#axumite

[baebeylik]

Ethiopian coin depicting King Endubis of Axum. The ruling elite of Ethiopia at this time were typically bilingual capable of understanding both Greek and Ethiopic(Ge’ez). He reigned from 270 to 300 CE.

[kemetic-dreams]

What is the origin of Habesha term? What it means? Did Aksumites call themselves Habesha or Habash or was the term referred to them by foreigners (Arabs)? I like to hear Ethiopians and Yemenis opinions.

Amanuel Tesfaye, lived in Ethiopia

Its origin is uncertain. It may be foreign term which started to apply to different people during the recent Monarchy era, Nobody in Ethiopia call or identify themselves with this name. Many people here will actually confuse to which group this term is applied to. If go to different locations and ask people whether they identify with this term or not, you will get controversial answer. As for the Axumites, they used to refer themselves (specially the ruling class) as Agazians/ Agazi or Ge’ez speaking people. For instance in one of the discovered trilingual stone inscription in Axum, there was a King named “Ezana’s” who concurred and expanded his kingdom. He mentioned various people/nations who were subjugated by him including the Habeshas. His lists goes like this > the 1st version follow Aezana king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Habashat, Saba, Salhen, Tsiyamo, Kasu, and the Beja, and the Ge`ez version (DAE 7) reads Aksum, Himyar, Kasu, Saba, Habashat, Raydan, Salhen, Siyamo, Beja; both of these add the phrase `king of kings, son of the unconquered Mahrem' the 2nd version . . . Ella Amida, Bisi ..s.m, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhen, Tsiyamo, Bega and of Kasu, king of kings, son of the invincible Mahrem. He departed on campaign to re-establish his empire and put it again in order. Those who obeyed him, he spared; those who resisted him, he put to death. He came to `LBH and there came with presents SWSWT king of the Agwezat with his people, and he received his submission and he was made subject. Then he sent him away to return to his country. the 3rd version Aeizanas, king of the Aksumites, the Himyarites, Raeidan, the Ethiopians, the Sabaeans, Silei (Salhen), Tiyamo, the Beja and Kasou, king of kings, son of the unconquered god Ares It appears from the inscription that the people who were called Habashats (Ethiopians) were rather subjects and tributaries to the Axumites. Src 1 : https://www.livingston.org/cms/lib4/NJ01000562/Centricity/Domain/602/aksum.pdf Src 2 : Ezana’s Stone Inscription8

Anmol, knows English South Arabian/Sabaean origin theory Before the 20th century, the Sabean theory was the most common one explaining the origins of the Habesha. ... All uses of the term date to the 3rd century AD and later, when they referred to the people of the Kingdom of Aksum. Habesha is a term that refers to people of Ethiopian and Eritrean heritage without discriminating against tribe/ethnicity, nationality, or citizenship. It is a pan-ethnic term that includes the various ethnic groups of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Ethiopian-Eritrean Diaspora who live abroad. The Kingdom of Aksum (Ge'ez: መንግሥተ አክሱም), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was an ancient Habesha kingdom that controlled what are now Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia, parts of Eastern Sudan and Southern Yemen at its peak. It was centralized in Northern Ethiopia, and its capital was Aksum[2] or Axum.[3] Aksumite rulers styled themselves as King of kings, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhen, Tsiyamo, Beja and of Kush.[4] Ruled by the Aksumites, it existed from approximately 80 BC to AD 825.[5] The polity was centered in the city of Aksum and grew from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period around the 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD. Aksum became a major player on the commercial route between the Roman Empire and Ancient India. The Aksumite rulers facilitated trade by minting their own Aksumite currency, with the state establishing its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush. It also regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and eventually extended its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom. The Manichaei prophet Mani (died 274 AD) regarded Aksum as one of the four great powers of his time, the others being Persia, Rome and China.[2][6][7][8] It ruled the South Arabia of Yemen for half a century in the 6th century. the 1st version follow Aezana king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Habashat, Saba, Salhen, Tsiyamo, Kasu, and the Beja, and the Ge`ez version (DAE 7) reads Aksum, Himyar, Kasu, Saba, Habashat, Raydan, Salhen, Siyamo, Beja; both of these add the phrase `king of kings, son of the unconquered Mahrem'

Maha Odeh, studied at University College London The oldest attested use of the term is in Sabaean and Ancient Egyptian inscriptions. The Sabaean usage referred to a specific group of people other than the Aksumites, they used them together (Habsht & Aksum) referring to peoples in modern day East Africa. Ancient Egyptians used it in reference to the people of Punt, which is in modern day north East Sudan, Eriteria, Djibouti, and parts of Somalia. In Ancient Egyptian they used the word ḫbśtjw, that means “bearded one”. Most linguists believe the word to be of Ge’ez origin, but a few believe that it may have earlier Ancient Egyptian influence. In all cases the Sabaeans, the other Southern Semitic speaking people of ancient Yemen, and the Arabs all borrowed it from Ge’ez, the language spoken by the Habash people at the time regardless of whether there was an earlier Egyptian influence or not.

[soliloquyinthedark]

The Obelisk of Axum in Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia

The obelisk/stele is 24 metres tall and was constructed by the Axumites in the 4th century AD. The Kingdom of Axum existed in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea from around 100 AD to 940 AD. The Axumites erected many obelisks throughout the kingdom to mark burial chambers and serve religious purposes. 

[ancientcoins]

KINGS of AXUM. Ezanas. Circa 300-350 AD. AE15mm. Struck after his conversion to Christianity in 330 AD. BACI LEYC, draped bust right in headcloth / +TOV TO APECH TH XWPA (May This [the cross] Please the Country), small cross in circle. Munro-Hay 52; BMC Aksum 90.

This week, another coin from the fascinating kingdom of Axum (Aksum). This time a small bronze from late in the history of the kingdom, just after the the king Ezana (Ezanas) converted to Christianity. Axum was among the first kingdoms to covert to Christianity and to publicly display its allegiance to the faith on coinage. Ezana is among the best-attested kings of Axum, largely due to his religious conversion, which was the result of the teachings of his Syrian tutor, Frumentius. Ezana was also in contact with the Roman Emperor Constantius II, who requested that Ezana prove that this Christianity was Orthodox by Roman standards. Ezana ignored these requests and established his own, independent church, the origin of the modern Ethiopian Orthodox Church (now in communion with the Coptic Orthodox Church). Today Ezana is a Saint in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Ezana was a powerful and influential king. His coins have been found as far away as India, proving that Axum in this period continued to be a powerful trading kingdom. Ezana was also a military commander who led campaigns into Meroe. Ezana's coins have an interesting, unique feature, in that some, like this one, bear a legend on the reverse: "May this please the country." While this cataloguer believes this legend refers to the cross, and, by implication, Christianity, scholars believe that Ezana hoped that the coinage would be met with approval, possible following upon economic difficulties. Whatever it refers to Ezana seems to have been concerned for the approval of his people.

[ancientcoins]

Gold coin of Axumite Kingdom, King Endubis (c.270-300 CE)

We’ve featured coins from Axum before, to highlight some of their strange minting practices, today we look at a coin that has some interesting linguistic features. This coin of King Endubis (sometimes spelled Endybis) has legends in two languages, on one side, Endubis is named King of Axum in ancient Greek, while on the other he is described as Bishi Dakhu, a man of Dakhu in Ge'ez, a south Semitic language native to Ethiopia. This language is now functionally extinct in terms of speaking, but remains a powerful liturgical language, used by several Ethiopian Orthodox churches.

Not much is known about Endubis himself, though he is one of the earliest kings of Axum to strike coins. It is not clear which of the two portraits on the coin is Endybis, or whether both are meant to show him. Axumite coins frequently have two portraits, and they are usually flanked by ears of corn as they are here, signaling the prosperity of the kingdom.

[kemetic-dreams]

                                THE LEGEND OF GUDIT

Gudit (Ge'ez: Yodit, Judith) is a semi-legendary, non-Christian, Beta Israel queen (flourished c.960) who laid waste to Axum and its countryside, destroyed churches and monuments, and attempted to exterminate the members of the ruling Axumite dynasty. Her deeds are recorded in the oral tradition and mentioned incidentally in various historical accounts.

Abreha and Atsbeha Church

Information about Gudit is contradictory and incomplete. Paul B. Henze wrote, "She is said to have killed the emperor, ascended the throne herself, and reigned for 40 years. Accounts of her violent misdeeds are still related among peasants in the north Ethiopian countryside."Henze continues in a footnote:

On my first visit to the rock church of Abreha and Atsbeha in eastern Tigray in 1970, I noticed that its intricately carved ceiling was blackened by soot. The priest explained it as the work of Gudit, who had piled the church full of hay and set it ablaze nine centuries before.[2]

There is a tradition that Gudit sacked and burned Debre Damo, which at the time was a treasury and a prison for the male relatives of the king of Ethiopia; this may be an echo of the later capture and sack of Amba Geshen by Ahmed Gragn.

she was related to one of the indigenous Sidamo peoples of southern Ethiopia.This would agree with the numerous references to matriarchs ruling the Sidamo polities.

If Gudit did not belong to one of the Sidamo peoples, then some scholars, based on the traditions that Gudit was Jewish, propose that she was of the Agaw people, who historically have been numerous in Lasta, and a number of whom (known as the Beta Israel), have professed an Israelite pre-Ezra Judaism since ancient times.

Local traditions around Adi Kaweh where she allegedly died and was buried indicate her faith was pagan-Hebraic,rather than Israelite or Jewish

It was during the office of Patriarch Philotheos of Alexandria when Gudit started her revolt, near the end of the reign of the king who had deposed the Abuna Petros. As Taddesse Tamrat explains, at the time "his own death in the conflict, and the military reverses of the kingdom were taken as divine retribution for the sufferings of Abuna Petros.

This chronological synchronicity with the tenure of Patriarch Philotheos, and the intervention of king Georgios II of Makuria, provides us a date of c.960 for Gudit. A contemporary Arab historian, Ibn Hawqal, provides this account

The country of the habasha has been ruled by a woman for many years now: she has killed the king of the habashawho was called Haḍani [from Ge'ez haṣ́ani, modern aṣ́e or atse]. Until today she rules with complete independence in her own country and the frontier areas of the country of the Haḍani, in the southern part of [the country of] the habashi

Another historian mentions that the king of Yemen sent a zebra to the ruler of Iraq in 969/970, which he had received as a gift from the Queen of al-Habasha

Taddesse Tamrat has speculated that one effect of Gudit's otherwise ephemeral rule, might be the pockets of various languages related to Amharic scattered across southwestern Ethiopia (e.g. Argobba, Gurage and Gafat), which could have been Axumite military settlements isolated by her conquests and later Sidamo migrations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu0z6zyc2J8

[chrisaustria]

#Axum #Ethiopia is one of my favorite places in the country. This is a fallen obelisk or stellae with the Tsion Mariam #OrthodoxChristian church in the distance. The #Axumite kingdom was a powerful empire from the 1st-7th century A.D. They established trade with Rome, India, Arabia, Egypt, and Greece.

[chrisaustria]

A #Meskel that I got in #Axum #Ethiopia. The #Axumite Empire was one of the greatest civilizations of its time from the 1st-7 century AD. They were a major force in world trade along with Rome, Persia, and China. Yemen was a part of the Axumite Kingdom during this period.