The Aksumite Kingdom (Abyssinia)
مملكة أكسوم (الحبشة)
The Ethiopian power across the Red Sea which twice occupied Yemen — first 340–378 exploiting Himyarite rivalries, then in 525 under Aryat with Roman ships, in revenge for Dhu Nuwas’s trenches of fire — and whose commander Abraha led the elephant campaign on Mecca.
At a glance
- Era
- Pre-Islamic Arabia
- Region
- East Africa & Swahili coast
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
The kingdom of Axum (Abyssinia): Christian Africa's power; it occupied Yemen twice, and among its governors was Abraha.
In the sira presentation
Al-Mubarakpuri devotes a chapter to government and rule among the Arabs before Islam, dividing the peninsula's rulers into non-independent crowned kings (Yemen's kings, the Ghassanid house and al-Hira's kings) and independent tribal chiefs 1.
Connections
- Participated in
- The Second Abyssinian Occupation of Yemen
People and things also explored
AbrahaAryat (Abraha’s predecessor in Yemen)The Byzantine EmpireThe Second Abyssinian Occupation of YemenThe Year of the Elephant and the Prophet's birthPre-Islamic ArabiaYemenThe Battle of Dhu Qar
Sources
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri
- Tafhim al-Quran — Abu al-A'la al-Mawdudi
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “The Aksumite Kingdom (Abyssinia)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/polity/aksumite-kingdom/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-12.