bruce had called attention. He detected, too, a relationship between this place-name and the Ethiopic Azeb, meaning south. At any rate, a Jewish tradition had apparently become established by the first century AD, when Josephus was writing, that the Queen of the South originated from Ethiopia and that her capital was called Saba until it was later renamed Meroe. Josephus's reference to Saba appears in the context of his engaging story of Moses' expedition against the Ethiopians in his Antiquities of the Jews. It has no counterpart in the Bible and tells how, at Pharaoh's urgent request, and with his daughter's agreement, Moses was commissioned to lead an Egyptian army against the Ethiopians who were invading the country. With the aid of ibis birds, which the Egyptians carried in baskets and released to attack flying snakes, (1) Moses defeated the enemy and found himself in front of Saba, the royal city of Ethiopia. Owing to its natural advantages and the strength of its fortifications at the confluence of three rivers, the city proved impregnable. However, the Ethiopian king's daughter, Tharvis, seeing Moses from the city walls, instantly fell in love with him and promised to surrender the city if he would marry her. The bargain was struck and Moses, in the role of an Egyptian general, returned victorious to Egypt.(2) (1) Herodotus also, in chapter XIII of A. J. Evans's edition, refers to the Egyptians' use of ibises for warding off flying snakes. |