Aksum

Aksum is an old city in the Ethiopian highlands, once the capital of a Christian kingdom ruled by a king called the Negus. When the first Muslims were a small, weak group in Mecca, they found a safe home in Aksum far from harm, and they lived there in peace.

Aksum was the capital of the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia in the Ethiopian highlands, in what is now northern Ethiopia. It was an old trading kingdom with a place between Rome, Persia and Arabia. Around 615 CE some of the first Muslims emigrated there to escape harm in Mecca, in the first two emigrations of Islamic history, and the Negus received them kindly and told the Quraysh delegation they were safe with him. In the museum Aksum appears in the stories of the first and second migrations and in the emigrants' return in year 7 AH.

Aksum was the capital of the Christian Aksumite kingdom in the Ethiopian highlands, one of the great trading kingdoms of the ancient world, sitting by the Red Sea on routes linking Arabia, Rome and lands beyond. Around 615 CE some of the first Muslims sought refuge there in the first and second migrations to Abyssinia, fleeing Quraysh persecution; the sira books relate that the Negus sheltered them and refused to hand them over to the Quraysh delegation, and in a famous account wept when Ja'far ibn Abi Talib recited to him lines from Sura Maryam. The emigrants' return from Aksum in two ships to the Prophet ﷺ at Khaybar in year 7 AH closes the story. Sources also record that the grave known as the Negus's tomb later became a visited shrine. For the museum, Aksum is the link between Arabia and Africa and an early example of the young Muslim community's relationship with a neighbouring Christian kingdom.