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Thekingdomofaksum Andeastafricantrade 199-202-0208s2 10/11/02 3:45 PM Page 199 TERMS & NAMES 2 • Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum • Adulis • Ezana and East African Trade MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW The kingdom of Aksum became an Ancient Aksum, which is now Ethiopia, international trading power and is still a center of Eastern Christianity. adopted Christianity. SETTING THE STAGE In the eighth century B.C., before the Nok were spreading their culture throughout West Africa, the kingdom of Kush in East Africa had become powerful enough to conquer Egypt. (See Chapter 4.) However, fierce Assyrians swept into Egypt during the next century and drove the Kushite pharaohs south. Kush nev- ertheless remained a powerful kingdom for over 1,000 years—until it was conquered by another even more powerful kingdom. The Rise of the Kingdom of Aksum The kingdom that arose was Aksum (AHK•soom). It was located south of Kush on a rugged plateau on the Red Sea, in what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia. A legend traces the founding of the kingdom of Aksum and the Ethiopian royal dynasty to the son of King Solomon of ancient Israel and the Queen of Sheba. That dynasty includes the 20th-century ruler Haile Selassie. In fact, the history of Aksum may have begun as early as 1000 b.c., when Arab peoples crossed the Red Sea into Africa. There they mingled with Kushite herders and farmers and passed along their written language, Ge’ez (GEE•ehz). They also Mediterranean Aksum, A.D. 300–700 shared their skills of working stone and Sea building dams and aqueducts. To Europe Jerusalem The first mention of Aksum was in a Memphis 30°N Greek guidebook written around A.D. 0 250 Miles EGYPT 100, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. It 0 500 Kilometers Thebes describes Zoskales (ZAHS•kuh•leez), Mecca Aksum Kingdom thought to be the first king of Aksum. SAHARA Berenice Tropic of Cancer Trade routes R He was “a stickler about his possessions . R e le ARABIAN and always [greedy] for getting more, i d 20°N N PENINSULA but in other respects a fine person and NUBIA S (KUSH) e well versed in reading and writing A a tb a r Greek.” Greece was not the only coun- a Meroë R B l . try to interact with Aksum, however. u Adulis e Aksum To India e N l Aden Under Zoskales and other rulers, i i l n e d e N A Lake l f o f Aksum began conquering people in e G u t Tana i Zeila other lands. The Aksumites seized areas 10°N h W AKSUM along the Red Sea and the Blue Nile in Africa. They also crossed the Red Sea To interior of 50 Africa 30 40 ° ° ° and took control of lands on the E E E southwestern Arabian Peninsula. GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting Maps 1. Location What nearby waterways enabled Aksum to become a Aksum Controls International major trading center? Trade Aksum’s location and 2. Movement What continents or countries did Aksum’s trade expansion into surrounding areas routes give it access to? 199 199-202-0208s2 10/11/02 3:45 PM Page 200 made it an important trading center. It was a hub for caravan routes to Egypt and Meroë, the capital of Kush. Its miles of coastline and ports on the Red Sea gave it influence over sea trade on the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean as well. Traders from Egypt, Arabia, Persia, India, and the Roman Empire crowded Aksum’s chief sea- port, Adulis (AHD•uh•luhs), near present-day Massawa. As a result, Aksum soon became an international trading power. Aksumite merchants traded necessities such as salt and luxuries such as rhinoceros horns, tortoise shells, ivory, emeralds, and gold. In return, they chose from items such as imported cloth, glass, olive oil, wine, brass, iron, and copper. Around a.d. 550, an Egyptian merchant named Cosmas described how Aksumite agents bargained for gold from the people in southern Ethiopia: A VOICE FROM THE PAST They take along with them to the mining district oxen, lumps of salt, and iron, and when they reach its neighborhood they . halt . and form an encampment, which they fence round with a great hedge of thorns. Within this they live, and having slaughtered the oxen, cut them in pieces and lay the pieces on top of the thorns along with the lumps of salt and the iron. Then come the natives bringing gold in nuggets like peas . and lay one or two or more of these upon what pleases them. Then the owner of the meat approaches, and if he is satisfied he takes the gold away, and upon seeing this its owner comes and takes the flesh or the salt or the iron. COSMAS, quoted in Travellers in Ethiopia ■■■■■■■■■■A Strong Ruler Expands the Kingdom The kingdom of Aksum ■■■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■■HISTORYMAKERS reached its height between a.d. 325 and 360, when an exceptionally strong ruler, Ezana (AY•zah•nah), occupied the throne. Determined Ezana to establish and expand his authority, Ezana first conquered the part Mid-Fourth Century A.D. Ezana of Aksum, who reigned from of the Arabian peninsula that is now Yemen. Then, in 330, Ezana about A.D. 325 to 360, succeeded to turned his attention to Kush, which already had begun to decline. In the throne as an infant after the 350, he conquered the Kushites and burned Meroë to the ground: death of his father. While his mother ruled the kingdom, he was educated A VOICE FROM THE PAST by a young Christian man from Syria I carried war against [them] when they had rebelled. I burnt their who had been captured and taken towns of stone and their towns of straw. At the same time, my men into the court. plundered [stole] their grain, their bronze, their iron and their copper, When Ezana finally became ruler destroyed the idols in their homes, their stocks of corn and of cotton; of Aksum, he converted to and they threw themselves into the river. Christianity and established it as the KING EZANA OF AKSUM, quoted in Africa: Past and Present kingdom’s official religion. “I will rule the people with righteousness and justice and will not oppress them, and may they preserve this A Cosmopolitan Culture Develops Throne which I have set up for the Lord of Heaven,” he vowed. From the beginning, Aksumites had a diverse cultural heritage. This These spiritual aims—along blend included traditions of the Arab peoples who crossed the Red with his earthly conquests—gained Sea into Africa and those of the Kushite peoples they settled among. him the title negusa nagast, or As the kingdom expanded and became a powerful trading center, it “king of kings.” attracted people from all over the ancient world. Vocabulary The port city of Adulis was particularly cosmopolitan. It included cosmopolitan: people from Aksum’s widespread trading partners, such as Egypt, Arabia, Greece, including elements from many parts of Rome, Persia, India, and even Byzantium. In the babble of tongues heard in Aksum, the world. Greek stood out as the international language of the time, much as English does in the world today. The Spread of Christianity The Aksumites, like other ancient Africans, tradition- ally believed in one god. They called their god Mahrem and believed that their king was directly descended from him. They were also animists, however, and worshipped the spirits of nature and honored their dead ancestors. They offered sacrifices—often as many as a dozen oxen at a time—to those spirits, to Mahrem, and often, to the Greek god of war, Ares. 200 Chapter 8 199-202-0208s2 10/11/02 3:45 PM Page 201 Merchants exchanged more than raw materials and finished goods in THINK THROUGH HISTORY Aksum. They shared ideas as well. One of these ideas was a new religion, A. Analyzing Christianity. Based on the teachings of Jesus and a belief in one God— Causes What condi- monotheism—Christianity began in Palestine about a.d. 30. It spread tions led to Aksum’s becoming a Christian throughout the Roman Empire and then to Aksum. King Ezana’s conversion Kingdom? and his devout practice of Christianity strengthened its hold in Aksum. A. Answer Its sta- In a.d. 451, a dispute arose over the nature of Christ—whether he was tus as a trade center solely divine, or both divine and human. This dispute led to a split between where ideas were exchanged, and Egypt and Ethiopia on the one hand and the church of Constantinople and Ezana’s conversion to Rome on the other. The Egyptian and Ethiopian churches, which believed Christianity. in the wholly divine nature of Christ, followed their separate paths. They became the Coptic Church of Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The influence of these churches has continued. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church today boasts a membership of more than 22 million people—over half the population of the country. Aksumite Architecture The establishment of Christianity was just one lasting achievement of the Aksumites. They also developed a unique archi- tecture. They used stone instead of mud bricks to construct vast royal palaces and public buildings. Like the Egyptians, the Aksumites used no mortar. Instead, they carved stones to fit together tightly. Aksum’s kings also built huge stone pillars called stelae (STEE•lee). These presumably were meant to celebrate the kings’ conquests and to demonstrate Aksum’s great- ness. Some are 60 feet tall and were among the largest structures in the ancient world. Ezana left a lasting reminder of Aksum’s spiritual and struc- tural achievements in his last stele.
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