December 6, 2018

External and Internal Troubles

By Stuart Munro-Hay

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 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 center 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 640 AD, 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.