Aksum
also spelled Axum, a powerful
kingdom in northern Ethiopia
during the early Christian era.
Despite common belief to the contrary, Aksum did
not originate from one of the Semitic Sabaean kingdoms of southern Arabia but
instead developed as a local power. At its apogee (3rd–6th century AD),
Aksum became the greatest market of northeastern Africa; its merchants
traded as far as Alexandria and beyond the Nile River. Aksum continued to
dominate the Red Sea coast until the end of the 9th century, exercising its
influence from the shores of the Gulf of Aden to Zeila on the northern coast of
Somaliland (modern Somalia and Djibouti).
During the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD,
its growth as a trading empire increasingly impinged on the power of the kingdom
of Meroe, the fall of which was brought about in the 4th century by an Aksumite
invasion.
During the 4th century, the kings of Aksum were
Christianized—thus becoming both politically and religiously linked to
Byzantine Egypt. At the same time, they extended their authority into southern
Arabia. In the 6th century, an Aksumite king reduced the Yemen to a state
of vassalage. In the latter part of the 6th century, however, the Persians
invaded South Arabia and brought Aksumite influence there to a close.
Later, the Mediterranean trade of Aksum was ended by the encroachment of
the Arabs in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Gradually, Aksumite power shifted internally to
the Agew people, whose princes shaped a new Christian line in the Zagwe
dynasty (q.v.) of the 12th–13th century.
The Aksumites were a people formed from the mix of Kushitic speaking people in
Ethiopia and Semitic speaking people in southern Arabia who settled the
territory across the Red Sea around 500 BC. The Aksumites lived in the Ethiopian
highlands near the Red Sea, and so enjoyed a strategic position in the trade
routes between Yemen (in the south of the Arabian peninsula) and the cities of
Nubia. They spoke a strongly Semitic language and wrote in Semitic characters;
Ethiopia, in fact, has one of the longest continuous literate traditions in
Africa.
We know very little about the early Axumite kingdom. Roman and
Greek sources indicate that an Axumite kingdom was thriving in the first century
AD; the city of Adulis is frequently mentioned because it had become one of the
most important port cities in Africa.
Aksum lay dead in the path of the growing commercial trade
routes between Africa, Arabia, and India. As a result, it became fabulously
wealthy and its major cities, Adulis, Aksum, and Matara, became three of the
most important cosmopolitan centers in the ancient world. Although they were off
the beaten path as far as European history is concerned, they were just as
cosmopolitan and culturally important in that they served as a crossroads to a
variety of cultures: Egyptian, Sudanic, Arabic, Middle Eastern, and Indian.
Perhaps an indication of this cosmopolitan character can be found in the fact
that the major Aksumite cities had Jewish, Nubian, Christian, and even Buddhist
minorities.
In the second century AD, Aksum acquired tribute states on the
Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea, conquered northern Ethiopia, and then
finally conquered Kush. The downfall of the Nubian powers led to the meteoric
rise of Aksumite imperial power. The Aksumites controlled one of the most
important trade routes in the world and occupied one of the most fertile regions
in the world.
The Aksumite religion was actually derived from Arabic
religion. It was a polytheistic religion which believed that the gods controlled
the natural forces of the universe. However, in the fourth century, Ezana, who
was a folllower of Axumite religion, converted to Christianity under the
tutelage of a Syrian bishop named Frumentius. Ezana declared Axum to be a
Christian state , thus making it the first Christian state in the history of the
world, and began actively converting the population to Christianity.
Ethiopian Christianity was slightly different from its Greek
origins. Under the influence of Egyptian Christians, the Axumites believed that
Christ had a single rather than a double nature (man and god): this is called Monophysite
(mono=single, physis=nature) Christianity and was considered heretical in the
European churches. In the fifth century AD, the Axumites replaced Greek in the
liturgy and began using their own native language, Ge'ez. Finally, because of
their Semitic origins, the Ethiopians believed that they were descendants of the
Hebrews, who were also Semitic. They traced their origins all the way back to
David. So the Ethiopians, unlike other Christians, really saw themselves as
inheriting the covenants that Yahweh entered into with his chosen people (as a
side note, the Ethiopic Church claims to have the Ark of the Covenant which is
the chest in which the Decalogue was kept by the Hebrews).
Axum remained a strong empire and trading power until the rise
of Islam in the seventh century AD. However, because the Axumites had sheltered
Muhammed's first followers, the Muslims never attempted to overthrow Axum as
they spread across the face of Africa. Even though Axum no longer served as a
center or hub of international trade, it nonetheless enjoyed good relations with
all of its Muslim neighbors. Two Christian states north of Axum, Maqurra and
Alwa, survived until the thirteenth century when they were finally forced by
Muslim migration to become Islamic. Axum, however, remained untouched by the
Islamic movements across Africa. Because of this, the Ethiopic (or Abyssinian)
Church has lasted until the present day. It is still a Monophysite church and
its scriptures and liturgy are still in Ge'ez.
Richard Hooker