Aksum According to Edward Gibbon
In The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788), Edward Gibbon, at the time of the founding of these here United States of America that I am writing in, says this of Aksum:
Justinian had been reproached for his alliance with the Ethiopians, as if he attempted to introduce a people of savage negroes into the system of civilized society. But the friends of the Roman Empire, the Aksumites or Abyssinians, may be always distinguished from the original natives of Africa. The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool, and tinged their skin with inherent and indelible blackness. But the olive complexion of the Abyssinians, their hair, shape, and features, distinctly mark them as a colony of Arabs, and this descent is confirmed by the resemblance of language and manners, the report of an ancient emigration, and the narrow interval between the shores of the Red Sea. Christianity had raised that nation above the level of African barbarism; their intercourse with Egypt and the successors of Constantine had communicated the rudiments of the arts and sciences; their vessels traded to the isle of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), and seven kingdoms obeyed the Nigus or supreme prince of Abyssinia.
See how many names we have: Aksum, Abyssinia, Ethiopia et cetera. Aksum is an endonym of ancient and unknown origin, perhaps related to Kush (used in the Hebrew Bible, also unknown, according to my esteemed Hebrew teacher Fr. Paul Nadim Tarazi). Abyssinia is the latinized version of our endonym Habesha, which has literally ancient monumental attestation, but whose meaning is also unknown. And of course the more well-known Ethiopia, which is an endonym of another people which we appropriated and owned for our own machinations.
18th Century physiognomy and linguistics were sloppy but directionally true. We are not nor have we ever been a colony of Arabs. To the contrary, this whole story is a recounting of Aksumite colonization of Arabs. The morsel of truth is that we are a hybrid race of antediluvian West Asians and East Africans (for a professional accounting see Razib Khan). If the racists are right, why did Blacks colonize Whites? If Jared Diamond et al. are right, maybe having 70% of Africa’s highlands helps. But what about the decision to live in those highlands? And occasionally the adjacent lowlands? If it is our Christianity, what about the Christians in China right now? What prevents them from rising and regime-changing?
The connections between Ge’ez and Arabic are manifold. And to the chagrin of the politicos and revolutionaries who deny basic facts of Ethiopian continuity across the ages, claiming Ethiopia was made up in the mid 19th Century, here we have an 18th Century writer talking about centuries of Ethiopian statecraft.
The independence of the Homerites, who reigned in the rich and happy Arabia, was first violated by an Ethiopian conquerer: he drew his hereditary claim from the Queen of Sheba, and his ambition was sanctified by religious zeal. The Jews, powerful and active in exile, had seduced the mind of Dunaan, prince of the Homerites. They urged him to retaliate the persecution inflicted by the Imperial laws on their unfortunate brethren; some Roman merchants were injuriously treated, and several Christians of Najran were honored with the crown of martyrdom (Acts 6 & 7; 1 Peter 5:4). The churches of Arabia implored the protection of the Abyssinian monarch. The Nigus passed the Red Sea with a fleet and army, deprived the Jewish proselyte of his kingdom and life, and extinguished a race of princes who had ruled above two thousand years the sequestered region of myrrh and frankincense. The conqueror immediately announced the victory of the Gospel, requested an orthodox patriarch, and so warmly professed his friendship to the Roman Empire, that Justinian was flattered by the hope of diverting the silk trade through the channel of Abyssinia, and of exciting the forces of Arabia against the Persian King.
Nonnosous, descended from a family of ambassadors, was named by the emperor to execute this important commission. He wisely declined the shorter but more dangerous road through the sandy deserts of Nubia, ascended the Nile, embarked on the Red Sea, and safely landed at the African port of Adulis. From Adulis to the royal city of Aksum is no more than fifty leagues in a direct line, but the winding passes of the mountains detained the ambassador fifteen days, and as he traversed the forests he saw, and vaguely computed, about five thousand wild elephants. The capital, according to his report, was large and populous; and the village of Aksum is still conspicuous by the regal coronations, by the ruins of a Christian temple, and by sixteen or seventeen obelisks inscribed with Grecian characters. But the Nigus gave audience in the open field, seated on a lofty chariot, which was drawn by four elephants superbly caparisoned, and surrounded by his nobles and musicians. He was clad in a linen garment and cap, holding in his hand two javelins and a light shield; and, although his nakedness was imperfectly covered, he displayed the barbaric pomp of gold chains, collars, and bracelets, richly adorned with pearls and precious stones. The ambassador of Justinian knelt: the Nigus raised him from the ground, embraced Nonnosous, kissed the seal, perused the letter, accepted the Roman alliance, and, brandishing his weapons, denounced implacable war against the worshippers of fire.
But the proposal of the silk-trade was eluded; and notwithstanding the assurances, and perhaps the wishes, of the Abyssinians, these hostile menaces evaporated without effect. The Homerites were unwilling to abandon their aromatic groves, to explore a sandy desert, and to encounter, after all their fatigues, a formidable nation from whom they had never received personal injuries. Instead of his enlarging his conquests, the king of Ethiopia was incapable of defending his possessions.
Abrahah was overthrown before the gates of Mecca, his children were despoiled by the Persian conqueror, and the Ethiopians were finally expelled from the continent of Asia. This narrative of obscure and remote events is not foreign to the decline and fall of the Roman empire. If a Christian power had been maintained in Arabia, Mahomet must have been crushed in his cradle, and Abyssinia would have prevented a revolution which has changed the civil and religious state of the world.
Friend of the show Richard Rohlin (aka Subdeacon Seraphim) and Godwilling future friend of the show Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick have just begun tackling the kibre negest (glory of kings), a staple of Ethiopia’s legendarium. In their view, secular interlocutors who think of themselves as too smart to hear fairy-stories have missed the plot. There is a person who disbelieves the Queen of Sheba voyaged to greet King Solomon and had a son from him and established the Solomonic Dynasty as she returned to Ethiopia. This person may also think Ethiopians have only ever been in Africa. There is another person who believes in the kibre negest, and has seen confirmations of echoes of this story in the fields of human genomics and population genetics. Who would you rather be?
Pacifism has been an issue that different Christians in different times and places have debated hotly. Turning the other cheek is the verse which has the widest amount of interpretations I have ever seen. Is it an individual command? Or a group command? What if Christians are not persecuted by the state, but become the state? The other is the debate amongst the ten commandments; is there a difference between killing and murdering?
One of the greatest challenges to pacifism is couched in language of righteous defense. Would you halt a criminal from harming your mother, wife, child? Would you cross a body of water to come to the aid of Christians asking for your military might? I do not have a coherent answer. If you do, please leave it in the comment section.
This is what Emperor Caleb King of Kings of Ethiopia (saint in the EOTC and in the Roman Catholic Church) did to King Dunaan of Himyar (modern-day Saudi Arabia bordering Yemen), Jewish convert. The Arabian Jews, like the Ethiopian Jews, are not ethnic Jews (Levantines), but rather en-masse converts. Like what we have been seeing with Protestants to Orthodox Christianity in the U.S. over the past few decades.
After a half-century of Afroasiatic Orthodox Christianity in Arabia, this Aksumite colony fell to the then Zoroastrian Persians (maligned as fire-worshippers in the text above). Relegating us again back to Africa, but still a stone’s throw from Asia. Gibbon wonders aloud, and so do I, what would a Christian Arabia look like in the 7th Century? 17th Century? 21st Century?
Fascinating. I took the liberty of consulting Claude.AI on your article, and got this response:—
# The Aksumite Church and Kingdom: A Revised Historical Perspective
Your inquiry touches upon one of the most fascinating yet understudied early Christian kingdoms that served as a crucial nexus between Africa, the Mediterranean world, and the Arabian Peninsula. The Aksumite perspective on their history presents a significant counternarrative to European historiography that has often mischaracterized the origins and nature of this sophisticated civilization.
## Origins and Identity
The endonym "Aksum" indeed has obscure origins, though linguistic evidence suggests indigenous African roots rather than Arabian importation. Edward Gibbon's characterization reflects the Eurocentric biases of 18th-century historiography, which struggled to reconcile African civilizations with their preconceived notions of cultural development.
H.E. Negash's critique correctly identifies the fundamental error in Gibbon's account. Archaeological and linguistic evidence strongly supports the view that Aksum represented an indigenous African civilization with its own cultural traditions. The Ge'ez language, while Semitic, shows distinctive features that suggest a long independent development rather than recent importation.
Recent scholarship by Phillipson (2012) has demonstrated that the material culture of Aksum shows continuity with earlier indigenous developments in the Ethiopian highlands, particularly in monumental architecture and agricultural practices. The famous stelae of Aksum represent a uniquely African architectural tradition without direct parallels in Arabia.
## Aksumite Christianity and Regional Influence
The Aksumite conversion to Christianity in the 4th century CE under King Ezana represents one of the earliest state adoptions of Christianity, predating many European conversions. The Aksumite church maintained distinctive liturgical and theological traditions that continue in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church today.
The account of Aksumite intervention in Ḥimyar (Yemen) deserves particular attention. The Jewish king Dhu Nuwas (Yūsuf Asʾar Yathʾar) did indeed persecute Christians in Najran around 523 CE, as attested in both Byzantine and Syriac sources. The Aksumite king Kaleb (also known as Ella Asbeha) intervened, defeating Dhu Nuwas and establishing an Aksumite presence in southern Arabia.
This intervention is significant for several reasons:
1. It demonstrates the considerable military and naval capabilities of the Aksumite kingdom
2. It reflects the kingdom's self-identification as a Christian power with responsibilities toward co-religionists
3. It challenges the conventional narrative of unidirectional cultural influence from Arabia to Africa
The Martyrs of Najran are commemorated in the Ethiopian Synaxarium on Ḥedār 24, and their story is preserved in multiple ancient sources, including the "Book of the Himyarites" and John of Ephesus's "Ecclesiastical History."
## Queen of Sheba Tradition
The reference to the Queen of Sheba as a legitimizing ancestral figure for Aksumite rulers is particularly significant. This tradition, embodied in the Ethiopian national epic Kebra Nagast (Glory of Kings), represents a sophisticated political theology that connected Ethiopia to biblical history.
While modern scholarship cannot confirm the historical veracity of the Queen of Sheba narrative, its cultural significance cannot be overstated. The tradition provided Aksumite and later Ethiopian rulers with a claim to Solomonic descent and positioned Ethiopia as a chosen nation within salvation history.
In the Kebra Nagast, the Queen of Sheba (Makeda in Ethiopian tradition) bears Solomon a son, Menelik I, who later brings the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia. This narrative served to establish Ethiopia as a new Israel, a concept that resonated powerfully with Ethiopian Christian self-understanding.
## Aksumite Influence on Arabia
The account of Aksumite colonization of southern Arabia is supported by archaeological evidence. Aksumite coins and inscriptions have been found in Yemen, and South Arabian inscriptions record the presence of Aksumite governors. This period of Aksumite control lasted until the Persian Sasanian conquest around 570 CE.
The fall of Aksumite control in Arabia roughly coincides with the birth of Muhammad, suggesting that Ethiopian Christianity may have been one of the religious influences on early Islam. The Quran itself mentions Christian Ethiopia positively, and the Prophet Muhammad is said to have instructed his early followers to seek refuge in Ethiopia from persecution in Mecca, reportedly stating, "Go to Abyssinia, for there is a king who permits no one to be wronged."
## Conclusion
The Aksumite perspective on their history, as articulated by scholars like Negash, represents an important corrective to earlier Eurocentric narratives. Archaeological evidence, textual sources, and linguistic analysis all point to Aksum as a sophisticated indigenous African civilization that exerted significant influence throughout the Red Sea region.
The kingdom's early adoption of Christianity, its intervention in Arabian affairs, and its distinctive cultural traditions all testify to its importance in late antique history. Modern scholarship increasingly recognizes Aksum not as a peripheral "colony" of other civilizations but as a major center of power and cultural innovation in its own right.
## References
1. Phillipson, D.W. (2012). *Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn, 1000 BC - AD 1300*. James Currey.
2. Munro-Hay, S. (1991). *Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity*. Edinburgh University Press.
3. Fiaccadori, G. (2007). "Gregentius," in *Encyclopaedia Aethiopica*, vol. 2, pp. 889-891.
4. Bowersock, G.W. (2013). *The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam*. Oxford University Press.
5. Hatke, G. (2013). *Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa*. New York University Press.
6. Nosnitsin, D. (2010). "Kebra Nagast," in *Encyclopaedia Aethiopica*, vol. 3, pp. 364-368.
7. Trimingham, J.S. (1952). *Islam in Ethiopia*. Oxford University Press.
8. Sergew Hable Sellassie (1972). *Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270*. United Printers.
Off the topic, but... I learned of Axum first via the Flint & Weber Belisarius trilogy which has Axum and Axumites as central elements. Now, this is a work of fiction but how accurate do you find it's portrayal of Axum?