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An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity
November 23, 2018

Abreha and Atsbeha

By Stuart Munro-Hay

According to the Ethiopian traditional accounts of the conversion, Frumentius was captured during the reign of Ella Alada (Amida?), who was succeeded by two brothers, Abreha and Atsbeha, who were the first Christian kings. It has been suggested (Hahn 1983) that these names were constituent parts of the titulary of Ezana and his brother Sazana, but, as mentioned above (Ch. 7: 3) there is no real proof for this joint reign. They could alternatively have been two successive `Ella’-names adopted by Ezana. It may also be that, due to a confusion of legends, the conversion has become muddled with the other great Aksumite religious event, king Kaleb’s invasion of Yemen to end the persecution of Christians there. As Kaleb’s throne name was Ella Atsbeha, and the name of the rebellious general in Yemen was Abreha, this theory could easily provide the explanation for the Ethiopian legend (Ullendorff 1949).

The twin brother-kings Abreha and Atsbeha.

Abreha built the great cathedral at San`a, and tried to turn it into a major pilgrimage center, and so both he and Kaleb gained reputations as powerful champions of Christianity. Abreha is said to have written to the najashi saying `I have built a church for you, O King, such as has not been built for any king before you. I shall not rest until I have diverted the Arab’s pilgrimage to it’ (Guillaume 1955: 21). Some more ideas on the identity of Ezana and the date of his conversion have recently been aired. One theory (de Blois 1988) concluded that the Aksumite ruler Ezana of Constantius II’s time was a different person from king Ezana, son of Ella Amida, known from his inscriptions.

Abraha Atsbeha Church

This latter would have been an uncle and direct predecessor of Kaleb, the brother of Kaleb’s father Tazena, and the Andug of the Syriac sources; his reign would have concluded between 518 and 523. He would have been the first Ethiopian royal convert to Christianity, the earlier Ezana of the fourth century has retained his pagan beliefs; in spite of the presence of Frumentius, later consecrated bishop of Aksum, and in spite of Constantius II’s communication with him on ecclesiastical affairs. This view of the position of Ezana, multiplied into two kings, once again takes little account of the concrete evidence from the coinage. The consistency of the gold content in all three gold issues bearing the names of Ezanas/Ezana, the heavier weight of Ezanas’ pagan and Christian issues, and the fact that the Ezana issue reduces its weight to follow the contemporary Roman weight reduction, together with stylistic points, conclusively place Ezana in the fourth century, and indicate that the conversion took place at the Ethiopian traditions relate. The difference between the coins of Ezana Bisi Halen and Kaleb in terms of style, weight, gold content, and paleography is radical, and the two cannot possibly have been successive rulers. Schneider (1988) also dismisses this new theory for other reasons.

Abraha Atsbeha Church interior

Laszlo Török (1988) accepts that the king Ezana who was a contemporary of Emperor Constantius II eventually converted to Christianity. But he holds that this could only have happened after 361 since he believes that the text of Constantius II’s letter `is unambiguous as to the paganism of the tyrants Aizanas and Sazanas’. He goes on to say that `everything thus points to the probability that Ezana’s conversion, and consequently, the campaign against the Noba and Meroe, cannot be dated earlier than the decade after 361, perhaps closer to 370 than 360′. Török also believes that the inscription published by Anfray, Caquot, and Nautin (1970) does not belong to Ezana but to a brother and successor of his whose name he reads AG..AS.

Abraha Atsbeha Church

The first of these ideas is evidently based on a subjective reading of the letter of Constantius II. It can as well be asserted that the emperor did not specifically address the Aksumite rulers as Christians since he knew perfectly well that they were Christians, and had been for some time. He simply began to discuss an ecclesiastical point important to him with people he regarded as fellow Christians, and nowhere is there any remark which seems `unambiguously’ to indicate their paganism.

abreha-wa-atsbeha-church interior painting

The evidence for the postulated ruler AG..AS remains equally unconvincing. It seems far more probable that this king AG..AS never existed. There are no coins bearing his name, and the inscription almost certainly belongs to Ezana (exceptionally spelled AZANAS) as Anfray, Caquot, and Nautin believed. Most importantly, it bears Ezana’s well-known coinage and inscriptional title Bisi-Alene as well as his patronymic Elle Amida; the Greek spelling of the Bisi-title is in this case also exceptional, being rendered as either Bisi Alene or Bisi Alen on the coins. The inscription appears to be a version in Greek, with slight variations, of the `monotheistic’ vocalized Ge`ez inscription DAE 11 (Ch. 11: 5) of Ezana Ella Amida Bisi Halen. It is notable that in the case of the pagan inscriptions DAE 4, 6 and 7 of Aeizanas, and their parallels on the Geza `Agmai inscription, there are also small variations between the different versions. The most interesting here is that whereas the former version writes Saiazana and Adefan in Greek for the king’s brothers’ names, the latter writes Sazanan and Adiphan, showing a similar variation in the spelling of proper names; we now have four different spellings of Ezana’s name in Greek; (Ezana(s), Aeizanas, Aizanas, Azanas). In sum, neither of these two latest ideas about the chronology of Ezana and the Ethiopian conversion, seem strong enough to alter the view generally accepted.

  • Abraha Atsbeha Church 2
  • Illuminated Gospel, Amhara peoples, Ethiopia, late 14th–early 15th century, parchment (vellum), wood (acacia), tempera and ink, 41.9 x 28.6 x 10.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
  • abreha-wa-atsbeha-church God
  • Abraha Atsbeha Church in the hill
  • Christ (detail), Illuminated Gospel, Amhara peoples, Ethiopia, late 14th–early 15th century, parchment (vellum), wood (acacia), tempera and ink, 41.9 x 28.6 x 10.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
  • Abraha We Atsbaha interior 1
  • abreha-wa-atsbeha-church interior
  • Abraha Atsbeha Church
  • abreha-wa-atsbeha-church03
  • Abraha Atsbeha Church worshiper
  • abreha-wa-atsbeha-church01
  • Abraha Atsbeha Church interior
  • Abraha Atsbeha Church Adam and Eve
  • abreha-and-atsbeha-twin brothers

Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity

1. Introduction

2. Legend, Literature, and Archaeological Discovery

  • 2-1. The Legends of Aksum
    2-2. Aksum in Ancient Sources
    2-3. The Rediscovery of Aksum in Modern Times

3. The City and the State

  • 3-1. The Landscape
    3-2. Origins and Expansion of the Kingdom
    3-3. The Development of Aksum; an Interpretation
    3-4. Cities, Towns, and Villages
    3-5. The Inhabitants
    3-6. Foreign Relations

4. Aksumite History

  • 4-1  The Pre-Aksumite Period
    4-2  Early Aksum until the Reign of Gadarat
    4-3  Gadarat to Endubis
    4-4  Endubis to Ezana
    4-5  Ezana after his Conversion, to Kaleb
    4-6. Kaleb to the End of the Coinage
    4-7. The Post-Aksumite Period

5. The Capital City

  • 5-1. The Site
    5-2. The Town Plan
    5-3. Portuguese Records of Aksum
    5-4. Aksumite Domestic Architecture
    5-5. The Funerary Architecture
    5-6. The Stelae

6. The Civil Administration

  • 6-1. The Rulers
    6-2. Officials of the Government

7. The Monarchy

  • 7-1. The King and the State
    7-2. The Regalia
    7-3. Dual Kingship
    7-4. Succession
    7-5. The Royal Titles
    7-6. The Coronation

8. The Economy

  • 8-1. Population
    8-2. Agriculture, Husbandry, and Animal Resources
    8-3. Metal Resources
    8-4. Trade, Imports and Exports
    8-5. Local Industries
    8-6. Food

9. The Coinage

  • 9-1. The Origins
    9-2. Introduction and Spread of the Coinage
    9-3. Internal Aspects of the Coinage
    9-4. The Mottoes
    9-5. The End of the Coinage
    9-6. Modern Study of the Coinage

10. Religion

  • 10-1. The Pre-Christian Period
    10-2. The Conversion to Christianity
    10-3. Abreha and Atsbeha
    10-4. Ecclesiastical Development
    10-5. Churches

11. Warfare

  • 11-1. The Inscriptional Record
    11-2. The Military Structure
    11-3. Weapons
    11-4. The Fleet
    11-5. The Aksumite inscriptions

12. Material Culture; the Archaeological Record

  • 12-1. Pottery
    12-2. Glassware
    12-3. Stone Bowls
    12-4. Metalwork
    12-5. Other Materials

13. Language, Literature, and the Arts

  • 13-1. Language
    13-2. Literature and Literacy
    13-3. The Arts
    13-4. Music and Liturgical Chant

14. Society and Death

  • 14-1. Social Classes
    14-2. Funerary Practice

15. The Decline of Aksum

  • 15-1. The Failure of Resources
    15-2. The Climate
    15-3. External and Internal Political Troubles
    15-4. The Najashi Ashama ibn Abjar
    15-5. The NatsaniDaniell

16.The British Institute in Eastern Africa’s Excavations at Aksum

The Conversion to Christianity Ecclesiastical Development

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