The Axumite Kingdom was a landlocked
Kingdom and had no ships
PM Abiy in his recorded speech to
the Ethiopian Parliament aired on 13 October, last year claimed, ‘Ethiopia’
(there was no country or state called Ethiopia. then) had historically had a port on the Red Sea. The Axumite which was
one of the strongest kingdoms in Africa at that time was in
current Tigray and Southern Eritrea. The port of Adulis itself lies in current Eritrea. Pre-Axumite civilization
has been uncovered in Eritrea. Research in the Asmara Basin suggests
significant potential for uncovering the origins of settled life in the
highlands and the development of early urban-like communities in the Horn of
Africa. In research in the Asmara Basin suggests significant potential for
uncovering the origins of settled life in the highlands and the development of
early urban-like communities in the Horn of Africa[1].
In 1994, excavations conducted by
the National Eritrean Museum in Kokan revealed significant findings about
Agordat's historical role. Dating back to around 2300 BCE, Agordat was a
pivotal centre in the regional trade networks, linking the Nile valley with the
Eritrean and Ethiopian highlands[2],
up until the "Pre-Axumite period" around 400 BCE.
The port of Adulis was established
by Ptolemaic Dynasty that controlled Egypt for almost three centuries (305-30
BCE), eventually falling to the Romans. The Axumite Kingdom, as well as current
Sudan used the port for commercial purposes, but did not own it. The earliest
recorded history about Adulis is found in “The Periplus of the Erythrean
Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean” believed to written in 60 CE by a Greek historian and traveller and the
book was translated to English and published by Wilfred Harvey Schoff in 1912.
Adulis is mentioned 31 times in the book. Some excerpts from the book:
“Adulis.—The present port is Massawa,
centre of the Italian colony of Eritrea, which lies near the mouth of the bay
of Adulis. The ancient name is preserved in the modern village of Zula. The
location has been described by J. Theodore Bent, (&-cred City of the
Ethiopians, London, 1896: pp. 228-230). It is on the west side of Annesley Bay,
and numerous black basalt ruins are still visible there. Adulis was one of
the colonies of Ptolemy Philadelphus and was always of commercial importance
because it was the natural port for Abyssinia and the Sudan[3].
It seems to have been built by Syrian Greeks.” Some excerpts from the book:
“Below Ptolemais of the Hunts, at a
distance of about three thousand stadia, there is Adulis, a port established by
law, situated at the inner end of a bay that runs in toward the south. Before
the harbour is the so-called Mountain Island, about two hundred stadia seaward
from the very head of the bay, with the shores of the mainland close on both
sides. Ships bound for this port now anchor here because of attacks from the
land. They anchored at the very head of the bay by an island called Diodorus,
which was close to the shore, but could be reached on foot from the land and by
which means the barbarous natives attacked the island. Opposite Mountain
Island, on the mainland twenty stadia from shore, was Adulis, a fair-sized
village, from which it was a three-day journey to Coloe, an inland town and the
first market for ivory. From that place to the city of the people called
Auxumites was a five-day journey more. All the ivory was brought to that place
from the country beyond the Nile through the district called Cyeneum, and
thence to Adulis. Practically the entire number of elephants and rhinoceroses
killed live in places inland, although at rare intervals they are hunted on the
seacoast even near Adulis. Before the harbour of that market town, out at sea
on the right are a great many little sandy islands called Alalaei. They yield
tortoiseshell, which is brought to market there by the Fish-Eater[4]s.”
The Axumite Kingdom even invaded
Yemen with the support of the Caesar of Rome, who provided the Aksumites
with a fleet of ships to use to carry Abyssinian soldiers to the west coast of
Yemen. As a landlocked kingdom, Aksum possessed no ships and had no maritime
domains but did have limited access via the port of Adulis[5].
The Aksumites’ army was headed by Abraha, viceroy of the sixth-century Aksumite
king Kaleb, who also ruled Yemen (himself and his son) for about seventy years.
The invasion was in support of persecuted Himyarite Christians of Najran of
Yemen (presently part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), whom Kaleb considered
coreligionists. When Roman Emperor Justin I sent sent an embassy under Nonnus, to
Axum to invite participation in the war against Persia, the kingdom was still powerful
and warlike, though the king, Asbaha, pleaded he had no ships and borrowed
sixty ships[6]
from Justin. Dhu Nuwwas , the last of Himyarite kings of Yemen, had Jewish sympathies
and was a notable prosecutor of the Christians. Asbaha of Axum, who was alleged
later to have become a monk, was an equally fanatic Christian and the
expedition which he equipped for the relief of his co-religionists was successful. Dhu Nuwwas was killed, and the
Yemen became a dependency of Axum with a governor appointed by the king.
Abraha’s career is of particular interest on account of his
expedition to Mecca in 570 which is mentioned in the Koran, as ‘Battle of the
Elephant’. The town of Saphar was the seat of a Church desecrated by the Arabs
of Quraish and in revenge Abraha marched to Mecca, the site of a sacred stone
later to be famous as ‘Ka’ba’ with thirteen elephants and a large army. He
failed as his army was smitten by smallpox.
You can read,
the book, ‘ The periplus of the Erythrean Sea’ at this link:
https://hedgait.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-periplus-of-erythrean-sea.html
[1] Schmidt, P. R., M. C. Curtis and Z.
Teka (2008). The archaeology of ancient Eritrea. Trenton, NJ, Red Sea Press
[2] Brandt, S. A. M., A.; Perlingieri,
C. (2008). Linking the
Highlands and Lowlands: Implications of a Test Excavation at Kokan Rockshelter,
Agordat, Eritrea. The Archaeology of Ancient Eritrea. P. R. Schmidt, Curtis,
Matthew, Zelalem Teka. Trenton (NJ), Red Sea Press.
: 33-47.
[3] Wilfred
Harvey Schoff, The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea: Travel and Trade in the
Indian Ocean (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1912), 60.
[4] Same
book as above, p.22
[5] Al-Shami, Al-Manhal Fi Tarikh Wa
Akhbar al-Afar (Al-Danakil), 124–32.
[6] Paul
A. History of the Beja, p. 48-49
No comments:
Post a Comment