Kingdom of Aksum
The Kingdom of Aksum (Ge'ez: አኵስም ʾÄkʷəsəm; Sabaic: 𐩱𐩫𐩪𐩣 ʾKS1M; Ancient Greek: Ἀξωμίτης Axōmítēs), also known as the Kingdom of Axum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based in what is now Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present day Djibouti and Sudan, it extended at its height into much of Southern Arabia during the reign of Kaleb, King of Axum.
Kingdom of Aksum | |||||||||
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| 150 BC – 960 AD | |||||||||
Aksumite currency depicting King Endubis
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Aksum in the 3rd Century before Ezana expansion | |||||||||
| Capital | |||||||||
| Common languages | (from 1st century)
Various | ||||||||
| Religion |
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| Demonym(s) | Aksumite, Ethiopian, Abyssinian | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Negus/Negusa Nagast | |||||||||
• c. 100 AD | Bazen of Axum (first known) Ethiopis (according to tradition) | ||||||||
• 917 or 940-960 | Dil Na'od (last) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Classical antiquity to Early Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Established | 150 BC | ||||||||
| 3rd century | |||||||||
| 330 | |||||||||
| 325 or 328 | |||||||||
| 520 | |||||||||
| 570 | |||||||||
| 7th century | |||||||||
• Collapse | 960 AD | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 350 | 1,250,000 km2 (480,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
| 525 | 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Currency | Aksumite currency | ||||||||
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Axum served as the kingdom's capital for many centuries but relocated to Kubar in the 9th century due to declining trade connections and recurring external invasions. Emerging from the earlier Dʿmt civilization, the kingdom was founded in 150 BC. It is not known whether a war of succession took place between competing states for control of the region after the fall of D'mt evolved to the Kingdom of Axum.
As the kingdom became a major power on the trade route between Rome and India and gained a monopoly of Indian Ocean trade, it entered the Greco-Roman cultural sphere. Greek was a commonly used language in the Axumite empire, coming from the influence of the significant Ethiopian Greek communities established in Axum, the port of Adulis, Ptolemais Theron, and other cities in the region during Ptolemaic times, although the official and literary language of the Axumite state was Ge'ez. Greek was used in the state's administration, international diplomacy, and trade; it can be widely seen in coinage and inscriptions.
Ge'ez, the language of the Aga'azian people, was spoken alongside Greek in the court of Axum; although during the early kingdom Ge'ez was a spoken language, it has attestations written in Sabaic script. In the 4th century, Ezana of Axum promoted the Geʽez script and made Ge'ez an official state language alongside Greek; by the 6th century literary translations into Ge'ez were common. After the 7th century's Muslim conquests in the Middle East and North Africa, which effectively isolated Axum from the Greco-Roman world, Ge'ez replaced Greek entirely.
Due to its ties with the Greco-Roman world, the Kingdom of Aksum adopted Christianity as the state religion in the mid-4th century, under Ezana of Axum. Following their Christianization, the Aksumites ceased construction of stelae.
The Kingdom of Aksum was considered one of the four great powers of the 3rd century by the Persian prophet Mani, alongside Persia, Rome, and China. During the reign of Endubis, Aksum began minting coins that have been excavated as far away as Caesarea and southern India. Aksum continued to expand under the reign of Gedara, who was the first king to be involved In South Arabian affairs in the early 3rd century. His reign resulted in the control of much of western Yemen, such as the Tihāmah, Najrā, Maʿafir, Ẓafār (until c. 230), and parts of Hashid territory around Hamir in the northern highlands until a joint Himyarite-Sabean alliance pushed them out. Aksum-Himyar conflicts persisted throughout the 3rd century.
The kingdom continued to expand throughout late antiquity, conquering Kush under King Ezana in 330 for a short period of time and inheriting from it the Greek exonym "Ethiopia". Aksumite dominance in the Red Sea culminated during the reign of Kaleb of Axum, who, at the behest of the Byzantine Emperor Justin I, invaded the Himyarite Kingdom in Yemen in order to end the persecution of Christians perpetrated by the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas. With the annexation of Himyar, the Kingdom of Aksum was at its largest territorial extent, being around 2,500,000 km2. However, the territory was lost in the Aksumite–Persian wars.
The kingdom's slow decline had begun by the 7th century, at which point currency ceased to be minted. The Persian (and later Muslim) presence in the Red Sea caused Aksum to suffer economically, and the population of the city of Axum shrank. Alongside environmental and internal factors, this has been suggested as the reason for its decline. Aksum's final three centuries are considered a dark age, and through uncertain circumstances, the kingdom collapsed around 960. Despite its position as one of the foremost empires of late antiquity, the Kingdom of Aksum fell into obscurity as Ethiopia remained isolated throughout the Late Middle Ages.