Axumite Empire (1)

1|Page
2|Page
Group Members
1. Bilen Daniel……………………………13
2. Betselot Teshome……………………11
3. Eminet Migbaru………………………19
4. Eyael Frew………………………………21
5. Heran Tefera…………………………..26
6. Mihret Alem…………………………..39
7. Rina Abenenezer……………………48
8. Soliyana Daniel……………………..
3|Page
Translation words
Aksumite : Relating to the ancient kingdom of Aksum in present-day Ethiopia and
Eritrea.
Obelisks:Tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monuments with a pyramidion on top,
often used in ancient cultures for commemorative purposes.
Hellenized : Influenced by Greek culture, language, or customs.
Inscription: Written or engraved text, often found on monuments or artifacts.
Cosmopolitan: Characterized by a mix of cultures and influences from various
parts of the world.
Monoliths :Large single upright blocks of stone, often used in ancient architecture.
Tribute : Payment made periodically by one state or ruler to another, especially as
a sign of dependence or submission.
Heuristic: Enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves.
Archaeological|:Related to the study of human history and prehistory through the
excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts.
Sovereignty : Supreme power or authority, especially in the context of a state or
governing body.
Diaspora :The dispersion of any people from their original homeland.
Dynastic :Relating to a dynasty, which is a sequence of rulers from the same
family or lineage.
Theocracy :A system of government in which priests or religious leaders control
the state, claiming divine guidance.
Agrarian :Relating to cultivated land or the cultivation of land; often refers to
societies primarily focused on agriculture.
Stratification :The arrangement or classification of something into different
groups or layers, often referring to social classes.
Codex : An ancient manuscript text in book form, often used in reference to legal
codes or historical documents. |
Hierarchical:Describing a system in which members of an organization or society
are ranked according to relative status or authority.
Artisan: A skilled craftsperson who creates products by hand, often reflecting
cultural artistry. |
Metallurgy :The branch of science and engineering concerned with the properties
and production of metals.
Epigraphy: The study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; important for
understanding ancient languages and cultures. .
Ritual: A ceremonial act or series of acts performed according to a prescribed
order, often with religious significance.
4|Page
Table of content Page
1.Introduction………………………… ….
2.Pre Axumite kingdom………………….
3.The rise of the Axumite kingdom………
4.The social, economical an religious life
4.1 social structure……………………………………………….. …..
4.2 religion…………………………………………………………..……….
4.3 language and literacy……………………………………………….
4.4 Economic life
4.4.1 trade route………………………………………………………..
4.4.2 Medium of exchange ………………………………………..
4.4.3 cultural exchange……………………………………………….
5. Rulers…………………………………..
6. The decline of Axum……………………
7. Legends and literacy…………………….
8.Biblography……………………………....
5|Page
Introduction
Ethiopia was also historically called Abyssinia, derived from the Arabic form of
the Ethiosemitic name "ḤBŚT," modern Habesha. In some countries, Ethiopia is
still called by names cognate with "Abyssinia," e.g. Turkish Habesistan and
Arabic Al Habesh, meaning land of the Habesha people. The English name
"Ethiopia" is thought to be derived from the Greek
word Αἰθιοπία Aithiopia, from Αἰθίοψ Aithiops ‘an Ethiopian’, derived from Greek
terms meaning "of burnt ( αιθ-) visage (ὄψ)". However, this etymology is disputed,
since the Book of Aksum, a Ge'ez chronicle first composed in the 15th century,
states that the name is derived from "' Ityopp'is", a son (unmentioned in the Bible)
of Cush, son of Ham who according to legend founded the city of Axum.
The name Axum, or Akshum as it is sometimes referred to, may derive from a
combination of two words from local languages - the Agew word for water and
the Ge'ez word for official, shum. The water reference is probably due to the
presence of large ancient rock cisterns in the area of the capital at Axum.
The Aksumite Kingdom, which flourished from approximately 100 CE to 940 CE in
present-day Ethiopia and parts of Sudan, represents a pivotal chapter in the study
of ancient African civilizations. As a significant center of trade and culture,
Aksum's strategic location along key trade routes connecting the Roman Empire,
India, and Arabia facilitated not only economic prosperity but also vibrant cultural
exchanges that shaped the historical narrative of the region.
This research aims to explore the multifaceted aspects of the Aksumite Kingdom,
focusing on its economic dynamics, architectural achievements, cultural
interactions, and governance structures. Aksum's economy was marked by its
robust trade networks, which enabled the export of valuable commodities such as
ivory and gold, while simultaneously fostering the import of luxury goods. This
trade network not only enriched the kingdom but also created a cosmopolitan
society characterized by diverse influences.
6|Page
Architecturally, Aksum is renowned for its impressive obelisks and monumental
tombs, which reflect both engineering prowess and the spiritual significance of
the kingdom. These structures serve as enduring symbols of Aksum’s cultural
heritage and offer insights into the social and religious practices of its people.
The introduction of Christianity in the 4th century, facilitated by cultural
exchanges with neighboring civilizations, further transformed Aksum’s religious
landscape and had lasting effects on subsequent societies in the region. The
kingdom’s sophisticated governance system, characterized by centralized
authority and integration of religious and political power, played a crucial role in
its stability and influence.
By examining these dimensions, this research seeks to illuminate the remarkable
contributions of the Aksumite Kingdom to trade, culture, and governance, and to
understand its lasting legacy in shaping civilizations across Africa and beyond.
The Pre-Aksumite Period

a date cautiously suggested, using palaeographical information (Pirenne 1956; Drewes 1962: 91), but
possibly rather too late in view of new discoveries in the Yemen (Fattovich 1989: 16-17) which may even
push it back to the eighth century BC — some sort of contact, apparently quite close, seems to have
been maintained between Ethiopia and South Arabia. This developed to such an extent that in not a few
places in Ethiopia the remains of certain mainly religious or funerary installations, some of major
importance, with an unmistakeable South Arabian appearance in many details, have been excavated.
Among the sites are Hawelti-Melazo, near Aksum (de Contenson 1961ii), the famous temple and other
buildings and tombs at Yeha (Anfray 1973ii), the early levels at Matara (Anfray 1967), and the sites at
Seglamien (Ricci and Fattovich 1984-6), Addi Galamo, Feqya, Addi Grameten and Kaskase, to name only
the better-known ones. Fattovich (1989: 4-5) comments on many of these and has been able to attribute
some ninety sites altogether to the pre-Aksumite period. Inscriptions found at some of these sites
include the names of persons bearing the traditional South Arabian title of mukarrib, apparently
indicating a ruler with something of a priest-king status, not otherwise known in Ethiopia (Caquot and
Drewes 1955). Others have the title of king, mlkn (Schneider 1961; 1973). Evidently the pre-Aksumite
Sabaean-influenced cultural province did not consist merely of a few briefly-occupied staging posts, but
was a wide-spread and well-established phenomenon. Until relatively recently South Arabian artefacts
found in Ethiopia were interpreted as the material signs left behind by a superior colonial occupation
force, with political supremacy over the indigenes — an interpretation still maintained by Michels (1988).
But further study has now suggested that very likely, by the time the inscriptions were produced, the
majority of the material in fact represented the civilisation of the Ethiopians themselves. Nevertheless, a
7|Page
certain amount of contact with South Arabia is very apparent, and had resulted in the adoption of a
number of cultural traits (Schneider 1973; 1976). Evidently the arrival of Sabaean influences does not
represent the beginning of Ethiopian civilisation. For a long time different peoples had been interacting
through population movements, warfare, trade and intermarriage in the Ethiopian region, resulting in a
predominance of peoples speaking languages of the Afro-Asiatic family. The main branches represented
were the Cushitic and the Semitic. Semiticized Agaw peoples are thought to have migrated from south-
eastern Eritrea possibly as early as 2000BC, bringing their `proto-Ethiopic' language, ancestor of Geèz
and the other Ethiopian Semitic languages, with them; and these and other groups had already
developed specific cultural and linguistic identities by the time any Sabaean influences arrived. Features
such as dressed stone building, writing and iron-working may have been introduced by Sabaeans, but
words for `plough' and other agricultural vocabulary are apparently of Agaw origin in Ethiopian Semitic
languages, indicating that the techniques of foodproduction were not one of the Arabian imports. Clark
(1988) even suggests that wheat, barley, and the plough may have been introduced from Egypt via Punt.
Some of the graffiti found in eastern Eritrea include names apparently neither South Arabian nor
Ethiopian, perhaps reflecting the continued existence of some older ethnic groups in the same cultural
matrix. Various stone-age sites and rock-paintings attest to these early Ethiopians in Eritrea and Tigray. At
Matara and Yeha, for example, archaeologists have distinguished phases represented by pottery types
which seem to owe nothing to South Arabia, but do have some Sudanese affinities. The Italian
archaeologist Rodolfo Fattovich, who has particularly interested himself in this study, has suggested that
the pre-Aksumite culture might owe something to Nubia, specifically to C— group/Kerma influences, and
later on to Meroë/Alodia (Fattovich 1977, 1978, 1989). Worsening ecological conditions in the
savanna/Sahel belt might have induced certain peoples to move from plains and lowlands up to the
plateau in the second half of the second millenium BC (Clark 1976), bringing with them certain cultural
traditions. Evidence for early trade activity to regions across the Red Sea from eastern Sudan and
Ethiopia at about this time has been noted by Zarins (1988), with reference to the obsidian trade.
Extremely interesting results have lately come from work in the Gash Delta on the Ethiopo-Sudanese
borderland, indicating the existence of a complex society there in the late 3rd-early 2nd millenium BC
(Fattovich 1989: 21); possibly the location of the land of Punt there reinforces this suggestion (Kitchen
1971; Fattovich 1988: 2, 7). It seems that the new discoveries are of major importance to an
understanding of the dynamics of state formation in the Ethiopian highlands. The latest work suggests
that in the late second and early first millenium BC the eastern part of the Tigray plateau was included in
a widespread cultural complex on both the African and the Arabian Tihama coasts of the Red Sea, in
contact with the lowlands of the Sudan and perhaps with the Nile Valley, while the western part was in
contact with peoples of the Gash Delta. These two regions of the plateau later became united culturally
and politically under the D`MT monarchy (Fattovich 1989: 34-5). It appears that there were undoubtedly
some South Arabian immigrants in Ethiopia in the mid-first millenium BC, but there is (unless the
interpretation of Michels is accepted) no sure indication that they were politically dominant. The sites
chosen by them may be related to their relative ease of access to the Red Sea coast. Arthur Irvine (1977)
and others have regarded sympathetically the suggestion that the inscriptions which testify to Sabaean
presence in Ethiopia may have been set up by colonists around the time of the Sabaean ruler Karibil
Watar in the late fourth century BC; but the dating is very uncertain, as noted above. They may have
been military or trading colonists, living in some sort of symbiosis with the local Ethiopian population,
perhaps under a species of treaty-status. It seems that the pre-Aksumite society on the Tigray plateau,
centred in the Aksum/Yeha region but extending from Tekondo in the north to Enderta in the south
8|Page
(Schneider 1973: 389), had achieved state level, and that the major entity came to be called D`MT
(Diàmat, Damot?), as appears in the regal title `mukarrib of Da`mot and Saba'. The name may survive in
the Aksumite titulature as Tiamo/Tsiyamo (Ch. 7: 5). Its rulers, kings and mukarribs, by including the
name Saba in their titles, appear to have expressly claimed control over the resident Sabaeans in their
country; actual Sabaean presence is assumed at Matara, Yeha and Hawelti-Melazo according to present
information (Schneider 1973: 388). The inscriptions of mukarribs of D`MT and Saba are known from Addi
Galamo (Caquot and Drewes 1955: 26-32), Enda Cherqos (Schneider 1961: 61ff), possibly Matara, if the
name LMN attested there is the same as the .MN from the other sites, (Schneider 1965: 90; Drewes and
Schneider 1967: 91), Melazo (Schneider 1978: 130-2), and Abuna Garima (Schneider 1973; Schneider
1976iii: 86ff). Of four rulers known to date, the earliest appears to be a certain W`RN HYWT, who only
had the title mlkn, king, and evidence of whom has been found at Yeha, Kaskase, Addi Seglamen; he was
succeeded by three mukarribs, RD'M, RBH, and LMN (Schneider 1976iii: 89-93). Illustration 9. An
inscription from Abba Pantelewon near Aksum, written in the Epigraphic South Arabian script and
mentioning the kingdom of D`MT; it is dedicated to the deity Dhat-Baàdan. It has been photographed
upside down. Photo BIEA. The Sabaeans in Ethiopia appear, from the use of certain place-names like
Marib in their inscriptions, to have kept in contact with their own country, and indeed the purpose of
their presence may well have been to maintain and develop links across the sea to the profit of South
Arabia's trading network. Naturally, such an arrangement would have worked also to the benefit of the
indigenous Ethiopian rulers, who employed the titles mukarrib and mlkn at first, and nagashi (najashi) or
negus later; no pre-Aksumite najashi or negus is known. The inscriptions dating from this period in
Ethiopia are apparently written in two languages, pure Sabaean and another language with certain
aspects found later in Geèz (Schneider 1976). All the royal inscriptions are in this second, presumably
Ethiopian, language. A number of different tribes and families seem to be mentioned by the inscriptions
of this period, but there is no evidence to show whether any of these groups lasted into the Aksumite
period. Only the word YG`DYN, man of Yegàz, might hint that the Geèz or Agazyan tribe was established
so early, though the particular inscription which mentions it is written in the South Arabian rather than
the Ethiopian language (Schneider 1961). Some of the other apparently tribal names also occur in both
groups of inscriptions. The usual way of referring to someone in the inscriptions is `N. of the family N. of
the tribe N.', possibly also reflected later by the Aksumite `Bisi'-title; `king N. man of the tribe/clan (?) N.'
(Ch. 7: 5). It seems that these ìnscriptional' Sabaeans did not remain more than a century or so — or
perhaps even only a few decades — as a separate and identifiable people. Possibly their presence was
connected to a contemporary efflorescence of Saba on the other side of the Red Sea. Their influence was
only in a limited geographical area, affecting the autochthonous population in that area to a greater or
lesser degree. Such influences as did remain after their departure or assimilation fused with the local
cultural background, and contributed to the ensemble of traits which constituted Ethiopian civilisation in
the rest of the pre-Aksumite period. Indeed, it may be that the Sabaeans were able to establish
themselves in Ethiopia in the first place because both their civilisation and that of mid-1st millenium
Ethiopia already had something in common; it has been suggested that earlier migrations or contacts
might have taken place, leaving a kind of cultural sympathy between the two areas which allowed the
later contact to flourish easily. The precise nature of the contacts between the two areas, their range in
commercial, linguistic or cultural terms, and their chronology, is still a major question, and discussion of
this fascinating problem continues (Marrassini 1985; Avanzini 1987; Pirenne 1987; Isaac and Felder
1988). Jacqueline Pirenne's most recent (1987) proposal results in a radically different view of the
Ethiopian/South Arabian contacts. Weighing up the evidence from all sides, particularly aspects of
9|Page
material culture and linguistic/palaeographic information, she suggests that "il est donc vraisemblable
que l'expansion ne s'est pas faite du Yémen vers l'Ethiopie, mais bien en sens inverse: de l'Ethiopie vers
le Yémen". According to this theory, one group of Sabaeans would have left north Arabia (where they
were then established) for Ethiopia in about the eighth or seventh century BC under pressure from the
Assyrians; they then continued on into south Arabia. A second wave of emigrants, in the sixth and fifth
century, would reign over the kingdom of Da'amat (D`MT), and would have been accompanied by
Hebrews fleeing after Nebuchadnezzar's capture of Jerusalem; an explanation for the later Ethiopian
traditions with their Jewish and Biblical flavour, and for the Falashas or black Jews of Ethiopia. These
Sabaeans too, in their turn would have departed for the Yemen, taking there the writing and architecture
which they had first perfected in Tigray. In the fourth and third century BC the remaining Sabaean
emigrés would have left Ethiopia for the Yemen, leaving elements of their civilisation and traditions
firmly embedded in the Ethiopian's way of life. This ingenious mise en scène, so far only briefly noted in
a conference paper, must await complete publication before it can be fully discussed; but it is expressive
of the highly theoretical nature of our conclusions about pre-Aksumite Ethiopia that so complete a
reversal of previous ideas can even be proposed. Isaac and Felder (1988) also speculate about the
possibility of a common cultural sphere in Ethiopia and Arabia, without giving either side the
precedence. It has also been suggested that the progress of the youthful Ethiopian state brought it into
conflict with Meroë in the reigns of such kings as Harsiotef and Nastasen from the fourth century BC.
Whilst there must have been some contact later, there is no real evidence from this early date (Taddesse
Tamrat 1972: 12). The altars, inscriptions, stelae, temples, secular structures, tombs and other material
left by the Sabaean-influenced Ethiopian population occur in considerable numbers even from the few
excavated sites; those attributed to the Sabaeans themselves occur more rarely. The monuments are
dated from the 5th century BC by study of the letter-forms used on them (palaeography), and seem to
appear in Ethiopia at about the same time as they do in South Arabia (nb. the reservations about the
dating expressed by Fattovich 1989). The disc and crescent symbol used on some of the monuments
(and very much later by the pre-Christian Aksumites) was also familiar on some South Arabian coins, and
South Arabian altars; many of the same deities were being worshipped in the two regions. It was also
during this period that iron was introduced into the country. In the present state of our knowledge, it is
unclear how much of Aksumite civilisation was a direct continuation of a cultural heritage from pre-
Aksumite times, or how much any South Arabian aspects might be better attributed to a renewal of
overseas contacts in the period after the consolidation of Aksum as an independent polity in the first and
second centuries AD. No clear evidence of connexions between the pre-Aksumite, Sabaeaninfluenced,
period, and the earliest Aksumite period is at the moment available, though it seems intrinsically more
likely that Aksum in some way was able to draw directly on part of the experience of its predecessors. At
Matara, the archaeological evidence implies that there was a clear break between the two periods
(Anfray and Annequin 1965), but this need not have been the case everywhere in the country. The
solution to these questions can only await further clarification from archaeology. The subsequent
periods are those which represent the duration of the Aksumite kingdom proper. In the following table
approximate dates for these periods, numbered 1-5, are indicated, together with the names of the
known rulers, with notes about any references in texts or inscriptions, contemporary constructions (Ch.
16) at Aksum (using the terminology in Munro-Hay 1989), and significant international events with a
bearing on Aksum.
10 | P a g e
The Axumite Empire
The Aksumite period in Northern Ethiopia covers some six or seven centuries from
around the beginning of our era, and was ancestral to the rather better known
mediaeval Ethiopian kingdoms, successively based further south in Lasta and
Shewa. The Semiticspeaking people called Aksumites or Habash (Abyssinians),
centered at their capital city Aksum (Ch. 5) in the western part of the province of
Tigray, from there came to control both the highland and coastal regions of
northern Ethiopia. They were able to exploit a series of favorable situations, some
of which we can only guess at this stage, to become the dominant power group in
the region and to develop their very characteristic civilization in an area now
represented by the province of Tigray, with Eritrea to the north where they gained
access to the Red Sea coast at the port of Adulis . Aksumite inscriptions , an
important, and for Africa this far south, very unusual source of information,
mention a number of subordinate kings or chiefs, and it seems that the
developing state gradually absorbed its weaker neighbours, but frequently
retained traditional rulers as administrators under a tribute system. The title
negusa nagast, or king of kings, used by Aksumite and successive Ethiopian rulers
until the death of the late emperor Haile Sellassie, is a reflection of the sort of
loose federation under their own monarchy which the Aksumites achieved
throughout a large part of Ethiopia and neighbouring lands. In the early centuries
AD the Aksumites had already managed, presumably by a combination of such
factors as military superiority, access to resources, and wealth resulting from their
convenient situation astride trade routes leading from the Nile Valley to the Red
Sea, to extend their hegemony over many peoples of northern Ethiopia. The
process arouses a certain amount of admiration; anyone familiar with the terrain
of that region can readily envisage the difficulties of mastering the various tribal
groups scattered from the Red Sea coastal lowlands to the mountains and valleys
of the Semien range south-west of Aksum. One Aksumite inscription, the so-called
Monumentum Adulitanum details campaigns undertaken in environments which,
in a range of only some 250 km across Ethiopia, varied from the snow and frost of
the Semien mountains to the waterless salt plains of the eastern lowlands. The
highest point in the mountains reaches about 4620 m and the lowest, in the
Danakil desert, is about 110 m below sea level, and although the campaigns
11 | P a g e
would not have touched quite these extremes, the diversity of the country the
Aksumites attempted to subdue is well illustrated. The same series of campaigns
continued to police the roads leading to the Egyptian frontier region and over the
sea to what are now the Yemeni and Saudi Arabian coastlands. The Aksumite
rulers became sufficiently Hellenized to employ the Greek language, as noted
quite early on by the Greek shipping guide called the Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea , a document variously dated between the mid-first and third centuries AD
with a consensus of modern opinion favouring the first or early second centuries.
Somewhat later, Greek became one of the customary languages for Aksumite
inscriptions and coins, since it was the lingua franca of the countries with which
they traded. The Aksumites grew strong enough to expand their military activity
into South Arabia by the end of the second or early third century AD, where their
control over a considerable area is attested by their Arabian enemies' own
inscriptions ; a direct reversal of the earlier process of South Arabian influence in
Ethiopia already mentioned. As the consolidated Aksumite kingdom grew more
prosperous, the monuments and archaeological finds at Aksum and other sites
attest to the development of a number of urban centeres with many indigenous
arts and crafts demonstrating high technological skills, and a vigorous internal and
overseas trade .
The inscriptions and other sources imply a rising position for Aksum in the African
and overseas political concerns of the period. In the towns, the lack of walls even
at Aksum seems to hint at relatively peaceful internal conditions, though the
inscriptions do mention occasional revolts among the subordinate tribes.
Exploitation of the agricultural potential of the region , in places probably much
higher than today and perhaps enhanced by use of irrigation, water-storage, or
terracing techniques, allowed these urban communities to develop to
considerable size. Perhaps the bestknown symbols of the Aksumites' particular
ideas and style are the great carved monoliths , some of which still stand, erected
to commemorate their dead rulers; they also record the considerable skill of the
Aksumite quarrymen, engineers, and stone-carvers, being in some cases among
the largest single stones ever employed in ancient times. The prosperity which
such works bespeak came from Aksum's key position in the exploitation of certain
costly luxuries, either brought from areas under Aksum's direct control, traded
locally, or transhipped from afar . We have accounts of trade in such precious
12 | P a g e
items as turtle-shell from the Dahlak Islands near Adulis, obsidian, also from Red
Sea islands, ivory from across the Nile, rhino-horn, incense, and emeralds from
the Beja lands in the Red Sea hills. Gold from the Sudan was paid for by salt from
the Danakil desert, cattle, and iron. Other commodities such as civet, certain
spices, animal skins, and hides seem also to have been among Aksum's exports.
Royal titles on inscriptions attest to Aksum's claim to control the catchment area
of some of these exports, including parts of such neighbouring regions as the old
Kushite or Meroitic kingdom, the lands of the Noba and Beja peoples, other now-
unidentifiable African districts, and even parts of South Arabia. To some extent
such claims may be wishful thinking, but the general prosperity and reputation of
the country led the Persian religious leader Mani to label Aksum as the third of
the kingdoms of the world in the later third century; and something of this
reputation is substantiated by the production of an independent coinage at about
this time. It paralleled the country with the few other contemporary states with
the wealth and political status to issue gold coinage; Rome, Persia (to a lesser
degree), and, into the third century, the Kushana kingdom in northern India.
The rise of the Aksumite kingdom

Aksum was, oddly as it might seem at first, situated in the western part of the
future Aksumite kingdom. This, however, must reflect the prevailing political,
economic and commercial conditions long before Aksumite ambitions could have
reached to an outlet on the Red Sea coast, and probably implies that the original
significance of the site derived from its command over certain local resources and
interior trade-routes, one important one most likely leading to the Nile Valley and
using the Marab and Takaze river valleys which drained westwards towards the
Nile. Eventually Aksum lay at the heart of a series of routes. One lay between the
Nile and Adulis, another led to `the Cataracts' (Aswan), a journey of 30 days
according to Kosmas (Wolska-Conus 1968: 356). This route leading to Egypt was
also mentioned by the anonymous king who raised the Monumentum Adulitanum
(Ch. 11: 5), and by Procopius (ed. Dewing 1914: 185); "From the city of Auxomis to
the Aegyptian boundaries of the Roman domain, where the city called
Elephantine is situated, is a journey of thirty days for an unencumbered traveller".
A third route may be surmised as leading south from Aksum to the "extremities of
Ethiopia", defined by Kosmas as "to the land of incense called Barbaria"
13 | P a g e
(apparently the Somali coast where incense can still be found), some 30 days
distant. A final route was that known for the gold trade, running through the Agaw
lands towards Sasu, which took six months to go and return, including five-day
stops for trading (Wolska-Conus 1968: 362). Map B. Map of Aksumite Ethiopia. In
addition to its advantageous position for trade, the site, facing the plains of Aksum
and Hasabo and with the plateau of Shire behind it, enjoyed abundant rainfall,
with a long rainy season from late June to early September. There were probably a
number of streams and springs, and fertile soil very likely capable of producing
more than one crop a year. In the environs of the future city were good
agricultural areas, such as the plain of Hasabo (Hazebo, Atzabo) to the east.
Michels (1988: 2-3, map 4), in a very useful survey, interviewed farmers in the
Aksum-Yeha region in 1974 as to soil qualities, and studied local topography and
irrigation potential. He was able to classify four ecological zones, and found that
the immediate environs of Aksum and Yeha belonged in his Zone A; "low gradient,
highly fertile land that is optimal for plow cultivation, requires no fertility
intervention other than crop rotation, and relies upon seasonal rains". This
evidently favourable region was, it seems, already populated when Aksum was
founded. Though there are earlier sites with ruins dating to the Sabaean-
influenced preAksumite period nearby (such as Hawelti, Melazo — with
Gobochela and Enda Cherqos — and Medoge) so far no firm evidence has been
found to indicate that the site of Aksum itself was occupied before about the
beginning of our era. However, the pre-Aksumite `Sabaean' cultural area certainly
extended along the route from Adulis and into the Aksum region. Recent work by
Italian archaeologists in the Kassala region, noted by Fattovich (1988), has hinted
that certain aspects of Aksumite culture may have come from the western
lowlands even before this. Fattovich observed features on pre-Aksumite pottery
resembling those on pottery of the Sudanese peoples labelled by archaeologists
Kerma and C— group, and suggested that even such cultural features as the
stelae, so characteristic of later Ethiopian funerary customs, might perhaps have
derived from early Sudanese prototypes. Some of these features date back to the
late 3rd and early 2nd millenia BC, and the discovery of evidence of fairly complex
societies in the region at this early date may suggest, to quote Fattovich, "a more
complex reconstruction of state formation in Northern Ethiopia" (see also Ch. 4:
1). At the moment, however, the early history of Aksum is almost unknown and
there is little evidence available relating to the formation of the Aksumite state.
14 | P a g e
However, we can suggest a possible course of development. It would seem that
the favourable position of the future capital both from the trading point of view,
and from that of local foodproduction and other resources, allowed increasing
prosperity to come to the settlement. With this prosperity there was possibly a
rise in the local population, and, concomitantly, an increase in potential military
strength. Expansion to secure either new resources or various trade-routes was
possible with the development of a military machine which, as we may surmise
from later events, became very efficient. What other incentives may have arisen
to encourage the Aksumites to exploit their new potential we do not know, but
there could have been such impulses as the need to repel a possible threat from
nearby peoples, or the rise of an exceptional leader. Aksum was not a great
colonial power, arriving with superior weapons to fight ill-equipped locals; though
they did exploit the possibilities of imported weapons, as the Periplus mentions, it
was, if we can hazard a guess, increased manpower, organisational ability, speed
and capable generalship which eventually gave Aksum the dominant military role
in the region. How the governmental system of the earlier polity functioned can
only be suggested. Possibly it was based on some sort of tribal council, which
eventually made way for a single leader, or possibly traditional organisations
based on such examples as the ancient chiefs of Punt and the mukarribs and kings
of the earlier South Arabian period had already left the heritage of a system of
chiefly control. Aksum must have begun to take its place as an ever more
important part of the local political scene, partly by the exercise of military
initiative, and partly, perhaps, by developing treaty-relationships with
neighbouring tribal groups and gradually assuming the position of primus inter
pares. We have no idea about the Aksumites' attitudes towards these surrounding
peoples until later, when they were definitely considered to be subordinate; but
presumably the dominance the Aksumites eventually achieved was not easily
gained, and even in the heyday of Aksum one or other of the lesser tribes
occasionally made a bid for freedom, described in the official Aksumite sources as
`rebellions'. Absorption of neighbouring tribal groups seems to have followed the
initial impetus for expansion, often with the traditional rulers left in power as sub-
kings, until in the end the Aksumites controlled a very large area of modern
Ethiopia. Under the umbrella of Aksumite control, we can envisage a number of
older systems of government still functioning, and perhaps themselves in some
ways influencing the Aksumites politically and culturally. The kings' titles on
15 | P a g e
inscriptions list a number of regions, certainly those which constituted the most
important provinces of the empire, but the many sma ller polities mentioned in
the body of the inscriptions, with their local kings, were evidently not considered
significant enough to merit this special mention in the titularies. They may, by this
time, have been subsumed under the general term `Habashat', or even, in some
cases, Àksumites', and, as it were, been transformed from foreign tribesman to
Aksumite citizen. The designation `Habashat' may originally have referred to the
population of the prosperous eastern area of Tigray. Probably, after their
submission, levies from the various tribes or their clans would have swollen the
Aksumite potential for putting armies into the field, and might even have given
the names to some of the military regiments known from the inscriptions (Ch. 11:
2). Whether the Aksumites had formed a concept of the state as comprising these
communities of the central region, but excluding those particularly mentioned in
the titularies, is uncertain. The primary title, negus in Geèz or najashi in Arabic,
(signifying king or military leader) of Aksum, or òf the Aksumites', seems to refer
to the nucleus of tribal groups taken in to form a single polity, quite aside from the
more `foreign' peoples and regions later subordinated to Aksumite control. But
the inscriptions still continue to refer to revolts in the inner territories for as long
as we have records from Aksumite times, and we have little idea what was
regarded as constituting the Àksumite' ingredient of the state. The land belonging
to the subordinate tribes was perhaps not considered part of Àksumite' territorial
jurisdiction, land-rights remaining vested in those tribes and the payment of
tribute reserving a measure of autonomy. These neighbours did not, then,
immediately become united in a political sense to the Aksumites by the merger of
their lands and institutions with those of Aksum, though their eventual
disappearance from the record indicates that ultimately absorption was
inevitable. It would evidently have been in the interest of the security of the
Aksumite crown to diminish the power of provincial authorities, eliminate
provincial royalty, and reduce the provinces to the direct control of the monarchy,
but only if the monarchy itself were capable of controlling the areas thus
acquired; but it may well be that the continued existence of the smaller units
reflects the central government's inability to do this adequately. Aksum may have
been obliged by necessity to tolerate an imperfect situation for some time, until
through a policy of gradual replacement by Aksumite officials of hereditary rulers
with a hold on local loyalties, the separate identity of the smaller entities was
16 | P a g e
slowly eroded away. This retention of a separate identity by certain tribes for
some centuries after their submission to Aksumite authority might help to explain
the revolts reported in Aksumite inscriptions, since if we presume that there were
neither Aksumite garrisons nor royal retainers with land in the tribal areas, such
risings would have been easier to foment. It is interesting to note that Procopius
(Dewing 1914: 183) still refers to Adulis as the `harbour of the Adulites' using the
ethnic name Ptolemy (Stevenson 1932: 108), had used much earlier. Other
writers, like Epiphanius (ed. Blake and de Vis 1934), who in the late fourth century
listed nine kingdoms of the Ìndians' including Àdoulites', also recognised a
difference between Adulites and Aksumites, though they are subsumed together
in the Latin version; "Aksumites with Adulites" (Cerulli 1960: 16-17). It may have
taken a considerable time before formal incorporation into the Aksumite state
altered established social patterns. In due course there must have been changes in
the Aksumites' own political outlook, too, perhaps partly resulting from the
exposure of the country to Graeco-Roman and other influences, particularly after
the development of the Red Sea trade and Aksum's entry into a wider network of
commerce. By around AD200 the Aksumite kings were able to intervene militarily
in internal struggles in South Arabia, and in the fourth century we have evidence
for at least theoretical suzerainty over several groups in the Sudan, such as the
Kasu, Noba, and the Northern Cushitic-speaking Beja tribes (see the titulature on
the inscriptions, Ch. 11: 5). Here, Aksum had to some extent taken over the
imperial role of Meroë. In the south, Agaw (Central Cushitic-speaking) peoples
also became subject to the Semitic-speaking Aksumites. The expansion to the
Adulite coastal region now permitted Aksum to convey goods originating in
districts beyond the Nile or its tributaries to their own port on the Red Sea coast,
and the rulers doubtless hoped that their projects across the Red Sea would
eventually lead to control of some of the immensely rich trade of the Arabian
kingdoms. With Rome as a powerful ally and trading partner, Aksum's prosperity
was based on firm geographical and historical realities, and was maintained until
these altered in the late sixth/ early seventh century. The Aksumite cultural
province, as far as reported sites can indicate, was centred in Eritrea and Tigray,
particularly the districts of the Akkele Guzay, Agame, and the region around
Aksum, Adwa, and Shire. Traces have also been found in Enderta, Hamasien,
Keren, and as far as the Rore Plateau (Conti Rossini, 1931), and even in Wollo
(Anfray 1970). Some of the largest extensions suggested for the kingdom seem
17 | P a g e
unlikely; Doresse, for example (1971: 84), includes among `the largest Aksumite
ports' not only Adulis but Deire, on the coast at the Bab al-Mandeb, and also
notes (p. 90) Mathew's statement that a structure excavated at Amoud south of
Berbera suggested Aksumite building work. Such ideas, probably based on the
Monumentum Adulitanum account of the campaigns of an Aksumite king, cannot
yet be confirmed. The Akkele Guzay and Agame area seems to be distinguished
from the western Tigray sites by differences in pottery and other elements. From
the tentative observations of Francis Anfray (1974), it seems, from the cluster of
sites on the north-south route from Qohayto to Agula, Degum, and even to
Nazret, that this eastern `province' may have become the most prosperous in later
Aksumite times. Aksum and the sites of the west, from Addi Dahno to Henzat and
the Yeha region, may have enjoyed prosperity in the preChristian period (many
stelae are associated with the sites), but this compared unfavourably with the east
later on. In such a case, Aksum may, even by the fifth and sixth centuries, have
retained its position more by its prestige as the royal, eponymous city of the
kingdom than by any continuing special merit in its situation. Possibly the
Aksumites' expansion to Adulis, opening the western region to an already-
established (pre-Aksumite?) trading system between the eastern highlands and
the Red Sea, reflected in trading terms more favourably on the eastern towns, and
in some ways made the city's own place in the system more tenuous. Even by the
beginning of the second century Koloë was `the first market for ivory', only three
days from Adulis. Possibly the end result was that the eastern towns grew richer,
whilst the remoter west, though the site of the capital, participated le ss in the
new influx of wealth.
The Social ,Economic and Religious life of

the Axumite Empire.
The Kingdom of Aksum, which flourished from approximately 100 AD to 940 AD in what
is now Ethiopia and parts of Eritrea, had a rich and complex social life characterized by
a mix of indigenous traditions and influences from trade and interaction with neighboring
cultures.
Social Structure
18 | P a g e
We have remarkably little information about the stratification of Aksumite society, but
some suggestions can be made using indications from archaeological and other
evidence. Mobility between classes, inheritance, marriage status or other family
arrangements are all at present quite outside our knowledge. Polygamy can perhaps be
assumed by analogy with later custom, but there is no actual evidence. Later Ethiopian
law followed the Fetha Nagast, `The Law of the Kings' written in Arabic by a Copt in the
mid-thirteenth century, and translated into Geèz perhaps in the middle of the fifteenth
century (Tzadua 1968), but inscriptions like that of Safra show that there were earlier
legal codes in use (Drewes 1962). We do not know if there was any prestige derived
from being an Àksumite' (as in the case of the extra privileges bestowed on a Roman
citizen), rather than a member of one of the other communities which made up the
kingdom. A distinction between Ethiopia/Habashat and Aksum itself is implied when the
kings are referred to by South Arabian inscriptions as `nagashi of Habashat (Abyssinia)
and Aksum'. It has been noted elsewhere that the tribes such as the Agwezat,
presumably part of Habashat but not Aksumites, retained their identity for a long while
as a distinct people; but after a while any such Aksum/Habashat dichotomy may have
blurred. Social class may well have been based on the ownership of land, perhaps
entraining more or less feudal commitments down the scale, but there is little reliable
evidence to affirm this from the Aksumite period. Copies of land-grants to individuals
and institutions are preserved (Huntingford 1965), but no originals survive from
Aksumite times. Huntingford notes, however, that there is a good possibility that the
early charters might be genuine transmissions; they all include Christianised sanction
clauses which resemble those on the Aksumite inscriptions If this is true, although all
the examples given are grants to Maryam Tseyon cathedral, we can imagine that
individuals might have been similarly rewarded by the kings with estates and villages to
support their rank, and that land-registers of some sort were maintained. The only
actual `land-grant' we know of from Aksumite times is that of king Ezana to the six Beja
chieftains ; and this is exceptional being a forcible removal of a population. However, it
does illustrate that the king possessed land to bestow, as we might expect from the
Monumentum Adulitanum's statement about conquered peoples; "I reserved for myself
half of their lands and their peoples. . . ." Slaves, perhaps largely prisoners of war or
criminals, are alluded to occasionally. Kosmas seems to imply that the majority of those
at home and in the hands of foreign merchants came from Sasu and Barbaria, roughly
the western Sudan and south-eastern Ethiopia or Somalia (Wolska-Conus 1968: 378).
Such unskilled basic tasks as field work and rough quarry work, hauling, and domestic
work could be expected for them. Exceptions would be prisoners of some special
quality, like Frumentius and Aedesius, destined for tasks of greater responsibility, who
probably were not actually considered as slaves. Procopius speaks of `slaves' (in the
Aksumite army in Arabia, but these seem to have been allowed to remain in Arabia, and
were included among those who later rebelled against Sumyafa` Ashwa` (Esimiphaios),
which leaves their actual status unclear (Procopius, ed. Dewing 1914: 189). Ultimately,
life in Aksumite times, as today, was based on the work of the peasant toiling in the
fields. Ploughing with oxen, sowing, clearing, reaping, and threshing would have
occupied his day, and very likely the land he worked was part of another's estate from
which he could take only basic subsistence products for himself. Shepherding the flocks
and herds, and tending vegetable and fruit gardens, would have been other countryside
19 | P a g e
occupations. We have no information about land-tenure systems in Aksumite times,
though gifts of land by the king to the gods or to the church are mentioned, the former in
inscriptions, and the latter in both inscriptions and land-charters. Those of the latter
which claim to be of Aksumite times are all in reality much later, but may preserve some
genuine information (Huntingford 1965). Possibly the prisoners offered to the gods were
destined, if not as human sacrifices, to work on such lands? It is also not known
whether the peasants were free, or tied to the land. Probably the houses of such
people, as today, were constructed of perishable materials, and contained little besides
essential tools, skins for clothing and bedding, a few storage vessels, (including wooden
or basketwork ones?) and perhaps one or two extras for the richer peasant. Such
houses may have been round, like a clay house-model from Hawelti, or perhaps, in
more prosperous circumstances, of the type found by de Contenson at Mazaber in the
Hawelti-Melazo region (de Contenson 1963ii, pl. XXXVIIb-c; 1961iii: 44). The latter was
a stone dry-walled house with the typical Aksumite steps or rebates in the wall,
consisting of two rooms only, altogether about 9 m in length by about 4 m wide. Its only
remaining contents were sherds from a few pottery vessels and fragments of household
objects in bronze (a pin-head and a hook). The specialist potter, metalworker, leather-
worker or other artisan, in the urban setting, may similarly have lived in a relatively
humble house, and exchanged his work for food or money at one or other of the
markets, or he may have travelled, doing work where needed. The only excavated
urban areas which could give an idea about the dwellings of such people are at Matara,
but they have not yet been fully published. However, a certain idea can be gained from
published plans (Anfray 1974: 756 and fig. 7), which show a sharp contrast to the
neighbouring mansions. The symmetrical arrangement of the former is replaced by an
irregular series of square or rectangular rooms, entered by twisting streets and through
courts. The impression given is of an organic process, the residents building, rebuilding,
adding, or removing rooms and walls as their needs required. Hearths, ovens, and
abandoned pottery indicate living floors in these simple two- or three-room dwellings.
Complete publication of these quarters of Matara may eventually give us an idea as to
the sort of people, and the way of life, to be found in the humbler echelons of an
Aksumite urban population. Whether those peasants or artisans who lived and worked
in defined areas were obliged to join the armies when required is not known, but seems
very likely. Certain specialists, smiths and so on, must have been necessary to minister
to the armies on campaign, and staff such as cooks, porters, and grooms or herdsmen
to tend the animals would also have been taken along. The local trader in the market
towns was probably not much better off. But the merchant in the larger centres, the
larger independent farmer (if such existed), and the various civil officials may have
constituted something of a middle class, dwelling in rather better houses, perhaps like
those illustrated by the clay models found at Aksum. These were apparently equipped
with wooden doorways and window surrounds, and layered thatch roofs (de Contenson
1959i: pl. XIX, fig. 8; Chittick 1974: fig. 21a). A greater quantity of tools and fittings, with
some occasional luxuries, can be imagined among their possessions. Good quality
pottery, some glassware and decorative metalwork, jewellery, perhaps an Indian or
Egyptian cloth robe or cloak, and meat and wine on the table are the sort of extras to be
expected. They may have employed artisans and servants, or been able to afford a few
slaves. Possibly the burial goods found in a tomb in the Gudit Stele Field (see below)
20 | P a g e
belonged to someone from this level of society. In the central area of the towns, and in
country mansions, the landowners and rulers of the dominant class would have led a
rather more pleasant way of life, surrounded by households comprising slaves and
servants living in the outer wings of their houses where the domestic offices probably
were. The great distinction among the élite residences appears to have been one of
size, and, as one might expect, the largest were the metropolitan palaces. We can
approximately divide the buildings into two groups, the very large `palaces' and the
lesser `villas' or `mansions', and these may reflect two echelons of the Aksumite élite;
the rulers themselves, and the nobility and great officials. Those we may term palaces
were at Aksum, with the length of the four sides of their central pavilions ranging from
24-35 m; the smallest of these, Taàkha Maryam, was surrounded by outbuildings
measuring 80 × 120. After an intermediate structure, the 21 m sq pavilion at Dungur
(Anfray 1972: pl. I), where the outbuildings measured c. 64 m sq, measurements of the
pavilions of the next size of building down (`villa' or `mansion') varied as follows; 17.50
m, Tertre B at Matara (Anfray and Annequin 1965); the outbuildings measured 59.50 ×
49 m; 15.20 m, Tertre C at Matara (Anfray and Annequin 1965); 15 m, Àddi Kilte villa
(Puglisi 1941); 12.60 × 11.20 m, Tertre A at Matara (Anfray 1963); the outbuildings, if
symmetrically arranged, were about 17 × 15.50 m. In the central pavilions of these
structures we might expect to find the reception rooms, and, upstairs perhaps (Buxton
and Matthews 1974), the main living quarters. The quality of the fittings would have
varied with the rank of the owners, from the monarchs to perhaps different grades of
noble or official. From tomb finds we can furnish these with gilded and decorated
furniture, with vessels and other equipment of gold, silver, bronze, glass, and
stoneware. To this we can probably add certain more costly furs and fabrics, perfumes
and incense, carved wood and ivory work, and luxuries of the table both local and
imported. Such establishments may have employed a number of specially-skilled
retainers, such as musicians and singers, artisans of various sorts, clerks, accountants,
bailiffs or stewards. We can imagine a fairly considerable population for the larger
dwellings and dependencies; for example, Matara Tertre B had over thirty rooms in its
outbuildings, the Dungur mansion, with its several courtyards, contained about fifty
rooms, while Taàkha Maryam had probably around eighty. 2. Funerary Practice The
Aksumites belonging to the last three categories above are those for whom we can
envisage burial in the main cemeteries at Aksum. It can be assumed that only the
upper echelons of society could have had a built tomb or one of the larger rock-cut
types. In the royal cemetery the dead were probably buried with considerable amounts
of valuable gear, and with the full panoply of ceremony, sacrificial offerings, and the like.
The dead of high rank were laid in stone coffins, and, surrounded with their equipment,
were either sealed up forever, or to wait for the next member of the family to die if they
were in multiple tombs. So far among the tombs discovered, only that of the False Door
seems to have been an individual tomb. Very likely the dead were dressed in their best
clothing and decked with their jewellery, but no intact burial assemblage in one of the
larger tombs has yet been found. Stone coffins were visible in the partly-plundered
Tomb of the Brick Arches, but no-one has yet penetrated into the inner chambers,
where some of the burials still perhaps lie undisturbed since the robbery which
scattered other occupants' possessions across the floor of the outer rooms. The tomb
excavated by the BIEA in the Gudit Stele Field, though it was only a simple excavated
21 | P a g e
chamber marked by a rough stele, seems from its contents to have belonged to
someone in the better-off social strata. However, it contained only pottery, glass and
iron tools (though some valuable items may have been taken by robbers), whereas the
only partially cleared Tomb of the Brick Arches, situated in the main cemetery but still a
modest tomb in comparison to some of the really large ones, contained objects of every
kind, including precious metals. Such a gap probably expresses the differences
between the third and fourth categories discussed above, and indicates how the ruling
class compared with even the next grade of their subjects in terms of material wealth.
Some tombs contained multiple burials with only a few personal items of jewellery, or
the occasional pot or glass vessel (Shaft Tomb A at Aksum; Chittick 1974: 171). These
seem to date to the Christian period, and probably the old customs requiring a mass of
funerary equipment died away after the spread of Christianity. Tombs of persons of
rank, such as the so-called Tombs of Kaleb and Gabra Masqal, and the tomb at Matara
Tertre D (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pls. XLIV-XLV), were still very well-constructed,
but contained less space for equipment. All these tombs, and that of the False Door,
have been open for centuries or were so badly robbed in antiquity that nothing can now
be said about their possible contents; only the stone sarcophagi remain in some of
them, and even these are often smashed into fragments. Rather lesser tombs were
found in and around the building at Tertre A at Matara (Anfray 1963); they may be
contemporary with the building, but are more likely to have been installed after its
abandonment. There were six, either built of stones or simply dug into the earth, and
roofed with stone slabs. Occasionally they yielded some pottery, and some contained
three or four bodies. Information about the burial of newly-born or very young children
comes from both Adulis and Matara. In these places, imported amphorae, formerly used
for the conveyance of wine or oil from abroad, were used as miniature coffins to bury
children in the houses of their parents. The necks of the amphorae having been broken
off, the body was put inside, and the top closed by a stone lid (e.g. Anfray and Annequin
1965: pl. L, 1). The custom of burying children thus was not uncommon in the
contemporary Roman world. The discovery of two skeletons thrown into the pit at the
base of Stele 137 at Aksum, and the fact that among the platforms and in some tombs
were found animal bones, either burnt or not, may indicate that certain sacrificial
ceremonies were enacted during funerals or dedications of stelae (Munro-Hay 1989).
Possibly the animal bones and charcoal were the remains of a funerary or celebratory
meal. If Drewes (1962: 41) is correct in his interpretation of the Safra inscription A, we
have there details of the offerings on the occasion of certain acts connected with death
and burial. These seem to consist of the completion of an excavated tomb; the occasion
of a funerary ceremony; the immolation of a cow; and a gathering at the tomb. The
inscription is apparently of the third century, and the rites mentioned by it may have
been the same as those enacted at the necropolis of Aksum, resulting in the occurrence
of animal bones and their burnt remains in and around the tombs.
Gender Roles
Women’s Status: Women in Aksumite society had some rights, including property
ownership and participation in trade. However, their roles were largely defined by family
and domestic responsibilities.
22 | P a g e
Royal Women: Women from the royal family could wield considerable influence, with
some even acting as regents or holding positions of power.The Aksumite Empire, which
flourished from approximately the 1st to the 7th centuries CE in what is now northern
Ethiopia and southern Arabia, was a significant trading power in the ancient world. Its
strategic location made it a hub for commerce between Africa, the Mediterranean, and
the Arabian Peninsula.
Religion
The Aksumites practiced a polytheistic religion before the adoption of Christianity in the
4th century AD. Religious practices were integral to social life, with temples and rituals
being central to community activities. The official adoption of Christianity under King
Ezana transformed the social landscape, leading to the establishment of monasteries
and the spread of Christian culture.
Aksum's considerable imports ranging from wines and olive oil to cloth, iron, glass and
objects of precious metals, are reported by various ancient writers, but containers for
the foodstuffs and examples of some of the others have also been found in tombs and
domestic buildings excavated at the capital and other towns. From such discoveries
some ideas can be suggested concerning the social structure and way of life of the
Aksumites while the tombs reveal something of their attitude to death and expectations
of an afterlife. There was a radical change in this sphere in the second quarter of the
fourth century, when the Aksumite king Ezana, previously a worshipper of gods
identified with such Greek deities as Zeus, Poseidon, and Ares, was converted to
Christianity . From then on the coins and inscriptions show royal support for the new
religion by replacing the old disc and crescent motifs of the former gods with the cross,
though it may have taken a considerable time for Christianity to spread into the remoter
regions under Aksumite control. Aksumite inscriptions from this period are in three
scripts and two languages; Geèz, the local language, written both in its own cursive
script and in the South Arabian monumental script (Epigraphic South Arabian, or ESA),
and Greek, the international language of the Red Sea trade and the Hellenized Orient.
The adoption of Christianity must have aligned the kingdom to some extent towards the
Roman empire, but this
seems not to have been a
slavish obedience for
political ends. The
Alexandrian patriarch
Athanasius appointed,
about 330AD, a Tyrian
called Frumentius, who had
lived in Aksum for some
years, as Aksum's first
bishop and this apparently
founded a tradition of
Alexandrian appointments
23 | P a g e
to the see of Aksum. In about 356AD the emperor Constantius II wrote to Ezana trying
to persuade him to submit Frumentius to doctrinal examination by his own appointee to
Alexandria, the bishop George of Cappadocia, who, with the emperor, subscribed to the
Arian heresy. In such matters of church politics, Aksum seems to have followed
Alexandria's lead, and refused to adopt Constantius' proposed changes. Aftr the Council
of Chalcedon in 451 the international church was divided, and Aksum, with Egypt and
much of the east, split from the so-called melkite or imperial church and followed the
monophysite interpretation of Christ's nature which Ethiopia still retains
Language and Writing

The language of the Aksumite kingdom was Geèz (Ethiopic), a Semitic tongue
assumed (but not proven) to have an ancestry in old South Arabian. Geèz, possibly
deriving its name from the Agwezat or Agazi tribal group, is now a dead language
except for its use in traditional Ethiopian Orthodox church rituals and in some
specialised circumstances, such as poetry. It was written in characters descending from
the same parentage as the script now called Epigraphic South Arabian, but more
cursive in form; the modern Ethiopian alphabet is the only survivor of this script today.
Its development required that certain letters employed in dialects of South Arabian were
omitted and others added as necessary. A number of early texts and graffiti from
Ethiopia are themselves in a cursive form of the old South Arabian script (Drewes
1962). Time and the influence of the Cushitic languages of Ethiopia (Agaw or Central
Cushitic being the most important) both helped in the transference from the original
language to Geèz. The arguments advanced for the origins of the Geèz script would
fill a small book (Ullendorff 1955; 1960: 112ff; Drewes 1962: Ch. V; Drewes and
Schneider 1976). Some have seen it as a development from the monumental South
Arabian script, others as related to the contemporary cursive scripts found in both
Arabia and Ethiopia; the mechanics of the change, the experts have suggested, could
have been through either intentional or accidental alteration. The script could have been
inspired by an early importation, or even by a more recent inspiration subsequent to the
period of the earlier inscriptions. A fair number of inscriptions have been found dating
from pre-Aksumite times and written in the epigraphic South Arabian script, at such
places as Yeha, Kaskase and Hawelti-Melazo. Some of these employ a form of the
language which is apparently more or less pure Sabaic, while others, though
0..contemporary, show linguistic features perhaps indicating that they were carved by
Ethiopians (Drewes 1962; Schneider 1976i). The use of the South Arabian script
continued on into Aksumite times (or was revived then?) and as late as the reigns of
Kaleb and W`ZB monumental inscriptions were still written in a version of this script, but
using the Geèz language. In the early fourth century, the purely consonantal script was
found inadequate, and a system of vowelling was adopted, which greatly facilitated the
reading of Geèz. The origins and history of the vowelling system are uncertain; it might
have been influenced by some Indian scripts (Pankhurst 1974: 220-2; Chatterji 1967:
24 | P a g e
53), and It might in tp’urn have influenced Armenian (Olderogge 1974: 195-203). This
innovation was employed on the inscriptions, and doubtless on whatever (not so far
discovered) papyrus, parchment or other impermanent medium the Aksumites kept their
records. It was not generally adopted on the coins, whose legends remained
unvowelled, except for very rare and partial vowelling on the coins of one or two later
kings, until the end of the series. However, even without the vowelling, the coins provide
a very interesting sequence from which the changes in the styles of the letter-forms can
be ascertained from the third to the seventh century (Munro-Hay 1984iii). This
information, combined with inscriptional material, is one way of tentatively dating newly-
discovered Geèz documents. However, such palaeographical work is still in its infancy,
and lacks sufficient numbers of documents which can be reliably dated to make it an
efficient tool at present. Early inscriptions closely resembling South Arabian ones have
been dated according to the palaeographical studies of Pirenne (1956), but again there
might be a case for readjustment (Schneider 1976i). In a recent (unpublished) paper,
Roger Schneider has commented on some fascinating anomalies in Geèz writing on
Aksumite inscriptions and coins (see also Drewes 1955; Hahn 1987). The existence of
one vocalised letter on certain silver coins of Wazeba, a predecessor of Ezana, may
well indicate that the process of vocalisation was under way before Ezana, though the
unvocalised Geèz inscription of Ezana (DAE 7) has made it commonly accepted that
the development of vocalisation occurred during his reign. Littmann (1913, IV: 78),
Drewes and Schneider all suggest deliberate archaising; some of the letters, apart from
lacking vowels, are of forms very much more ancient than those current for Ezana's
time. This is not just over-elaborate academic discussion. For whatever reasons Ezana
had this done (and Drewes suggests perhaps a desire to emphasise the links with
South Arabia, or perhaps to point to the ancient origins of Aksumite royal power), it is of
interest that almost no kings of Aksum in the subsequent centuries introduced vowelling
on their coins, or when they did, it was only on a letter or two; and this long after
vocalisation must have been current on other media. Preceding the common use of
Geèz, Greek was the chosen official language of the inscriptions and coins. This was
evidently largely orientated towards foreign residents and visitors, and can hardly have
been understood by more than the smallest section of the ruling class and merchant
community. There must also have been a body of more or less learned men who acted
as scribes in preparing the drafts of the inscriptions, perhaps priests or a special corps
of clerks. Greek remained the language of the coins, particularly the gold, until the end
of the coinage, but its quality degenerated quickly. Coins datable to the fourth and fifth
centuries already show errors in their Greek legends. A few inscriptions were drafted in
several versions; Greek, and in Geèz in two redactions, the first in the Geèz script, the
second in the South Arabian script. Use of this `pseudo Sabaean' seems to have been
mere vanity, perhaps trying to equal the tri-lingual inscriptions set up by the Sassanian
kings of Persia, since there can hardly have been any real reason for rendering a Geèz
inscription into the South Arabian monumental script. Presumably a native speaker of
Geèz would be able to recognise the gist of the text, the letters, though differently
oriented and more rectilinear, being still recognisable; but a Geèz version was also
25 | P a g e
supplied. A visiting South Arabian would have understood the script but not the
language.
Literature and Literacy Of Aksumite literature

we know virtually nothing except that between the fifth and seventh centuries the
Bible and other works began to be translated into Geèz (in some cases by
Syrian/Aramaic speakers, thus absorbing certain additions to the vocabulary of the
Geèz language). Traces of the early biblical translation survive in the form of
quotations in some of the inscriptions. The Geèz royal inscriptions themselves
show an accomplished use of the language, and well exploit the propaganda
medium provided by them. The earlier use of Greek for monumental inscriptions
may have been an important factor towards the `stylistic confidence' shown by
the Geèz inscriptions, and this may not in fact reflect a long literary tradition
(Irvine 1977). Zoskales, an early Aksumite ruler, was an educated man who spoke
Greek, and the royal example, as well as the influx of Greek-speaking merchants,
doubtless encouraged the spread of learning which resulted in the use of Greek
for even the national inscriptions and coinage. One feels that there must have
been a certain amount of literacy in the country for the kings to take such care
with the inscriptions and the coin legends with their mottoes (Ch. 9: 4). A ruler like
Ezana, educated under the influence of Frumentius, who later returned to be
installed as Ethiopia's first bishop, would surely have been able to speak and read
Greek, and been well aware of the advantages of such propaganda media in both
foreign and local circles. Very occasionally, there are other indications of literacy,
like the inscription left by a presumably Aksumite Ethiopian, Abreha, in the Wady
Manih on the road to the Egyptian port of Berenice. Its interpretation is, as usual,
not quite clear, partly from uncertainty as to the significance of certain words,
partly due to its condition (the last three lines are almost completely illegible).
Sergew Hable Sellasie's version reads "I Abreha, man of Aksum, spent the night
here [and] came believing in the might of the Lord of Heaven Aryam, with my
son". Littmann read it as "I am Abreha Takla Aksum and I stayed here. [I] came
[protected] by the power [of the Lord of the Sublime] H[eaven] with my son".
Ullendorff suggested "I Abreha am the founder of Aksum" (or, "founder of the
[Church of] Aksum") "and have my domicile there" (Sergew Hable Sellassie 1972:
109; Littmann 1954; Ullendorff 1955). Schneider (1984: 158), after discussing the
26 | P a g e
state of the text as it is preserved now, concluded, perhaps wisely, that after "I
Abreha" `the rest is speculation'. However, the inscription is of interest since it is
unvocalised and apparently of the early fourth century AD; it confirms that the
name Abreha was in use in Ethiopia at the same period as the mysterious Abreha
and Atsbeha of Aksumite legend. Another unvocalised inscription from Dabra
Damo, associated with crosses, reads simply "I prayed" (Littmann 1913: IV, 61). A
more mundane inscription, on a pot found at Aksum, reads "he who breaks it,
pays!" (Anfray 1972: pl. III). In late Aksumite times the inscription of the hatseni
Danael was carved on one of the statue bases in the city (Ch. 11: 5); this is, with
the funerary inscription of Giho, daughter of Mangesha, from Ham (Conti Rossini
1939; Cerulli 1968: 18-19), one of the latest inscriptions we have. At Ham Conti
Rossini also noted archaic Ethiopian inscriptions, probably simply names of
travellers like those from a grotto at Qohayto, together with Aksumite pillars and
other objects. The funerary inscription reads; "Giho, daughter of Mangasha, died
in the month of Tahsas, the 27th day, at dawn, the day before the vigil of the
Nativity, a Wednesday, being the year . . . Ella Sahel. But as it is written `Man born
of woman is of few days' as it is written in the Gospel `He who has eaten my flesh
and drunk my blood shall not taste death, and I will raise him at the last day'; and
as is written in the Prophet `The dead shall be raised, and those who are in the
tomb shall live'". Sergew Hable Sellassie (1972: 198), read the middle lines as "on
the eve of Christmas on the day of Wednesday. And died a year after we had
(conquered?) our enemy Ella Sahel". Conti Rossini suggested a date of the 7th or
8th century for this inscription. Monneret de Villard (1940) noted that the shape
of the tablet on which the inscription is carved resembles the typical Meroitic
altar of offerings, and thought that Giho's name was also Meroitic in origin; since
such a funerary inscription is so far unique in Ethiopia but not unknown in Nubia,
perhaps it does show some influences from there. It has been suggested that Èlla
Sahel' refers to a king of that name who appears in the king-lists, but the reading
of the sentence is obscure (Schneider 1984: 163). The later Ethiopian love of
stories of the miracle-filled lives of saints, and the wonderful tales of old, may
have had some literary reflection as early as Aksumite times, helping to both
develop and preserve them. The compilation of the chronicles of the kings, as in
mediaeval times, may have been an Aksumite custom, as illustrated by the
preserved inscriptions. But if so the only traces we have of them are the Geèz
king lists repeated in later times, with a few glosses about exceptional events. The
27 | P a g e
patent inaccuracy of the lists, and the non-appearance of most known Aksumite
rulers, show that only a very little was transmitted to later ages about Aksumite
history, and presumably any such ancient chronicles perished during one of the
periods of unrest from late Aksumite times. There can be little doubt that the art
of making parchment and keeping records or literary works by the use of
parchment scrolls (as in the Nubian kingdoms later), or larger flat pages (as in
Ethiopia in the mediaeval period) could have been practised in Aksumite times,
and one day we may hope to find something of the sort in, perhaps, one of the
Aksumite tombs. Records of government business and commercial transactions,
as well as religious and other works, were certainly kept from early times, but the
climate of Ethiopia does not have the dryness which has preserved so much
perishable material in Egypt and Nubia. Most of the surviving Ethiopian
parchment books are of relatively recent date, but there remains the hope that
some earlier works may one day be discovered.
Trade and Commerce: Aksum was a major trading power, connecting trade
routes between Africa, the Middle East, and India. This not only brought
wealth but also cultural exchanges, influencing social customs, art, and
architecture.Festivals and.
Trade Routes
Land and Maritime Routes: Aksum was located near the Red Sea, allowing
it to engage in maritime trade with regions such as India, Arabia, and the
Mediterranean. Overland trade routes connected Aksum to the interior of
Africa and the neighboring regions.
Incense Route: The Aksumite Empire was part of the Incense Route, which
was vital for the trade of frankincense and myrrh. These valuable
commodities were highly sought after in the Mediterranean world,
particularly in religious and medicinal contexts.Trade with Rome and India:
Aksum traded extensively with the Roman Empire, exporting goods such
as gold, ivory, and exotic animals, while importing silk, glassware, and
other luxury items. The empire also engaged in trade with Indian ports,
exchanging African products for spices and textiles.
Medium of Exchange
28 | P a g e
Currency: The Aksumites minted their own coins, which facilitated trade.
These coins were made of gold, silver, and bronze, and often featured
images of the emperors and symbols of the empire. The use of coinage
helped standardize trade and made transactions more efficient
29 | P a g e
Barter System: In addition to using coins, barter was also a common method of
exchange, especially in local markets. Goods such as grain, livestock, and crafts
were traded directly without the use of money.
Goods Traded
: Aksum was known for its exports of ivory, gold, frankincense, myrrh, and
agricultural products. The empire's wealth was bolstered by its control over these
valuable resources.Imports: The Aksumites imported luxury goods, such as silk
from China, glassware, and pottery from the Mediterranean, as well as spices and
textiles from India. This exchange contributed to the cultural and economic
richness of the empire.
Cultural Exchange
The trade routes not only facilitated the exchange of goods but also fostered
cultural interactions. The Aksumite Empire became a melting pot of different
cultures, which influenced its art, religion, and architecture. The spread of
Christianity, which became the state religion in the 4th century CE, was also
facilitated by these trade connections.
30 | P a g e
Rulers
Jerusalem falls to Persia 619AD Egypt falls to Persia End of Aksum as capital,
Matara tomb Period 6. After the end of the coinage. 630AD Death of Ashama ibn
Abjar 640AD Arab expedition in Red Sea, Egypt falls to Arabs 705-715AD Reign of
al-Walid, Qusayr Amra painting The symbol * denotes issues of coins. 3. Period 1;
Early Aksum until the Reign of Gadarat The process of development of the
Aksumite state is obscure. The earliest surviving literary references to Aksum, in
the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Huntingford 1980) and Ptolemy's Geography
(Stevenson 1932), together with some finds of early date from the site itself
(Munro-Hay 1989), indicate that the city was probably established at the
beginning of our era. The dates of both the above references have been disputed.
It has been suggested that the Periplus could have been written in the mid-1st
century (Bowersock 1983: 70; Casson 1989: 7) or even as late as the 3rd century
AD (Pirenne 1961), whilst one scholar proposed that the earliest surviving versions
of Ptolemy's work relay information which was continually updated until the 4th
century AD (Mathew 1975: 152). However, if they are accepted as early
31 | P a g e
documents, their references to Aksum do seem to be backed up by the excavation
there of certain features which can be satisfactorily dated to the first and second
centuries AD. These include stone-built platforms, perhaps originally laid out with
some funerary purpose since they were found below the deposits later formed by
the main cemetery (now the so-called Stele Park; see Ch. 16). They have been
dated by radiocarbon tests on material found in associated contexts to the first
two centuries AD (Chittick 1974; Chittick 1976i; Munro-Hay 1989). Among the
finds from this region were fragments of glass vessels of particular types, dateable
to the first century AD; and certain types of glass were actually included in the list
of imports into Aksum provided by the Periplus. If we are right in thinking of the
Periplus as a probably mid-first century document, we can hope to find at Aksum
evidence of the "city of the people called Auxumites" (Schoff 1912: 23) —
translated by Huntingford as "the metropolis called the Axomite" (1980: 20) —
which it mentions, together with a comprehensive selection of such goods as it
describes as being imported into Aksum. Ptolemy, if we accept that his reference
is not a later addition, leads us to expect a city with a king's palace at some time
around the midsecond century AD. Archaeology has so far revealed little of this,
but the early platforms and glass indicate that further evidence for the existence
of the city by the first century AD may now be expected. With more
archaeological excavation, other early remains apart from the platforms may be
discovered. Much of the other material excavated is at the moment difficult to
date reliably and so remains inconclusive. Accepting, with the modern consensus
of opinion, that the Periplus dates to the mid-first century AD, we find that at this
stage Aksum, under the rule of king Zoskales, was already a substantial state with
access to the sea at Adulis. Zoskales is the earliest king of the region known to us
at the moment (though Cerulli 1960: 7; Huntingford 1980: 60, 149-50 and Chittick
1981: 186 suggested that he was not king of Aksum but a lesser tributary ruler). In
his time there was a vigorous trading economy, and already a notable demand for
the luxuries of foreign countries. The monarchy was established; and Ptolemy
confirms that Aksum was the royal capital by the mid-second century AD. This
period, then, saw the rise of the city into the governmental centre for a
considerable area of the Ethiopian plateau and the coastal plain. Such a line of
development is to be expected since by the time of king GDRT (Gadarat) Aksum
had attained a position which allowed it to venture to send its armies on overseas
expeditions and even establish garrisons in parts of Arabia. The fact that the
32 | P a g e
Periplus does not mention Aksumites in connection with South Arabia is another
feature which seems to date it before the period of Abyssinian intervention there,
and indeed the Periplus notes that the power of king Kharibael of Himyar and
Saba, and the tyrannos Kholaibos of the southern coastal Mopharitic region (al-
Maàfir), reaching from their capitals of Zafar and Saue, was sufficient to allow
them to control Azania, the east African coast to Tanzania, and its rich trade in
ivory and tortoise-shell (Casson 1989: 61, 69). Though, by the early third century,
Aksum had come to dominate al-Maàfir, and much weakened the Arabian trading
system, at the time of the Periplus the Ethiopians were not in a position to reach
so far, and the Arabian port of Muza seems to have been rather more important
than Adulis. Gradually, during the second century, Aksum must have begun to
interest itself in weakening Himyarite maritime control, culminating in its allying
with Saba (see below) and seizing certain areas formerly under Himyarite rule
(Bafaqih and Robin 1980; Bafaqih 1983: Ch. 3). One uncertain but interesting hint
that Aksumite power may have been increasing notably in the 1st century AD
comes from accounts preserved by Seneca (ed. Corcoran 1972), the Roman writer
who became the emperor Nero's tutor, and Pliny (ed. Rackham 1952: VI. 35, 184).
These authors record details about an exploration (or two separate expeditions;
Shinnie 1967: 21-22) in 61AD into the southern part of the Sudan. Certain Roman
officers were able to penetrate as far as the great papyrus swamp region of the
Sudan, the Sudd, it seems with a certain amount of help from the Meroitic king.
Even in Augustus' time, according to Strabo (ed. Page 1930: 353) Aelius Gallus had
been sent not only to explore Arabia, `but also in Aethiopia, since Caesar saw that
the Troglodyte country which adjoins Aegypt neighbours upon Arabia, and also
that the Arabian Gulf, which separates the Arabians from the Troglodytes, is
extremely narrow' but this earlier effort came to nothing, it seems, since Gallus'
expedition was a failure. It has been suggested that at the time of the Sudan
expedition Rome, as Meroë's ally, was trying to assist in preventing the nascent
Aksumite kingdom from seizing control of the routes formerly used by the Kushite
monarchy's merchant caravans. Whilst we have no certain confirmation of this,
there may have come a time when Meroë and Aksum clashed over their interests
in the control of the Nile routes. Schur (1923) says that the emperor Nero
intended to move against Aksum, and therefore sent an army to Ptolemais under
Vespasian and Titus; but this can only be conjecture. Nevertheless, with the
decline of Meroitic power and the fragmentation of authority in the region,
33 | P a g e
Aksum would certainly have had a better opportunity for advancing its interests to
the west and north than when Meroë was still a powerful state. The Meroitic
relief at Jabal Qayli, close to the route leading to Kassala, where the king of Meroë
is shown with slain enemies under the image of an Apollo-like deity, is the furthest
actual trace of Meroitic influence to the east (Shinnie 1967: 50-51). This relief,
bearing the name of king Sherkarer, is attributed to the early first century AD, but
the Meroitic dates are not certainly fixed, and there is considerable leeway. It has
been suggested that the distorted figures of the enemy represent slain Aksumites,
but they could just as easily be depictions of any local group who had incurred
Sherkarer's enmity. 4. Period 2; Gadarat to Endubis This period may be
characterised as Aksum's first `South Arabian' period, since most of the
information available comes from inscriptions found in South Arabia (Beeston
1937; Jamme 1962; Robin 1981). The inscriptions name the Ethiopian kings as
`nagashi of Habashat (Abyssinia) and of Aksum(an)' and are written in the old
South Arabian script and language. Since there are no vowels marked, the royal
names mentioned by these inscriptions actually read GDRT, ÀDBH, ZQRNS and
DTWNS, but for convenience here simple vowelling has been added, as for
example, in the name `Gadarat'. The letters GDRT could represent a Geèz name
such as Gedur, Gadura, Gedara or the like, but until a correctly vowelled spelling is
found we remain unsure of the precise pronunciation. The inscriptions which refer
to Gadarat and Àdhebah (perhaps Àzba or Àzeba in Geèz), kings of Aksum and
Habashat, come from the famous temple at Marib called by the Arabs `Mahram
Bilqis', after the Arab name for the Queen of Sheba. Mahram Bilqis was in fact the
great temple of the moon-god Ilmuqah at the ancient capital of the kingdom of
Saba, now in north Yemen. Dated inscriptions, using an èra of Himyar' are now
interpreted as providing a date for Gadarat around the beginning of the 3rd
century AD. It was previously suggested (Munro-Hay 1984: 20) that these were
fourth century rulers, on the strength of the reading of ÀDBH as WDBH, identified
with Wazeba (WZB), one of the earliest kings named on the coinage, but since
new discoveries about the dating of the inscriptions this theory has been
abandoned. The inscriptions which mention the Aksumite rulers were written as
official accounts of wars and victories by the kings of Saba and Himyar. Since these
kings were usually the enemies of the Aksumites, they do not deal very often with
Aksumite successes. Nevertheless, we find that the military forces of the
Aksumites were in control of certain regions of the Arabian peninsula, a situation
34 | P a g e
doubtless partly facilitated by the political situation in Arabia, where the rulers of
both Saba and Himyar at different times called in the help of Aksumite armies
against each other. The situation is still not entirely clear, but it appears that
Arabia at the end of the second century was dominated by four states, Himyar (a
relatively new polity), Saba, Hadhramawt and Qataban. Somewhere between
c160-210AD Qataban was annexed by Hadhramawt, while the Sabaean rulers
tried to subjugate Himyar, then ruled by king Tharan Yaùb Yuhanìm. The Sabaean
king Àlhan Nahfan, son of Yarim Ayman I, and his sons Shaìr Awtar and Yarim
Ayman II allied themselves against Himyar with Gadarat, nagashi of Aksum. This
latter power was probably a relatively recent arrival on the Arabian scene,
interested in curtailing Himyarite trading control in the Red Sea and beyond, and
its assistance helped the Sabaeans to achieve a favourable balance of power. But
it also brought a new factor into South Arabian politics, not finally disposed of
until the Persian conquest centuries later; the Abyssinian presence ultimately
protracted the conflict between Saba and Himyar for eventual control of the
entire region. This realignment occurred in the early part of the third century. The
three Sabaean kings had previously allied themselves with Yadaùb Gaylan, the
king of Hadhramawt. An inscription celebrating their treaty with Aksum declares
that `they agreed together that their war and their peace should be in unison,
against anyone that might rise up against them, and that in safety and in security
there should be allied together Salhen and Zararan and Àlhan and Gadarat'. In
this inscription what seems to be Gadarat's castle or chief residence Zararan, is
mentioned in parallel to the palace of Àlhan at Marib, capital of Saba, which was
called Salhen; Zararan might even be one of the palaces whose ruins are still
visible at Aksum (Ch. 5: 4). After Àlhan Nahfan's death his son Shaìr Awtar
(whose reign seems to date from about 210 to 230AD, linked for a time in co-
regency with his brother Hayuàthtar Yada`) abandoned this alliance. Frictions had
doubtless begun to develop as Aksum grew more powerful in the region, and
learned to play off the Arabian kingdoms and tribal allegiances against each other.
By about 225AD Shaìr Awtar had defeated and captured Ilàzz Yalut, king of the
Hadhramawt, and taken his capital, Shabwa. Ilàzz was married to the sister of
Shaìr Awtar, and in 217-8AD the latter had helped put down a rebellion against
the Hadhrami king; the enmity between Hadhramawt and Saba was a major
change in policy. The Abyssinian position in these events is not clear. Shaìr Awtar
apparently used both Himyarite and Sabaean troops in this campaign, and the
35 | P a g e
Himyarite ruler, Liàzz Yahnuf Yuhasdiq, whose reign may have overlapped with
the end of Shaìr's, also allied with the Sabaeans against Gadarat. Aksum suffered
a defeat, and was expelled from the Himyarite capital, Zafar, which had been
occupied and garrisoned under the command of a son of the nagashi, Beyga or
Baygat (BYGT). However, Aksum still retained territory in Arabia in the reign of
Shaìr Awtar's successor Lahayàtat Yarkham, who had at least one clash with
Habash troops. In any event, these activities, dating from perhaps the beginning
of the third century to the 230's AD, are confirmation that Aksum had reached a
new zenith in its power. Overseas wars, the occupation of territories in Arabia,
military alliances, a fleet, and the extension of Aksumite political and military
influence from the Hadhramawt to Najran in modern Saudi Arabia bespeak an
important increase in the scope of the Aksumite state. A peace may have been
patched up between the contestants for a while, but it was only temporary. A little
later, in the 240s, we find two rival dynasties calling themselves kings of Saba and
Dhu-Raydan, one of which, represented by a certain Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and
Himyar, turned for help to king Àzeba or Àdhebah (ÀDBH) of Aksum, and his son
Girma, Garima or Garmat (GRMT), with their allies from Sahartan and the tribe of
Akk, against the Sabaean kings Ilsharah Yahdub and Yazzil Bayyin, sons of Fariùm
Yanhub (who only called himself king of Saba, perhaps recognising that he was not
in the same position of power as his two predecessors, who had employed the
dual title `king of Saba and Dhu-Raydan'). These kings considered that Himyar, the
Abyssinians, and Sahartan were in breach of a peace-treaty during the ensuing
war. Shamir Dhu-Raydan was almost certainly the Himyarite king Shamir
Yuhahmid, who became an ally of Aksum under ÀDBH and the `son of the
nagashi' GRMT. He sent for help to the nagashi, and, though one inscription claims
that "Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and Himyar had called in the help of the clans of
Habashat for war against the kings of Saba; but Ilmuqah granted . . . the
submission of Shamir of DhuRaydan and the clans of Habashat", Shamir seems to
have to some extent recovered Himyarite power. It may have been such a request
for aid that eventually led the Aksumite kings to claim the much-used titles of
`king of Saba and Himyar' in their own titulature, asserting some sort of
theoretical suzerainty over the Arabian kings. Incidentally, it is unknown whether
the two generals entitled `son of the nagashi' Baygat and Garmat were `crown
princes' who succeeded to the throne in their turn, or whether they were merely
military captains under the nagashis. Their names are unknown except for these
36 | P a g e
inscriptions. Around the end of the 240s until c260, the Himyarite king was Karibil
Ayfa`, who fought with Yadaìl Bayyin and his son Ilriyam Yadum of the new
dynasty in Hadhramawt, with the Abyssinians, and with Ilsharah Yahdub and Yazzil
Bayyin of Saba; all the main forces then in the Yemen. One of the al-Misàl
inscriptions (no. 3) mentions that a son of the nagashi, unfortunately unnamed,
came to Zafar with the troops of al-Maàfir and the Abyssinians, and that a sortie
was made against them. A new gap now occurs in the records. Possibly it may be
filled by one of the most mysterious of the Aksumite kings, Sembrouthes
(Littmann 1913: IV, 3). He is known only from his Greek inscription from Daqqi
Mahari, well north of Aksum in present-day Eritrea. The inscription is on a roughly
shaped building block, and, for so brief a text, is filled with expressions of the
royal self-esteem; "King of kings of Aksum, great Sembrouthes came (and)
dedicated (this inscription) in the year 24 of Sembrouthes the Great King". His
substantial reign of at least 24 years, if correctly placed here, fills the period
between the last mention of Àdhebah and the next known Aksumite rulers,
DTWNS and ZQRNS. Himyarite power was growing stronger throughout this
period, and perhaps to curb this Aksum decided to act; in c267-8 Yasir Yuhanìm of
Himyar (c260-270) suffered an invasion led by two Aksumite kings. More South
Arabian inscriptions, recently brought to notice by Christian Robin, (whose dating
of the South Arabian eras, and general historical scheme (1981) we have followed
here) come from the Yemeni site of al-Misàl. One inscription (no. 5) deals with
this war in which the two kings of Aksum, Datawnas (DTWNS) and Zaqarnas
(ZQRNS), with their allies of al-Maàfir, were involved. Whether these were co-
rulers, or successive occupants of the Aksumite throne, is not certain, but they
appear to have renewed or continued the Aksumite presence in South Arabia
sometime during the years between 260 and 270 AD. The results of their efforts
remain unclear; when the al-Misàl inscriptions are fully published more may be
known about the events of this period, but the fact that the Aksumite kings were
still interfering in Arabian politics indicates that their interests in South Arabia
were not lightly abandoned. An inscription of the last Sabaean king, Nashakarib
Yuha`min Yuharib, also mentions Abyssinian incursions at this time, but it is
notable that accounts of his wars in Sahartan do not mention the Abyssinians.
Illustration 10. The Greek inscription of the king of kings Sembrouthes of Aksum,
from Daqqi Mahari, Eritrea (courtesy of G. Tringali). The subsequent events,
culminating in a Himyarite victory over Saba, are conjectured to be more or less
37 | P a g e
contemporary with the Aksumite kings Endubis and Aphilas, and are detailed
below (Ch. 4: 5). Sadly, nothing is known of these Aksumite kings of the third
century from the Ethiopian side except for the discovery at Atsbi Dera of a sceptre
or wand in bronze, which mentions the name of `GDR negus of Aksum' (Caquot
and Drewes 1955: 32-38; Doresse 1960). This appears in a short inscription which
has been translated as either "GDR king of Aksum occupied the passages of `RG
and LMQ", or "Gedara, King of Axum is humbled before the [gods] Arg and
Almouqah" (Jamme 1957). GDR is very likely the same king called by the Arabian
kings GDRT (Gadarat). In addition, some finds of Himyarite coins at Aksum may be
attributed to this overseas intercourse (Munro-Hay 1978). The stelae of two
prominent Ethiopians of the late third century offer a little information about local
matters (Drewes 1962: 67-8). One, the Matara stele, reads `This is the stele which
Agaz has made for his ancestors . . .', but no information is given about Agaz
himself. The other, the Anza (near Hawzien) stele, was erected by Bazat (BZT)
negus of Agabo, perhaps a local king. His stele seems to celebrate a 15 day
festival, and 520 containers of beer and 20,620 loaves are recorded as a donation.
The Aksumite state at this stage appears fully-fledged as a militaristic monarchy
with wide-reaching foreign connexions. The interest in South Arabia may have
been encouraged by the need to keep the Red Sea efficiently policed so that
vessels of the Aksumites or their trading partners could come and go safely.
Aksum may also have been concerned to be included in the enormously profitable
trade in incense and other valuable goods along the routes which crossed Arabia
to the markets of the Roman empire. Sembrouthes' inscription attests Aksumite
power as far north as Daqqi Mahari, and confirms that he controlled subordinate
kings, since he uses the title `king of kings'. His inscription is in Greek, the
language Zoskales also knew. It remains possible that Sembrouthes should be
situated at an earlier date, though the elevated title of `king of kings' does
perhaps tend to support the dating proposed above. 5. Period 3; Endubis to Ezana
From the reign of king Endubis we are fortunate in having the newly issued
coinage, in gold, silver, and bronze, to guide us in tracing out a framework for the
history and chronology of Aksum (Munro-Hay, loc. var.; Hahn 1983). The issue of a
coinage (Ch. 9) is of very great importance in itself, and for Aksum the issue of an
independent goldbased currency was a move which announced that the state
considered itself on a par with its great neighbours at least in so far as sovereignty
was concerned. It further enabled the rulers to employ a powerful propaganda
38 | P a g e
instrument, simplified trade, and, not to be forgotten, was profitable. As far as
publicising themselves and their state was concerned the Aksumite rulers were
highly successful from our point-of-view; most of the Aksumite kings are known to
us only from the legends on their coins, all other evidence for their existence
having perished or disappeared among the ruins of Aksum. The main features and
significance of the coinage are dealt with in Ch. 9 below. From the evidence
presented through study of the coinage (Munro-Hay 1978) it can be inferred that
Endubis employed the Roman monetary system as a model, but used his own
selected designs to maximise the impact of his coinage as a vehicle to convey the
official propaganda. The subsequent kings added or removed motifs and other
elements of the design as the current situation recommended. Illustration 10a.
Drawing of a silver coin (d. 12mm) of king Wazeba with its alternative reverses,
the right-hand example belonging to king Ousanas and perhaps indicating joint
tenure of the throne. A new title, not met with before in Aksumite records, first
appears in the coin-legends of the pagan rulers. This consists of the word `Bisi',
from `beèsya', `man of . . .' in Geèz, followed by a name. It could be perhaps a
tribal or clan designation, or perhaps a military title, and it remained in use until
the sixth century AD (see Ch. 7: 5), and possibly even on into the eleventh and
later centuries (Conti Rossini 1901). Endubis and his successors all included the
pre-Christian disc and crescent symbol on their coins, until, with Ezana's
conversion in c333AD it was replaced by the cross. This enables us to group the
five kings Endubis, Aphilas, Wazeba, Ousanas and Ezana at the head of the
coinage sequence. Although the first four of these pre-Christian kings are not
mentioned anywhere else, the archaeological record, in so far as it can be
interpreted, almost certainly leads to the conclusion that at least some of them
were responsible for the erection of the series of large decorated stelae in the
central necropolis of the capital (Ch. 5: 5). Some of the tombs marked by these
stelae must also be theirs, but in most cases the tombs belonging to the various
stelae have not yet been identified. Very little political information can be
extracted from the coins for this period, but it may be that Wazeba and Ousanas
ruled for a time conjointly (see Ch. 7: 3), since there is one issue which combines
obverse dies of Wazeba with reverse dies of Ousanas. The scarcity of Wazeba's
coins may hint at a short reign. His unique use (at this period) of Geèz for his
coinage, instead of the usual Greek, may betray an interest in encouraging the use
of the coinage in Ethiopia itself, rather than mainly for external trade. It may have
39 | P a g e
been during the reigns of Endubis or Aphilas that the last events we know of
during the first Abyssinian involvement in Yemenoccurred. By the 270s Yasir
Yuhanìm of Himyar and his son and co-ruler Shamir Yuharìsh seem to have
ended the Abyssinian danger, and, in addition, to have triumphed to such an
extent that they could annex Saba itself. About 290AD Hadhramawt fell in its turn,
and Shamir Yuharìsh adopted, by 295, the longer title of king of Saba, Dhu-
Raydan, Hadhramawt, and Yamanat. If the Ethiopians retained territory on the
east side of the Red Sea, it must have been at most some minor coastal districts;
at any rate, the inscriptions of Shamir no longer mention them. In the fourth
century, after the reign of Shamir Yuharìsh, another South Arabian inscription
alludes to Karibil Watar Yuhanìm, king of Saba, Dhu-Raydan, Hadhramawt and
Yamanat, sending ambassadors to the "land of Habashat and Aksuman, to the
nagashi . . . and he (the nagashi?) sent with him as emissaries `HQM and ZLNS".
Illustration 11. A gold coin (diameter c. 18mm) of king Ousanas of Aksum with the
preChristian disc and crescent symbol above his head. Ousanas seems very likely
to have been the king to whom the two captive Tyrian boys, Frumentius and
Aedesius (see Ch. 10: 2), were brought after the killing of their shipboard
companions. This king is called Ella Allada or Ella A'eda in the traditional account,
and Budge (1928: 1164-5) interpreted this name as Alameda, Ella Amida; a
reasonable enough suggestion, since from the numismatic point of view Ezana,
the king who adopted Christianity, seems to follow Ousanas, while the tradition
relating the circumstances of Ethiopia's conversion states that the converted king
was the son and successor of Ella Allada/A'eda, though under the regency of his
mother (but see also Dombrowski and Dombrowski 1984: 131-3). The name is
testified later as Alla Amidas (Ch. 4: 7); Ousanas may have adopted it as his
throne-name, and it is not impossible that one of the inscriptions published by the
Deutsche Aksum-Expedition (Littmann 1913: IV, DAE 8) actually belongs to
Ousanas rather than Ezana; its `Bisi' title certainly includes the letter `s' and
whatever identity, such as Òusanas Bisi Gisene', is accepted, Èzana Bisi Alene' is
definitely precluded (Munro-Hay 1984ii: 108). Ezana is the most famous of the
Aksumite kings before Kaleb. Several inscriptions of his are known, which tell a
good deal about his military exploits and furnish many other details about fourth
century Aksum. His most significant contribution to Ethiopian history was his
official adoptionof Christianity around 333AD, which he signalised by putting the
cross on his coins (it also appears on one of his inscriptions; Schneider 1976ii: fig.
40 | P a g e
4), and by dropping the claim to be the son of the god Mahrem. Illustration 11a.
Drawings of two silver and three bronze issues (d. c. 10-16mm) of king Ezana of
Aksum, some with the disc and crescent symbol, and some with no religious
symbol at all. In Ezana's time intercourse with the Roman empire continued, but
even if the conversion to Christianity (Ch. 10: 2) was designed to bring Aksum
closer to Rome or Constantinople, it was not a policy which he followed slavishly.
There seems to have been little response to Constantius II's suggestion (c356AD)
that Frumentius, by now bishop of Aksum (to whom Mommsen (1886: 284, n. 2)
referred in his phrase àn Axomitic clergyman'), should be sent for examination for
doctrinal errors to the emperor's bishop at Alexandria (Szymusiak 1958).
Constantius, leaning towards the Arian heresy, was currently at loggerheads with
patriarch Athanasius of Alexandria, who had consecrated Frumentius for his new
see probably around 330AD. Athanasius had been sent into exile, and an Arian
bishop installed in his stead. It was to this man, George of Cappadocia, that
Constantius, declaring himself fearful for the Christian faith in Aksum, wanted
Ezana and his brother to send Frumentius. But since Frumentius remains revered
as the founder of the Ethiopian church, which does not follow Arianism, it may be
assumed that the request was ignored, and that, as the Ethiopian Synaxarium
says, he `died in peace' (Budge 1928). In any event, the Arian emperor and bishop
did not last much longer, and delaying tactics might have avoided the necessity to
give a definite response to the request before the emperor's death in 361. Ezana's
titles (see Ch. 11: 5) show that he considered himself to be at least theoretically
the ruler of very large areas of present-day Yemen, Ethiopia and the Sudan.
Interestingly enough, his use of the title `king of Saba (Salhen) and Himyar (Dhu-
Raydan)' is similar to only the most modest of those used in the Yemen itself;
around 300AD the title `king of Saba and Dhu-Raydan and Hadhramawt and
Yamanat' came into existence, and was used by rulers such as Shamir Yuharìsh
and Karibil Watar Yuhanìm, whilst by the end of the fourth century, under
Abukarib Asàd, it developed into `king of Saba and DhuRaydan and Hadhramawt
and Yamanat and the Arabs in the Tawd (highlands) and the Tihamat (coastal
plain)'. It seems certain that Ezana did not actually control any of the Arabian
kingdoms, but his use of only the attenuated Arabian title and the apparent
circulation of some of his coins in Yemen perhaps indicate that some sort of
arrangement was reached between the two regions, or even that a coastal
foothold was still retained by Aksum on the other side of the Red Sea. If
41 | P a g e
predecessors of Ezana, like the `king of kings' Sembrouthes, had claimed the
Arabian titles, they might simply have rema ined in the least expanded form by
tradition; the Arabian kings themselves never used the parallelism Saba/Salhen,
Himyar/Raydan in their own titles, though Shamir Yuhahmid was referred to as òf
Dhu-Raydan and Himyar'. In Africa, though most of Ezana's military expeditions
were more or less tributegathering rounds in his own kingdom, pacifying any
unrest in transit, he mounted at least one large-scale campaign against the
Sudanese Noba and Kasu which his inscriptions (see Ch. 11: 5) claim as a major
victory. Two fragmentary Aksumite inscriptions found at Meroë itself may be
traced to this campaign, or perhaps to a similar one by a predecessor (Sayce 1909,
1912; Hägg 1984; Burstein 1980; Bersina 1984). It appears that Ezana's campaign
was celebrated by Christian inscriptions, while some of the interpreters of the
Meroë inscriptions believe that they were dedicated to the pagan Ares/Mahrem;
if so, they probably belong either to an early campaign of Ezana, or to some
predecessor. At some uncertain point in our Periods 2 and 3, comes one of the
best known of all Aksumite inscriptions; the `Monumentum Adulitanum' (Ch. 11:
5). The inscription itself has been lost, but its Greek text detailing the campaigns
of an unnamed Aksumite king was preserved by the merchant Kosmas in the sixth
century when he copied it for king Kaleb at the behest of Asbas, archon or
governor of Adulis (Wolska-Conus 1968: 364ff). It was inscribed on a stone throne,
behind which lay a fallen and broken inscription of king Ptolemy III of Egypt, who
reigned in the third century BC. Unfortunately, Kosmas, copying the two
inscriptions, simply carried on from the end of Ptolemy's inscription to the
Aksumite one without including the section (if it still existed) with the Aksumite
ruler's name and titles. Certain details put the inscription broadly into context. It is
of a pre-Christian ruler, whose campaigns took him from the Nabataean port of
Leuke Kome (`White Village' — the exact position of which is still uncertain, Gatier
and Salles 1988) at the limits of the Roman possessions on the east coast of the
Red Sea, to the country of the Sabaeans in South Arabia, and to extensive African
territories, apparently ranging from the lands bordering Egypt to the Danakil
desert. Huntingford (1989) gives the latest of many attempts to outline the
historical geography of the text. The author refers to himself as the first and only
king of his line to subdue so many peoples, but this could be mere hyperbole. The
gods he mentions, and the ritual of setting up a victory throne, are also known
from Ezana's inscriptions. In short, he could be situated chronologically almost
42 | P a g e
anywhere between Gadarat and Ezana. His inscription is of immense value, since
it supplies a sort of gazetteer for the limits of the contemporary Aksumite empire;
or at least the limits of the sphere of influence, since it is not very likely that some
of the more far-flung areas could ever have been retained as Aksumite
possessions. It is notable that this inscription has a year-date 27, while
Sembrouthes' inscription has 24 years and one of the inscriptions from Meroë has
the date of year 21 or 24. Sembrouthes or Ezana (whose reign spanned at least a
quarter century) are therefore both candidates for the Monumentum Adulitanum
and Ezana (who campaigned in the Meroitic region) may, as mentioned above, be
responsible for the Meroë 1 inscription. But Sembrouthes, if he really fits as we
have suggested in the mid-third century, would have reigned at a time when just
such activities in Arabia as are detailed in the Monumentum Adulitanum are to be
expected. He also gives himself the titles of Great King and king of kings, perhaps
suitable to one who had campaigned, like the unknown author of the Adulis
inscription, so vigorously to establish his kingdom's power in new regions. It now
seems very unlikely that Ezana could have set up an inscription dedicated to pagan
deities so late as his 27th year. It is not beyond hope that future excavations may
actually find the famous Monumentum Adulitanum, which Kosmas saw set up
outside the port-city on the Aksum road.
The Decline of Aksum

1. The Failure of Resources The long period of occupation of the city of Aksum
evidently had a profound effect on the surrounding countryside, from which it
drew the materials of subsistence. Some of the processes set in train can be
inferred from the present state of the land, and consideration of the various
factors involved. The local industries, including the manufacture of glass, faience,
brick and pottery, and metal-working, all needed wood or charcoal for their
furnaces. Charcoal was probably in further demand for cooking, and heating when
necessary, and wood was used for furniture and other equipment as well as
house-building. These activities slowly robbed the surrounding hills of their
covering of trees — which, however, survived in a few enclaves on the Shire
plateau to be noted by Butzer (1981), — and exposed the ir topsoil to degradation
and erosion. The expansion of the population, probably adequately coped with at
first by enlarging the food catchment areas by improved roads and transport
43 | P a g e
facilities for goods into the city, and more intensive cultivation on the surrounding
lands, eventually subjected these to overcropping. The pressure on the land
would have shortened the rotation period of the crops, land which should have
lain fallow for longer being pressed into use too soon. The subsequent lowering of
the fertility level of the land again resulted in degradation and erosion, leaving an
exhausted soil in the proximity of the city and the immediate countryside.
Difficulties in maintaining the food-supplies may have been a significant factor in
removing the capital elsewhere. A certain amount of recovery may have been
possible in some areas around the town, since the fertility of the hinterland of the
much smaller town of later times was noted by travellers a thousand or so years
later. Alvares simply mentioned that ìts countryside . . . is sown in their season
with all kinds of seed' (Beckingham and Huntingford 1961: 159). Others noted
wheat, wine and vegetables growing at Aksum (Frate Rafaello Francescano, 1522;
de Villard 1938: 60), a poor crop of fruit (Bruce 1790: III, 132), or, rather better, à
vast plain richly cultivated with many sorts of grain and near the town grass-plots
and meadows' (Plowden 1868: 391-2). Illustration 66. A scene near Aksum taken
in 1974; a farmer ploughing in the Gudit Stele Field to the west of Aksum. Photo
BIEA. We cannot be sure for the Aksumite period, but among the natural disasters
which in later times reduced the agricultural and animal yield in Ethiopia, cattle
plague (Ch. 4: 8.3) and locusts are noted. For example, Alvares observed the
desolation caused by the `multitude of locusts . . . and the damage which they do'
(Beckingham and Huntingford 1961: 132). It is not inconceivable that, apart from
the steady decline caused by overuse of the land, one or both of these may have
occurred to emphasise the need to remove the capital to some better provided
region. 2. The Climate The work of the geomorphologist Karl Butzer (1981) has
suggested that the climate of northern Ethiopia may have changed for the worse
just after the Aksumite period. The measurement of the Nile flood levels,
recorded in Egypt, indicates that after a long period of excellent rainfall, more
erratic precipitation ensued; this seems to have been after the abandonment of
the city. However, if the land had reached a state of advanced degradation during
the late Aksumite period, even the heavier rains, though theoretically ideal for the
growth of the crops, would have contributed to the erosion on the slopes above
the city and in the surrounding fields. What had been an advantage before had
become another element in the vicious circle of the decay of the resources. It was
the material brought down by the run-off caused by the rains from the hillsides
44 | P a g e
that began to cover the buildings in the town as they were abandoned and fell
into ruin. Butzer's figures suggest that until about 750AD floods were high in
Egypt, then poorer with very low levels from the mid-tenth to late eleventh
centuries, the period when the kingdom, after the invasion of the queen of the
Bani al-Hamwiyya, had decayed almost to the point when the Zagwé dynasty
could take over (Ch. 4: 8.3). The low-water levels after 730, in part following the
spring rains in the Aksumite region, were already averaging below normal. It may
be going too far to say that insufficient `little' rains (the March to May rains)
combined with erosion caused by the action of strong June-September rains on
the denuded land both to shorten the growing season and remove the topsoil.
Nevertheless, climatic factors may have had their part to play in the abandonment
of Aksum. 3. External and Internal Political Troubles There are several hints that
things began to go wrong in the Aksumite state in the later sixth and the early
seventh century. Kaleb seems to have lost both prestige and an expensive war
during his contretemps with Abreha, though after his death some sort of peace
was patched up. The invasion may have been too costly a gesture for Aksum at the
time, and the outlay in men and money must have had a deleterious effect on
Aksumite power at home. Possibly the great plague of the 540s (Procopius; ed.
Dewing 1914: 451ff), said to have emerged from Pelusium in Egypt, also had some
effect on Aksum, as it did on the Roman world from the Mesopotamian provinces
to Gaul, and across to Persia. The general political and commercial climate after
first the Yemen and then Jerusalem and Alexandria fell to the Persians must have
much damaged Ethiopia's trade in the Red Sea, and accordingly its prosperity. To
an unknown extent, troubles at the centre must have generated the hope in the
outlying parts of the kingdom that it was time to essay another trial of strength
with the Aksumite rulers, and revolts may have occurred which further weakened
the kingdom by cutting off certain internal resources and routes (see below). For
example, the Beja tribes, some of which had been crushed by Ezana long ago,
later became independent of the najashis (see al-Ya`qubi's comments; Vantini
1975: 71-3) and may have caused trouble to their theoretical overlords for some
time before. The Agaw who later came to power with the Zagwé dynasty may also
have been involved in the unrest. Anfray, working at Adulis, found a thick layer of
ashes over some structures, and deduced that the town's end had been brutal
(1974: 753). Some historians have thought that the town was destroyed by a
Muslim expedition in 640AD, but the Arab records regard this expedition as a
45 | P a g e
disaster; and it seems unlikely that it was even aimed at the Ethiopian kingdom
itself, but rather against Red Sea pirates (Munro-Hay 1982i). Increasing Ethiopian
inability to keep the sea-lanes free may, however, have encouraged the Arabs to
occupy the Dahlak Islands later on, probably in 702AD (Hasan 1967: 30). A certain
Yazid b. al-Muhallab was exiled there by the khalifa Ùmar in 718/9AD. In spite of
this, later Arab historians mention Dahlak as part of the dominions of the najashis.
4. The najashi Ashama ibn Abjar For any ideas about the political situation in
Ethiopia at the end of the Aksumite period, we rely on very tenuous information.
One of the chief sources for the history of Ethiopia between 615-6 and 630AD are
the recorded traditions about the life of Muhammad and his followers, the hadith.
A note of caution must be sounded before accepting these tales, but Muslim
historians were themselves very conscious that the hadith were sometimes
suspect, and insisted as well as they could on accepting only those with an
impeccable isnad or chain of reliable sources right back to the original teller of the
story. Umm Salama's tale (see below) about a revolt in Abyssinia passed through
two informants before it was written down by Ibn Ishaq. If the compilers of the
hadith are to be believed, the ruling najashi at the time of the prophet was a man
of justice and equity, called Ashama ibn Abjar. Abu Talib composed a verse
(Guillaume 1955) for this najashi to encourage his support for the Muslims against
the Quraysh, who were preparing bribes for the king and his commanders
(shums); `Does the Negus still treat Jaàfar and his companions kindly, Or has the
mischief-maker prevented him? Thou art noble and generous, mayst thou escape
calamity; No refugees are unhappy with thee. Know that God has increased thy
happiness And all prosperity cleaves to thee. Thou art a river whose banks
overflow with bounty Which reaches both friend and foe'. The najashi Ashama ibn
Abjar died in 630AD and was, according to Ethiopian tradition, buried at Weqro,
about 65 miles to the southeast of Aksum (Taddesse Tamrat 1972: 34- 5). If we can
accept this tradition, the royal cemetery at Aksum may have been out of use by
that date. Interestingly, but of uncertain significance, what seems to be a late
tomb of someone of very high rank was found by Anfray and Annequin at Matara
(1965; Tertre D). Both Ethiopian and Arab traditions mention the shift of the
capital away from Aksum, assigning it to various reigns or periods (Sergew Hable
Sellassie 1972: 203; Taddesse Tamrat 1972: 35ff). The najashi Ashama, again
according to the reports of the Arab writers (Guillaume 1955: 153) purportedly
from the mouth of Umm Salama, one of the wives of Muhammad, had to face two
46 | P a g e
revolts in his own country, which help to confirm the general feeling of unrest at
this period also expressed by the coinage mottoes. The story, related by Ibn Ishaq,
who died in the late 760s, is that Ashama had to fight a rebel leader across the
Nile. This must have occurred sometime after the second hijra to Abyssinia in 615-
6 (Muir 1923: 86), and before 628, when the exiles returned, since Umm Salama
said that it happened while they were in the country. The Nile lay between the
two parties, and the battle was fought apparently on the west side of the river,
since the Muslim messenger, al-Zubayr, had to swim across on a water-skin to find
out the outcome. The najashi was victorious, but later had to deal with another
attempt at revolt, this time to do with his religion — perhaps in reality this
episode is a piece of Muslim propaganda; (Guillaume 1955: 154- 5). These stories,
after that detailing the difficulties in the succession (Guillaume 1955: 153-4)
indicate that the najashi's reign was not an easy one. In 630 there was military
activity against Abyssinians who had combined with the people of Jidda against
the Muslims. Muir (1923: 436) noted that the nature of this combination was not
clear, but suggested that the najashi might have been by now disappointed to find
that Muhammad no longer supported Christianity; this is not likely, in view of the
fact that the prophet is said to have prayed for the najashi after his death in 630,
and presumably this incident, if of any official nature, is to be attributed to his
successor in that year. 5. The hatsani Danael There is one internal clue to the end
of Aksum as a power centre; the inscriptions of a certain hatsani (ruler, or perhaps
at this time merely commander or general) Danael, found on one of the ancient
granite pedestals at Aksum (Littmann 1913: IV, nos. 12-14). The title hatsani is that
which became the usual one (with negus or najashi) for the kings of Ethiopia,
some times rendered as hadani, hatse, atze, etc. Apart from Danael's inscriptions,
it first appears in Ethiopia as a royal title in the Zagwé king Lalibela's landcharters.
From the inscriptions, it appears that Danael was engaged in military campaigns,
and not only another hatsani, Karuray(?) but a `king of Aksum' is mentioned. It
appears that among other military activities the Wolqayt people had attacked the
land of Hasla, and then gone on to Aksum. Danael claims to have expelled them
and killed and captured a number of men and animals. Other campaigns may have
led him to fight the Barya, and to the Kassala region — but the reading of the texts
is very uncertain (Schneider 1984: 163). In the inscription DAE 14, which is better
preserved than the others, it appears that Danael forced the king of Aksum
himself into submission, making him in effect a tributary ruler. Whatever the exact
47 | P a g e
political alignments of the time, Danael was able to set up his (badly carved)
inscription on an Aksumite statue base. Several explanations of the situation are
possible. The inscriptions could even allude to the time of Ashama, with the
people of Wolqayt from over the Takaze being repelled by Danael in support of
the king of Aksum; if this is the case, the najashi must eventually have triumphed
after almost successful attempts by Danael to seize power. Later in the same reign,
between 615 and 630, the old capital at Aksum would have been finally
abandoned as the eponymous centre of the Ethiopian kingdom. If the tales about
the splendours of Aksum's cathedral told to Muhammad by his wives (see Ch. 13:
3) are true, they may indicate that the exiled Muslims were actually at the court in
Aksum after 615, during the city's last days as a capital. The next recorded
permanent capital was that of the najashis or hadanis who ruled from Ku`bar, the
city mentioned in the ninth and tenth centuries by Arab writers (see Ch. 4: 8).
Illustration 67. At the cathedral of Maryam Tseyon, a priest exhibits the crowns
and other objects dedicated by former emperors. Whatever the case, with the
Arab take-over of the routes and many of the destinations of Aksumite trade after
the preliminary Persian incursions into Arabia and the eastern Roman world, the
Àksumite' Christian kingdom changed its policies and bowed to events. The trade
with the Mediterranean world had decayed and even the Red Sea route itself,
when the Abbasid shift of the capital to Baghdad after 750AD had emphasised the
role of the Persian Gulf, became much less important, not reviving until the
Fatimids were able to police and develop it in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The Aksumite cultural heritage (now bound firmly with Christianity), though no
longer directed by a king of Aksum from Aksum itself, but by a hadani or najashi
from elsewhere, continued its southward expansion, gradually retiring from the
north and the coast over the centuries. The process seems to have been gradual,
since Arab writers long refer to the size and wealth of the najashi's realm, and
certain regions, though occupied by Muslims, still remained tributary. In the later
tenth century the state may have almost succumbed to `Gudit', enabling the Agaw
Zagwé eventually to seize control; but even then the churches of Lalibela,
attributed to the Zagwé period, still indicate a strong continuity with the Aksumite
cultural tradition. By the mid-seventh century, then, Aksum had lost its political
pre-eminence in the region of the Ethiopian plateau, the coastal plains, and the
Red Sea. The Ethiopian monarchy had left Aksum and undoubtedly the nobility
and the merchant community were also departing. The city's monuments were
48 | P a g e
falling into ruin, and, the result of a slow process of attrition, the formerly rich
agricultural land surrounding the city was now capable of only a reduced yield.
These were troubled times, and neither invasion nor revolt can be ruled out; the
undefended former capital would have been easy prey to invaders, as it was to
Gudit and Ahmad Gragn later. Nevertheless, even the most miserable conditions
did not deprive Aksum of its legendary heritage, and the departure of the king,
the court, the abun and all the trappings of a capital still left it pre-eminent in the
possession of its cathedral and religious tradition. The damage done to the
cathedral, and the plunder of its riches, did not seem to diminish the reverence of
the Ethiopians for the venerable structure; the church was rebuilt and coronation
at Aksum was reinstituted as the symbol of legitimate kingship. Aksum managed
to survive the hardships of its declining fortunes, and, a political backwater, it
became enshrined in Ethiopian tradition as a sacred city, and the repository of the
national religion and culture.
Legend, Literature, and Archaeological Discovery

The town of Aksum is today only a small district centre, not even the capital of the
northern Ethiopian province of Tigray in which it is situated. However, despite this
relative unimportance in modern times, Aksum's past position is reflected by the
prime place it occupies in the fabric of legends which make up traditional
Ethiopian history. For the people of Ethiopia, it is even now regarded as the
ancient residence and capital city of the queen of Sheba, the second Jerusalem,
and the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. One text calls the city the `royal
throne of the kings of Zion, mother of all lands, pride of the entire universe, jewel
of kings' (Levine 1974: 111). The cathedral of Maryam Tseyon, or Mary of Zion,
called Gabaza Aksum, was the holiest place in the Ethiopian Christian kingdom,
and is still said to house the Ark, supposedly brought from Jerusalem by the first
emperor, Menelik. Tradition says that he was the son of king Solomon of Israel and
the queen of Sheba conceived during the queen's famous visit to Jerusalem.
Although no information survives in the legends about the ancient Aksumite
rulers who really built the palaces and erected the giant stone obelisks or stelae
which still stand in several places around the town, these monuments are locally
attributed in many instances to Menelik or to Makeda, the queen of Sheba or
queen of Azab (the South). Such legends are still a living force at Aksum today; for
example, the mansion recently excavated in the district of Dungur, west of Aksum,
49 | P a g e
has immediately been absorbed into local legends as the `palace of the queen of
Sheba' (Chittick 1974: 192, n. 28). Illustration 1. Painted miniature from a XVth
century Ethiopic Psalter depicting king Solomon, reputed ancestor of the
Ethiopian monarchy. Photo B. Juel-Jensen. In the tales describing life in Ethiopia
before the reign of the queen of Sheba, Aksum holds an important place. A tale
about a local saint, Marqorewos, states that Aksum was formerly called Atsabo
(Conti Rossini 1904: 32). The Matshafa Aksum, or `Book of Aksum' (Conti Rossini
1910: 3; Beckingham and Huntingford 1961: 521ff), a short Geèz (Ethiopic) work
of the seventeenth century or a little earlier, says that the town was formerly built
at Mazeber (`ruin') where was the tomb of Ityopis (Ethiopis), son of Kush, son of
Ham, son of Noah. A structure called the `tomb of Ethiopis' (Littmann 1913: II, taf.
XXVII) is still shown near Aksum, a little to the west of the modern town in an area
where the ruins of many large structures of the ancient capital still lie buried.
Makeda next moved the city to the territory called Àseba, from whence she is
said to have gained her name queen of Saba (Sheba). The third building of the city
is stated to have been accomplished by the kings Abreha and Atsbeha (Ch. 10: 3).
An Arab writer of the sixteenth century, describing how the tabot or Ark was
removed from the cathedral of Aksum to a safe place when the Muslim armies
approached, says of Aksum ìt is not known who built it: some say it was Dhu al-
Qarnayn (Alexander the Great). God alone knows best'! (from the Futuh al-
Habasha, or `History of the Conquest of Abyssinia' by Arab-Faqih; de Villard 1938:
61-2). Several modern authors (eg. Doresse 1956, 1971; Kitchen 1971) have
speculated as to whether Tigray or the Ethiopian-Sudanese borderlands, instead
of Arabia or the Horn of Africa, may have been the legendary `God's Land' of the
ancient Egyptians. This land of Punt, producer of incense and other exotic
treasures, where the pha raohs sent their ships, may at least have been one of the
regions included at some time in the Aksumites' extended kingdom. Egyptian
expeditions to Punt are known from as far back as Old Kingdom times in Egypt, in
the third millenium BC, but the best-known report comes from the New Kingdom
period, during the reign of queen Hatshepsut, in the fifteenth century BC. She was
so proud of her great foreign trading expedition that she had detailed reliefs of it
carved on the walls of her funerary temple at Dayr al-Bahri across the Nile from
the old Egyptian capital of Thebes. The surviving reliefs show that the region was
organised even then under chiefly rule, with a population eager to trade the
recognisably African products of their lands with the visitors. Aksum is still today a
50 | P a g e
sorting and distribution centre for the frankincense produced in the region, and it
is not unlikely that the coastal stations visited by the ancient Egyptians acquired
their incense from the same sources. Punt is suggested to have been inland from
the Sawakin-north Eritrean coast (Kitchen 1971; Fattovich 1988, 1989i), and, apart
from the great similarity of its products with those of the Sudan-Ethiopia border
region, an Egyptian hieroglyphic text seems to confirm its identity with the
Ethiopian highland region by reference to a downpour in the land of Punt which
caused the Nile to flood (Petrie 1888: p. 107). The inscription dates to the twenty-
sixth Egyptian dynasty, and knowledge of Punt seems to have continued even into
the Persian period in Egypt, when king Darius in an inscription of 486-5BC
mentions, or at least claims, that the Puntites sent tribute (Fattovich 1989ii: 92).
One extremely interesting Egyptian record from an 18th Dynasty tomb at Thebes
actually shows Puntite trading boats or rafts with triangular sails (Säve-Söderbergh
1946: 24), for transporting the products of Punt, indicating that the commerce
was not exclusively Egyptian-carried, and that local Red Sea peoples were already
seafaring — or at least conveying goods some distance by water (Sleeswyk 1983)
— for themselves. Returning to more specifically Aksumite matters, the Book of
Aksum states that Aksumawi, son of Ityopis (Ethiopis), and great-grandson of
Noah, was the founder of the city, and the names of his descendants (the `fathers
of Aksum') gave rise to the various district names. His son was Malakya-Aksum,
and his grandsons Sum, Nafas, Bagi'o, Kuduki, Akhoro and Fasheba (Littmann
1913: I, 38). In other legends (Littmann 1947), it is said that once a serpent-king,
Arwe or Waynaba, ruled over the land, exacting a tribute of a young girl each year.
It may be that the tale reflects memory of a serpent-cult in the region. Eventually
a stranger, Angabo, arrived, and rescued the chosen girl, killing the monster at the
same time. Angabo was duly elected king by the people, and one of his successors
was Makeda. Sometimes the legends say that it was Makeda herself who was the
intended sacrifice and inheritor of the kingdom. The essential element of all this
was to appropriate for Aksum, one way or another, the legends which referred to
the remote origins of Ethiopian history. The Englishman Nathaniel Pearce, who
lived in Ethiopia in the early nineteenth century, related (Pearce 1831) how these
stories were still current amongst the Ethiopians; Ìn the evening, while sitting
with Ozoro, she told me a number of silly tales about Axum, among others a long
story about a large snake which ruled the country . . . which sometimes resided at
Temben, though Axum was the favourite residence of the two'. Pearce was later
51 | P a g e
shown what seems to have been a fruit press, but which he interpreted as being
`made by the ancients to prepare some kind of cement in for building'; his
Ethiopian friend told him that this had actually been designed as a container for
the snake's food. The origins of these legends hark back to some unknown time
after the conversion of the kingdom to Christianity in the reign of king Ezana of
Aksum in the fourth century AD, or in some cases perhaps to an even earlier
period when some Jewish traditions had entered the country. Such legends had
their political use in providing pedigrees for national institutions. It was believed
in later times that the state offices from the king downwards were descended
from the company which had brought the Ark to Aksum from Jerusalem (Budge
1922: 61). Doubtless the Christian priests, searching for a longer pedigree for their
religion to impress pagans and unbelievers, would have been interested in
developing these tales which connected Ethiopia with Solomon and Sheba. The
Ethiopian kings themselves, anxious to acquire the prestige of ancient and
venerable dynastic ancestors, could scarcely have hoped for a more august couple
as their reputed progenitors. Even in the official Ethiopian Constitution, up to the
time of the end of the reign of emperor Haile Selassie, the dynasty was held to
have descended directly from Solomon and the queen of Sheba through their
mythical son, the emperor Menelik I. The real events in Ethiopia's history before
the present two millenia are lost in the mists of antiquity, but valiant attempts
were made by Ethiopian chroniclers to fill in the immense gap between the reign
of Menelik I and the time of the kings of Aksum. The king lists they developed (all
those now surviving are of comparatively recent date), name a long line of rulers,
covering the whole span from Menelik through the Aksumite period and on to the
later Zagwé and `Solomonic' dynasties (Conti Rossini 1909). There is little point in
reciting the majority of these names, but some of the most important of the
reputed successors of Menelik I are worth noting for their importance in Ethiopian
tradition. Illustration 2. Built into one of the walls of the cathedral of Maryam
Tseyon at Aksum, the so-called Stone of Bazen, surmounted by the Stele of the
Lances. The legendary king Bazen was supposed to have been reigning at the time
of the birth of Christ in his eighth year (one modern interpretation even depicts
him as one of the Three Kings who came to Bethlehem). A tomb is attributed to
him in the south-eastern necropolis of Aksum, at the entrance to the modern
town on the Adwa road. Near the cathedral is a stone on which is written in Geèz
`This is the sepulchral stone of Bazen', but when this inscription was actually
52 | P a g e
carved is unknown (Littmann 1913: IV, 49); evidently after the arrival of
Christianity in Ethiopia, since it begins and ends with a cross. Two rulers
preeminent in Ethiopian tradition were Abreha and Atsbeha (Ch. 10: 3), brothers
who are said to have ruled jointly. They were converted to Christianity by the
missionary Frumentius, and their example was eventually followed by the entire
nation. Another hero in Aksumite legend was king Kaleb, also called Ella Atsbeha
(Ch. 4: 7). He was regarded as a great conqueror and Christian hero whose
expedition to suppress the persecution of his co-religionists in the Yemen by the
Jewish king there caused his name to be famous throughout the Christian world.
He is recognised as a saint in several church calendars. Two sons of Kaleb, called
Gabra Masqal and Israel, are said to have succeeded him, and their rule is
supposed to have encompassed both the physical and the spiritual worlds. Local
legend in Aksum attributes an unusual double tomb structure to Gabra Masqal
and his father Kaleb (Littmann 1913: II, 127ff); but Gabra Masqal is also supposed
to be buried at his monastic foundation, Dabra Damo, to the north-east of Aksum.
Finally among the legendary accounts come Degnajan, Anbessa Wedem and Dil
Na'od, the kings in whose reigns, according to tradition, the collapse of Aksum
eventually occurred (Sergew 1972, 203ff). It seems that in reality the stories about
these three rulers refer to a time after Aksum had ceased to be the capital, and
the traditions, interestingly, associate all of these theoretical `kings of Aksum' with
activities in Shewa, Amhara, and other southern regions, even mentioning details
implying a shift of the capital. Much of this legendary literature is, of course,
based very broadly on actual events and personalities. The story of Kaleb's
conquest of the Yemen is at least a genuine historical occurrence (Ch. 4: 7), and,
although there seem to be various distortions, the main theme of the conversion
of the kingdom to Christianity by Frumentius also has independent historical
confirmation (Ch. 10: 2). When more information is available about Ethiopian
history in the period of Aksum's zenith and decline, it is very probable that the
reality behind many other legends will be decoded into more prosaic form
Abreha and Atsbeha According to the Ethiopian traditional accounts of the
conversion, Frumentius was captured during the reign of Ella Alada (Amida?), who
was succeeded by two brothers, Abreha and Atsbeha, who were the first Christian
kings. It has been suggested (Hahn 1983) that these names were constituent parts
of the titulary of Ezana and his brother Sazana, but, as mentioned above (Ch. 7: 3)
53 | P a g e
there is no real proof for this joint reign. They could alternatively have been two
successive Èlla'-names adopted by Ezana. It may also be that, due to a confusion
of legends, the conversion has become muddled with the other great Aksumite
religious event, king Kaleb's invasion of the Yemen to end persecution of
Christians there. As Kaleb's throne name was Ella Atsbeha, and the name of the
rebellious general in the Yemen was Abreha, this theory could easily provide the
explanation for the Ethiopian legend (Ullendorff 1949). Abreha built the great
cathedral at Sanà, and tried to turn it into a major pilgrimage centre, and so both
he and Kaleb gained reputations as powerful champions of Christianity. Abreha is
said to have written to the najashi saying Ì have built a church for you, O King,
such as has not been built for any king before you. I shall not rest until I have
diverted the Arab's pilgrimage to it' (Guillaume 1955: 21).
Biblography
1. *The Aksumite Empire: A History of Ancient Ethiopia*, Drewes, A., 1962,
Academic Press, Boston.
54 | P a g e
2. *The Historical Geography of Ethiopia*, Huntingford, G. W. B., 1965, University
College London Press, London.
3. *Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity*, Munro-Hay, S., 1989,
Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.
4. *The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and People*, Ullendorff, E., 1955,
Oxford University Press, London.
5. *The Aksumite Civilization: A Study of the Kingdom of Aksum*, Chittick, N.,
1974, East African Publishing House, Nairobi.
6. *The Archaeology of Aksum: Excavations and Discoveries*, Anfray, F., 1972,
CNRS Editions, Paris.
7. *Ancient Ethiopia: The Land and Its People*, Puglisi, C., 1941, Harper &
Brothers, New York.
8. *The Architecture of Aksum: The Building Techniques of the Aksumite Empire*,
Buxton, R. & Matthews, R., 1974, Thames & Hudson, London.
55 | P a g e
56 | P a g e

Axumite Empire (1)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Axumite Empire (1)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Axumite Empire (1)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1|Page

The Pre-Aksumite Period

The rise of the Aksumite kingdom

The Social ,Economic and Religious life of

Language and Writing

Literature and Literacy Of Aksumite literature

The Decline of Aksum

Legend, Literature, and Archaeological Discovery

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.