The Axumite Kingdom, also known as the Aksum Kingdom, was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from circa the 5th century BC to become an important trading nation by the 1st century AD. It converted to Christianity in 325 or 328 (various sources). World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ... (6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) Events Demotic becomes the dominant script of ancient Egypt Persians invade Greece twice (Persian Wars) Battle of Marathon (490) Battle of Salamis (480) Athenian empire formed and falls Peloponnesian War... (1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century - other centuries) The 1st century was that century which lasted from 1 to 99. ... Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life, teachings, death by crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. ... Events May 20 - First Council of Nicaea _ first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church: The Nicene Creed is formulated, the date of Easter is discussed. ... Events May 9 - Athanasius elected bishop of Alexandria Births Valens, Roman Emperor Wong Tai Sin Deaths April 17 - Alexander I, Patriarch of Alexandria Categories: 328 ...

It was founded by People who crossed from South Arabia what is today's Yemen. The kingdom started to decline 7th century AD. and the Population forced to go farther inland (Highlands), finally falling to Zagwe dynasty Zagwe dynasty in the twelfth century, but Yekuno Amlak, who killed the last Zagwe king and founded the Solomonid dynasty traced his ancestry to the last king of Axum, Dil Na'od. The Zagwe Dynasty ruled Ethiopia from the end of the Kingdom of Axum to 1270, when Yekuno Amlak defeated and killed the last Zagwe king in battle. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... Yekuno Amlak (throne name Tasfa Iyasus) was negus (1270 - 1285) of Ethiopia and founder of the Solomonid dynasty. ... The Solomonid dynasty is the traditional royal house of Ethiopia, claming descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who is said to have given birth to the traditional first king Menelik I after her Biblically-described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem. ...

Geography

The Axumite Kingdom at its height extended across areas of what are today Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia and Yemen . The capital city of the kingdom was Axum (in Northern Ethiopia) . Other important cities included Adulis and Matara in what is todays' Ertitrea.

Society Structure

The Axumites people represented a mix of Cushitic speaking people in Ethiopia and Semitic speaking people in southern Arabia who settled the territory across the Red Sea around 500 BC. The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages phylum, named after the Biblical figure Cush by analogy with Semitic. ... Semitic is an adjective which in common parlance mistakenly refers specifically to Jewish things, while the term actually refers to things originating among speakers of Semitic languages or people descended from them, and in a linguistic context to the northeastern subfamily of Afro-Asiatic. ... (Red Sea is also the name of a state in Sudan) Conshelf II in the Red Sea (Sudan) The Red Sea (Arabic البحر الأحمر Baḥr al-Aḥmar, al-Baḥru l-’Aḥmar; Hebrew ים סוף Yam Suf) is a gulf or basin of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC - 450s BC Events and Trends 509 BC - Foundation of the Roman Republic 508 BC - Office of pontifex maximus created...

The Axumite kings had an official title negusa nagast - King of Kings. Axumite kings traced lineage back to times of David, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. This royal heritage was claimed by all emperors of Ethiopia until the last died in 1974. Michelangelos David This page is about the Biblical king David. ... Solomon or Shlomo (Hebrew: שְׁלֹמֹה; Standard Hebrew: Šəlomo; Tiberian Hebrew: Šəlōmōh, meaning peace) in the Tanakh (Old Testament), is the third king of Israel (including Judah), builder of the temple in Jerusalem, renowned for his great wisdom and wealth and power, but also blamed for falling away from worshipping the... The Queen of Sheba, referred to in the Bible, the Quran, and Ethiopic history, was the ruler of Sheba, which modern archeology places in present-day Yemen. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...

Foreign relations and economy

Axum traded with India and Rome (later Byzantium, which had a strong cultural influence upon Axum), exporting ivory, tortoise shell, gold and emeralds, and importing silk and spices. It utilised its position to profit on trade between various African (Nubia), Arabian (Yemen), and Indian states. It had a strong navy that dominated the Red Sea and reached India. The Republic of India is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of more than one billion, and is the seventh largest country by geographical area. ... Roman Empire between AD 60 and 400 with major cities. ... The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... Ivory is a hard, white, opaque substance that is the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth, etc. ... General Name, Symbol, Number Gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11 (IB), 6, d Density, Hardness 19300 kg/m3, 2. ... For other things of this name, see Emerald (disambiguation). ... Silk (< OE sioloc probably < L. SERICVS / Gr. ... External links Wikibooks Cookbook has more about this subject: Spice Food Bacteria-Spice Survey Shows Why Some Cultures Like It Hot Citat: ...Garlic, onion, allspice and oregano, for example, were found to be the best all-around bacteria killers (they kill everything). ... For the Star Wars planet, see Nubia (Star Wars). ... The Republic of Yemen is a country in the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia, and is a part of the Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea, between Oman and Saudi Arabia. ... Navy is also:- shorthand for Navy Blue the nickname of the United States Naval Academy A navy is the branch of the armed forces of a nation that operates primarily on water. ...

In 2nd century AD, Axum acquired tribute states on the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea and conquered northern Ethiopia. In 4th century AD they conquered the Kingdom of Kush. (1st century - 2nd century - 3rd century - other centuries) Events Roman Empire governed by the Five Good Emperors (96–180) – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. ... (3rd century - 4th century - 5th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... For the son of Rama and Sita from Indian epic of Ramayana, go to Kush (hindu). ...

Axum remained a strong empire and trading power until the rise of Islam in the seventh century AD. However, because the Axumites had sheltered Muhammad's first followers, the Muslims never attempted to overthrow Axum as they spread across the face of Africa. Islam (Arabic al-islām الإسلام,  listen) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith and the worlds second-largest religion. ... ( 6th century - 7th century - 8th century - other centuries) Events Islam starts in Arabia, the Quran is written, and Arabs subjugate Syria, Iraq, Persia, Egypt, North Africa and Central Asia to Islam. ... Muhammad is a common male name for Muslims. ...

With time and expanding Islam influence, Axum was forced into isolation and thus lost its priviliged position in the international and regional trade, but it still had relatively 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 until the present day. Makuria (to Arabs al-Mukurra or al-Muqurra) was a kingdom located in what is today Southern Egypt and the Sudan. ... Alodia or Alwa was a kingdom in Christian Nubia. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ...

Cultural achivements

The Axumite kingdom developed its own alphabet (Geez or Ge'ez). An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters—basic written symbols—each of which roughly represents a phoneme of a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it may have been in the past. ... The Geez language (or Giiz language) is an ancient language that developed in the Ethiopian Highlands of the Horn of Africa as the language of the peasantry. ...

It adopted Christianity in place of its former polytheistic religion under King Ezana around 325 AD. 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. Axumite Christanity may be one of the foundations for the myth of Prester John. Polytheism is belief in, or worship of, multiple gods or divinities. ... Ezana of Axum was ruler of the Axumite Kingdom from about 320 to 350 AD. Ezana succeeded his father Ella Amida while still a youth and his mother, Sofya served as regent. ... Prester John (also Presbyter John) was a legendary Christian ruler in Asia (some say his kingdom was in Northern Africa), combining the roles of patriarch and king. ...

A legend has that at that time a foreign boy named Frumentius was made a slave of the royal court and later a tutor to the royal children. When the king died the queen asked Frumentius to help rule Axum. He had declined promised freedom and remained until the queen's son, Ezana, was old enough to rule. Frumentius established a number of Christian churches and when Ezana became king he made Christianity (Monophysite) the official religion of Axum. This custom of slave who teaches kings remained an important tradition for the next few hundred years. Frumentius (died c. ... Monophysitism (from the Greek monos meaning one and physis meaning nature) is the christological position that Christ has only one nature, as opposed to the Chalcedonian position which holds that Christ has two natures, one divine and one human. ...

It was a cosmopolitan and culturally important state. It was a meeting place for a variety of cultures: Egyptian, Sudanic, Arabic, Middle Eastern, and Indian. The major Axumite cities had Jewish, Nubian, Christian, and even Buddhist minorities. The term cosmopolitan refers to an individual who retains cultural roots in his or her country of origin, yet has adopted a wide taste for other cultures, and so lives both a local and global life. ... The Arab Republic of Egypt, commonly known as Egypt, (in Arabic: مصر, romanized Miṣr or Maṣr, in Egyptian dialect) is a republic mostly located in north-eastern Africa. ... The Republic of the Sudan, or Republic of Sudan (in recent years the definite article has increasingly been dropped in common usage) is the largest country in Africa, situated in the northeast part of the continent. ... Arab (disambiguation). ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... The Republic of India is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of more than one billion, and is the seventh largest country by geographical area. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ...

The Axumite kingdom was also the first African polity to issue its own coins. From the reign of Endubis up to Armah (approximately 270 to 610), gold, silver and bronze coins in imitation of contemporary Roman currency were minted. Issuing coinage in ancient times was an act of great importance in itself, for it proclaimed the Axumite kingdom considered itself equal to its neighbors. The presence of coins also simplified trade, was a useful instrument of propaganda, and was a source of profit to the kingdom. 1¢ euro coin A coin is generally a piece of hard material, generally metal and usually in the shape of a disc, which is used as a form of money. ... Centuries: 2nd century - 3rd century - 4th century Decades: 220s - 230s - 240s - 250s - 260s - 270s - 280s - 290s - 300s - 310s - 320s Years: 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 Events Crisis of the Third Century Significant people Aurelian, Roman Emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus, Roman Emperor Probus, Roman Emperor Categories... Centuries: 6th century 7th century 8th century Decades: 560s - 570s _ 580s - 590s - 600s - 610s - 620s - 630s - 640s - 650s - 660s Years: 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 Events: Muhammad, founding Prophet of Islam, is forced to migrate from Mecca to Medina Births: Deaths: Categories: 610s... The main Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire consisted of coins including: the aureus (gold), the denarius (silver), the sestertius (bronze), the dupondius (bronze), and the as (copper). ... North Korean propaganda showing a soldier destroying the United States Capitol building. ...

At the early times of the kingdom, around 2500 years ago, an unknown king ordered the construction of giant Obelisk of Axum. The Obelisk of Axum is a 2500-year-old, 24-metre (78-foot) tall granite obelisk, weighing over 100 tonnes, carved in or around the 4th century BC by the Axumite Kingdom, an ancient Ethiopian culture. ...

List of kings

• Ella Amida ?-c.320 AD (father of Ezana)
• Ezana of Axum c. 320-350 AD
• Kaleb of Axum
• Eon of Axum

Ezana of Axum was ruler of the Axumite Kingdom from about 320 to 350 AD. Ezana succeeded his father Ella Amida while still a youth and his mother, Sofya served as regent. ...

Bibliography

• Stuart Munro-Hays. Aksum. Edinburgh: University Press. 1991. ISBN 0748601066
• Yuri M. Kobishchanov. Axum (Joseph W. Michels, editor; Lorraine T. Kapitanoff, translator). University Park, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, 1979. ISBN 0271005319

See also

• History of Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. ...

External links

• Civilizations in Africa: Axum (http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CIVAFRCA/AXUM.HTM)
• Ancient Horn of Africa:Axum (http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/um/umn.html)
• Ancient History Sourcebook: Accounts of Meröe, Kush, and Axum (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/nubia1.html)