There is not much known on the early origins of the Askumite (also Axumite) kingdom. The Eastern horn of Africa had been well known during dynastic Egypt as the land of Punt: a place of trade and commerce. But while most ancient Ethiopia/Abyssinia remains shrouded in mystery, there is much more known of its medieval era.

Roman and Greek sources indicate that an Askumite kingdom was thriving by the 1st century AD; the city of Adulis is frequently mentioned because it had become one of the most important port cities in Africa. Ethiopian history places Askum as an ancient city and the home of Makedda: the celebrated Queen of Sheba. According to tradition the name of the later state would be derived from this ancient city of the well-known queen.

Its great prominence in the region comes around the 1st century AD. In the second century AD, Aksum acquired tribute states on the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea, placing its troops in occupation of Southern Yemen. This was followed by the conquest of northern Ethiopia, and then finally the defeat of the once mighty Meroitic Kush - ancient Nubia.

The downfall of the Nubian powers led to the swift rise of Aksumite imperial power. The Aksumites controlled one of the most important trade routes in the world and occupied one of the most fertile regions in the world. Aksum lay directly in the path of the growing commercial trade routes between Africa, Arabia, and India.

As a result, it became fabulously wealthy and its major cities, Adulis, Aksum, and Matara, became three of the most important cosmopolitan centers in the ancient world. An indication of this cosmopolitan character can be found in the fact that the major Aksumite cities had Jewish, Nubian, Christian, and even Buddhist minorities.

The great Axum stelae: at over 74ft it is twice as large as any in either Nubia or Egypt.

By the 4th Century AD the religious system of Christian Rome had conquered Egypt and Syria. During this period a Syrian Christian philosopher and his two sons arrived at port in Askum. Rome and Askum were engaged in a battle over the supremacy of the sea trade routes at the time. Upon reaching port the ship is seized and the philosopher and crew were killed. The two Syrian youngsters were spared and became servants of the royal family during the reign of King Ella Amida.

Though it is uncertain how, they succeed in converting the royal family to Christianity. It was through one of these Syrian servants, Frumentius, that Christianity came to be Ethiopia's state religion. Frumentius later became in Alexandria, the first Bishop of Askum.

Amida's successor Ezana also converted to Christianity. Ezana was responsible for the conquest of Nubia (Meroitic Kush/Kash). But Nubia does not convert to Christianity upon Ezana's conquest. Rather Nubia's conversion begins in 542AD when two missionary groups set out to gain converts to their cause.

One group was the Monophysites, under the patronage of Emperor Justinian, and the other was the Melkites, under the patronage of the Empress Theodora. Through some crafty political maneuvering the Monophysites manage to reach the Nubian kingdoms. And by 580AD the one time home to the mighty pharaohs of Ampedak and Amani, had accepted Coptic (Egyptian) Christianity. Christianity flourished in the Nubian kingdoms mostly among the royalty and the monks; it is unknown whether the general populace fully embraced the religion. Under pressure from northern Muslim neighbors, the Nubian Christian kingdoms fall one by one to Islam---the last in 1504. This is significant as for centuries to come the greatest threat to Ethiopia shall be their Muslim neighbors to the north and East.

Pictured here is a Coptic Christian priest in front of a church dating back to the medieval era of Ethiopia:

Askum suffered its greatest upset during the 10th century when warrior queen only known as Gudit. Her devastating attack from a southern kingdom, probable adherents to traditional African spirituality resisting an encroaching Christian Askum, left the state in ruins. The Solomonid dynasty was put off the throne and hunted down. According to Coptic sources, numerous churches were destroyed and Christians killed in Gudit's conquering of Askum and the founding of the Zagwe dynasties. It would be several centuries before a Christian king named Anbessa Wudim wrested control of the kingdom once more and ushered in a return to Christian based architectural projects.

According to local tradition, God instructed a famous Askumite king, Lalibela, to build 11 churches the like of which the world had never seen, and dispatched a team of angels to help him complete the monumental task.

The king is said to have constructed the 12th-century church, Beit Giorgis (House of George), after a fully armored Saint George appeared on horseback and admonished him for not having consecrated a shrine to him. Christian monks still show visitors the legendary "hoof marks" of Saint George's steed. Lalibela's masterwork is now often cited as the "eighth" man-made wonder of the world.

Nestled into the foothills of the Simien Mountains, some 100 miles south of Aksum, lays the city of Gondar, a former royal capital with a past of political intrigue. This past is tied in with the arrival of the Portuguese, whose Jesuit fighters Ethiopia enlisted to help roll back the devastating Islamic conquests of the 16th century.

The Portuguese also persuaded Ethiopian King Susenyos to impose Catholicism as the state religion, an act that ultimately resulted in his ousting and the massacre of many Portuguese by Ethiopian Christians. His son, Fasilidas, established Gondar as his capital in 1632, and it remained the seat of imperial power for 200 years.

Fasilidas's square, a two-story castle with a turret at each corner, inspired by a mixture of Ethiopian and Portuguese design, remains the central attraction of the royal compound. Although it endowed Gondar with many beautiful buildings, Fasilidas's rule also marked the start of a long and violent string of successions, often through poisoning or patricide, and aggravated by bloody struggles for power by feuding regional lords.

One of Gondar's principal rulers was Queen Mentewab (1730 to 1799AD). The palace she had built for her self came to be the kingdom's finest example of "Gondarian style" architecture, embodying the best of Portuguese, Indian and Ethiopian influences. Her two-story 350-square-meter palace in the fortified compound of Qwesqwam was complemented by a church.

The legacy of Ethiopia has had a great affect on the black world. The European nation of Italy, eager to acquire its own colonial holdings, targeted Ethiopia whose location on the Red Sea made it a choice spot for control. After breaking the Treaty of Whicale, Italy declared war on Ethiopia in 1895. One year later the Ethiopians, under Menelik II, soundly defeated the Italians at Adowa thus becoming the first African nations - and one of the few of color - to repel European colonization.

The news of this African State under an African king defeating a European army spread like wildfire. Everywhere throughout the black Diaspora - in Africa, the West Indies, South America, Europe, and North America - Ethiopia became a symbol of power, freedom, resistance and redemption. A strong connection with Ethiopia, Ethiopianism, became common around the black Diaspora. It would be picked up by numerous figures in the early 1900s, from JA Rogers, to WEB Du Bois to Marcus Garvey and many literary and artistic figures of the Harlem Renaissance.

In November 1930 Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Haile Selassie I, Power of the Holy Trinity, 225th Emperor of the Solomonic Dynasty, Elect of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

Emperor Haile Selassie declared his monarchy the oldest continuous monarchy in the world tracing his descent back to the union of the ancient Hebrew King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Makedda. The new Emperor even kept over 27 full-grown lions that were said to lounge around his palace as easily as pet dogs. No doubt, to the Emperor and Ethiopians, they were an extension of the ruler's many symbols of power.

Africans around the world watched as European royalty presented themselves, even bowing to this black king, at Selassie's elaborate coronation. When in 1935 Italy sought to once again conquer Ethiopia in revenge for their humiliating defeat of near half a century prior, blacks everywhere - from the United States to South Africa - rallied behind the nation's aid. Street battles between black Americans and Italians took place in NY. In the Caribbean, black soldiers in the British army and airforce traveled to Ethiopia to lend their military skills. In South Africa colonized blacks began a northward march toward Ethiopia, determined to help repel the Italian invaders. For his determination against the fascist invaders, Emperor Selassie would be named "Time Man of the Year".

The end of the Ethiopian-Askumite dynasties would come in 1974. Ethiopia with its deep class conflicts, aggressive attempts to keep ethnic groups under control and near medieval feudal society, despite attempts at modernity, fell to the forces of Marxism. In a 1974 coup Selassie was dethroned and replaced by a Marxist government and dictator, bringing to a close the near 1,000-year-old kingdom.

For More Information See:

Budge, Wallis E.A., trans. The Kebra Negast

Beckwith, Carol. African Ark: People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa

Brustein, Stanley. Ancient African Civilizations - Kush and Axum

Time Magazine's Timeline Coverage of Emperor Haile Selassie http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/selassie/

Audio Clip Describing Defeat of Italians at Battle of Adowa http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/rams/11audio8.ram