Kingdom of Aksum
The Ruins of the ancient city of Aksum
Aksum (also known as the Aksumite empire, a name of a local city and the empire) settled in today’s northern Ethiopia and Eritrea and was considered one of the four biggest civilizations in its heyday. It was a major trading power at its time and in turn had huge influence on people in Egypt, Arabia, and partly southern Europe
Aksum conquered the Kingdom of Kush in 350. Around 520, King Kaleb sent an expedition to Yemen against the Jewish Himyarite King, who persecuted the Christian/Aksumite community in his kingdom. These wars may have been Aksum’s swan-song as a great power, but it is also likely that Ethiopia was affected by the Plague of Justinian.
Watch the following video to learn more about the ruins of the ancient city of Aksum:
Religion- Christianity
There is an urban center for the kingdom of Aksum, and it is characterized by monuments, traditional arts, and architecture. Today there are still remnants of well-preserved Aksumite-style architecture standing at the former capital of Aksum.
During 330 AD, the emperor Ezana converted to Christianity, making Aksum one of the earliest Christian states: one of the only ancient African states with early written records. There are inscriptions and engravings, some contain more than one focused language, other written artifacts with multicultural information such as coins.
Take a look and read the following Article for more information on Christianity in Aksum:
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aksu_3/hd_aksu_3.htm
Trading Power of Aksum
Research shows that Aksum was a major naval and trading power from the 1st to the 7th centuries C.E. As a civilization it had a profound impact upon the people of Egypt, southern Arabia, Europe and Asia, all of whom were visitors to its shores, and in some cases were residents.
Despite being one of the four greatest powers in the world at that time, very little written evidence and scripts remains today to tell us more about the Aksum Empire.
Social Hierarchy
Aksum is a hierarchical society with the king on the top, then the nobles, then the general population, and the peasants below. This hierarchical society is recognized from goods in the remaining Aksumite buildings. And most of the poor civilians were presumably craftsmen or farmers, and priests and traders were probably considered the important ones. And there are descriptions such as “king of kings” in some inscriptions found, this may suggest that there are other junior kings that were being overthrown by the Aksumites. Other than that, little or nothing is known about family life and women in the Aksum kingdom according to the written records.
