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Solomon and Sheba: The LoveStory
There are few people &emdash; Jews,Christian, or Muslim &emdash; who have not heard of the famousencounter between the legendary Queen of Sheba and Solomon, wisest ofall men. The story of Solomon and Sheba, still just a story as far asarcheological and historical evidence is concerned, was firstrecorded in the biblical book of I Kings (10:1-3). Here we find awealthy queen coming to Jerusalem to see if Solomon was as wise andimpressive as people said he was. When he passed the test, shebrought forth bars of gold, precious stones and, of course, spices,along with praise for Solomon's God. In many respects this is littlemore than a simple, self-serving tale of tribute. Solomon, we aresupposed to think, must be important to receive such praise and giftsfrom exotic, foreign leaders.
But, reading between the lines, this is farfrom a simple story in the hands of religious commentators. In bothJewish and Muslim contexts the stories of this encounter take onexpanded entertainment and didactic roles. A thorough survey of howthe story played in the medieval Middle East is now provided by JacobLassner, Distinguished Professor of Near Eastern and Asian Studies atWayne State University. This is Demonizing the Queen of Sheba:Boundaries of Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and MedievalIslam (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1993, xv, 281 pp.).Lassner, cast in the role as a modern, secular commentator, bothdocuments and analyzes some of the major primary texts on the Queenof Sheba. The texts in translation (pp. 161-214) include in theJewish tradition: the well-known biblical account, two midrashversions, the Targum Sheni, Pseudo Ben Sira, the Yemenite Saadiah BenJoseph, and recent folklore. On the Muslim side there is the majorQuranic account in The Ant (27:15-44), supplemented by shortermentions of Solomon in Sad (38:30-36), Saba' (34:12-14), and TheProphets (21:81-82), as well as the major accounts of al-Tha'labi andal-Kisa'i.
The ultimate purpose of Lassner's study isto examine how a Jewish theme was woven into the Islamic framework,or more appropriately interwoven between oral and textual renditionsof the encounter of Solomon and Sheba on the wider stage ofworldview. Lassner argues that medieval Jewish and Muslim writersreshaped the story of a diplomatic mission "from international tosexual politics and from diplomatic relations to the more complicatedrelations between men and women. That is, in its postbiblical andIslamic versions, the queen's joust with Solomon was portrayed as adangerous attempt to subvert time-honored rules of gender" (p. 1).Fully aware of the caution needed to explore the social context of "ahighly didactic literature," Lassner provides a balanced, stimulatingand provocative reading of a too-well-known story. Hopefully otherscholars will take the cue from this pioneering study and addresssimilar concerns in other islamicized biblical tales.
First, to the story itself, or at least abrief version of it. The Quranic account is clearly not a clone ofthe biblical story and, as Lassner argues, it would be wrong toassume that early Islamic writers blindly copied from existing Jewishor Christian traditions. One of the main embellished accounts is fromthe 11th century al-Tha'labi in his 'Ara'is al-majalis, whichis translated here by Lassner. In a very shortened account of thisstory, Solomon leaves off from building his temple in Jerusalem tovisit both Mecca and Yemen. He is able to arive in Sanaa in a merematter of hours on a journey which would take ordinary people about amonth. Solomon camps in a lush valley and calls for his hoopoe tohelp find water for ablutions. Here the plot thickens, for the hoopoeis not around and Solomon grows so vexed he vows "I shall surelypunish him severely or slaughter him unless he brings me a clearexcuse" (surah 27:21). The hoopoe returns with news of a land calledSheba with a woman as ruler, clearly something out of the ordinary.The story is then told of how Bilquis, half-jinn herself, came topower in Yemen by cleverly agreeing to marry and then decapitating ayoung and undisciplined rival to the throne. Since she worshipped thesun, Solomon had it in mind to convert her to the true God, and sentBilquis a letter to this effect. The queen is unsure of what to do,but finally sends a delegation to Solomon to see if he is a prophetor not. Solomon is able to answer all her queries with aplomb andBilquis resolves to visit him herself. Before leaving she locks upher most precious possession, her beautiful throne, but Solomonarranges through magic to have this throne brought to him in atwinkling of an eye. Now it is Bilquis who must answer the riddles.But the highlight of the visit is when she is tricked into liftingher skirt and thus revealing her hairy legs. This is the occasion forthe first use of a depilitory, we are told. Bilquis and Solomon matchwits until she agrees to become a Muslim. Now you can pick yourending. Some say they were married, others that she returned to Yemenand married Tubba' the Elder.
So what is this story all about? Lassnerreads it as a moral tale about the need for an orderly universe. Theproblem is that Bilquis is not prepared to accept the typical role ofa female. Despite her beauty, she did not choose a suitable mate andrefused to serve any man. Not unimportantly, she also had refused toserve God. It was up to Solomon, who had mastery over the evilspirits, to put this dangerous woman in her place and restore naturalorder. On this gender issue of setting things straight, Lassnerargues that both Judaism and Islam concurred. But there is more atplay here than gender roles. There is a process by which the story isislamicized and this is what Lassner focuses on. One of the elementsin the story is that Solomon prophecizes the coming of Muhammad. In asense this story serves notice on all unbelievers since "Muslimstended to view an ancient Israelite past as the mirror image of thelast and most perfect development of monotheism: the Islam that beganwith Muhammad's revelation" (p. 116). Lassner is quick to point outthat the incorporation of Jewish themes "did not at all compromizethe magnificent creative imagination of medieval Islam" (p. 120).Yet, the biblical stories helped legitimize Muhammad as the last in aseries of prophets with the same God in the background.
On the whole this is a well argued and welldocumented study, well worth reading by anyone interested in thelegend of the Queen of Sheba or preIslamic and early islamic Yemen.While I realize the author did not set out to examine the entireliterature on the subject, I am surprized that he did not pursue more"Yemeni" commentary on the Queen of Sheba. For example, the Kitabal-Tijan fi muluk Himyar, attributed to Wahb ibn Munabbih(published in Sanaa in the 1970s), has an extensive discussion ofBilquis and Solomon (pp. 147-179). There are also relevant passagesin several of al-Hamdani's texts.
On a technical level, this volume is wellproduced except for a few minor printing errors. For example, anextra comma is inserted on p. 78 (line 4), words are missing after"simply" on p. 126 (line 4) and on p. 130 (line 9), "his" should be"him" on p. 140 (line 6), and a period is missing on p. 157 (line12). I found the postscript on a recent study by Meyers to beconfusing; how does the narrative thus analyzed contribute to theissue of medieval and earlier gender issues raised by Meyers? It iscurious that the index to scriptural verses includes the Talmud andBible, but not the Quran!
A final note relates to the back cover,where one finds a laudatory comment from Bernard Lewis. The quote iscertainly well deserved, but it is interesting to note that Lassnerlevels a rather loud broadside at Edward Said's criticism of Lewiswith the following statement (pp. 120-121): "To claim, as somerecently have, that 'orientalist' scholars were engaged in a culturalconspiracy would be silly if it were not patently self-serving anddeliberately mischievous." While such a strong statement is obviouslynot necessary for the argument of his book, Lassner (quid proquoishly) in no uncertain terms befriends his colleague with thefriendly comment on the back cover. I wonder if it is reallynecessary to demonize Edward Said after reviving Bilquis from hergenderized demonizing in medieval male minds.