The Kebra Negast ("Glory of the Kings") is a text written in the 13th century, which traces, among other things, the meeting between Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, and Solomon, King of Israel, 1000 years before Jesus Christ. From this union Menelik I would be born, of whom Haile Selassie is the 225th descendant. The Kebra Negast also relates how Menelik is said to have seized the Tablets of the Law, which are still said to lie today in the chapel of Saint Mary of Zion in Axum.
This is the first time this book has been translated into French, from Carl Bezold's critical edition ("Die Herrlichkeit der Könige", 1905), and from the manuscript of the Patriarchate of Ethiopia in the library at Addis Ababa.
To pull off this feat, Samuel Mahler, then a theology student, travelled to Ethiopia where he learned Amharic, then Ge'ez, the liturgical language in which the Kebra Negast is written. It took him two years to translate the text in full.
"Kebra Negast, la Gloire des Rois d’Ethiopie"
Les éditions de laboutiquedesartistes
168 pages - €19.90
Available only on the website www.laboutiquedesartistes.com.