Kingdom of Aksum: A Visual History

The Kingdom of Aksum ruled the northern Ethiopian highlands and Eritrean coast from around 100 AD to the tenth century, dominating Red Sea trade between Rome, Arabia and India through its port of Adulis. King Ezana converted to Christianity around 330 and conquered Meroe; Kaleb invaded Yemen around 520. Aksum minted its own gold coins and raised granite stelae up to 33 metres. The rise of Islam diverted trade, and the kingdom retreated inland and faded; tradition says the queen Gudit destroyed it around 960 and the Zagwe dynasty followed.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Kingdom of Aksum. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Aksumite territory

Timeline of the Kingdom of Aksum

1. 100
   Aksum a major power
2. 270
   First Aksumite coins
3. 330
   Ezana converts to Christianity
4. 350
   Meroe conquered
5. 520
   Kaleb invades Yemen
6. 570
   Persians take Yemen
7. 615
   Muslim refugees welcomedThe first hijra.
8. 700
   Coinage ends
9. 940
   Gudit's destructionTraditional end of Aksum.

Trade and coins

Aksum grew from earlier Semitic-speaking cultures of the highlands. By the first century the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes Adulis exporting ivory, rhino horn, tortoiseshell and slaves. From about 270 Aksum struck gold, silver and bronze coins, the only sub-Saharan African state to do so in antiquity, with Greek legends for the export trade. The Persian prophet Mani listed Aksum among the four great kingdoms of the world.

Ezana and Christianity

Ezana (about 320-360) was converted by the Syrian Frumentius, consecrated first bishop of Aksum by Athanasius of Alexandria; his later coins carry the cross instead of the crescent and disc. He campaigned against Meroe on the Nile and the Beja, recording victories in Ge'ez, Greek and Sabaean. The great stelae, carved as multi-storey towers, marked royal tombs; the largest, 33 metres, fell as it was raised.

Yemen and decline

Kaleb sent an army to Yemen around 520 to punish the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas for persecuting Christians, and Aksumite governors ruled there until the Persians took over around 570; Abraha's attack on Mecca in the 'Year of the Elephant' is remembered in the Quran. After the Arab conquests Aksum lost the Red Sea trade, stopped minting coins in the seventh century and shifted its centre south. A tenth-century queen, Gudit, is said to have burned churches and ended the line.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Roman Empire (27 BC to 476)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)
• Sasanian Empire (224 to 651)
• Rashidun Caliphate (632 to 661)
• Kushan Empire (30 to 375)
• Umayyad Caliphate (661 to 750)

Wars of the same era and region

• Conquests of Menelik II (1878 to 1904)
• Jewish-Roman wars (66 to 136)

8 surprising things about the Kingdom of Aksum

1. The Ark of the Covenant is said by Ethiopian tradition to rest in Aksum's Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, guarded by a single monk.
2. The Aksum obelisk taken by Mussolini to Rome in 1937 was returned in 2005 and re-erected in 2008.
3. Aksum was the second state, after Armenia, to adopt Christianity officially, before the Roman Empire.
4. The Prophet Muhammad sent early followers to Aksum for refuge in 615, and the Negus is honoured in Islamic tradition.
5. The Aksumite general Abraha marched an elephant against Mecca in about 570, the year of the Prophet's birth.
6. The Ge'ez script developed under Aksum is still used for Amharic and Tigrinya.
7. The largest stela ever attempted, at 33 metres and 520 tonnes, would have been the tallest single stone ever erected; it broke.
8. Aksumite kings called themselves 'king of kings' and claimed rule over Sabaean Arabia on their coins.

Sources

• Aksum Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Kingdom of Aksum Wikipedia
• Kingdom of Axum World History Encyclopedia
• Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity (1991) Edinburgh University Press

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