Queen of Sheba

The following text is a response sent to an email dispatched to me by the Chairman of the exiled Oromo Parliamentarians who struggle for the Independence and Self-determination of the 5 millennia long Kushitic Ethiopian Nation of the Oromos.
The Hamitic - Kushitic Oromo Nation - due to criminal, inhuman and evil persecution conceived by the colonial powers (France, England and America) and executed by the colonially promoted barbaric and incestuous pseudo-Christian Abyssinians - lost their kingdoms and were engulfed within the Cemetery of Nations Fake Ethiopia, which consists in the world's most tyrannical realm and the location of the world's more abhorrent, more enduring, and more multifaceted genocides. There are more than 45 million Oromos in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) and Kenya today, despite the notorious and pathetic falsehood propagated by Wikipedia.
The present text enumerates all the major points of historical distortion and falsification carried out and diffused by the colonial academia, mass media, and diplomats, as well as by their local agents and criminal executioners, i.e. the barbaric, incestuous and Anti-Christian tribes of Amhara and Tigray (: the Abyssinians), who usurped the fair name of Ethiopia, which historically denotes the land of North Sudan and the Kushitic Nation that prospered there either in the Antiquity or in the Christian Era. Both, the Oromos and the Arabic-speaking (but not Arab) populations of Northern-Central Sudan are the descendants of Ancient Sudan's (i.e. Ancient Ethiopia's) Kushitic populations.
Representative photographic documentation was herewith added to the text in order to better illustrate the topic.

Refutation of historical forgeries propagated by European colonials and incestuous Abyssinians
First published here:
https://megalommatiscomments.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/kushitic-oromos-ancestry-in-ethiopia-ancient-sudan-semitic-amharas-tigrays-abyssinians-ancestry-in-yemen/

The David and Solomon's kingdoms are no longer considered as historical by minimalist archeologists. According to Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman, for example, authors of The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, at the time of the kingdoms of David and Solomon, Jerusalem was populated by only a few hundred residents or less, which is insufficient for an empire stretching from the Euphrates to Eilath. They suggest that due to religious prejudice, the authors of the Bible suppressed the achievements of the Omrides. Some Biblical minimalists like Thomas L. Thompson go further, arguing that Jerusalem became a city and capable of being a state capital only in the mid-seventh century. Likewise, Finkelstein and others consider the claimed size of Solomon's temple implausible. A review of methods and arguments used by these minimalists shows that they are impostors for writing history. The historical testimonies dated by a chronology anchored on absolute dates (backbone of history) are replaced by archaeological remains dated by carbon-14 (backbone of myths). The goal of these unfounded claims is clearly the charring of biblical accounts.
https://www.lulu.com/shop/gerard-gertoux/kings-david-and-solomon-chronological-historical-and-archaeological-evidence/paperback/product-1r86w6my.html

The Queen of Sheba has been a popular subject in Western art from the medieval period up to the present day, firstly within a Christian context and highlighting her beauty and wealth, and latterly drawing more heavily on Islamic sources to emphasise her dangerous power. She has moved from church architecture and religious art into literature, poetry, the performing arts, film and popular music, and serves as a role model for those who flaunt their wealth or independence. There are a number of good studies which set her into the context of Judeo-Christian tradition (Pennacchietti 2002), Western European art and popular culture (Llewellyn-Jones 2002), Ethiopian art and belief (Ullendorf 1963), and Islamic tradition (Lassner 1993).
The attached list was begun in 2000 as part of the preparations for the special exhibition 'Queen of Sheba: Treasures from ancient Yemen', which was held at the British Museum in 2002. It is far from exhaustive but has been periodically updated and I am grateful to many individuals for supplying the information on which it is based, in particular Dr Roger Simpson, Dr Donato Esposito, Dr Alison Inglis, Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Ms Layla Atac. I would be grateful for all further additions. The British Museum has a strong and growing collection of related material, including European prints and drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings, modern printed ephemera and popular fiction in the Department of the Middle East, and Ethiopian paintings and modern ephemera in the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. The museum welcomes any offers of donation to these collections. Apart from books which are listed on COPAC, the remainder are all part of the museum’s registered collections and are on the British Museum Collections Online, through which images can be freely obtained. All of these items are also normally available for study in person by making appointments in the relevant departments. This bibliography is arranged according to categories, with references given in chronological order within each.

ADDITION:
Leila Bederkhan was a Kurdish dancer. Her father was a Kurd during the period of the Ottoman Empire and her mother was a Romanian Jew. Leila was born in Istanbul in 1903. More information may be found in 'Searching for Leila: the Kurdish Princess of Dance', Leyla Safiye, Avesta Publishing 2012.

Starting in the fifteenth century, images of the enthronement of Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba often appear in paintings in manuscripts from Persianate realms. These images draw upon the
Qurʾan and ancillary legends, but they developed quite separately from the textual impulse. This contribution
argues that the sophisticated interplay between words and images gave rise to an “opening”
picture in manuscripts in which the text of the Manṭiq al-Ṭayr is found. In this context, the images function
as an allegory for the mystical journey to God that is described in this text. They contributed much
to the development of an iconography that would henceforth be widely adopted, given a new affiliation,
and often altered for use in manuscripts of different and varied content.

Once, when King Solomon had bidden 1 the neighbouring kings bordering upon his country to come up unto him, for to shew them his glory, and especially, to shew them his ability to talk to the animals and birds and creeping things, compelling them to dance before him and to do whatsoever he should bid, 2 he obtained his desire. The kings of the east and west, north and south, soon gathered themselves together into his banqueting hall, and they all sat down to observe this great spectacle. When the king's scribes had called out to the animals by their names, they all entered the hall, one by one, without any man leading them, and without any of them being bound by fetters or restraints.

The thesis of this paper is: “The Song of Songs is a wisdom riddle about Solomon and his foreign wives. The riddle: “Who is the lover, who is the beloved, and who awakens love?” As a riddle, the Song was crafted to be intentionally confounding. An approach from three viewpoints intersects in one unavoidable answer: Solomon and his foreign wives (lover and beloved), with Lady Wisdom as the awakener.
The three viewpoints that illuminated this point: first, the nature of biblical poetry; second, the nature of Hebrew wisdom; and third, the myth of Solomon.  Orientation to these viewpoints is presented first; followed by a discussion of four themes which show support for the thesis.

s African Culture and Melville's Art examines how West African customs and rituals as practiced in the new world shaped Moby Dick; and Mechal Sobel's The World They Made Together suggests how West African ideas of time, spirit, and death influenced the American South (Gates 17; Gruesser; Stuckey; Sobel).

This thesis is focused on a previously unpublished collage comprised of two manuscript fragments from Safavid Iran. One fragment contains a painting that depicts an enthronement scene featuring King Solomon, which, as I argue, was taken from a copy of the Majalis al-Ushshaq by Kamal al-Din Gazurgahi. The other fragment contains verses from the Divan of Hafez. The fragment from the Divan has been gutted and overlaps the painting of Solomon, effectively framing the image. Through visual and textual analysis, I argue that both fragments come from manuscripts that were produced in Shiraz. I further argue that the painting of Solomon was executed at the asitana of Maulana Husam al-Din Ibrahim in the second quarter of the sixteenth century. My argument about the fragments’ origins is followed by an exploration of the painting’s symbolism in which I focus on a broken branch, an integral component of Solomon’s iconography in Persian painting. Finally, I explore the object’s afterlife and consider how the physical reconfiguration of these fragments causes them to take on new meaning. I read the fragments as a single folio and bring to light correlations between the text and image, which, were only realized because of their uncanny union. I conclude with the collage’s collection history and a hypothesis regarding the fragments’ transatlantic route.

Several misconceptions diffused by colonial historians and totalitarian governments need immediate refutation.

Ancient Ethiopia and its borders

Part of the Abyssinian state propaganda advances the idea that in the Antiquity “the Cushites populated the whole of Eastern Africa” and that “the majority lived in present day Abyssinia”. Even worse, these falsifiers diffuse the idea that at those days “Sudan and Ethiopia were one country” to add that “Abyssinians were just a few Sabaean (Yemenite) refugees who intermingled with the Kushite population”.

This is absolutely wrong, although there are some correct elements in it. In addition, it is said in a very misleading way! Even more, it is self-contradictory.
First published in AfroAticles, American Chronicle, and Buzzle on 21st April 2007
Republished in the present form on 13th January 2010 here: http://betterlesson.com/community/document/329273/american-chronicle-abyssinia-ethiopia-axum-meroe-yemen-history-and-modern-politics-pdf

Paper presented as lecture on various occasions

La leggenda della regina di Saba nella tradizione etiopica, in Fabio Battiato – Dorota Hartman – Giuseppe Stabile (a c.), La Regina di Saba: un mito fra Oriente e Occidente, Atti del Seminario diretto da Riccardo Contini, Napoli, Università “L’Orientale”, 19 novembre 2009 - 14 gennaio 2010 (Archivio di Studi Ebraici, 8, Napoli: Centro di Studi Ebraici, Università ‘L’Orientale’, 2016), pp. 91-162.

Solomon's father-in-law is shown to have been 18 th-Dynasty Thutmose III, who captured and burned Gezer and presented it to his daughter, Solomon's bride, as a wedding present. The reign of Hatshepsut, aunt/stepmother to Thutmose III, possibly overlapped with Solomon's early reign for a few years (although she was not the Queen of Sheba). Arguments that Shishak was Rameses II are shown to be flawed. A difference of about 470 years between the biblical and secular chronologies at the time of Solomon is therefore postulated. This moves all post-Thutmose III history forward into the first millennium bc.

For those with an interest in Nigerian claims to Jewish and Judaic traditions, Professor Fatai Ayisa Olasupo’s “Black African Jews, the Nigerian Question and the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel: A Comparison of Igbo and Yoruba Claims to Jewish and Judaic Traditions” (Vol. 7, No. 4, 2014, pp. 49-62) is intriguing.
As it is possible scholars attentive to the topic of Yoruba, Igbo, and smaller Nigerian ethnic groups tracing their roots or origins to the people of Israel may make use of Professor Olasupo’s article, it is useful here to address three errors and misconceptions contained therein, as well as offer some additional comments particularly related to Igbo Jewry.
The first of these misconceptions has to do with the relevance of the Queen of Sheba/Bilikisu Sungbo to Nigerian Jewish identity. It would be a grave misconstruction to interpret the state of Israel’s lack of interest in her supposed burial places as a “bias against blacks.” It is simply that she and the myth of Ethiopia’s Solomonic dynasty are largely outside the purview of Judaism and Jewish national identity. In fact, when the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef, declared in 1973 that the Jews of Ethiopia (the Beta Israel/House of Israel) should be brought to the state of Israel — thus paving the way for the community’s mass immigration to the Jewish state — he did so without any reference to King Solomon or the Queen of Sheba. Rather, the Chief Rabbi affirmed that the Beta Israel were “from the Tribe of Dan.”
A second error surrounds Professor Olasupo’s claim that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sent a team to Nigeria to search for the “Lost Tribes” in 1995, but that the outcome of the search has not been made public. In fact, no past or present Israeli governments have undertaken a search for the “Lost Tribes” in Nigeria and there is no search outcome to be made public by Israel’s government.
A third misconception in Professor Olasupo’s article concerns literature produced by Igbo Jews, which actually extends far beyond only one book on Igbo Jewish identity.
In such discussions there is good reason to be wary of “Lost Tribes” fetishists, and there is danger in politicizing Jewish identify. Mutual honesty — between Nigerians and World Jewry — is most important in this matter.

This article explores literary representations of female mobility in the Hebrew Bible. While it is often assumed that women barely moved in the ancient world, the study shows that the Hebrew Bible gives witness to a vast spectrum of travelling agents. The texts do not offer direct access to socio-historical realities, but as documents of cultural history, they are argued to hint at and echo the variety of the phenomenon in ancient Israel. It is not meaningful to speak of the travelling women as a collective, however, as the motives for their movement are tied to various socioeconomic contexts, ranging from slavery to economic migration to foreign policy. While class is fundamental to ancient female mobility, the sources also reveal the significance of other intersecting differences such as age, sexuality, kinship, ethnicity, or religion displayed by the (in)voluntary travelling agents.

As it is already known, local peoples in the area of Somalia, and the Horn of Africa area down to the coast of present day Mozambique, did not develop scriptures of their own in the pre-Christian and even the Pre-Islamic Antiquity.

So, contrarily to what happened in Yemen where Ancient Yemenite scripture was introduced already in the 6th century BCE (and was in use until the Islamization of the country, following Ali’s preaching in Sanaa in 630 CE) for the needs of writing down Minaean, Sabaean, Qatabani, Himyarite and Hadhramauti (the basic Ancient Yemenite languages), we have to rely exclusively on foreign literatures in our effort to reconstitute the Ancient History of the Eastern African Coast.

Although the area was at the confines of the then known world, the Eastern African Coast was constantly and regularly visited by Assyrians and Babylonians already in the 3rd millennium BCE. The area was described in Ancient Egyptian generically as 'Punt’, but to modern scholarship this term is difficult to be precisely delineated as a part of the entire area.
15 May 2008
http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/Article/Somalia-as-Part-of-the-East---West-Trade-during-the-Antiquity/101255

The author posted independently in his blog the answer that he gave to a viewer of a video-presentation of my article "Yemenis are Not Arab - Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis". The video is uploaded in many portals; indicatively:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpOx9xiHNGc
The author referred to me before replying and so his answer fully represents my opinion on the matter.
https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/if-yemenis-are-not-arab-why-did-the-romans-call-yemen-arabia-felix/

A Rainha de Sabá é uma das mais interessantes figuras femininas geradas na matriz judaico-cristã-islâmica, já que os discursos sobre si formam uma teia intrincada e cheia de dinamismo. O poema dramático de Eugénio de Castro, Belkiss (1894), foi um dos fios dessa teia, recortado no modelo estético simbolista. Encena o desejo e a sua maldição, opondo volúpia sensual e propostas quietistas. As sandálias desta Belkiss finissecular são as da sedutora perversa, da Bebé caprichosa, da mulher-marioneta e da heroína trágica presa do pathos de uma paixão excessiva pelo objecto ausente (Salomão) e da impossibilidade de controlar o próprio corpo.

Prodotto da IL TORCOLIERE -Officine Grafico-Editoriali di Ateneo Finito di stampare nel mese di dicembre 2016 LA REGINA DI SABA UN MITO FRA ORIENTE E OCCIDENTE SOMMARIO RICCARDO CONTINI Premessa 9-11 Il testo di 1Re 10:1-13 // 2Cr 9:1-12 12-15 ALESSANDRO DE MAIGRET Saba senza la Regina di Saba. Un profilo archeologico dei Sabei nella prima metà del I millennio a.C. 17-54 GIANCARLO LACERENZA Salomone e Saba: una relazione difficile 55-66 DOROTA HARTMAN La Regina di Saba dalla versione dei LXX ai vangeli 67-90 ALESSANDRO BAUSI La leggenda della Regina di Saba nella tradizione etiopica 91-162 DOROTA HARTMAN Salomone e la strega. La Regina di Saba nel Testamento di Salomone 163-178 VALERIO MASSIMO MINALE La Regina di Saba e la Sibilla: divagazioni su legge, diritto e giustizia nel Tardoantico e in Età Bizantina 179-208 GIOVANNI CANOVA Storia di Salomone e Bilqīs nella tradizione arabo-islamica 209-238 GIUSEPPE STABILE La Regina di Saba nella letteratura rumena antica: una tradizione solo slavo-bizantina? 239-286 LARA FORTUNATO La Regina di Saba in Boemia nel tardo Quattrocento 287-329 ANTONIO PETROSSI La Regina di Saba nell'immaginario della letteratura francese 331-344 LUCIA RAGGETTI Ad usum Delphini: Salomone, Bilqīs e l'upupa nella letteratura egiziana per l'infanzia 345-361 DONATELLA IZZO La Regina di Saba sbarca in America: episodi di viaggio 363-390 DOROTA HARTMAN La Regina di Saba dalla versione dei LXX ai vangeli There's not a man or woman born under the skies Dare match in learning with us two Solomon to Sheba, Yeats

The story of the Queen of Sheba originally appears in the Bible in the book of Kings, and is repeated almost verbatim in the book of Chronicles. We see a much extended version of it in the Quran, and later, it was embellished by not only Jewish and Muslim writers, but also the Ethiopians and Christians, as well as earning its place in folklore. This work attempts to present the most important Jewish and Muslim versions of the story and their interpretation, to suggest an overall interpretation of the theme of the Queen of Sheba and to show the connections between the individual versions. To this end, I’ll be drawing heavily on the work of Edmund Leach and his interpretations of power.

Prodotto da IL TORCOLIERE -Officine Grafico-Editoriali di Ateneo Finito di stampare nel mese di dicembre 2016 LA REGINA DI SABA UN MITO FRA ORIENTE E OCCIDENTE SOMMARIO RICCARDO CONTINI Premessa 9-11 Il testo di 1Re 10:1-13 // 2Cr 9:1-12 12-15 ALESSANDRO DE MAIGRET Saba senza la Regina di Saba. Un profilo archeologico dei Sabei nella prima metà del I millennio a.C. 17-54 GIANCARLO LACERENZA Salomone e Saba: una relazione difficile 55-66 DOROTA HARTMAN La Regina di Saba dalla versione dei LXX ai vangeli 67-90 ALESSANDRO BAUSI La leggenda della Regina di Saba nella tradizione etiopica 91-162 DOROTA HARTMAN Salomone e la strega. La Regina di Saba nel Testamento di Salomone 163-178 VALERIO MASSIMO MINALE La Regina di Saba e la Sibilla: divagazioni su legge, diritto e giustizia nel Tardoantico e in Età Bizantina 179-208 GIOVANNI CANOVA Storia di Salomone e Bilqīs nella tradizione arabo-islamica 209-238 GIUSEPPE STABILE La Regina di Saba nella letteratura rumena antica: una tradizione solo slavo-bizantina? 239-286 LARA FORTUNATO La Regina di Saba in Boemia nel tardo Quattrocento 287-329 ANTONIO PETROSSI La Regina di Saba nell'immaginario della letteratura francese 331-344 LUCIA RAGGETTI Ad usum Delphini: Salomone, Bilqīs e l'upupa nella letteratura egiziana per l'infanzia 345-361 DONATELLA IZZO La Regina di Saba sbarca in America: episodi di viaggio 363-390

The Ethiopian Bible book of Kebra Nagast, the story of the Queen of Sheba her travel to Israel to meet King Solomon.  Also includes another version of Genesis that's lots like the Book of Rolls.
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Renumbered into the hundreds, and sub-divided line-by-line for easy reading.  Turned out real nice!
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This is just the text!  The table of contents are located in the contents for TNMB vol 3,  book 1

Tras haberse ganado un puesto entre los profetas de Cristo, la Sibila experimentó a partir del siglo XIII en la iconografía cristiana un interesante proceso de reacentuación. La filosofía escolástica, el auge del culto mariano o el ascenso del movimiento joanquinista,  contribuyeron a subrayar bien su papel como mensajera de Cristo, bien como tronante voz del Juicio Final. El himno del Dies Irae, el gigantesco árbol de Jesé de la Catedral de Orvieto o los púlpitos de Giovanni Pisano en Pistoia y Pisa son todos ellos prueba de la actualidad de la imagen y la ampliación de su significado. Es en este período cuando la Sibila multiplica -por primera vez desde la Antigüedad-, su número en los programas figurativos, adopta el papel de la Virgen,  se compara –sobre todo en ámbito bizantino- con los sabios paganos, o entrar a formar parte –más allá del ámbito catedralicio- de la decoración de los palacios urbanos. En ese contexto triunfa el tema de las doce Sibilas como contrapunto de los doce profetas, pero también como símbolo de la universalidad geográfica de la providencia divina y de la unión entre paganismo y cristianismo. Todo ello nos permitirá entender mejor el éxito inusitado de su iconografía durante el Renacimiento así como la genial propuesta de Miguel Ángel en la Capilla Sixtina.

In the paper the mythopoetic image of Syria in O.I. Senkovsky's works is analysed.
Senkovsky is a famous founder and promoter of the genre of ''Oriental tales'' in the Russian literature of the 19th century, and the analysis of oriental myths in his work allows us to understand the depth and scope of Russian romantic Orientalism. The main aim of this paper is to present the Syrian field in the works by Senkovsky as a mythological construct.
For O.I. Senkovsky Syria is one of the meaningful parts of the Orient, which he mythologized for
many years of his life by different sides of his talent (scientific, artistic and journalistic). At the same time, united in the field of irony and self-irony, different approaches of Senkovsky formed a mythopoetic model of Syria as an Oriental country, which for many centuries had conceptual importance for the development of Russian culture.
The concept of Syria is most clearly reflected in two Senkovsky's texts: Antar (1832) and Memories of Syria (1834). In Memories of Syria Senkovsky positions himself as an enlightened European yearning to learn the Arabic language and having a real prestige among the Syrian natives, who call him ''Frank''
or ''Khawaja Yusuf''. In describing the nature of Syria Senkovsky is consistent in forming a mythopoetic space that influences human consciousness.
The oriental tale Antar seems to us the most representative for Syrian mythopoetics. The main structural elements of the Syrian construct in Antar include: a) mythopoetics and mystification of character names, b) formation of ''qasida'' discourse, and c) Biblical and Quranic context of the mythologems of
the Great Queen and the King-Founder.
Senkovsky consciously plays with the reader as a professional orientalist, he reduces historical and literary facts to the level of mass consciousness and represents Antar as a text of his oriental mythologizing. But for the archaeological value the ruins of Tadmor (Palmyra) represent mainly the cultural
and mythological value for Senkovsky, related to the sphere of Russian culture in connection with the metaphor of St. Petersburg as Northern Palmyra.
In addition to the ancient context, the image of Tadmor should be considered in the context of mythopoetics of the Bible and the Quran, because there are allusions in Antar that refer to the image of King Solomon, the Biblical myth of Tadmor's founding and the Quranic myth about the love between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba Balqis.
Syrian desert was not an entourage in the Oriental tales of Senkovsky. The main function of Senkovsky's mythopoetics of Syria was to form a rich in meanings reasoning field of Russia and of the contemporary Russian Romantic literature in the context of Russian and Western European Orientalism in the 19th century

Notre étude est consacrée à deux pages récemment découvertes issues d'un ma-nuscrit qui font partie de la collection privée de Guillaume Aral collectionneur de Nice, France. Les pages sont en bon état, même si leurs bords sont légèrement endommagés, mais en général elles ne le sont pas de manière visible. On peut remarquer d'un premier coup d'oeil que le style des illustrations et l'iconographie sont liés aux principes des miniatures des manuscrits royaux de Cilicie. Les pages sont en papier, les dimensions sont 26x20 cm, 35 lignes, en écriture en deux colonnes, boloragir (style d'écriture). Les pages sont décorées d'images marginales orientées verticalement ; en bas des pages et à l'intérieur du texte figurent également des miniatures de sujet. La partie du texte des pages du manuscrit correspond à La Dormition de l'Evangéliste Jean. Ce texte, qui est une partie de l'Evangile apocryphe attribué à Jean, entre dans la vie ecclésiastique arménienne grâce à Nersès de Lambron. A partir du XIIe siècle, la Dormi-tion de Jean devient un texte liturgique officiel 1. Nous le trouvons principalement dans les Maštoc (Rituel) du XIIIe siècle, dans les Lectionnaires et dans quelques recueils /dans lesquels sont inclus les commentaires de Nersès de Lambron/, ainsi que plus rarement dans les Evangiles. Au XIIIe siècle, cette scène apparaît dans les manuscrits de Cilicie, en particulier dans le Maštoc peint par To-ros Roslin en 1266 /Jérusalem, la collection de Monastère Saint-Jacques, numéro du ma-nuscrit N. 2027/, où elle aussi est accompagnée de la miniature sur toute la page repré-sentant la scène correspondante. Le sujet de notre étude est connu aussi dans l'Evangile N. 197 /Matenadaran M. Mashtots d'Erévan/, commandé par Jean, le frère du roi / le frère du roi Het'um 1 er /. Il est à noter que dans les feuilles qui font l'objet de notre étude, le texte décrivant la Dormition de Jean est accompagné de miniatures, qui n'ont aucun lien avec cette scène. Afin de faciliter la description des pages, nous allons les numéroter en suivant la sé-quence du texte, respectivement 1r, 1v, 2r, 2v. La lecture décrivant la Dormition de Jean commence immédiatement par le début de la page 1a /image1/, et en haut de la page on voit le titre écrit en rouge «Հանգիստ Երանելւոյն Հովհաննու Աւետարանչին» (« La Dor-mition de Bienheureux Jean L'Evangeliste »), après quoi la lecture principale commence. Dans la marge droite de la page 1r sont représentées des tours verticales dont la plus grande est couronnée d'une croix. Dans la fenêtre en arche de cette tour, un personnage avec une auréole est présent, avec des cheveux blancs et une barbe, un rouleau à la main. Au-dessous des tours un autre personnage est présent, également avec une au-réole, mais beaucoup plus jeune. Il est représenté assis, et il a sur les genoux un rouleau ouvert sur lequel il écrit. Dans l'art byzantin et occidental, ainsi que dans les manuscrits de Cilicie, conformément à l'iconographie traditionnelle, c'est Prochore qui est représenté d'habitude dans cette position et avec cette apparence, situé à côté de l'évangéliste Jean et écrivant ce qu'il lui dicte. En comparant le personnage qui nous intéresse avec les re-présentations de Prochore dans les autres manuscrits de Cilicie du XIIIe siècle, on peut Հոդվածը ներկայացվել է 27.05.2019 թ., գրախոսվել է 04.06.2019 թ., ընդունվել է տպագրության 12.06.2019 թ.: 1 Robert W. Thomson, Nersēs of Lambron: Commentary on the Dormition of Saint John, University of Penn-sylvania Armenian texts and studies, Leiden: Brill, 2017, p. 24-26.

Prodotto da IL TORCOLIERE -Officine Grafico-Editoriali di Ateneo Finito di stampare nel mese di dicembre 2016 LA REGINA DI SABA UN MITO FRA ORIENTE E OCCIDENTE SOMMARIO RICCARDO CONTINI Premessa 9-11 Il testo di 1Re 10:1-13 // 2Cr 9:1-12 12-15 ALESSANDRO DE MAIGRET Saba senza la Regina di Saba. Un profilo archeologico dei Sabei nella prima metà del I millennio a.C. 17-54 GIANCARLO LACERENZA Salomone e Saba: una relazione difficile 55-66 DOROTA HARTMAN La Regina di Saba dalla versione dei LXX ai vangeli 67-90 ALESSANDRO BAUSI La leggenda della Regina di Saba nella tradizione etiopica 91-162 DOROTA HARTMAN Salomone e la strega. La Regina di Saba nel Testamento di Salomone 163-178 VALERIO MASSIMO MINALE La Regina di Saba e la Sibilla: divagazioni su legge, diritto e giustizia nel Tardoantico e in Età Bizantina 179-208 GIOVANNI CANOVA Storia di Salomone e Bilqīs nella tradizione arabo-islamica 209-238 GIUSEPPE STABILE La Regina di Saba nella letteratura rumena antica: una tradizione solo slavo-bizantina? 239-286 LARA FORTUNATO La Regina di Saba in Boemia nel tardo Quattrocento 287-329 ANTONIO PETROSSI La Regina di Saba nell'immaginario della letteratura francese 331-344 LUCIA RAGGETTI Ad usum Delphini: Salomone, Bilqīs e l'upupa nella letteratura egiziana per l'infanzia 345-361 DONATELLA IZZO La Regina di Saba sbarca in America: episodi di viaggio 363-390 LUCIA RAGGETTI Ad usum Delphini: Salomone, Bilqīs e l'upupa nella letteratura egiziana per l'infanzia*

We will analyze the Soqotran model of multicultural society of the Antiquity, based on the Periplus of the Red Sea.

Completing his earlier narratives about Yemen, at the end of the description of the Hadhrami state of the ‘Frankincense bearing Country’, the Alexandrian Egyptian author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, writing around 75 CE, refers to the island of Socotra, the Island of Dioskourides as he names it (in Greek: Dioscouridou Nesos / Διοσκουρίδου Νήσος). Quite interestingly, the text does not mention at all the other islands of the Socotran Archipelago, Abd el Kuri, Samha, and Darsa.
First published in Buzzle: 22/3/2008

Desde la primera vez que contemplé la imagen de la Sibila de Gran Laura de Monte Atos, acompañada del epígrafe —ΣΙΒΥΛΛΑ— que no deja lugar a dudas sobre su identificación, me llamó la atención la peculiaridad de su regio y lujoso atuendo. A diferencia de la imagen más extendida en Occidente, en la que la profetisa aparece con túnica, manto y la cabeza cubierta, a modo de una vestal antigua o de una representación mariana, en el refectorio atonita la Sibila ciñe corona y endosa un suntuoso loros cruzado propio de la vestimenta de una emperatriz bizantina. Desde entonces, como estudioso de la iconografía medieval de la Sibila  me pregunté hasta qué punto era posible o no relacionar o no esta peculiar imagen bizantina con la larga tradición iconográfica de la Sibila en Occidente.

A slim exhibition catalogue written to accompany a loan exhibition drawn entirely from the collections of the British Museum and curated by the author for The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in California. Sumptiously illustrated, it only includes a highlight of the full exhibition. The catalogue is now out of print.

العاصمة السبئية مأرب: تاريخها وبنيتها الادارية والاجتماعية في العاصمة السبئية مأرب: تاريخها وبنيتها الادارية والاجتماعية في ضوء النقوش السبئية، الصفحات 144-107  في عبدالرحمن الأنصاري وخليل المعيقل وعبدالله الشارخ (محررون)، المدينة في الوطن العربي في ضوء الاكتشافات الآثارية: النشأة والتطور (أبحاث ندوة: المدينة في الوطن العربي في ضوء الاكتشافات الآثارية: النشأة والتطور، الجوف – المملكة العربية السعودية/3-5 ذو القعدة 1426 (5-7 ديسمبر 2005) ،الرياض: أدوماتو، مؤسسة عبدالرحمن السديري الخيرية.

At the courts of Kings of the independent kingdom of León Fernando II (1157-1188) and Alfonso IX (1188-1230) languages mixed freely in a cosmopolitan culture. The langue d’oc was understood and canços were composed, the first generation of Galician and Portuguese troubadours elevated the rank of the local vernacular language; Latin, too, was spoken and understood, and it held sway in the royal chancery, and the shifting loyalties of some magnates had even taught them to hold their own in Arabic. Meanwhile Compostela was elevated into an artistic center of the first rank, a catalyst for the transformation of a figural language and the creation of a distinctive poetics. It attracted artists of all kinds, including English miniaturists and, possibly, bronze casters; Burgundian sculptors that brought together artists trained in  the early Gothic workshops of Paris and Champagne, and they even admitted new formulas from Almohad art. The result was a kind of visual polyglossy that forged a distinctive figural language, sometimes anticipating developments in northern Europe.
    The singularity of the visual culture of Galicia in this period cannot be separated from the flowering of Latin culture among the clerics who ultimately were responsible for the visual discourses of the Galician cathedrals. They found themselves seduced by the realization in stone of the architectural metaphors used in biblical exegesis by authors like Richard of Saint Victor, Peter Comestor and Peter of Celle. Thus, the Celestial Jerusalem and the heavenly ladder found diverse forms of visual expression in the principal Galician architectural projects of the period: the west end of Santiago cathedral, the monumental programs of Ourense cathedral, and the west facade of Tui cathedral. Galician canons and bishops also shared with the theologians of Paris a taste for biblical typology, especially for its specific use in the exaltation of the Capetian kings, readily applied in Galicia to the glorification of the newly independent dynasty of León. This appears evident not only from the sculptural programs decorating the cathedrals, but also from the additions to the Compostelan cartulary known as the Tumbo A.

Here is an analysis of the tale of the marriage of al-Hadhād (of the Ḥimyar royal dynasty) with a woman of jinn found in Arabic sources dated from the 9th to 12th century. In the light of archaeological data and other folklore sources collected by scholars in the last 60 years (Serjeant, Daum, Rodionof), this tale could be interpreted as a foundation myth, with its strong anthropological and political implications, for the community of Maʾrib, the capital city and the main site of Sabaic religiousness in pre-Islamic times. It could also provide some keys of interpretation of a more general religious sensitivity in Arabia encompassing polytheistic or monotheistic creeds.
This version of the paper includes some emendation in respect of the one published in Folia Orientalia LV.

The author refers to my article "Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan & Algeria will soon disappear in an Arab Spring 2.0 – Why not?" and popularizes its contents in Greek.
https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/%CE%B4%CE%B9%CE%AC%CE%BB%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B7-%CF%87%CF%89%CF%81%CF%8E%CE%BD-%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE-%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%B9%CE%BE%CE%B7-%CE%BF%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B5%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B1/

...Ethiopia has so much to offer visitors: the Historic Route, covering the ancient town of Axum, with its amazing carved obelisks, Christian festivals and relics, including the Ark of the Covenant; Gondar, with its
castles and palaces; Lalibela, with its remarkable rock-hewn churches: Negash, one of the earliest holy Muslim centers from the Prophet Mohammed Era with the NegashAmedinMesgid; the walled Muslim
city of Harar and LegaOda, near Dire Dawa where you can see cave paintings considered to be thousands of years old...