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The Ancient and Medieval African Kingdoms: A Complete Overview

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(Image credit: Sailko; Wikimedia Commons; (CC BY 3.0 DEED))

Many modern histories tend to focus on ancient kingdoms and empires around the Mediterranean and in the Fertile Crescent. But Western versions of history tend to overlook the many significant kingdoms in Africa. Here are seven of the most notable African kingdoms and empires, who had complex cities, trade routes, riches and cultures.
Related: 30 incredible treasures discovered in King Tut's tomb

1. The Mali Empire

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7 extraordinary African kingdoms from ancient times to centuries ago

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There's much more to ancient Africa than Egypt.

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The Gold Road | Center for African Studies

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The Ancient Manuscripts of Timbuktu In Mali - Bino and Fino Full Episode 4 - Kids Learning Video

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A world of knowledge was nearly lost forever amid the al-Qaida occupation in Timbuktu five years ago. Many were burnt, but thousands of ancient manuscripts were smuggled away and saved, and now are being digitized. And yet time and money to finish the project is running out as other threats loom. Special correspondent Monica Villamizar reports from Mali.

Amna Nawaz:
Now,to the African nation of Mali and the ongoing efforts to preserve priceless records of the past from the library of the fabled city of Timbuktu.

The city was overrun in 2012 by al-Qaida, who destroyed manuscripts dating back centuries. The militants are now gone, but the turmoil remains. And time may be running out to save these irreplaceable documents.

From Timbuktu, special correspondent Monica Villamizar reports.

Monica Villamizar:
These people are saving a world of knowledge, a world nearly lost forever.

They are digitizing tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts rescued from near destruction during the al-Qaida occupation of Timbuktu five years ago. Al-Qaida destroyed monuments and libraries that were seven centuries old.

The militants implemented Sharia law, and banned anything considered sinful, like the manuscripts, which were seen as pagan writings. Many were burnt.

Despite the deadly conflict, Abdel Kader Haidara managed to save around 200,000 books.

Monica Villamizar:
Haidara, whose family also owns an important collection of manuscripts, has digitized 20 percent of nearly 200,000 documents.

The originals are kept in this room, classified by family and year. They deal with myriad subjects, astronomy and physics, politics and magic.

These gentlemen you see are reading page by page of each book, and they are making notes, like a summary of what it says.

But time is running out. The books survived for centuries thanks to the dry desert of Timbuktu, but now live in the heavy, tropical climate of Bamako, Mali's capital.

Timbuktu and Northern Mali, still plagued by conflict, remains a no-go area.

Monica Villamizar:
These books are relics. Some date back to the 13th century, and have survived for more than 700 years.

This one was a little bit damaged by water.

The fabled city of Timbuktu is an oasis of culture in the middle of the desert. For centuries, it served as the main transit point of the trans-Saharan caravans. Here, it can feel like time has stopped.

The noble houses of Timbuktu have been holding book readings for decades, a sort of ancient version of book clubs. The men place books on their forehead, symbolizing the transfer of knowledge.

And an imam or other spiritual authority explains the meaning of the mostly-religious texts.

Ben Essayouti, Timbuktu's minister of culture, says the books should return to their city of origin.

Monica Villamizar:
But Timbuktu is not safe to return. The only way to get there is to fly with the United Nations. Roads are too dangerous.

This city at night looks like any normal, city, but if you look right behind me, there is a heavy security presence. These soldiers are Blue Helmets, the U.N. peacekeeping forces, and they have been attacked many times before.

The soldiers are not the only targets. Riccardo Maia, the head of the U.N. mission in Timbuktu, had his office attacked by gunmen eight months ago.

A bullet went through here?

Monica Villamizar:
Moustapha Cisee, an archivist and family friend, has started to classify the manuscripts. The writings contain personal records of Toure's family, their finances, illness, even love affairs, so his job is to keep the secret's safe while making the other portions available to the public.

Timbuktu, a city on the edge of the Sahara, is harder to access today than it was centuries ago. And much of its knowledge remains a secret, buried under the sand.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Monica Villamizar in Timbuktu, Mali.

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Preserving the priceless manuscripts of Timbuktu

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A world of knowledge was nearly lost forever amid the al-Qaida occupation in Timbuktu five years ago. Many were burnt, but thousands of ancient manuscripts were smuggled away and saved, and now are being digitized. And yet time and money to finish the project is running out as other threats loom.

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The hidden treasures of Timbuktu - Elizabeth Cox

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One of the four greatest powers in the world

Aksum was the name of a city and a kingdom which is essentially modern-day northern Ethiopia (Tigray province) and Eritrea. Research shows that Aksum was a major naval and trading power from the 1st to the 7th centuries C.E. As a civilization it had a profound impact upon the people of Egypt, southern Arabia, Europe, and Asia, all of whom were visitors to its shores, and in some cases were residents.

Aksum developed a civilization and empire whose influence, at its height in the 4th and 5th centuries C.E., extended throughout the regions lying south of the Roman Empire, from the fringes of the Sahara in the west, across the Red Sea to the inner Arabian desert in the east. The Aksumites developed Africa's only indigenous written script, Ge'ez. They traded with Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean, and Arabia.

Despite its power and reputation-it was described by a Persian writer as one of the four greatest powers in the world at the time-very little is known about Aksum. Written scripts existed, but no histories or descriptions have been found to make this African civilization come alive.

A counterpoint to the Greek and Roman worlds

Aksum provides a counterpoint to the Greek and Roman worlds, and is an interesting example of a sub-Saharan civilization flourishing towards the end of the period of the great Mediterranean empires. It provides a link between the trading systems of the Mediterranean and the Asiatic world, and shows the extent of international commerce at that time. It holds the fascination of being a "lost" civilization, yet one that was African, Christian, with its own script, coinage, and international reputation. It was arguably as advanced as the Western European societies of the time.

The society was hierarchical with a king at the top, then nobles, and the general population below. This hierarchy can be discerned by the buildings that have been found, and the wealth of the goods found in them. Although Aksum had writing, very little has been found out about society from inscriptions. It can be assumed that priests were important, and probably traders, too, because of the money they would have made. Most of the poor were probably craftsmen or farmers. In some descriptions, the ruler is described as "King of Kings" which might suggest that there were other, junior kings in outlying parts of the empire which the Aksumites gradually took over.There is evidence of at least 10-12 small towns in the kingdom, which suggests it was an urban society, but for descriptions of these there is only archaeological evidence. Little or nothing is known about such things as the role of women and family life.

Christianity

Aksum embraced the Orthodox tradition of Christianity in the 4th century (c. 340-356 C.E.) under the rule of King Ezana. The king had been converted by Frumentius, a former Syrian captive who was made Bishop of Aksum. On his return, Frumentius had promptly baptized King Ezana, who then declared Aksum a Christian state, followed by the king's active converting of the Aksumites. By the 6th century, King Kaleb was recognized as a Christian by the emperor Justin I of Byzantium (ruled 518-527) when he sought Kaleb's support in avenging atrocities suffered by fellow Christians in South Arabia. This invasion saw the inclusion of the region into the Aksumite kingdom for the next seven decades.

Judaism

Although Christianity had a profound effect upon Aksum, Judaism also had a substantial impact on the kingdom. A group of people from the region called the Beta Israel have been described as "Black Jews." Although their scriptures and prayers are in Ge'ez, rather than in Hebrew, they adhere to religious beliefs and practices set out in the Pentateuch (Torah), the religious texts of the Jewish religion. Although often regarded by scholars/academics as not technically '"Jewish" but instead a pre-Christian, Semitic people, their religion shares a common ancestry with modern Judaism. Between 1985 and 1991 almost the whole Beta Israel population of Ethiopia was moved to Israel.

Solomon and Sheba

The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon are important figures in Ethiopian heritage. Traditional accounts describe their meeting when Sheba, Queen of Aksum, went to Jerusalem, and their son Menelik I formed the Solomonic dynasty from which the rulers of Ethiopia (up to the 1970s) are said to be descended. It has also been claimed that Aksum is the home of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, in which lies the "Tablets of Law" upon which the Ten Commandments are inscribed. Menelik is believed to have taken it on a visit to Jerusalem to see his father. It is supposed to reside still in the Church of St Mary in Aksum, though no-one is allowed to set eyes on it. Replicas of the Ark, called Tabots, are housed in all of Ethiopia's churches, and are carried in procession on special days.

© Trustees of the British Museum

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Aksum was the name of a city and a kingdom which is essentially modern-day northern Ethiopia (Tigray province) and Eritrea. Research shows that Aksum was a major naval and trading power from the 1st to the 7th centuries C.E.

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1. The Kingdom of Kush

Though often overshadowed by its Egyptian neighbors to the north, the Kingdom of Kush stood as a regional power in Africa for over a thousand years. This ancient Nubian empire reached its peak in the second millennium B.C. when it ruled over a vast swath of territory along the Nile River in what is now Sudan. Almost all that is known about Kush comes from Egyptian sources, which indicate that it was an economic center that operated a lucrative market in ivory, incense, iron and especially gold.

The kingdom was both a trading partner and a military rival of Egypt-it even ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty-and it adopted many of its neighbor's customs. The Kushites worshipped some of the Egyptian gods, mummified their dead and built their own types of pyramids. The area surrounding the ancient Kushite capital of Meroe is now home to the ruins of over 200 pyramids-more than in all of Egypt.

2. The Land of Punt

Few African civilizations are as mysterious as Punt. Historical accounts of the kingdom date to around 2500 B.C., when it appears in Egyptian records as a "Land of the Gods" rich in ebony, gold, myrrh and exotic animals such as apes and leopards. The Egyptians are known to have sent huge caravans and flotillas on trade missions to Punt-most notably during the 15th century B.C. reign of Queen Hatshepsut-yet they never identified where it was located. The site of the fabled kingdom is now a hotly debated topic among scholars. The Arabian Peninsula and the Levant have been proposed as potential candidates, but most believe it existed somewhere on the Red Sea coast of East Africa.

In 2010, a team of researchers tried to zero in on Punt by analyzing a mummified baboon that its rulers once gifted to the Egyptian pharaohs. While their results showed that the remains most closely matched animals found in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, the precise location of the Land of Punt has still yet to be confirmed.

3. Carthage

Best known as ancient Rome's rival in the Punic Wars, Carthage was a North African commercial hub that flourished for over 500 years. The city-state began its life in the 8th or 9th century B.C. as a Phoenician settlement in what is now Tunisia, but it later grew into a sprawling seafaring empire that dominated trade in textiles, gold, silver and copper.

At its peak, Carthage's capital city boasted nearly half a million inhabitants and included a protected harbor outfitted with docking bays for 220 ships. Carthage's influence eventually extended from North Africa to Spain and parts of the Mediterranean, but its thirst for expansion led to increased friction with the burgeoning Roman Republic.

Beginning in 264 B.C., the ancient superpowers clashed in the three bloody Punic Wars, the last of which ended in 146 B.C. with the near-total destruction of Carthage. Today, almost all that remains of the once-mighty empire is a series of ruins in the city of Tunis.

4. The Kingdom of Aksum

During the same period that the Roman Empire rose and fell, the influential Kingdom of Aksum held sway over parts of what are now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. Surprisingly little is known about Aksum's origins, but by the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. it was a trading juggernaut whose gold and ivory made it a vital link between ancient Europe and the Far East.

The Kingdom of Aksum had a written script known as Ge'ez-one of the first to emerge in Africa-and it developed a distinctive architectural style that involved the building of massive stone obelisks, some of which stood over 100 feet tall.

In the fourth century, Aksum became one of the first empires in the world to adopt Christianity, which led to a political and military alliance with the Byzantines. The empire later went into decline sometime around the 7th or 8th century, but its religious legacy still exists today in the form of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

5. The Mali Empire

The founding of the Mali Empire dates to the 1200s when a ruler named Sundiata Keita-sometimes called the "Lion King"-led a revolt against a Sosso king and united his subjects into a new state. Under Keita and his successors, the empire tightened its grip over a large portion of West Africa and grew rich in trade. Its most important cities were Djenné and Timbuktu, both of which were renowned for their elaborate adobe mosques and Islamic schools. One such institution, Timbuktu's Sankore University, included a library with an estimated 700,000 manuscripts.

The Mali Empire eventually disintegrated in the 16th century, but at its peak, it was one of the jewels of the African continent and was known the world over for its wealth and luxury.

One legendary tale about the kingdom's riches concerns the ruler Mansa Musa, who made a stopover in Egypt during a 14th-century pilgrimage to Mecca. According to contemporary sources, Musa dished out so much gold during the visit that he caused its value to plummet in Egyptian markets for several years.

6. The Songhai Empire

For sheer size, few states in African history can compare to the Songhai Empire. Formed in the 15th century from some of the former regions of the Mali Empire, this West African kingdom was larger than Western Europe and comprised parts of a dozen modern-day nations. The empire enjoyed a period of prosperity thanks to vigorous trade policies and a sophisticated bureaucratic system that separated its vast holdings into different provinces, each ruled by its own governor.

The Songhai Empire reached its zenith in the early 16th century under the rule of the devout King Muhammad I Askia, who conquered new lands, forged an alliance with Egypt's Muslim Caliph and established hundreds of Islamic schools in Timbuktu. While the Songhai Empire was once among the most powerful states in the world, it later crumbled in the late 1500s after a period of civil war and internal strife left it open to an invasion by the Sultan of Morocco.

7. The Great Zimbabwe

One of the most impressive monuments in sub-Saharan Africa is the Great Zimbabwe, an imposing collection of stacked boulders, stone towers and defensive walls assembled from cut granite blocks. The rock citadel has long been the subject of myths and legends-it was once thought to be the residence of the Biblical Queen of Sheba-but historians now know it as the capital city of an indigenous empire that thrived in the region between the 13th and 15th centuries.

This kingdom ruled over a large chunk of modern-day Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It was particularly rich in cattle and precious metals and stood astride a trade route that connected the region's gold fields with ports on the Indian Ocean coast. Though little is known about its history, the remains of artifacts such as Chinese pottery, Arabian glass and European textiles indicate that it was once a well-connected mercantile center.

The fortress city at Great Zimbabwe was mysteriously abandoned sometime in the 15th century after the kingdom went into decline, but in its heyday, it was home to an estimated 20,000 people.

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From ancient Sudan to medieval Zimbabwe, get the facts on seven African kingdoms that made their mark on history.

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Ancient Africa for Kids - Ancient Africa for Kids

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The Mali Empire controlled all of the salt trade along the trade routes and was the second largest and most successful empire between 1230 and 1600.
The Niger River
The Niger River played an important part in Mali's success, providing a method of transporting heavy goods and accessing more trade. The river also made the soil more fertile, which led to better crops and better feed to raise livestock.

Some of the most commonly grown crops included beans, cotton, gourds, millet, papaya, peanuts, rice and sorghum. Livestock included cattle, goats, poultry and sheep.
Economy
All goods had to be heavily taxed and all gold nuggets were declared property of the king, leaving only gold dust to be traded. The Empire also offered protection against conflict that started along the trade routes. As the Empire expanded, salt, cotton cloth, gold and later cowrie shells were used as currency.
Mansa Musa
Known as the King of Kings, Mansa Musa was one of the most successful and wealthy leaders of the Kingdom of Mali. He ruled in the early 1300's until his death in 1337. Many of the palaces and Mosques built during his reign can still be seen today. He had an estimated worth of 400 billion US dollars and even though he lived so long ago, he is still said to be the wealthiest man of all time.
The Rule of Mansa Musa
Musa was regarded as an intelligent and generous leader. He was able to exploit Mali's gold and salt production, making a fortune and allowing his empire to thrive. When the Mali Empire grew too large for his control, he divided the Empire into provinces and elected governors to manage them. He allowed his people to practice any religion they chose to follow. Despite being a devout Muslim himself, he did not force his Islamic faith on them.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
Performing a pilgrimage to Mecca (referred to as "Hajj") is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. It is believed that on his journey to Mecca, Musa took 100 camel loads of gold, 500 enslaved people, each carrying a gold staff and his senior wife with her 500 attendants. It Is said that while passing through the Egyptian city of Cairo, he gave away so much of his gold that the price of gold in Egypt fell and the economy suffered for two decades.

It was also believed that Musa had given away so much gold that by the time he had to return home he had run out and needed to borrow money from the surrounding provinces and empires.
The Spread of Islam and the great Mosques
The great mosques were constructed as places of worship and places of learning under the reign of Musa. The three great mosques, Djingareyber, Sankore, and Sidi Yahia, which were designed by the architect Abu Ishãq al-Sãhiland were built in the 14thcentury. The materials used for constructing the mosques included burnt bricks and wooden sticks.

These materials are different to modern building materials, thus the mosques needed restoration and rebuilding over the decades.
Education and Timbuktu
From the 1300's to the 1600's, Timbuktu was considered the world's centre of Islam and Education.

Timbuktu had a population of 100 000, a quarter of which were scholars, making Timbuktu a centre of learning.

The great mosque of Sankore transformed into the University of Sankore. The subjects covered included Islamic theology, mathematics, law, geography, astronomy, medicine, sciences and history.

Did you know that after salt, books were the second biggest import to Timbuktu!

Many experts and organizations have invested in preserving the surviving manuscripts that represent the history of African scholars and are critical to the country's history.

Currently, most of the manuscripts are preserved in the Ahmed Baba Institute, named after a prestigious 15th century scholar.

In 2012 UNESCO declared heritage sites in Timbuktu, which included the great Mosques and madrassahs that are under potential threat of being destroyed by militant rebels in the region.

Deforestation also poses a threat; drying out the mud that covers the buildings and causing cracking due to a lack of moisture. This weakened the structures and caused sections to collapse.

Conflict in the area between 2012 and 2013 resulted in the Ahmed Abba Institute being set alight and over 4000 texts being destroyed.
Trade and Timbaktu: Leo Afrikanus
Leo Afrikanus played an important role in documenting the history of North Africa, specifically Timbuktu. Afrikanus travelled extensively across the region and documented what he saw in his book, 'Decryptions of Africa'.

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Summary: The Kingdom of Mali and the City of Timbuktu in the 14th Century

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The Mali Empire controlled all of the salt trade along the trade routes and was the second largest and most successful empire between 1230 and 1600. The Niger River The Niger River played an important part in Mali's success, providing a method of transporting heavy goods and accessing more trade.

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The Empire of Mali was one of the largest empires in West African History, and at its height, it spanned from the Atlantic Coast to central parts of the Sahara desert [i]. The Empire was founded in 1235 CE by the legendary King Sundiata [ii] and lasted until the early 1600s CE [iii]. The Empire's most famous ruler was named Mansa Musa, and chroniclers of the times wrote that when he travelled to Mecca on a pilgrimage he distributed so much gold that he caused great inflation lasting a decade [iv].
History
The development of the empire began in its capital city of Niani, which was also coincidentally the birthplace of the empire's founder and King Sundiata [xi]. Sundiata built a vast empire that stretched from the Atlantic Coast south of the Senegal River to Goa on the east of the Middle Niger bend.
Economy and Society in the Empire of Mali
The Mali Empire consisted of outlying areas and small kingdoms. All these Kingdoms pledged allegiance to Mali by offering annual tributes in the form of rice, millet, lances and arrows [xii]. Mali prospered from taxes collected from its citizens, and all goods brought in and out of the Empire were heavily taxed while all gold nuggets belonged to the King. However, gold dust could be traded and at certain times gold dust was used as currency together with salt and cotton cloth [xiii]. Cowrie shells from the Indian Ocean were later used as currency in the internal trade of Western Sahara [xiv].

Mali, and especially the city of Timbuktu, was famous a centre of learning and spectacular architecture [xv] such as the Sankara Madrassa - a great centre of learning - and the University of Sankore which continued to produce a great many astronomers, scholars and engineers long after the end of the Empire of Mali. French colonial occupation is considered to have contributed to the University's decline in its quality of education [xvi].

While Mali was a monarchy ruled by the Mansa or Master, much of the state power was in the hands of court officials [xvii]. This meant that the Empire could survive several periods of instability and a series of bad rulers. The Empire of Mali was also a multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic empire, and Islam was the dominant religion [xviii].
Leadership
Mali's rulers adopted the title of 'Mansa' [xix]. Mali's founder, Sundiata, firmly established himself as a strong leader in both the religious and secular sense [xx], claiming that he had a direct link to spirits of the land, thus making him the guardian of the ancestors. His empire extended from the fringes of the forest in the southwest through the grassland country of the Malinké to the Sahel and Southern Sahara ports of the Walatta and Tandmekka [xxi], and Arabic scholars estimate that Sundiata ruled for about 25 years and died in 1255 [xxii].

The leadership trouble in the Malian Empire would continue after the ascension of Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr was deposed in a coup by a man named Sakura, who was either a slave [xxx] or a military commander [xxxi]. The low stature of Sakura perhaps implies that the royal family had lost much of its popularity amongst the common people [xxxii]. Sakura's reign, however, would also be a troubled one; after he had converted to Islam, Sakura undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca but was killed by the Danakil people [xxxiii] during his return journey while in the city of Tadjoura [xxxiv]. It is disputed why Sakura was in Tadjoura, as it was not a natural route to take when returning from Mecca to Mali, and also for what reasons he was killed [xxxv]. Some suggest that he was killed because the Danakil wanted to steal his gold [xxxvi].
The famous Mansa Musa
It was in this context that the Empire of Mali's most famous ruler, Mansa Musa, ascended to the throne. It is debated by historians whether Mansa Musa was the grandson of one of Sundiata's brothers, thus making him Sundiata's grand-nephew, or if he was the grandson of Abu Bakr [xliii]. What is known is that Mansa Musa converted to Islam and underwent a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, accompanied by 60 000 individuals and large quantities of gold [xliv]. His generosity was supposedly so great that by the time he left Mecca he had used every piece of gold he had taken with him, and had to borrow money for the return trip [xlv].
The decline of the Mali Empire
Mansa Musa II died in 1387 and was succeeded by his brother Mansa Magha II, who would also be the puppet of powerful court officials [lviii]. After a year Mansa Musa II was killed, thus ending the line of kings which descended from Mansa Musa I [lix]. This triggered the decline of the Empire of Mali and in 1433 the city was conquered by Tuareg nomads [lx]. For the next 100 years the Empire would slowly give way to the Songhay conquerors from the east, and by the 1500s it had been reduced to only its Malinké core lands [lxi]. During the 17th century Mali had broken into a number of minor independent chiefdoms and thus the Mali Empire was no longer the superpower it had been in its prime [lxii].
Endnotes
[i] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 39. ↵

[ii] Innes, Gordon. 1974. Sunjata: Three Mandinke Versions. School of Oriental and African Studies University of London. Male Street, London. Page 1. ↵

[iii] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 59. ↵

[v] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 39. ↵

[vi] Levtzion, N. 1963. "The Thirteenth- and Fourteenth- Century Kings of Mali" in Journalof African History, IV, 3 (I963), pp. 34I-353. Page 341. ↵

[vii] C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 42. ↵

[viii] Ibid. Page 17. ↵

[ix] Gordon. 1974. Sunjata: Three Mandinke Versions. School of Oriental and African Studies University of London. Male Street, London. Page 1. ↵

[x] Innes, Gordon. 1974. Sunjata: Three Mandinke Versions. School of Oriental and African Studies University of London. Male Street, London. Page 1. ↵

[xi] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 34. ↵

[xii] Togola, Téréba. 1996. "Iron Age Occupation in the Méma Region, Mali" in The African Archaeological Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Jun., 1996), pp. 91-110. Page 95. ↵

[xiii] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 34. ↵

[xv] Shuriye, Abdi O. and Ibrahim, Dauda Sh. 2013. "Timbuktu Civilization and its Significance in Islamic History" in Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 4 No 11 October 2013. Page 697. ↵

[xvi] Ibid. Page 698. ↵

[xvii] Levtzion, N. 1963. "The Thirteenth- and Fourteenth- Century Kings of Mali" in Journal of African History, IV, 3 (I963), pp. 34I-353. Page 350. ↵

[xviii] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 34. ↵

[ixx] David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 45. ↵

[xxii] Ibid. Page 44. ↵

[xxiii] Ibid. ↵

[xxv] Levtzion, N. 1963. "The Thirteenth- and Fourteenth- Century Kings of Mali" in Journal ↵

[xxvii] Ibid. ↵

[xxviii] Ibid. Page 344. ↵

[xxx] Ibid. Page 345.. ↵

[xxxi] C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 45. ↵

[xxxii] Ibid. ↵

[xxxiii] Beckingham, C.F. 1953. "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies" in African Studies. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 15 / Issue 02 / June 1953, pp 391-392. ↵

[xxxiv] Levtzion, N. 1963. "The Thirteenth- and Fourteenth- Century Kings of Mali" in Journal of African History, IV, 3 (I963), pp. 34I-353. Page 345. ↵

[xxxvi] Ibid. ↵

[xxxvii] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 45. ↵

[xxxviii] Togola, Téréba. 1996. "Iron Age Occupation in the Méma Region, Mali" in The African Archaeological Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Jun., 1996), pp. 91-110. Page 95. ↵

[xxxix] McDowell, Linda and Mackay, Marilyn. 2005. Teacher's Guide for World History Societies of the Past. Portage and Main Press. Winnipeg, Canada. Page 246. ↵

[xli] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 45. ↵

[xlii] Ibid. Page 17. ↵

[xliii] Levtzion, N. 1963. "The Thirteenth- and Fourteenth- Century Kings of Mali" in Journal of African History, IV, 3 (I963), pp. 34I-353. Page 347. ↵

[xliv] C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 49. ↵

[xlvii] Ibid. ↵

[xlviii] Shuriye, Abdi O. and Ibrahim, Dauda Sh. 2013. "Timbuktu Civilization and its Significance in Islamic History" in Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 4 No 11 October 2013. Page 697. ↵

[l] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 45. ↵

[li] Levtzion, N. 1963. "The Thirteenth- and Fourteenth- Century Kings of Mali" in Journal of African History, IV, 3 (I963), pp. 34I-353. Page 350. ↵

[liii] Ibid. Page 351. ↵

[lvii] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 55. ↵

[lviii] Ibid. Page 56. ↵

[lx] Hunwick, John O. 2000. "Timbuktu" in Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume X (2nd ed.), Leiden: Brill, pp. 508-510. Page 508. ↵

[lxi] Conrad, David C. 2009. Great Empires of the Past. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Page 59. ↵

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The Empire of Mali was one of the largest empires in West African History, and at its height, it spanned from the Atlantic Coast to central parts of the Sahara desert [i]. The Empire was founded in 1235 CE by the legendary King Sundiata [ii] and lasted until the early 1600s CE [iii].

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Songhai, African Empire, 15-16th Century | South African History Online

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Overview, West Africa and the rise of the Songhai Empire

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The Songhai Empire was the largest and last of the three major pre-colonial empires to emerge in West Africa. From its capital at Gao on the Niger River, Songhai expanded in all directions until it stretched from the Atlantic Ocean (modern Senegal and Gambia) to … Read MoreSonghai Empire (ca. 1375-…

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Kids learn about the history of the Songhai Empire of Ancient Africa including location, culture, Askia Muhammad government, slaves, the gold trade, interesting facts, and the fall of the Songhai.

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The Songhai Empire (aka Songhay, c. 1460 - c. 1591) covered what is today southern Mauritania and Mali. It replaced the Mali Empire (1240-1645) as the most important state in West Africa. Originating as a smaller kingdom along the eastern bend of the Niger River c. 1000, the Songhai expanded their territory dramatically from the reign of King Sunni Ali (1464-1492).

With its capital at Gao and managing to control trans-Saharan trade through such centres as Timbuktu and Djenne, the Songhai empire prospered throughout the 16th century until, ripped apart by civil wars, it was attacked and absorbed into the Moroccan Empire c. 1591.

Decline of the Mali Empire

The Mali Empire, located along the savannah belt between the Sahara desert to the north and the forests of southern West Africa (often referred to as the Sudan region), had prospered through its control of local and international trade, especially in gold and salt, since the mid-13th century. However, the empire began to collapse in the 1460s following civil wars, the opening up of competing trade routes elsewhere, and attacks from the nomadic Tuareg of the southern Sahara and then the Mossi people, who at that time controlled the lands south of the Niger River. Worse was to come, though, with the rise of the Songhai Empire, an ancient kingdom but now more powerful than ever. The Mali Empire would cling on to the western corner of its once vast territories, that is until the Moroccans arrived in the 17th century.

The Songhai Empire was dominated by & named after the Songhai (aka Songhay or Sonhrai), a group of Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples.

King Sunni Ali

The kingdom of Songhai dates back to at least the 9th century and was contemporary with the Ghana Empire (6-13th century) further to the east. It was dominated by and named after the Songhay (aka Sonhrai), a group of Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples. Although conquered by the Mali Empire, the Songhai people would prove troublesome and powerful because they controlled river transport on the Niger. The Songhai kings made regular raids on Mali urban centres from the early 15th century and ultimately won their independence as the Mali kings lost their grip on several smaller subjugated kingdoms on the periphery of their empire.

Around 1468, King Sunni Ali (aka Sonni Ali Ber) changed the traditional Songhai tactic of small and sporadic raids on its enemies to a more sustained campaign of permanent territorial expansion. With an army equipped with armoured cavalry and the only naval fleet in North Africa, which he deployed on the Niger River, Sunni Ali was able to conquer the rump of the old Mali Empire. As the Timbuktu chronicle, the Tarikh al-Sudan (c. 1656) notes:

[He reigned] for 28 years, waged 32 wars of which he won every one, always the conqueror, never the conquered.

(quoted in de Villiers, 102)

The Songhai king played on his image as a magician of the indigenous animist religion to strike fear into his enemies. He also effectively mixed leniency (conquered warriors were invited to join his own army, for example) with complete ruthlessness (infamously executing many of the particularly resistant Fulbe tribe). Hence, the king earned his epithet, 'Sunni the Merciless'. Even more effective than these strategies was Sunni Ali's battle tactics of attacking the enemy with overwhelming force and with the utmost speed. Conquered territories fell like dominoes and were divided up into provinces and ruled by a governor appointed by the king. Tribute was extracted from local chiefs, hostages taken and marriages of political alliance arranged, but at least Sunni Ali did build many dykes which improved the irrigation and agricultural yield of many areas.

The Songhai & Trade

By 1469 the Songhai had control of the important trade 'port' of Timbuktu on the Niger River. In 1471 the Mossi territories south of the Niger River bend were attacked, and by 1473 the other major trade centre of the region, Djenne, also on the Niger, had been conquered. Unfortunately for Sunni Ali though, all this new territory did not give him access to the goldfields of the southern coast of West Africa that both the Ghana and Mali rulers had grown rich on. This was because a Portuguese fleet, sponsored by the Lisbon merchant Fenão Gomes, had, in 1471, sailed around the Atlantic coast of Africa and established a trading presence near these goldfields (in modern Ghana).

Timbuktu, with a population of around 100,000 in the mid-15th century CE, continued to thrive as a trade 'port'.

The opening up of the sea route to the Mediterranean would also mean the trans-Saharan camel caravans now faced serious competition as the best way to get trade goods to North Africa and Europe. However, the Portuguese were not quite so successful as they had hoped in exploiting Africa's resources. Certainly, the Songhai in any case managed to monopolise the Saharan caravan trade which brought rock salt and luxury goods like fine cloth, glassware, sugar, and horses to the Sudan region in exchange for gold, ivory, spices, kola nuts, hides, and slaves. Timbuktu, with a population of around 100,000 in the mid-15th century, continued to thrive as a trade 'port' and as a centre of learning into the 16th and 17th centuries when the city boasted many mosques and 150-180 Koranic schools.

Trade centres, in particular, became sophisticated urban centres with housing built in stone and many having a large public square for regular markets and at least one mosque. Around this core was a floating suburban population living in mud and reed houses or tents. Rural communities, meanwhile, continued to be wholly dependent on agriculture, but the presence of rural markets indicates there was usually a food surplus. Certainly, famine was a rare event during the first half of the Songhai Empire's reign, and there are no records of any peasant revolts.

Songhai Government

The Songhai government was much more centralised in respect of the more federal arrangements of the earlier Ghana and Mali Empires. The ruler was an absolute monarch but despite having around 700 eunuchs at his court in Gao, the Songhai kings were never quite secure on their thrones. Of the nine rulers in the Songhai Empire's history, six were either deposed in rebellions or died violent deaths, usually at the hands of their brothers and uncles.

Should a king reign long enough to benefit from it, there was an imperial council of the most senior officials which included the finance minister ( kalisa farma), the admiral ( hi koy) of the Songhai fleet who also supervised the regional governors, the head of the army ( balama), and the minister of agriculture ( fari mondzo). There were also ministers responsible for forests, wages, purchases, property, and foreigners. A chancellor-secretary dealt with the official paperwork. At the local level, there were many officials with specific duties such as policing or checking the use of official weights at trading centres, as well as heads of local craft guilds and tribal groups. One official who nobody could escape from, although the rich had to pay him more than the less well off, was the local tax collector, who gathered in goods for the crown to pay the army, court, and provide some provision for the poor.

King Mohammad I

King Mohammad I (r. 1494-1528), a former Songhai army commander who had wrested the throne from Sunni Ali's son, Sonni Baro, began the use of the dynastic title Askiya or Askia (meaning 'ruler' or perhaps even 'usurper ruler'). The new king, forming a fully professional army for the first time, would oversee the greatest territorial extent of the Songhai Empire, earning his place as the Songhai's second greatest leader after Sunni Ali.

The loss of control of a slice of West Africa's gold trade to the Portuguese may have been one of the reasons for King Mohammad's decision to expand the Songhai Empire interests to the southeast. Three major cities of Hausaland, located between the Niger River and Lake Chad, were, according to the historian Leo Africanus (d. c. 1554), attacked: Gobir, Katsina and Zaria. The fourth major city in the region, Kano, was obliged to pay a hefty tribute to the Songhai king.

The capital at Gao in this period boasted an impressive 100,000 inhabitants and the empire stretched almost from the Senegal River in the west to what is today central Mali in the east. In addition, the territory included the lucrative salt mines at Tagahaza in the north. The Songhai Empire completely dominated almost the whole stretch of the Niger River, West Africa's trade superhighway so that the Songhai peoples were now a small minority group in a state that encompassed such diverse groups as the Mande, Fulbe, Mossi, and Tuareg.

The Islamic religion, long-established in other empires in the Sudan region like Ghana and Mali, had a somewhat precarious existence in the Songhai Empire, at least initially. King Sunni Ali observed certain Islamic practices like the Ramadan fast for political expediency only (he also sacrificed animals to trees and supported pagan sorcerers) and was vehemently anti-Muslim in that he persecuted without mercy Muslims who were a political threat (Fage, 424). In contrast, King Mohammad I (as his name would suggest) was a convert and he even made the pilgrimage or hajj to Mecca where he received the honorary title of the Caliph of the Sudan. Mohammad imposed Islamic law on his people, appointed qadis (Islamic magistrates or judges) as heads of justice at Timbuktu, Djenne and other towns, and engaged the services of the North African Mohammad al-Maghili as his government advisor. The works of the latter would become an important part of the Islamic reform movement that swept the region from the 18th century. Certainly, an urban elite developed which was predominantly Islamic. Not just made up of wealthy merchants, there also sprang up a class of religious scholars whose texts not only examined the ins and outs of their religion but also produced works on many other subjects from science to history.

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King Mohammad may even have tried to impose Islam as the state religion but, as in the Songhai's predecessor states in the Sudan region, Islam was largely limited to the elite and urban populations while rural communities and the greater part of the population remained loyal to their traditional animist beliefs. In the latter religion, it was thought that spirits possessed certain objects, especially impressive natural phenomena, trees, caves, and prominent natural features. The two most important spirits were Harake Diko and Dongo, linked to the Niger River and thunderstorms respectively, which is hardly surprising given the importance of the river to trade and rain to the dry savannah of West Africa. These spirits and others (notably those belonging to dead ancestors) had to be constantly kept in a good mood, hence they were made offerings of food and drink and honoured with masked dances and ceremonies. More a belief system than a formal religion, there were, nevertheless, practising priests, the tierkei or sorcerers, who made it their business to minimise the interference of evil spirits in village affairs.

Why Did the Songhai Empire Decline?

The Songhai Empire began to shrink around the edges, especially in the west, from the last quarter of the 16th century. This was largely due to a string of ineffectual leaders and civil wars for the right of succession which had blighted the empire ever since the death of King Mohammad in 1528. One particular rivalry, between Mohammad IV Bano (r. from 1586) and his brothers, effectively divided the empire in half. Then the final deathblow was swift. The Moroccan leader Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dhahabi (d. 1603), known rather grandly as 'the Golden Conqueror', sent a small force of perhaps 4,000 men armed with muskets to attack the empire in the 1590-1. The Songhai army numbered some 30,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, but their weapons were mere spears and arrows. As a result of this technological mismatch, the Moroccans won the war, even if there were a few sporadic but ineffectual Songhai fightbacks over the next few years. The Songhai treasury was seized and the empire, including Timbuktu, was absorbed into that of the Moroccans, becoming a province therein. The Songhai Empire, West Africa's largest ever, had simply crumbled from within and evaporated. It would be the last of the great empires that had dominated West Africa since the 6th century.

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The Songhai Empire (aka Songhay, c. 1460 - c. 1591) covered what is today southern Mauritania and Mali. It replaced the Mali Empire (1240-1645) as the most important state in West Africa. Originating...

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I created this presentation for my 7th grade history students at KIPP: San Francisco Bay Academy. To learn more about my work and my class please visit http://www.classroominthefuture.com Thumbnail photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/modern_nomad/368808460/

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Kids learn about the history of the Empire of Ancient Mali including location, history, the gold trade, founding, Sundiata, Mansa Musa, facts, culture, and fall of Mali.

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Despite its name, the old Empire of Ghana is not geographically, ethnically, or in any other way, related to modern Ghana. It lies about four hundred miles north west of modern Ghana. Ancient Ghana encompassed what is now modern Northern Senegal and Southern Mauritania.Nobody is sure when Ghana came into being. But some time at the beginning of the first millennium AD, it is thought that a number of clans of the Soninke people, (in modern Senegal) came together under a leader with semi-divine status, called Dinga Cisse.What is clear, is that the Empire derived power and wealth from gold. And the introduction of the camel in the Trans-Saharan trade boosted the amount of goods that could be transported. The wealth of Ghana is also explained mythically through the story of Bida, the black snake. This snake demanded an annual sacrifice in return for guaranteeing prosperity in the kingdom. Every year a virgin was offered up, until one year, the fiancé of the intended victim, (his name was Mamadou Sarolle) rescued her. Cheated of his sacrifice, Bida took his revenge on the region. A terrible drought took hold of Ghana and gold mining fell into decline.The route taken by traders of the Maghreb to Ghana would have started in North Africa in Tahert, sweeping down through Sijilimasa in Southern Morocco. From there the trail went south and inland, roughly running parallel with the coast. Then it curved round to the south east through Awdaghust, finally ending up in Kumbi Saleh - the royal town of Ghana.Inevitably traders brought Islam with them. Initially, the Islamic community at Kumbi Saleh remained a separate community some distance away from the king's palace. It had its own mosques and schools. But, the king retained his traditional beliefs. He drew on the book-keeping and literary skills of Muslim scholars to help run the administration of the territory. The state of Takrur to the west had already adopted Islam as its official religion and evolved ever closer trading ties with North Africa.There were a number of reasons for Ghana's decline. The King lost his trading monopoly. At the same time drought was beginning to have a long term effect on the land and its ability to sustain cattle and cultivation. But the Empire of Ghana was also under pressure from outside forces.
Ancient Ghana

GEOGRAPHY

ORIGINS

There are different accounts of who he was, but all reports emphasise that he was an outsider who came from afar. It is likely that this federation of Soninke was formed possibly in response to the attacks of nomadic raiders, who were in turn, suffering from drought, and seeking new territory. Further west was the state of Takrur in the Senegal valley. It was linked to the north via a coastal route leading to Morocco via Sjilmasa.

Most of our knowledge of Ghana comes from Arab writers. Al-Hamdani, for example, describes Ghana as having the richest gold mines on earth. These were situated at Bambuk, on the upper Senegal River. The Soninke also sold slaves, salt and copper, in exchange for textiles, beads and finished goods. The capital of Kumbi Saleh became the focus of all trade, with a systematic form of taxation. Later Audaghust was another commercial centre.
GOLD

Archaeologists have found evidence that confirms elements of the story, showing that until the 12th century, sheep and cows, as well goats, were abundant in the region. But after that only the tougher, more drought resistant goats were common.

"The King adorns himself like a woman wearing necklaces round his neck and bracelets on his forearms and he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. He holds an audience in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold-embroidered materials...and on his right, are the sons of the vassal kings of his country, wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold.

At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree. Round their necks they wear collars of gold and silver, studded with a number of balls of the same metals."
10th century geographer Al-Bakri, quoted in Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History.

Click here to listen to Al-Bakri describing the opulence surrounding the King of Ghana

SACRIFICE

TRADE

ISLAM
MUSLIMS IN ANCIENT GHANA
"The city of Ghana consists of two towns situated on a plain. One of these towns, which is inhabited by Muslims, is large and possesses twelve mosques in one of which they assemble for the Friday prayer. There are salaried imams and muezzins, as well as jurists and scholars. The king's town is six miles distant from this one...

The king has a palace and a number of domed dwellings all surrounded with an enclosure like a city wall. Around the king's town are domed buildings and groves and thickets where the sorcerers of these people, men in charge of the religious cult, live. In them too are their idols and the tombs of their kings."

There is an Arab tradition that the Almoravid Muslims came down from the North and invaded Ghana. Another interpretation is that this Almoravid influence was gradual and did not involve any sort of military take-over.

In the 11th and 12th century new gold fields began to be mined at Bure (modern Guinea) out of the commercial reach of Ghana and new trade routes were opening up further east. Ghana became the target of attacks by the Sosso ruler Sumanguru. Out of this conflict, the Malinke emerged in 1235 under a new dynamic ruler, Sundiata Keita. Soon Ghana was totally eclipsed by the Mali Empire of Sundiata.
Taken from an account by geographer Al-Bakri.

Listen to Al Bakri's description of Muslims in Ghana

DECLINE

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Despite its name, the old Empire of Ghana is not geographically, ethnically, or in any other way, related to modern Ghana. It lies about four hundred miles north west of modern Ghana. Ancient Ghana encompassed what is now modern Northern Senegal and Southern Mauritania.Nobody is sure when Ghana came into being.

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The flourished in West Africa from at least the 6th to 13th century CE. Not connected geographically to the modern state of Ghana, the Ghana Empire was located in the western Sudan savannah region (modern southern Mauritania and Mali) sandwiched between the Sahara desert to the north and the rainforests to the south.

Trade in the Ghana Empire was facilitated by the abundance of iron, copper, gold, and ivory and easy access to the Niger and Senegal Rivers and their tributaries. The Ghana kings, residing in the capital at Koumbi Saleh, grew immensely rich, building up stockpiles of the gold nuggets only they were permitted to possess. Consequently, the reputation of Ghana spread to North Africa and Europe, where it was described as a fabulous land of gold. The Ghana Empire crumbled from the 12th century CE following drought, civil wars, the opening up of trade routes elsewhere, and the rise of the Sosso Kingdom (c. 1180-1235 CE) and then the Mali Empire (1240-1645 CE).

West Africa & the Sudan Region

The Sudan region of West Africa (not to be confused with the modern state of that name), where the Ghana Empire would develop, had been inhabited since the Neolithic period as is evidenced by Iron Age tumuli, megaliths and remains of abandoned villages. The Niger River regularly flooded parts of this dry grassland and savannah, which provided fertile land for agriculture beginning at least 3,500 years ago, an endeavour greatly helped by the region's adequate annual rainfall. Cereals such as red-skinned African rice and millet were grown with success, as were pulses, tuber and root crops, oil and fibre plants, and fruits. Fishing and the herding of cattle and goats were other important sources of food.

The name Ghana most probably derives from a local title meaning king.

Local deposits of copper were exploited and used for trade, while metalworking in the region, as indicated by archaeological finds, dates back to at least the 6th century CE. There have been many finds, too, of fine pottery, some of which was traded across the region, as indicated by chemical analysis of the clay. Similarly, gold was probably locally mined or panned and then traded along the numerous waterways of the region, but concrete evidence from this early period is lacking. Indeed, the whole history of the region and the Ghana Empire before the 11th century CE remains vague due to a lack of written sources and the rather meagre results of archaeology. However, the latter has increased dramatically in the 21st century CE, and both the antiquity and extent of West African trade, in particular, are now considered to have been greater than previously thought.

Foundation

The precise foundation of the Ghana Empire, or the Kingdom of Ghana as it is sometimes referred to, is not known. It may date to as early as the 6th century CE but evidence of some sort of political apparatus is not seen until later. The period when the empire was at its height is considered to be between the 9th and 11th century CE. The name Ghana most probably derives from a local title meaning king.

The Ghana Empire was mostly composed of the Soninke (aka Sarakole) people, who spoke Mande (aka Mandingo) and who occupied the area of savannah between the Niger River (to the southeast) and Senegal River (to the southwest). These rivers and the Sahara desert to the north formed a natural triangle of flat grasslands that the Ghana Empire would occupy (today's southern portions of Mauritania and Mali). The region dominated by the Soninke is often referred to as Wagadu in indigenous oral traditions or as Wangara, the Muslim geographers' term for the Middle Niger.

Koumbi Saleh

The capital of the Ghana Empire was most likely Koumbi Saleh (in the absence of any other viable candidates). Also known simply as Ghana, it is located 322 km (200 miles) north of modern Bamako, Mali. The capital was much larger than previously thought - the medieval Arab descriptions of a population of 40-50,000 now looking conservative after recent excavations, which show the city spread over an area of 110 acres (45 hectares) with many other smaller settlements immediately surrounding it. Excavations have also revealed a significant mosque, a large public square, and parts of a circuit wall and monumental gateway. Housing was typically of one storey and made with mud-dried bricks, pounded earth and wood or stone, all used in the region since prehistory and still in use today. The Arab traveller Al-Bakri, visiting near the end of the empire's history in 1076 CE, describes the capital as being surrounded by wells and with irrigated fields where many vegetables grew. He goes on to state:

The king has a palace and a number of domed dwellings all surrounded with an enclosure like a city wall...Around the king's town are domed buildings and groves and thickets where the sorcerers of these people, men in charge of the religious cult, live. In them are their idols and the tombs of their kings.

(quoted in Fage, 668)

King & Government

Really a conglomerate of villages ruled by a single king, the empire prospered thanks to a well-trained army which had cavalry units and access to raw materials such as iron ore to make its weapons and gold deposits to pay its soldiers. It is perhaps significant that blacksmiths and forgers have long enjoyed an elevated status in the Sudan region. Possession of camels with their utility as transport of goods and people was another factor in the superiority of the Soninke over their rivals. With these advantages, the Ghana Empire acquired new territories and new tribute from subjugated tribal chiefs, and they could monopolise first local and then regional trade.

The Ghana king was an absolute monarch and the state's head of justice and religion. There was a certain cultivated mystique about the ruler, partly due to his role as leader of the animist religion amongst his people. Sacrifices and libations were made in his honour, there were strict rules of etiquette in his presence and, when he died, his tomb was laid in a sacred grove which no person could enter. The traveller Al-Bakri described the Ghana king in the following terms:

The king adorns himself like a woman, wearing necklaces and bracelets, and when he sits before the people he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and wrapped in turbans of fine cotton...Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold, and on his right are the sons of the vassal kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold.

(quoted in Krieger, 322)

The king did rely on advisors and, from the 11th century CE, even recruited Muslim merchants to act as interpreters and as officials who helped manage the economy and keep track of the goods coming in and out of the country.

Trade Goods were often taxed twice, once when they came into the country & again when they left it.

West African Trade

The Ghana Empire dominated central West African trade in the upper valley of the Niger River from the 6th or 7th century CE. Control of regional trade was a lucrative business for the kings of Ghana who passed on goods like gold, ivory, hides, ostrich feathers, and slaves to the Muslim merchants (particularly the Sanhaja Berbers) who sent camel caravans that crossed the Sahara from North Africa and which brought much-valued salt to the south. Goods were often taxed twice, once when they came into the country and again when they left it.

In addition to income from passing trade, the Ghana Empire had access to its own resources, notably iron ore and gold from the fields of Bambuk, which the elite used to exchange for such luxury goods as fine textiles, beads, copper, and horses, which were all brought by Arab traders from the north. Another commodity-currency used in Ghana, besides gold, was copper wiring. The kings of Ghana once again illustrated their supreme position by prohibiting anyone else but themselves from owning gold nuggets; merchants had to be satisfied with gold dust. The policy had the added advantage of ensuring the king could control the gold market and ensure its value did not decrease by having too much of it in circulation at any one time.

Muslim Influence

Islam was spread throughout the region by Muslim merchants as they came into contact with local traders and the elite of urban areas. Leaders may have recognised that adopting the religion (or seeming to), or at the least tolerating it would be beneficial to trade. Indeed, in the Ghana Empire, there is no evidence that kings themselves converted to Islam. On the contrary, Ghana's capital at Koumbi Saleh was divided into two distinct towns from the mid-11th century CE. One town was Muslim and boasted 12 mosques while the other, just 10 km away and joined by many intermediate buildings, was the royal residence with many traditional cult shrines and one mosque for visiting merchants. This division reflected the continuance of indigenous animist beliefs alongside Islam, the former being practised by rural communities.

Decline

The first stage in the decline of the Ghana Empire began in the mid-11th century CE. C. 1076 CE the capital was sacked by the Almoravids of North Africa (c. 1055 - c. 1147 CE), perhaps in retaliation for the Ghana rulers' attempt to muscle in on trade by Saharan commercial centres. The Ghana Empire struggled to recover thereafter; Muslim rulers may have been imposed by the Almoravids but concrete evidence is lacking for any sort of conquest. Meanwhile, towns like Awdaghost (est. 1055 CE) were lost to the Ghana kings and so permitted Berber merchants to directly control more of the region's trade.

The Ghana Empire really began to collapse in the 12th century CE. The decline set in when other competing trade routes opened up further east and when the climate became unusually dry for a prolonged period, which affected agricultural production. The rulers of Ghana did not help themselves either as the empire was beset by a string of civil wars, the divisions perhaps based on the inherent conflict between Muslim and animist beliefs. Meanwhile, many rebellious chiefs took the opportunity of a weak central government to declare themselves independent of the empire, notably Tekrur in the Western Sudan region which controlled the Senegal River and which had even allied itself with the Almoravids.

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The kingdom of Sosso (aka, Susu, c. 1180-1235 CE) was the biggest inheritor of the crumbling Ghana Empire, aided by the collapse of the Almoravids in the mid-12th century CE. However, the Sosso would be a short-lived kingdom as their king Sumanguru (aka Sumaoro Kante, r. from c. 1200 CE) was defeated by Sundiata Keita in 1235 CE. Sundiata also seized the old Ghana capital in 1240 CE, and he would go on to found the Mali Empire (1240-1645 CE), the largest and richest empire yet seen in Africa.

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The Ghana Empire flourished in West Africa from at least the 6th to 13th century CE. Not connected geographically to the modern state of Ghana, the Ghana Empire was located in the western Sudan savannah...

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Map by Luxo (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Located in the Western region of Africa, Ancient Ghana occupied an area that includes the present-day nations of Mauritania and Mali, was the first of three powerful centralized states to emerge in the savanna, a vast, flat grassland area between the Sahara Desert on the north and the coastal rain forest along the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Ghana flourished in the 8th through 11th centuries because of its control of major routes of the Trans-Saharan trade of salt and gold.

The origin of Ghana is uncertain although by the first century A.D. a number of farming clans of the Soninke, a Mande-speaking group, began to settle in the region. By 750 A.D. the Soninke came together under the leadership of Dinga Cisse, perhaps in response to nomadic attacks. Dinga Cisse is considered the first ruler of unified Ghana. He established a capital at Kumbi Saleh which sat along one of the emerging Trans-Saharan trade routes. Later the city of Audaghust became another major commercial center.

Over the centuries the Soninke people had developed a trade in various items including copper, salt, gold, ivory and some slaves. With the introduction of the camel, the trading range of the Soninke expanded northward and the commerce itself became more lucrative. Ghanaian rulers taxed both local and Trans-Saharan commerce to support a bureaucracy and army.

Islam was introduced to Ghana by the 9th Century. The spread of the religion introduced Ghana to a larger world of commerce and religion. From that point Islam was practiced by many Ghanaians while Muslim and Jewish traders from Egypt and other areas of North Africa settled in Kumbi Saleh, which around 1060 had a population estimated at nearly 30,000, and in the smaller city of Audaghust.

In 1076, the Almoravids, a Muslim group, conquered Ghana. They sought both to make Islam the sole faith of the population and to control the lucrative Trans-Saharan trade routes. They failed in both areas. However, the Ghanaian Empire ended with their conquest.

The modern nation of Ghana is named after the ancient empire although there is no territory shared by the two states.

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Map by Luxo (CC BY-SA 3.0) Located in the Western region of Africa, Ancient Ghana occupied an area that includes the present-day nations of Mauritania and Mali, was the first of three powerful centralized states to emerge in the savanna, a vast, flat grassland area between the Sahara Desert on the north and the coastal rain forest along the Atlantic Ocean to the south.

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The African kingdom of Axum (also Aksum) was located on the northern edge of the highland zone of the Red Sea coast, just above the horn of Africa. It was founded in the 1st century CE, flourished from the 3rd to 6th century CE, and then survived as a much smaller political entity into the 8th century CE.

The territory Axum once controlled is today occupied by the states of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Somaliland. Prospering thanks to agriculture, cattle herding, and control over trade routes which saw gold and ivory exchanged for foreign luxury goods, the kingdom and its capital of Axum built lasting stone monuments and achieved a number of firsts. It was the first sub-Saharan African state to mint its own coinage and, around 350 CE, the first to officially adopt Christianity. Axum even created its own script, Ge'ez, which is still in use in Ethiopia today. The kingdom went into decline from the 7th century CE due to increased competition from Muslim Arab traders and the rise of rival local peoples such as the Bedja. Surviving as a much smaller territory to the south, the remnants of the once great kingdom of Axum would eventually rise again and form the great kingdom of Abyssinia in the 13th century CE.

Name & Foundation

The name Axum, or Akshum as it is sometimes referred to, may derive from a combination of two words from local languages - the Agew word for water and the Ge'ez word for official, shum. The water reference is probably due to the presence of large ancient rock cisterns in the area of the capital at Axum.

The Axum rulers now called themselves by the rather grand title Negusa Negast or 'King of Kings.'

The region had certainly been occupied by agrarian communities similar in culture to those in southern Arabia since the Stone Age, but the ancient kingdom of Axum began to prosper from the 1st century CE thanks to its rich agricultural lands, dependable summer monsoon rains, and control of regional trade. This trade network included links with Egypt to the north and, to the east, along the East African coast and southern Arabia. Wheat, barley, millet, and teff (a high-yield grain) had been grown with success in the region at least as early as the 1st millennium BCE while cattle herding dates back to the 2nd millennium BCE, an endeavour aided by the vast grassland savannah of the Ethiopian plateau. Goats and sheep were also herded and an added advantage for everyone was the absence of the tropical parasitic diseases that have blighted other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Wealth acquired through trade and military might was added to this prosperous agricultural base and so, in the late 1st century CE, a single king replaced a confederation of chiefdoms and forged a united kingdom that would dominate the Ethiopian highlands for the next six centuries. The kingdom of Axum, one of the greatest in the world at that time, was born.

Expansion

The kingdom of Axum really started to take off around 350 CE. Axum had already established some form of dominance over Yemen (then called Himyar) in southern Arabia as well as Somalia in the southeast and several smaller tribes to the southwest. Subjugated tribes, although left semi-autonomous, had to pay tribute, typically in the form of hundreds of heads of cattle (as indicated by Axumite inscriptions). This perhaps gave some slight justification to the Axum rulers now calling themselves by the rather grand title Negusa Negast or 'king of kings.' Details of the Axum government and how this absolute monarch controlled conquered tribes over the centuries are lacking but the title 'king of kings' would suggest conquered rulers were permitted to continue to reign over their own peoples.

In the mid-4th century CE, Nubia (formerly known as Kush and located in modern Sudan), with its capital at Meroe, attacked Axum from the north (or vice-versa), perhaps because of a dispute over control of the region's ivory trade. The Axum king Ezana I (r. c. 303-350 CE) responded with a large force, sacking Meroe. Once mighty Nubia, already in serious decline and weakened by overpopulation, overgrazing and deforestation, was soon toppled and broke up into three separate states: Faras, Dongola, and Soba. This collapse left the way clear for Axum to dominate the region.

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That Axum's trade was booming is evidenced by the finding of the kingdom's coinage at such far-flung places as India & Sri Lanka.

Another period of great Axum expansion came during the reign of Kaleb I in the first quarter of the 6th century CE. The kingdom came to occupy a territory about 300 kilometres in length and 160 kilometres across; not so large perhaps, but its control of trade goods was the key, not geography. Rulers were keen, too, to indulge in a spot of imperialism across the Red Sea in Yemen in an effort to completely control the many trading vessels that sailed down the Straits of Bab-al-Mandeb, one of the busiest sea stretches in the ancient world. Raids had been made in Yemen in the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, but it was the 6th century CE which saw a major escalation in Axum ambitions. The king of Yemen, Yusuf As'ar Yathar, had been persecuting Christians since 523 CE, and Kaleb, who himself then ruled over a Christian state, responded by sending a force to Yemen in c. 525 CE. This invasion was supported by the Byzantine Empire with whom Axum had long-established diplomatic ties (whether the support was merely diplomatic or material is not agreed upon by scholars). Victorious, the Axum king was able to leave a substantial garrison and install a viceroy which ruled the region until the Sassanids arrived in 570 CE.

Axum the Capital

The ancient city of Axum (sometimes called Axumis) is located at an altitude of over 2,000 metres (6800 ft) in the north of the Ethiopian highlands (in the modern province of Tigray), close to the River Tekeze, a tributary of the Nile. The city, occupied from the 1st century CE, was both the capital of a trading empire and a ceremonial centre which included many stone monuments. Some such monuments are very similar to Egyptian obelisks, although curiously, the granite stone is sometimes worked to resemble architectural features of dry-stone and timber Axumite buildings. Many of these stelae are around 24 metres (78 ft) in height, although one fallen and now broken example is 33 metres (108 ft) in total length and 520 tonnes in weight, making it the largest monolith ever to have been transported anywhere in antiquity. The stelae were likely transported on log rollers from a quarry 4.8 km (3 miles) away. Almost all were used as tomb markers and many have a carved stone throne next to them, often covered in inscriptions.

Other remains of stone structures include three palace-like buildings which once had towers - each with stone pillared basements, royal tombs with massive walls creating separate chambers, water cisterns, irrigation channels, and two- or three-story buildings used as residences by the Axum elite. Most large structures were built on a stepped granite base composed of dressed blocks, with access provided by monumental staircases, usually consisting of seven steps. Stone lion-head gargoyles often provided roof drainage.

Stone structures used clay instead of mortar, with a decorative effect achieved by alternating projecting and recessed blocks. Wood was used between stone layers for horizontal support in walls, for doorways, window frames, floors, roofs, and in ceiling corners to give extra structural support. The decoration on many of buildings at Axum and the motifs used in Axumite art in general such as the astral symbols of disc and crescent are evidence of influence from South Arabian cultures across the Red Sea (although the influence may have been in the opposite direction). The capital also had dedicated areas for craft workshops and, from the late 4th century CE, many churches.

Trade

Gold (acquired from the southern territories under the kingdom's control or from war booty) and ivory (from Africa's interior) were Axum's main exports - the Byzantines, in particular, could not get enough of both - but other goods included salt, slaves, tortoiseshell, incense (frankincense and myrrh), rhino horns, obsidian and emeralds (from Nubia). These goods went to the kingdom's seaport of Adulis (modern Zula and actually 4 km from the sea), carried to the coast by camel caravans. There they were exchanged for goods brought by Arab merchants such as Egyptian and Indian textiles, swords and other weapons, iron, glass beads, bronze lamps, and glassware. The presence of Mediterranean amphorae at Axum sites indicates that such goods as wine and olive oil were also imported. That Axum trade was booming is evidenced by the finding of the kingdom's coinage at such far-flung places as the eastern Mediterranean, India, and Sri Lanka.

Adoption of Christianity

In the mid-4th century CE, the king of Axum, Ezana I, officially adopted Christianity. Prior to that, the people of Axum had practised an indigenous polytheistic religion which was prevalent on both sides of the Red Sea with some local additions such as Mahram, god of war, upheaval, and monarchy, who was the most important Axumite god. Other notable gods included the moon deity Hawbas, Astar, the representation of the planet Venus, and the chthonic gods Beher and Meder. Such gods, as well as ancestors, had sacrifices made in their honour, especially cattle - either living animals or votive representations of them.

Traders and Egyptian missionaries had brought Christianity to the region during the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE, and the official acceptance by Aksum may have occurred because the kingdom had important trade connections to the North African provinces of the Roman Empire, which itself had adopted Christianity a couple of decades earlier. Indeed, there were many trade and diplomatic connections directly between Constantinople and Axum, and it is probable that this passage of individuals to and fro also introduced Christianity into Ethiopia. It is important to note, though, that the more ancient indigenous religious beliefs likely carried on for some time, as indicated by the careful wording of rulers' inscriptions so as not to alienate that part of the population which did not accept Christianity.

According to traditional accounts, it was Frumentius, a 4th-century CE shipwrecked traveller from Tyre, who introduced Christianity to the kingdom. Frumentius gained employment as a teacher to the royal children, and then he became treasurer and advisor to the king, probably Ella Amida. When Ella Amida was succeeded by his son Ezana I, whom Frumentius had even greater sway over given that he had been his childhood tutor, the king was persuaded to adopt Christianity. Frumentius next travelled to Alexandria to receive an official title from the Patriarch there in order to aid his missionary work, then he returned to Axum and became the first bishop of the kingdom. The dates of exactly when all this happened are wildly different depending on one's ancient source and range from 315 to 360 CE, with the latter end of that range being the more likely according to modern scholars. Frumentius was later made a saint for his efforts in spreading the Gospel in East Africa.

The form of Christianity at Aksum was similar to that adopted in Coptic Egypt, indeed, the Patriarch of Alexandria remained a strong figurehead in the Ethiopian Church even when Islam arrived in the region from the 7th century CE. Churches were built, monasteries founded, and translations made of the Bible. The most important church was at Axum, the Church of Maryam Tsion, which, according to later Ethiopian medieval texts, housed the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is supposed to be still there, but as nobody is ever allowed to see it, confirmation of its existence is difficult to achieve. The most important monastery in the Axum kingdom was at Debre Damo, founded by the 5th-century CE Byzantine ascetic Saint Aregawi, one of the celebrated Nine Saints who worked to spread Christianity in the region by establishing monasteries. From the 5th century CE the rural population was converted, although, even in cities, some temples to the old pagan gods would remain open well into the 6th century CE. The success of these endeavours meant that Christianity would continue to be practised in Ethiopia right into the 21st century CE.

A Cultural Mix: Writing & Coinage

The area which Axum would later occupy used an Arabian type script from the 5th century BCE called Sabaean (a Semitic language then used in Southern Arabia). Greek was also used in some inscriptions. The kingdom of Axum had its own writing system, the earliest examples of which are found on sheets of schist rock slabs which date to the 2nd century CE. This script, called Ge'ez or Ethiopic, resembles Sabaean but had gradually evolved into a quite distinct script which included characters for vowels and consonants and which was read from left to right. The Ge'ez script is still used today in modern Ethiopia.

Another example of Axum's tendency to profitably mix ideas from different cultures can be seen in the kingdom's coinage, the first sub-Saharan kingdom to have its own mint. The gold and silver coins of Axum, which appeared from the 3rd century CE onwards, have Greek inscriptions, Sabaean religious symbols, and they were minted adhering to Roman standard weights. The most common material of the thousands of Axum coins discovered is bronze. Coins and their legends are often our only information on Axum's various kings, 20 in total. A portrait of the king is usually accompanied by two ears of corn and, from the reign of Ezana I, a Christian cross. Legends include the name of the king, his title and an uplifting phrase, for example, 'Peace to the People' and 'Health and Happiness to the People.'

Art

In the arts, Axum potters produced simple red and black terracotta wares but without using a wheel. Wares are usually matt in finish, and some are coated with a red slip. Forms are simple cups, bowls, and spouted jugs. Decoration of geometric designs was achieved using incisions, painting, stamps, and added three-dimensional pieces. By far the most common decorative motif is the Christian cross. There seems not to have been either the inclination or know-how to produce the finer wares which Axum imported from Mediterranean cultures.

No large-scale statues have been discovered from the kingdom but there are stone bases. One example has indentations for feet carved into it with each foot space measuring 90 cm (35 inches) which would make the standing figure three-times life-size. An inscription on the base indicates that there once stood a large metal figure on it, probably of a divinity. The same inscription mentions other statues of gold and bronze. The stone thrones found near stelae may also have had seated metal statues on them. Small scale figurines abound and these depict nude females and animals. Unfortunately, the impressive stone chamber tombs of the kingdom were all looted in antiquity and only broken fragments of precious materials and pieces of storage chests and boxes indicate what has been lost to posterity.

Decline & Later History

The kingdom of Axum went in decline from the late 6th century CE, perhaps due to overuse of agricultural land or the incursion of western Bedja herders who, forming themselves into small kingdoms, grabbed parts of Aksum territory for grazing their cattle and who persistently attacked Axum's camel caravans. In addition, the policy of Axum's kings to allow conquered tribal chiefs a good deal of autonomy often backfired and permitted some of them to have the means to launch rebellions. Ultimately, Axum would pay dearly for its lack of any real state administrative apparatus. Finally, there was from the early 7th century CE stiff competition for the Red Sea trade networks from Arab Muslims. The heartland of the Axum state shifted 300 km (186 miles) southwards to the cities of Lalibela and Gondar. As a consequence of the decline, by the late 8th century CE the old Axum Empire had ceased to exist.

The city of Axum fared better than its namesake kingdom and never lost its religious significance. The territory of the kingdom of Axum would eventually develop into the medieval kingdom of Abyssinia with the founding of the Solomonid dynasty c. 1270 CE, whose kings claimed direct descent from the Biblical King Solomon and Queen of Sheba.

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The African kingdom of Axum (also Aksum) was located on the northern edge of the highland zone of the Red Sea coast, just above the horn of Africa. It was founded in the 1st century CE, flourished from the 3rd to 6th century CE, and then survived as a much smaller political entity into the 8th century CE.

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Located on the Horn of Africa, the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Axum (also spelled Aksum) played a significant role in international relations around the time of the first millennium. At its height, Axum controlled modern-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Western Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, and parts of Somalia. Although largely forgotten today, references to Ethiopians can be seen in such seminal works as the Bible, the Qur'an, Homer's Iliad, and Dante's Divine Comedy . Such wide acclaim reflects the power and influence once held by the powerful Axumite Empire.

There are some interesting legends connected to the fallen kingdom as well. The capital of the kingdom, also called Axum, is allegedly the home to the famed Queen of Sheba and stories say the Ark of the Covenant was taken to the kingdom too.
Location of the kingdom of Aksum or Axum. ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )
Origins and Expansion of the Kingdom of Axum

The local Agaw people of northern Ethiopia first began to populate and expand the city of Axum around 400 BC. By the mid-second century BC, Axum had developed into a regionally dominant kingdom. This was in large part thanks to maritime transformations enacted by the ever-expanding Roman Empire . Ideally situated on the Red Sea, "the kingdom was at the crossroads of the three continents: Africa, Arabia, and the Greco-Roman World, and was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia" (UNESCO).

The Horn of Africa was an incredibly fertile land and Axum exported a wide range of agricultural products, such as wheat and barley, and animals, such as sheep, cattle, and camels. The kingdom was also rich in gold, iron, and salt (a precious commodity in those days). Axum was also in command of the ivory trade coming out of Sudan. In exchange for these goods, it ferried tortoise shells, spices, silks, emeralds, and crafted goods between Rome and India. The importance of Ethiopia as a trade hub is attested to in a trader's handbook from Alexandria dating from the first century AD entitled The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea .

Legends of the Queen of Sheba and the Solomonic Dynasty

Ethiopian legends state that Axum, the capital city of the empire, was the home of the Queen of Sheba . Although the Queen of Sheba lived centuries before the kingdom of Aksum, its kings of the Solomonic Dynasty traced their routes to the famous queen and King Solomon of Israel . Stories say that the queen went to see Solomon in Jerusalem after hearing of his wisdom and when she was there he was enthralled by her beauty and after they slept together the Queen of Sheba became pregnant with his child. The baby boy was named Ibn al-Malik, also known as Menelik , and he was the founder of the Solomonic Dynasty. Ethiopian kings, including those from the Kingdom of Aksum, claimed descent from Menelik.

The Golden Age of Axum

The Kingdom of Axum reached its zenith in the third to fifth centuries AD. This golden age began with the famed King Ezana who converted his country to Christianity in 324 AD. Indeed, coins minted under King Ezana were the first in the world to feature the image of a cross. Ezana also placed much importance on written documents.

These manuscripts provide much of what is known about Axum today. They are written in the indigenous language Ge'ez, examples of which date back to at least the 8th century BC. Some scholars believe that a scriptorium ( scribal school ) may have existed in northern Ethiopia, providing scribes for the region as well as for the Nile Valley .

The Kingdom of Axum had a complex social hierarchy and its cities had elaborate settlement patterns. The stratified society had an upper elite of kings and nobles, a lower elite of lesser nobles as well as wealthy merchants and farmers, and finally a tier of ordinary people such as small farmers, craftsmen, and traders. Archaeologists have uncovered administrative documents and tombs which suggest that the elite enjoyed extravagant burial practices, including funerary monuments known as stelae. The towers or obelisks were elaborately carved with inscriptions from top to bottom. They also had stone doors and fake windows. The tallest of these stelae was 100 feet high (30.48m).

Religion in the Kingdom of Axum

Initially, Christianity was only practiced by Axum's elite. It did not spread to everyone until the late fifth century when missionaries fleeing from the Eastern Roman Empire ( Byzantium) sought shelter in the Kingdom of Axum and were given permission to proselytize. The missionaries came to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church because they maintained a Monophysite doctrine.

Although many of the Western empires accepted Christianity by the fifth century BC, debates raged over the nature of Christ's status. Monophysitism argued that Jesus Christ had a single nature that was a synthesis of divine and human. This point of view was branded heretical by the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Powerful Rome and Constantinople believed in dyophysitism, that is, that Jesus Christ maintained two natures: one divine and one human. This debate, heavily influenced by political and cultural rivalries, led to the final schism of the Oriental Orthodox Churches from the Western and Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Axumite Empire ultimately declined; however, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is still a thriving sect of Christianity, administering to roughly 45 to 50 million people worldwide.

Is the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

Legends say that there is another link between Axum and Israel - an important religious connection. When Menelik grew up he asked who his father was and upon discovering it was King Solomon the young man went to see him. Menelik stayed with Solomon for three years but was asked to leave when the Israelites complained about his likeness to the king, which apparently confused them.

When Menelik was sent away, he was accompanied by the eldest son of the high priest, Azariah, and 1000 people from each of the 12 tribes of Israel . But before they left, Azariah had a dream telling him to take the Ark of the Covenant with him. Azariah took the Ark from the temple and replaced it with a copy and then brought the religious relic with him to his new home. Even today, there is still a strong belief that the Ark of the Covenant is located somewhere in Ethiopia.

Why Did the Kingdom of Axum Fall?

Historians are not certain what exactly led to the decline of the Kingdom of Axum but several factors are thought to have been at play. One of the first acts in the empire's fall came in 520 when King Kaleb led a campaign against the Jewish Himyaritic King Dhu Nuwas who was persecuting Christians in Yemen. Although the Axumite forces won the conflict and secured Christianity in Yemen (at least until the advent of Islam), the years of battle over-extended Axum's wealth and manpower. Moreover, the foray may have invited in the Plague of Justinian, which struck Ethiopia around the same time. The Plague , which ravaged much of the Byzantium Empire in the sixth century, is thought to be the first recorded instance of the bubonic plague .

To add to the woes of warfare and pandemic, in the seventh century AD the Islamic Empire was beginning its rapid spread across Arabia and Northern Africa. Between the seventh and eighth centuries, Axum lost control of the Red Sea and most of the Nile. Not only did this leave Axum in economic isolation but it also forced most of the city's Christian inhabitants to move further inland for protection.

Finally, a series of climate changes devastated the Ethiopian people. The large population of the Axumite Empire placed much pressure on the Tigrinya plateau, where the Kingdom was based, ultimately leading to catastrophic levels of soil erosion. Historians believe that this process was accelerated by an apparent decline in the reliability of rainfall around 730-760 AD. This reduced the growing season significantly and was not corrected until well into the ninth century.

Despite its collapse, the city of Axum is still inhabited to this day by approximately 50,000 people, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city on the continent.
The Obelisk at Axum.: No. XX. / Drawn by Henry Salt.; Engraved by D. Havell. (King George III's Personal Coloured Views Collection/ British Library ) Top image: Ruins of Aksum (Axum), Ethiopia . Axum was the capital of the kingdom of Axum. Source: siempreverde22 /Adobe
By Kerry Sullivan

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The Kingdom of Axum: Facts and Legends of a First Millennium Powerhouse

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Located on the Horn of Africa, the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Axum (also spelled Aksum) played a significant role in international relations around the time of the first millennium. At its height, Axum controlled modern-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Western Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, and parts of Somalia.

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Aksum

The ruins of the ancient city of Aksum are found close to Ethiopia's northern border. They mark the location of the heart of ancient Ethiopia, when the Kingdom of Aksum was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia. The massive ruins, dating from between the 1st and the 13th century A.D., include monolithic obelisks, giant stelae, royal tombs and the ruins of ancient castles. Long after its political decline in the 10th century, Ethiopian emperors continued to be crowned in Aksum.

Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

Axoum

Près de la frontière nord de l'Éthiopie, les ruines de la ville ancienne d'Axoum marquent l'emplacement du cœur de l'Éthiopie antique, lorsque le royaume d'Axoum était l'État le plus puissant entre l'Empire romain d'Orient et la Perse. Les ruines massives, qui datent du I au XIII e siècle, comprennent des obélisques monolithiques, des stèles géantes, des tombes royales et les ruines de châteaux anciens. Longtemps après son déclin politique vers le X e siècle, les empereurs d'Éthiopie vinrent se faire couronner dans cette ville.

Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0

Aksum

Aksum ontstond enkele eeuwen voor de geboorte van Christus, als de hoofdstad van een staat die handel dreef met het oude Griekenland, Egypte en Azië. De ruïnes van de oude stad liggen dichtbij de noordelijke grens van Ethiopië. Ze markeren het hart van het oude Ethiopië, toen het Koninkrijk van Aksum de machtigste staat was tussen het Oost-Romeinse Rijk en Perzië. De massieve ruïnes dateren van tussen de 1e en 13e eeuw na Christus en bestaan uit monolithische obelisken, reusachtige stèles, koninklijke graven en ruïnes van oude kastelen. Lang na het politieke verval van Aksum in de 10e eeuw, werden er nog Ethiopische keizers gekroond.

Source: unesco.nl

Outstanding Universal Value
Brief Synthesis
Situated in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, Aksum symbolizes the wealth and importance of the civilization of the ancient Aksumite kingdom, which lasted from the 1st to the 8th centuries AD. The kingdom was at the crossroads of the three continents: Africa, Arabia and the Greco-Roman World, and was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia. In command of the ivory trade with Sudan, its fleets controlled the Red Sea trade through the port of Adulis and the inland routes of north eastern Africa.

The ruins of the ancient Aksumite Civilization covered a wide area in the Tigray Plateau. The most impressive monuments are the monolithic obelisks, royal tombs and the palace ruins dating to the 6th and 7th centuries AD.

Several stelae survive in the town of Aksum dating between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The largest standing obelisk rises to a height of over 23 meters and is exquisitely carved to represent a nine-storey building of the Aksumites. It stands at the entrance of the main stelae area. The largest obelisk of some 33 meters long lies where it fell, perhaps during the process of erection. It is possibly the largest monolithic stele that ancient human beings ever attempted to erect.

A series of inscription on stone tablets have proved to be of immense importance to historians of the ancient world. Some of them include trilingual text in Greek, Sabaean and Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopian), inscribed by King Ezana in the 4th century AD.

The introduction of Christianity in the 4th century AD resulted in the building of churches, such as Saint Mary of Zion, rebuilt in the Gondarian period, in the 17th century AD, which is believed to hold the Ark of the Covenant.

Criterion (i): The exquisitely carved monolithic stelae dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD are unique masterpieces of human creative genius.

Criterion (iv): The urban ensemble of obelisks, royal tombs and churches constitute a major development in the cultural domain reflecting the wealth and power of the Aksumite Civilization of the first millennium AD.
Integrity
The boundaries of the property, which encompass the entire area of ancient Aksum town, need to be adequately delineated and approved by the Committee.

One obelisk, removed from the site and taken to Rome as a war trophy during the Italian occupation, was returned to Aksum in 2005 and re-erected in in 2008.

Furthermore, at the time of inscription, it was noted that small, modern houses were built over most of the site, obscuring the majority of the underground Aksumite structures. Some of them still remain covered by modern houses. In 2011, the construction of a new museum began in the main Stelae Field and, unless amended, the height of the museum will have a highly negative visual impact on the property. Flooding has also become a major problem in the 4th century AD Tomb of the Brick Arches and other monuments.

For the reasons mentioned above, the integrity of the property remains vulnerable.
Authenticity
The authenticity of the obelisks, tombs and other monuments remain intact, although they are vulnerable due to lack of conservation. However, the authenticity of the whole property in terms of its ability to convey the scope and extent of ancient Aksum and its value is still vulnerable to lack of documentation, delineation and lack of planning controls. The monuments need to be related to the overall city plan, in spatial terms.
Protection and Management Requirements
The city of Aksum was put under the jurisdiction and protection of the National Antiquities Authority in 1958. No special legal framework is provided to protect the Obelisks of Aksum, except the general law, Proclamation No. 209/2000, which also established the institution in charge, the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH).

The property is managed at three levels - the site; the region; and the Federal administration. ARCCH prepared a proclamation that mapped and identified the precise area to be protected with local site authorities. It is reviewing the components and may wish to suggest changes to the number and/or size of the property.

The boundary and the property's management plan are not yet established. There is a need to submit an up-dated map of the property to clearly indicate the boundary, to produce and submit a management plan and to delineate and submit a buffer zone. There is also a need for adequate legal protection to be put in place.

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Aksum The ruins of the ancient city of Aksum are found close to Ethiopia's northern border. They mark the location of the heart of ancient Ethiopia, when the Kingdom of Aksum was the most powerful state between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia.