by E.A. Wallis Budge, [1932] King Solomon sent to his son the commander of his army SOLOMON the King sent the commander of his army, on whose hand he was wont to lean, with gifts and meat and drink to entertain that traveler. And the commander set out with a great number of wagons, and he came to BAYNA […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay The general style of the élite domestic buildings of Aksum has been described above (Ch. 5: 2), and reconstructions have been attempted (in Littmann 1913; and, more modestly, by Buxton and Matthews 1974). The pavilions in their domestic enclosures are the most typical examples of the unique Aksumite form of construction and […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay 1. The Site Aksum was built on gently sloping land which rose, north and east of the city, to two flat-topped hills, now called Beta Giyorgis and Mai Qoho respectively. The hills around the town are formed from a granitic rock, nepheline syenite (Littmann 1913: II, 6; Butzer 1981). Between Beta Giyorgis […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay Aksum had diplomatic and commercial relations with many foreign countries, increasing as the kingdom’s own importance developed. There are several accounts of ambassadors and messengers sent to or from distant or neighboring powers, and even, occasionally, some clues as to the purpose of their missions. In addition, a number of archaeological or chance […]
by E.A. Wallis Budge, [1932] They made him King “And when these had become silent there rose up the priest who gave us the Commandments, with the fear of God, and he shed tears whilst our bodies quaked and our tears flowed down. God is indeed, without falsehood, in our hearts, and He dwelleth in […]
by E.A. Wallis Budge, [1932] The Unanimous Declaration of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Orthodox Fathers They answered and said unto him, “Yea, verily the Tabernacle of the Covenant was the first thing to be created by Him, and there is no lie in thy word; it is true and correct, and righteous, and unalterable. […]
BY STUART MUNRO-HAY The events of the time of Kaleb swell the sources available for Aksumite history to a disproportionate degree, and have resulted in the assumption that Kaleb was Aksum’s greatest and most powerful ruler. However, the majority of the sources merely consist of more or less repetitious accounts by ecclesiastical historians full of praise for Kaleb’s incursion into […]
The Rich Arabian Literature Gibbon speaks of the times of ignorance that preceded Mohammed. This is true if we speak of Semitic Arabia, but later research has revealed a different source for the literature of the land. Britannica says of Arabia (Vol. 2, p. 230), “Arabia if poor in monuments is superabundantly rich in manuscripts. There are […]
1. The Pre-Aksumite Period This period is not of major concern to us here, and in any case we have very little information about it; but some consideration should be given to the situation in Ethiopia before the rise of Aksum, since the source of at least some of the characteristics of the later Aksumite […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay 1. The Rulers The government of Aksum, as far as can be discerned, was administered through a pyramid of authority expanding as it passed from the king to the lower echelons. There is some slight evidence that at times there may have been two kings reigning contemporaneously (Ch. 7: 3), but in such […]
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