Kingdom of Aksum
Kingdom of Aksum | |||||||||
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| 1st century – 960 AD | |||||||||
Aksumite currency depicting King Endubis
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The Kingdom of Aksum c. 6th century, overlaid on modern borders | |||||||||
| Capital | |||||||||
| Common languages | (from 1st century)
Various | ||||||||
| Religion |
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| Demonym(s) | Aksumite, Ethiopian, Abyssinian | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Negus / Negusa Nagast | |||||||||
• c. 1st century | 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 | 1st century | ||||||||
| 3rd century | |||||||||
| 325 or 328 | |||||||||
| 330 | |||||||||
| 520 | |||||||||
| 570 | |||||||||
| 613-615 | |||||||||
| 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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| Today part of | |||||||||
| History of Eritrea |
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| Eritrea portal |
| History of Ethiopia |
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The Kingdom of Aksum, 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. Emerging from the earlier Dʿmt civilization, the kingdom was founded in the first century. The city of Axum served as the kingdom's capital for many centuries until it relocated to Kubar in the ninth century due to declining trade connections and recurring invasions.
The Kingdom of Aksum was considered one of the four great powers of the third century by the Persian prophet Mani, alongside Persia, Rome, and China. Aksum continued to expand under the reign of Gedara (c. 200–230), who was the first king to be involved in South Arabian affairs. His reign resulted in the control of much of western Yemen, such as the Tihama, Najran, al-Ma'afir, Zafar (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 third century. During the reign of Endubis (270–310), Aksum began minting coins that have been excavated as far away as Caesarea and southern India.
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. Due to its ties with the Greco-Roman world, Aksum adopted Christianity as its state religion in the mid-fourth century under Ezana (320s – c. 360). Following their Christianization, the Aksumites ceased construction of steles. The kingdom continued to expand throughout late antiquity, conquering Kush under 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 (514–542), 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 reached its largest territorial extent, spanning around 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi). However, the territory was lost in the Aksumite–Persian wars. Aksum held on to Southern Arabia from 520 until 525 when Sumyafa Ashwa was deposed by Abraha.
The kingdom's slow decline had begun by the seventh 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 the kingdom collapsed under uncertain circumstances 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.