Aksum

I

Introduction

Aksum, ancient kingdom that flourished in northeastern Africa from the 1st century bc until the early 7th century ad. Its capital was the city of Aksum, which lies in the northern part of present-day Ethiopia. A powerful trading center, Aksum controlled the highlands of northern Ethiopia and the Red Sea coast of present-day Eritrea. Culturally, it was closely associated with the people of southern Arabia, who spoke related languages and followed similar traditions. Aksumite kings built massive stelae (stone pillars) to adorn their tombs, and some of these stelae still stand today.

II

Political History

The kingdom of Aksum developed from a group of smaller states in the region. The most important of these states was Da’amat, which had existed since the 5th century BC and had its capital to the east at Yeha. Aksum is first mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek guide to shipping in the Red Sea that was written probably in the 1st century ad. By this time Aksum was a fully developed state trading through its Red Sea port of Adulis, where many ships of neighboring countries anchored.

The first known Aksumite king was Zoskales. He is mentioned in the Periplus, which suggests that he reigned some time before ad 100. Inscriptions at a temple at Ma’rib in Yemen indicate that a king known as Gedarat reigned in about 200. These inscriptions show that Aksumite armies had occupied parts of southern Arabia by this time. In the middle of the 3rd century another Aksumite king, Azeba, was allied with Arabian rulers. A Greek inscription from a site north of Aksum in Eritrea refers to another king, Sembrouthes, around this same period. This inscription describes Sembrouthes as “king of kings,” implying that he reigned over a number of subordinate states whose rulers paid him tribute.

The earliest known Aksumite coins, from about 270, bear the name of King Endubis. From this time on, a series of coins provides the names of rulers until the early 7th century. Aksumite kings of the 3rd and 4th centuries conducted military campaigns on both sides of the Red Sea and erected the large stone stelae for which Aksum is famous.

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One of the most important Aksumite kings was Ezana, who ruled for several decades in the mid-4th century. Several inscriptions describe his extensive military campaigns. At least one of these campaigns was directed west towards Kush, a Nubian state in what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Some scholars believe that Ezana was responsible for the destruction of Meroë, the ancient capital of Kush, in the middle of the 4th century. The discovery of fragments of two Aksumite inscriptions and one coin in the ruins of Meroë strongly supports this view. Ezana also converted to Christianity in 333, which would profoundly affect Aksumite culture. (For more information on his conversion to Christianity, see the Religion section of this article.)

Little is known of the kings who reigned after Ezana until Kaleb, in the early 6th century. Kaleb reasserted Aksumite control over areas of southern Arabia, claiming that he was protecting Christians from persecution by a local Jewish ruler, Yusuf Asar. Prior to Kaleb’s invasion in about 520, there had been sporadic Aksumite military activity in southwestern Arabia since the time of Gedarat in the mid-3rd century. While treaties and alliances had been made with local rulers, it does not seem that Aksumite kings before Kaleb had ever established permanent rule in the area. Aksumite control in Arabia did not last long, however, and over the next hundred years the kingdom’s military power and trade connections in the Red Sea area diminished rapidly. The spread of Islam in the 7th century isolated Aksum, confining Aksumite influence to its immediate surroundings. By the mid-7th century Aksum was no longer a powerful state, and the kingdom finally disintegrated in the 10th century. Some scholars believe that Aksum’s collapse was hastened by overexploitation of the area’s natural resources, which led to soil degradation, erosion, and food shortages.

III

Economy

The power of Aksum was based largely on trade. The Red Sea was an important thoroughfare for trading vessels at the time. Merchants from the Roman Empire traveled up and down the sea, trading in harbors along both the African and Arabian coasts, and sailing with the favorable monsoon winds on to India. Aksumites exported local products such as ivory, tortoise shell, hippopotamus hide, spices, incense, gold, obsidian, emeralds and other precious stones, and slaves. These items were exchanged for manufactured goods from the Mediterranean, including iron weapons, articles made of precious metals, glassware, cloth of great variety, garments, pottery, wine, and olive oil. Excavated Aksumite tombs contain many of these foreign objects, particularly glassware.

For the first few centuries of the kingdom’s existence, trade was conducted by barter and direct exchange of commodities. In about ad 270, during the reign of King Endubis, Aksum began minting coins in the style of Roman coins. Coinage made the exchange of products and tax collection more convenient, facilitating Aksumite trade. Aksumite coins were made of gold, silver, and bronze, and carried the name of the ruler in whose name they were issued. The coins are therefore important to historians’ understanding of the history of Aksum, providing royal names and a rough chronology of events.

As in most ancient societies, the internal economy of Aksum was based mainly on agriculture. The kingdom produced enough food to be self-sufficient. The main cereal crop may have been wheat, since a head of wheat is shown on coins. Aksumites most likely also grew teff, an indigenous cereal grain widely used in the region today. Although Aksum commonly imported iron weapons, iron was also smelted locally and manufactured into tools and weapons.

IV

Religion

Little is known about Aksumite religion before the conversion of King Ezana to Christianity. The names of some of the gods who were worshipped have survived. The chief god was Astar, associated with the Greek god Zeus. Mahrem was a war god, like the Greek god Ares, and a patron of the royal family. It is not known how the gods were worshipped, though the remains of a number of religious buildings still exist. The largest such structure still standing is in Yeha. In these buildings, archaeologists have found objects such as pottery animal figures, perhaps placed there as offerings. Stone altars were used for the burning of incense.

According to traditional accounts, two Christian Syrian boys, Aedisius and Frumentius, introduced Christianity to Aksum in the early 4th century. Aksumites captured the boys when they put their ship into port to obtain supplies during a voyage in the Red Sea. They were taken to the capital and employed at the royal court where Frumentius, due to his education, became secretary to King Ella Amida. When the king died, Ezana, who was still a child, assumed the throne, and Frumentius became his teacher and adviser. Frumentius used his position to convert the royal family to Christianity in 333 and to encourage Christian missionaries to spread the religion to the rest of the kingdom. The coins from Ezana’s reign carry a representation of the Christian cross in place of the earlier pagan emblem of a disc and crescent.

Frumentius traveled to Alexandria, in Egypt, to ask Saint Athanasius, the head of the Coptic Church (the Egyptian Christian church), to appoint a bishop for the developing Christian community of Aksum. Athanasius appointed Frumentius bishop and sent him back to Aksum to continue his missionary work. All subsequent heads of the Aksumite church were appointed by the Egyptian patriarch of Alexandria and were Egyptian Copts.

In the 5th century the Coptic Church, including the church of Aksum, split off from the main Christian churches of Rome and Constantinople. Coptic Christians embraced the doctrine of Monophysitism, the belief that Jesus Christ possessed only one, divine, nature and no human nature. This doctrine went against the orthodox Christian doctrine that Christ was both divine and human. The Council of Chalcedon condemned Monophysitism in 451, and since that time the Coptic Church has been independent of other Christian churches.

After the Council of Chalcedon, priests who continued to teach Monophysitism were persecuted in the eastern Roman Empire, and many migrated to Aksum. The influx of priests, along with the support of the royal family, strengthened missionary efforts in Aksum. Many churches and monasteries were founded after 451, some of which are still in use today.

The Aksumite church developed into the Abyssinian Church, the church of Ethiopia. While similar to that of the Coptic Church, the ritual of the Abyssinian Church contains many features different from those of other Christian churches. These may be derived from Aksum’s pre-Christian religion or from ancient Jewish practices, as Aksum’s people were often in contact with Jewish communities in southern Arabia. The Coptic patriarch of Alexandria continued to appoint the head of the Abyssinian Church until the 1950s, when the Ethiopian church became independent from the Coptic Church.

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