Aksum

By: Stuart Munro-Hay

Source:

 Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition

Aksum

“Pride of the entire universe and jewel of kings,” Aksum ruled an ancient Ethiopian kingdom in a time remembered as a golden age of African civilization. This was true in a very literal sense: Aksumite kings issued a splendid gold coinage at a time when few other economies needed such a sophisticated currency or could have afforded it. The kings also marked their tombs with magnificent stone pillars, or stelae. The tallest of these stelae were the largest stone monuments erected in the ancient world, surpassing in height even the obelisks of the Egyptian pharaohs.

The site of Aksum offered access to important international trade routes, as well as to the basic essentials of water and agricultural land. The city rose to power by using wealth gained from the control of trade to conquer other peoples who lived on the Ethiopian plateau, as far as the seacoast in Eritrea. By the end of the first century C.E.., when Aksum first appears in the historical record, the state was the most powerful in the region. The system of government was imperial, with the negusa nagast (the king of kings) ruling over a number of subordinate states whose rulers paid tribute. Royal inscriptions from the fourth century C.E.. describe Aksumite campaigns against “rebels” in various parts of the country and across the Red Sea in South Arabia (present-day Yemen) as well. One Aksumite expedition conquered the Nubian kingdom of Meroe in present-day Sudan. The titles of the kings indicate claims to rule over Saba and Himyar, two important Arabian kingdoms, as well as over the Beja, Kasu, and Noba in Africa. The last two names refer to Kush and Nubia.

The inscriptions of the kings, their coinage, and the occasional mention of Aksum in Greek, Latin, and Arabic texts preserve only a limited amount of information. However, two kings stand out as exceptional. Scholars have often described Ezana, who ruled in the middle of the fourth century, as “the Constantine of Ethiopia” after his contemporary, the powerful Roman emperor who made Christianity the imperial religion. His inscriptions and coins record that he converted to Christianity from the traditional worship of the gods Astar, Beher, Meder, and Mahrem. One of his inscriptions refers to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and during his reign, the Christian cross replaced the disk and crescent of the old religion. He was the first Christian king to employ the cross in this way, before even the emperors of Rome. The Latin church historian Rufinus corroborates the evidence of Ezana's coins and inscriptions by recording that the patriarch of Alexandria appointed the first Ethiopian metropolitan bishop at this time. There is no indication that Ezana or his successors ever returned to pre-Christian religions.

During the sixth century, the Aksumite king Kaleb led a military expedition to South Arabia to crush a Jewish king who had killed the Christian community at Najran. This event caused a sensation throughout the Christian world, and is consequently well documented. Kaleb defeated the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas and installed a viceroy, but after a short time an Aksumite named Abreha deposed the viceroy. Abreha began to govern Yemen in defiance of Kaleb and refused to pay tribute to the king of kings. In Sura 105 of the Qu'ran (Koran), there is an account of Abreha leading an expedition against Mecca in what is called “the Year of the Elephant,” perhaps a reference to the use of African elephants in battle. Early Islamic historians also record that disciples of the Prophet, including his wife Umm Habiba, took refuge in Aksum when Muhammad was being persecuted in Arabia.

With the rise of Islamic power in Arabia during the seventh century, the kings of Aksum began to retreat from the Red Sea. There may also have been changes in climate, and the land around the city of Aksum may have been farmed too intensively to support its people, but once Arabians took control of the Red Sea trade, Aksum began to decline. Aksum suffered its final defeat at the hands of rebels during the tenth century.

In addition to the stelae and the coinage, accomplished styles of pottery making, ivory carving, and glassware production, and metalwork in gold, silver, bronze, and iron all attest to the skill of Aksumite craftsmen and the luxury and sophistication of their capital. The remains of palaces and royal tombs confirm the complete mastery of granite by Aksumite masons, whose decorative motifs were copied on the famous churches at Lalibela.

See also Ancient African Civilizations; Ethiopia; Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

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