Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

rulers recorded in the later sources; two sons of Kaleb according to the Ge`ez texts, a 
grandson Saifu succeeding in c577 after the Chinese text, anothe r ruler and his usurping 
brother according to Ibn Ishaq, and finally Ashama, who died in 630, according to the 
Muslim chroniclers.  
The situation at the ancient capital at this period was not what it had been in former 
times. Overuse of the land around a city which had supported a substantial population for 
some six hundred years was doubtless beginning to result in food-supply deficiencies, 
and in addition the Nile- levels recorded in Egypt indicate that the rainfall was not so 
constant as before (
Ch. 3: 1-2
). The clearance of the wooded hills around the city, 
whether for charcoal or planting of crops, allowed the rains to carry off the topsoil, 
exacerbating the agricultural problems (Butzer 1981). The very grave dimunition of the 
Red Sea trade, and the loss of revenue from that source may have combined with internal 
troubles, such as a resurgence of independence among the northern Beja tribes, or even 
dynastic difficulties, to hasten the abandonment of Aksum as the capital of the kingdom. 
Whatever the case (for the situation under Ashama ibn Abjar and the wars of the hatseni 
Danael see 
Ch. 15: 4-5
) it seems that possibly before the middle of the seventh century 
AD, Aksum, though it continued to exist in a reduced way until the present as an 
ecclesiastical centre, and even ritual centre for the kingship, had ceased to be viable as 
Ethiopia's capital city.  
A famous Ethiopian of this last period of Aksum was one of the early converts to Islam, 
Bilal ibn Rabah. He was a freed slave of Ethiopian origin born in Mecca who became the 
first muadhdhin — muezzin — or chanter of the call to prayer. He also bore the prophet's 
spear, which was a gift of the najashi Ashama to the prophet's cousin al-Zubayr, and was 
used from 624AD to point the direction of prayer. Bilal died about 640AD (Dictionary of 
Ethiopian Biography 1975: I, 41).  
8. The Post-Aksumite Period 
The period from the seventh to the twelfth century, though recognised here as post-
Aksumite in the sense that Aksum was no longer the political centre of the kingdom, has 
generally been included by previous writers on Ethiopian history as Aksumite; 
accordingly, a brief sketch of the few known events occurring during this time may be 
useful. Aksum's name seems to have no longer been applied to the Ethiopian people, but 
`Habash' remained, as usual, the Arab name for them, and the country was called 
`Habashat' (Irvine 1965; but see Beeston 1987). The period concerned includes the 
greater part of the seventh century, and terminates with the advent of the Zagwé dynasty 
in about 1137 (another long-disputed date, see Munro-Hay, The Metropolitan Episcopate 
of Ethiopia and the Patriarchate of Alexandria 4th-14th centuries, forthcoming).  
1. Realignment. 
The reign of Ashama ibn Abjar, and the inscriptions of the hatsani Danael, are discussed 
in 
Ch. 15: 4-5
, and are suggested to represent the end of the Aksumite period in Ethiopia. 
An entirely different picture of the kingdom now emerges. The coinage, and with it the 

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use of Greek and the trade connections into the Red Sea and the Roman Christian world 
gave way to a different economic and political orientation. Such commodities as cloth 
(al-Muqaddasi, in Vantini 1975: 176) and probably the ever-needed salt were used in 
barter, but now trade was, it seems, limited only to neighbouring countries in Africa and 
Arabia. The kingdom, though almost always regarded by Arab writers during this period 
as a powerful and extensive state, eventually lost the use of the coast, and other areas 
formerly under a tribute relationship to the Ethiopian state became completely 
independent.  
As Connah (1987: 71-2, 95) has pointed out, the new condition of relative isolation had 
both advantages and disadvantages, the greatest benefit being that Ethiopia could safely 
withdraw itself into the mountains and take up a strong defensive stance. This was, of 
course, offset by the loss of its international position, but, as we have said, the decline of 
the Red Sea trade was the result of great events in the outside world which Ethiopia could 
only accept by its own realignment. The country's political connexions were nearly all 
with Muslim states from this time onwards, though a few brief mentions are made of the 
Christian Nubian kingdoms (see below). Al-Mas`udi speaks of a treaty between 
Abyssinia and Ibrahim, ruler of Zabid in the Yemen, by which the latter's ships 
continually moved between the two countries with merchants and merchandise (de 
Meynard and de Courteille 1864: 34), and relations apparently remained intact with the 
Yemeni rulers after the country's conquest by a neighbouring queen (see below). 
Ethiopia's metropolitan bishops still came from the patriarchate of Alexandria, but were 
now obtained by application to the Muslim governor of Egypt (Munro-Hay, The 
Metropolitan Episcopate of Ethiopia and the Patriarchate of Alexandria, 4th-14th 
centuries, forthcoming). Muslim states arose in the Dahlak islands and on the coasts, and 
in later times became a grave danger to the Christian state.  
But the Ethiopian kingdom itself did not remain static; as it lost in the north and east, it 
gained in the south, and the dynastic capitals of the later Zagwé (c1137) and Solomonic 
(c1270) dynasties were successively situated further in that direction. Trading objectives 
changed too; but still Arab traders continued to come to Ethiopia. The country still 
possessed excellent agricultural resources, gold, ivory, hides, and many other products, 
and doubtless the expansion southwards allowed the Ethiopians of the post-Aksumite era 
to develop certain aspects of their export trade in luxuries as much in demand in the Arab 
world as they had been in the Roman; we hear of merchants of Oman, Hejaz, Bahrein, 
and the Yemen trading there (see below). Ethiopia may have found itself increasingly 
outside the main stream, but was certainly not finished as a polity. The brief reports of the 
next few hundred years speak of a large and powerful Habash realm, and, as far as we 
can tell, only in the later tenth century did disaster strike.  
2. Successor Capitals. 
The immediate successor capitals to Aksum are mentioned mainly by Arab authors, 
illustrating well the new alignment of trade and therefore knowledge about the country. 
In many cases these repeat the information of preceding writers, sometimes 
anachronistically. The astronomer Al-Battani, for example, who died in 929AD, repeats 

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