The Land Of Tigrai: The Historical Birthplace Of Everything In Ethiopia

The Pre-Aksumite of Daamat was the first known Ethiopian kingdom that reigned in Tigray from its capital Yeha, Tigray and present-day Eritrea during the 10th and 5th Century BC. Its other administrative places included MATARA and QOHAITO in present-day Eritrea. It was the precursor to the great Axumite civilization. It is considered as one of the few birthplaces of Human Civilization. It is where human race all began and it is where Ethiopian history started to be succeeded by the great Aksumite Empire. Geez was the official language of the well-developed Daamat civilization. It was a well-flourished trading Empire that utilized irrigations, plows, grew millet, made iron tools and weapons and traded gold, silver and ivory with South Arabian merchantsShow more

The Great Aksumite Kingdom was the successor to the Daamat kingdom and reigned in Tigray, Eritrean highlands, and much of present day central Ethiopia from 100 BC to 940 AD from its center in the city of Aksum, in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Its official language was Geez and it created its own alphabet, the Geez Alphabet and numbers, Africa’s only indigenous written script and numbering system. It had minted its own currencies/coins bearing the effigies of the Aksumite Emperors, the fist in Africa and among the few in the World. It created its own indigenous calendar. Its port was the bustling ADULIS through which it was producing and doing import and export trading of salt, gold, iron ore, wheat, barley, ivory, rhino horns, emeralds, incense and silk spices. St. YARED OF AKSUM, the legendary Tigraway/ Ethiopian spiritual musical composer, scholar, pioneer of musical notation, choreographer and poet, who lived in Axum city in the 6th Century AD, invented the sacred music tradition of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches and Ethiopia’s system of musical notation. He is responsible for creating Zema/ chants of traditional especially of Ethiopian and Eritreans Tewahedo Orthodox Churches. It constructed numerous great obelisks the most famous of which was the obelisk of Aksum. At its height, Axumite Empire was the dominant trading nation in the Red Sea and a major naval power that reigned over most of modern day Ethiopia and Eritrea, Western Yemen and Sudan. Even the South Arabian kingdom of the Himyarites across the Red Sea in todays Yemen came under the sovereignty of Aksumite Kingdom in the early 6th Century during the reign of EMPEROR KALEB and the famous GENERAL ABREHA (C.500-534) to protect Christians from persecutions. It was a major naval and trading nation/power that served as a link between the Mediterranean and Asian Worlds and considered as one of the four greatest Empires in the World at that time besides Roman, Persian and Chinese Empires. Aksum was the melting pot of all three major religions, Christianity, Judaism and later on Islam.

Advertisement
It was through Aksum that all three religions were first introduced to and spread to the rest of Ethiopia and the first to practice all three in Africa. While Christianity and Islam came during the reigns of KING EZANA (3rd Century) and KING NEGASH (6th Century) respectively, it is not exactly known that of Judaism. The ZION SAINT MARY's CHURCH of Aksum is the very root and spiritual nucleus of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox churches and the custodian of the most holy of Christian relics, “THE ARK OF THE COVENANT” where God was believed to have delivered the Ten Commandments to humanity. The great Axumite civilization with its hundredth of successive emperors was the origin of the SOLOMONIC DYNASTY in Ethiopia and the precursor to the historical Abyssinia of the Middle ages and modern day Ethiopia. It was also the genesis of government establishments in Ethiopia. During these two great civilizations of Daamat and Aksumite Kingdoms, present day Eritrea was always an integral part and parcel of both kingdoms.

As evidenced in above-mentioned historical records, just to mention a few of Tigray’s numerous invaluable gifts to Ethiopia:

Geez language
Geez Alphabet
Geez Numerical
Original version of Ethiopia's Tri-color national flag
Initial designation of the country as Ethiopia albeit unofficially
Own currency/ coin
Own calendar
Ethiopian & Eritrean orthodox churches' spiritual music and notation system including Zema
Great obelisks
Origin/gateway of Christianity, Islam and Judaism
Home to the original holy Christian tablet of ‘the Ark of The Covenant”
The origin of Solomonic dynasty and governance structure in Ethiopia