To the south of Kush, in northern Ethiopia, emerged a commercially powerful trading state around the first century a.d., the state Axum. Around a.d. 330, Axum conquered the weakened Meroitic Kingdom of Kush.
The people of Axum were of mixed African origin and Semitic-speaking migrants from southern Arabia. Their chief port was Adulis. Adulis was a major market for ivory and elephants and had become an important commercial center after the Roman conquest Egypt. Axumite power was due to its strategic location the Red Sea, which gave access to trade with the Indian Ocean. Moreover, its location was crucial in controlling trade between the interior of Africa and the Roman Empire and southeast Asia. A firm agricultural base was also a factor in its growth. By the third century a.d., Axum was on of the greatest empires in the world. Axum adopted the same state-system as Meroe. It had its own coin mints, striking gold, silver, and copper coins with the kings' names on them. This symbolizes the political and economic power of Axum.
A trade mark of the Axumite civilization were the giant towering stelae, up to 33 meters (100 feet) tall and carved like multi-storied buildings. These stelae are considered to be funerary monuments. The height of Axumite power was in the fourth century a.d., when King Ezana conquered Meroe. King Ezana also converted to Christianity, which led to the Christianization of the whole kingdom. The development of the Ethiopian Christian church, in addition to the replacement of Greek by the native Ge'ez language in the fifth century, led eventually to Axum's separation from its Islamic and pagan neighbors, isolating itself culturally from northeast Africa. This lasted until modern times.
Axumite trade with the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean continued until the sixth century a.d. The state started its decline to obscurity in the seventh to ninth centuries, when the Arabs began to absorb the Red Sea trade.
After Arab Muslim invasions and Migrations into Nubia from the thirteenth century onward, which led to the Islamization of Nubia, Ethiopia was left as the sole African Christian state, surrounded by Islam. |
