Whether true or false, the story of the Jewish princess who overthrew the Christian monarchy and made herself Queen of Ethiopia for a span of forty years is widely believed and richly embroidered by tradition. The legend is reminiscent of the tale of the Berber Jewish queen, Dahyah al-Kahina, who fought against the Muslim invaders in the Atlas mountains in the eighth century and was killed in battle. One of the few documents of the period of Queen Judith is a letter written shortly after 979 by the Abyssinian king to his Christian contemporary, King George of Nubia, asking for assistance to counteract the persecution of Christians by a queen who had usurped his throne. At the end of Judith's reign the Solomonic line regained control'for a short period but was replaced in the first half of the twelfth century by a new dynasty of ancient Agau origin known as the Zagwes, who provided eleven successive rulers, of whom, it is believed, the first five were Jewish or pagan and the remainder Christian.(1) Of the latter, the most famous was Lalibela during whose reign in the early thirteenth century the magnificent rock-hewn churches of Roha, in Lasta province, were built in a town which now bears his name.

These monuments are not only of great archaeological interest but also witness to the royal builder's deep attachment to biblical tradition. The churches themselves, says Doresse, 'in their originality of design and artistic achievement . . . must be ranked amongst the finest architecture of the Christian world'. (2) By using place-names from the Holy Land, such as the River Jordan, an attempt seems to have been made to present the new capital city as a kind of new Jerusalem. The biblical precept against graven images is scrupulously observed in Ethiopia but in one of these rock-hewn churches an exception has been made, possibly unique in the country, where effigies of saints have been carved in relief." The prohibition against making a representation of the human figure does not extend to paintings, which adorn Ethiopian churches in profusion. According to tradition Lalibela brought craftsmen from Jerusalem or Egypt to help construct the churches, the Muslim persecutions having driven out numbers of Egyptian Copts.(4) The establishment of the Zagwe dynasty created its own legend in Falasha lore. Tradition has it that besides taking the Queen of Sheba into his bed King Solomon also worked his will on her

(1)Pankhurst, p. 61.
(2) Ethiopia, p. 113.
(3) Buxton, Travels in Ethiopia, p. 166.
(4) Doresse, Ethiopia, p. 95.