Pre-Islamic Arab Queens

Abstract

Arab queens make their first recorded appearance in history with the dramatic entry of the Queen of Sheba and her historic visit to King Solomon in the tenth century before Christ. The familiar biblical version of her story leaves the enterprising queen unnamed and the location of her kingdom within Arabia uncertain. But it depicts her as endowed with wealth, power, knowledge if not wisdom, and curiosity. It furthermore started her on her way to recognition in three great world-faiths. Her story soon captured the imagination of the entire Near East. Fascinating legends, varied by Jewish, Abyssinian, Arab, and Iranian fancies, grew and multiplied about her. These, though they surrounded her with romance and supernatural powers, left her free from neither scandal nor folly. Thus did this unnamed Arab queen, referred to in the Bible and Qur:In simply as the "Queen of Sheba" and "Queen of Saba:," respectively, come in time to acquire several names and to be known as the consort of Solomon the Great and the ancestress, if not the foundress, of two dynasties-the Himyars of South Arabia and the recently ended imperial line of Abyssinia. Western Christendom too fell under her spell. European story-tellers juggled the elements of the numerous tales to suit their own fancy, while medieval artists, not to be outdone, told her story in stone. Thus, even today, one may gaze on a statue of the Queen of Sheba as she