Town · The Zagwe kingdom of Lalibela · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Aksum

The old capital of the Aksumite kings, abandoned as a political centre after the eighth century and largely ruined by the end of the ninth (a ninth-century inscription of Hasani Dan'el claims he made it tributary), but still the holiest place of the kingdom.

Its cathedral of Maryam Tseyon, said to have been built under Ezana, burned by the queen Gudit in the tenth century and rebuilt, keeps the Ark of Zion. Abu al-Makarim, about 1200, knows that the Abyssinians keep the Ark of the Covenant, describes it, and says it is carried four times a year to the church in the king's palace; he does not name Aksum. The stelae of the old kings still stand.

Under the Agaw kings Aksum is a provincial church town; later the Kebra Nagast, said to have come to Ethiopia in Arabic in 1225 and compiled in Ge'ez by Yeshaq, the town's governor-priest (nebura'ed), in the early fourteenth century, makes Aksum the symbol of the 'Solomonic' line against the Zagwe.

Who holds it

Title
The church of Maryam Tseyon and its clergy, under the king's governor of Tigray
Since
Not pinned
Confidence
low

Lord in 1200

Under the Zagwe king's governor of Tigray (name not known); the clergy of Maryam Tseyon are the town's real masters.

How things stand that morning

A church town under the Zagwe; no event recorded for 1199-1200.

Council

The clergy of Maryam Tseyon; the governor-priest (nebura'ed) is attested only from the fourteenth century.

Communities

Tigrayan Christians and clergy.

Fairs and markets

The feasts of Zion (Maryam Tseyon); pilgrimage (later evidence).

Militia

Not recorded.

Walls and castle

No walls recorded; the ruined Aksumite palaces.

Trade and crafts

A market town of western Tigray on the roads to the coast and to the Tekeze; church crafts.

Places of note

  • Maryam Tseyon: Cathedral of the Ark of Zion.
  • The stelae field: Monuments of the Aksumite kings.

Where the sources disagree

  • Abu al-Makarim does not say where the Ark is kept; the identification with Aksum rests on Ethiopian tradition.

Evidence: Monuments and tradition; little written evidence for the town in the Zagwe period.

Primary sources for Zagwe kingdom

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The Glory of the Kings, Yeshaq of Aksum (compiler) (1314 to 1322 in Ge'ez; the colophon claims an Arabic version of 1225). Nothing on events, but the ideology that unmade the Zagwe: the story that Ethiopia's rightful kings descend from Solomon and Menelik, compiled a century after 1200 to justify Yekuno Amlak's seizure of the throne in 1270 and to brand the Zagwe as usurpers. Read online
  • History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrij and continuators (Various) (compiled in Arabic 1088 to 1094 from Coptic lives; continued for the patriarchs of 1102 to 1243 and later). The Coptic church's own record. Read online
  • The Golden Gospel of Dabra Libanos: Zagwe land grants (the acts were entered on the Gospel's blank leaves from the twelfth century onward; the Zagwe acts date from about 1150 to 1270). The only documents of the Zagwe state: grants of land and rights written into a Gospel book at Dabra Libanos of Ham in Eritrea, in the names of Zagwe kings (Tantawedem, Lalibela with his queen Masqal Kebra, Na'akueto La'ab) and their officers, with lists of estates and titles.
  • The History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and some Neighbouring Countries, Abu al-Makarim (formerly attributed to Abu Salih the Armenian) (about 1177 to 1208; the core about 1200). The one Christian text written in Egypt around 1200 that looks south: it describes the kingdom of the Nubians with its king at Dongola, his churches, the eparch of Nobadia, the churches of Qasr Ibrim and the raid of Shams al-Dawla Turanshah in 1173, the kingdom of Alwa (Alodia) with its 400 churches and its capital Soba, and the Abyssinians with their king, their metropolitan sent from Alexandria, the church of Aksum and the Ark, as a Coptic churchman heard of them through the patriarchate. Read online
  • The Life of Lalibela (probably the fifteenth century, from earlier material; the date is disputed). The only narrative about the Zagwe king who reigned in 1200: Lalibela's birth at Roha, the persecution by his brother King Harbay (Harbe), his exile and marriage to Masqal Kebra, his vision of Jerusalem, his accession, the building of the rock churches with angelic help, and his abdication in favour of his nephew Na'akueto La'ab. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, 'Axum'
  2. Abu al-Makarim, Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and some neighbouring countries, tr. Evetts (1895), pp. 284-291
  3. Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia 1270-1527 (Oxford 1972)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.