Israel of Axum

Israel (vocalized Ge'ez: እስራኤል ʾIsrāʾēl or ይስራኤል Yisrāʾēl, c. 590) was a king of Axum. He is primarily known through the coins minted during his reign.

Israel
Coin of the Axumite king Israel
King of Aksum
PredecessorSaifu
SuccessorGersem

The Kebra Nagast and Ethiopian historical tradition states that Kaleb had two sons, Israel and Gabra Masqal.[1] One tradition claims that Israel was governor of Adwa during his father's reign, but otherwise the Ethiopian chronicles tell little else about him.[1] The 1922 regnal list of Ethiopia states that Israel ruled only for one month between Kaleb and Gabra Masqal.

Skeptical that this Israel was actually the son of King Kaleb, Munro-Hay suggests that Israel may have been better than the other kings between him and Kaleb (or Gabra Masqal), and tradition compressed the succession.[2] Richard Pankhurst mentions the name of this king as an early example of Judaic influence in Ethiopian culture.[3]

Notes
  1. Budge, E. A. Wallis (1928). A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia (Volume 1). London: Methuen & Co. p. 264-265.
  2. S. C. Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), p. 13.
  3. Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopians: A History (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), p. 36
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