The Forgotten Empire of Aksum: Red Sea Trade, African Power and an Ancient Christian Kingdom

In the highlands of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, Aksum built an empire whose influence crossed the Red Sea. Its rulers raised monumental stelae, issued coins in gold, silver and copper, commanded trade through Adulis and left inscriptions in Ge'ez, Greek and South Arabian scripts. In the fourth century King Ezana adopted Christianity, placing Aksum among the earliest Christian states. The Forgotten Empire of Aksum follows the region's pre-Aksumite foundations, the rise of an urban capital, farming and craft, ivory and maritime commerce, royal ideology, coinage, military expeditions, conversion, relations with Rome and Byzantium, and intervention in the Himyarite kingdom of South Arabia. It also examines households, labour, language, archaeology and the limits of surviving evidence. The final chapters trace the weakening of overseas networks, changing settlement and the powerful reinvention of Aksum in medieval and modern Ethiopian memory. This is an accessible, balanced and richly illustrated account of an African empire too often placed at the margins of world history.