Kings of Solomon: Not Prester John - Ethiopian Empire - Part 1 - Extra History

The Ethiopian Christians lived in an ancient Christian Kingdom. One with a church as old as Rome, that held exotic beasts and great treasures like the Ark of the Covenant. A land ruled by a man, a myth, the legendary Priest-King Prester John! ... or so we thought.

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[extrahistory]

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[abcdef]

"This is not usurpation, this is a Restoration" - Every coup leader, ever.

[napoleonibonaparte]

Ethiopian Emperor: “I’m not Prester John.”
Christians: “He’s Prester John.”

[giantnanomachine]

"I'm a descendent of the previous dynasty and also King Salomon. And that's totally the arc of the covenant in that box over there."
"I'm going to belive you cause you have soldiers."

[ajuuran]

As a Somali this makes me excited, because I believe that we somalis will be mentioned the first time in Extra History, since we have a rich history with Ethiopians. I also would wish if you guys made a video about the dervish uprising in Somalia, wich is considered to be the first African uprising, wich planes were used on to put down.

[angusyang]

Fun fact: According to Islamic tradition, in the 610s and 620s, when Muslims were being persecuted in Mecca, a group of Muslims fled to Aksum, where the king at the time, Najashi/Armah, was convinced by their religion being close to Christianity, allowing them to seek refuge and refusing to turn them over to the Meccans.

[lukepatrickus]

I love that you Mentioned Prester John that’s not a story that many people know about

[CodaMission]

My professor on the History of Africa made so many trips to the rock-hewn church at Lalibela that the Ethiopian priest who runs it knew her on a personal basis and jokingly called her "My pilgrim!"

[FlaviusBelisarius-ckuv]

Can’t wait to see Menelik II. His magnificent victory over the Italians at the Battle of Adwa, crushing the Kingdom of Italy and making the Italians look like fools to the rest of Europe, ensured that Ethiopia was never colonized. And Ras Tafari, better known as Haile Selassie, deserves a series of his own.

[kidusdawit]

I’m so happy to see this.

Also, if anyone’s interested. The last part about Solomon “gifting” the Ark isn’t what I grew up hearing. The story goes he and the Queen of Sheba (Saba/Makeda) conceived a son, and she returned to Ethiopia. She gave birth and named him Menelik and he’d later return to Jerusalem to spend time with his father. He stays there a long time, and Solomon would grow to love him, even more than any of his other children. Finally, it’s time to leave and Solomon is full of sorrow to lose his son so he takes him to his temple and has him blessed, and “christens” him Dawit (David) after his father. Solomon says that since he’s losing his beloved son, so must all of the high houses of Israel, and bids his subjects to send their firstborn sons to accompany Menelik to Ethiopia. The night before they depart, there is a huge banquet and feast, after which the archangel Michael reveals himself to Menelik and instructs him to take the Ark to Ethiopia. The angel himself lifted it from the Temple and carried it to the awaiting ships. By the time Solomon found out, it was too late.

There’s more but those are the main points. Anyway, thanks Extra Credit for doing the series on this beautiful country.

[blaster]

Looking forward to this series! Another area I didn't learn much about in my schooling days :)

[muratqitaku]

You guys are the reason why I want to be a history teacher

[InquisitorThomas]

Moral of the story: We must start referring to the King of Norway as Santa Claus.

[adhvaithravi]

In the part where you say Rome made Christianity the state religion decades later than Ethiopia or Armenia, you mention the year was 3080. I think EC meant to say 380 AD as the year of the change of the state religion, but I am not sure. Just wanted to let EC know of the misunderstanding.

Thanks, and I hope you keep making great videos!

[matthewmccaughey]

Gotta say, this is the best looking Extra History episodes to date

Nice job, EC

[hfghguuh]

I feel like these topics are so random and are stuff I didn't ask for, but I am SO glad they do them anyway.

[sec]

I’m an Ethiopian-American and I’m glad to see some history shown on my native country. I am half from the Tigray region so I would definitely have bias on that war so if someone were to ask me about it I would probably not want to talk about it.

[afrinaut]

I have to agree with that prophet that the Axumites were one of the great civilizations of the world, but so too was Nubia. It would be awesome if you guys and your team did a dedicated series about the Nubian Kingdoms Of Kush and their (often-regnant) Queens. In terms of indigenous African religions/mythologies & traditional architecture some of my favorite African civilizations would be Nubia, the Ashanti Empire (Akan ethnic groups) & the Oyo Empire (Yoruba ethnic groups). Much love your teams work!

[nenenindonu]

Fun fact ; The Aksumites under Abraha had tried to sack Mecca but failed, in the same year prophet Muhammad was born, he would later start the Islamic expansion resulting with the Muslim conquest of Khosrow's Sassanid empire

[_Hoagie]

Two of my siblings are adopted from Ethiopia, and I've always found the nation's history really interesting, so I'm excited for this series! I hope the Beta Israel get a mention, as a particularly interesting group.