Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

overcropping. The pressure on the land would have shortened the rotation period of the 
crops, land which should have lain fallow for longer being pressed into use too soon. The 
subsequent lowering of the fertility level of the land again resulted in degradation and 
erosion, leaving an exhausted soil in the proximity of the city and the immediate 
countryside. Difficulties in maintaining the food-supplies may have been a significant 
factor in removing the capital elsewhere. A certain amount of recovery may have been 
possible in some areas around the town, since the fertility of the hinterland of the much 
smaller town of later times was noted by travellers a thousand or so years later. Alvares 
simply mentioned that `its countryside . . . is sown in their season with all kinds of seed' 
(Beckingham and Huntingford 1961: 159). Others noted wheat, wine and vegetables 
growing at Aksum (Frate Rafaello Francescano, 1522; de Villard 1938: 60), a poor crop 
of fruit (Bruce 1790: III, 132), or, rather better, `a vast plain richly cultivated with many 
sorts of grain and near the town grass-plots and meadows' (Plowden 1868: 391-2).  
Illustration 66. A scene near Aksum taken in 1974; a farmer ploughing in the Gudit Stele 
Field to the west of Aksum. Photo BIEA.  
We cannot be sure for the Aksumite period, but among the natural disasters which in later 
times reduced the agricultural and animal yield in Ethiopia, cattle plague (
Ch. 4: 8.3
) and 
locusts are noted. For example, Alvares observed the desolation caused by the `multitude 
of locusts . . . and the damage which they do' (Beckingham and Huntingford 1961: 132). 
It is not inconceivable that, apart from the steady decline caused by overuse of the land, 
one or both of these may have occurred to emphasise the need to remove the capital to 
some better provided region.  
2. The Climate 
 
The work of the geomorphologist Karl Butzer (1981) has suggested that the climate of 
northern Ethiopia may have changed for the worse just after the Aksumite period. The 
measurement of the Nile flood levels, recorded in Egypt, indicates that after a long period 
of excellent rainfall, more erratic precipitation ensued; this seems to have been after the 
abandonment of the city. However, if the land had reached a state of advanced 
degradation during the late Aksumite period, even the heavier rains, though theoretically 
ideal for the growth of the crops, would have contributed to the erosion on the slopes 
above the city and in the surrounding fields. What had been an advantage before had 
become another element in the vicious circle of the decay of the resources. It was the 
material brought down by the run-off caused by the rains from the hillsides that began to 
cover the buildings in the town as they were abandoned and fell into ruin. Butzer's figures 
suggest that until about 750AD floods were high in Egypt, then poorer with very low 
levels from the mid-tenth to late eleventh centuries, the period when the kingdom, after 
the invasion of the queen of the Bani al-Hamwiyya, had decayed almost to the point 
when the Zagwé dynasty could take over (
Ch. 4: 8.3
). The low-water levels after 730, in 
part following the spring rains in the Aksumite region, were already averaging below 
normal. It may be going too far to say that insufficient `little' rains (the March to May 

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rains) combined with erosion caused by the action of strong June-September rains on the 
denuded land both to shorten the growing season and remove the topsoil. Nevertheless, 
climatic factors may have had their part to play in the abandonment of Aksum.  
3. External and Internal Political Troubles 
 
There are several hints that things began to go wrong in the Aksumite state in the later 
sixth and the early seventh century. Kaleb seems to have lost both prestige and an 
expensive war during his contretemps with Abreha, though after his death some sort of 
peace was patched up. The invasion may have been too costly a gesture for Aksum at the 
time, and the outlay in men and money must have had a deleterious effect on Aksumite 
power at home. Possibly the great plague of the 540s (Procopius; ed. Dewing 1914: 
451ff), said to have emerged from Pelusium in Egypt, also had some effect on Aksum, as 
it did on the Roman world from the Mesopotamian provinces to Gaul, and across to 
Persia. The general political and commercial climate after first the Yemen and then 
Jerusalem and Alexandria fell to the Persians must have much damaged Ethiopia's trade 
in the Red Sea, and accordingly its prosperity.  
To an unknown extent, troubles at the centre must have generated the hope in the 
outlying parts of the kingdom that it was time to essay another trial of strength with the 
Aksumite rulers, and revolts may have occurred which further weakened the kingdom by 
cutting off certain internal resources and routes (see below). For example, the Beja tribes, 
some of which had been crushed by Ezana long ago, later became independent of the 
najashis (see al- Ya`qubi's comments; Vantini 1975: 71-3) and may have caused trouble 
to their theoretical overlords for some time before. The Agaw who later came to power 
with the Zagwé dynasty may also have been involved in the unrest.  
Anfray, working at Adulis, found a thick layer of ashes over some structures, and 
deduced that the town's end had been brutal (1974: 753). Some historians have thought 
that the town was destroyed by a Muslim expedition in 640AD, but the Arab records 
regard this expedition as a disaster; and it seems unlikely that it was even aimed at the 
Ethiopian kingdom itself, but rather against Red Sea pirates (Munro-Hay 1982i). 
Increasing Ethiopian inability to keep the sea- lanes free may, however, have encouraged 
the Arabs to occupy the Dahlak Islands later on, probably in 702AD (Hasan 1967: 30). A 
certain Yazid b. al-Muhallab was exiled there by the khalifa `Umar in 718/9AD. In spite 
of this, later Arab historians mention Dahlak as part of the dominions of the najashis.  
4. The najashi Ashama ibn Abjar 
 
For any ideas about the political situation in Ethiopia at the end of the Aksumite period, 
we rely on very tenuous information. One of the chief sources fo r the history of Ethiopia 
between 615-6 and 630AD are the recorded traditions about the life of Muhammad and 

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