S2E16: The War for the Dahlak Islands and the Aksumite Dark Age

Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the latest episode of the podcast. This one was admittedly a little weird because of the circumstances surrounding the history being discussed. The podcast generally tries to focus on history from a narrative perspective, telling the podcast as a linear story. I personally like this format because it makes the show more digestible, personable, and, frankly, entertaining. However, due to the fact that this episode focuses on a historiographic dark age in Aksumite history, writing in a narrative style for this episode was simply impossible. However, the era which encompassed around 600-880 AD, despite being a time with few surviving records, is a crucial era for understanding long-term trends affecting the Aksumite state, economy, and society during its waning years.

The general trend of the era in Aksum during this era was one of decentralization. Economically, the model of centralized cities as the basis of the Aksumite economy declined. Rather than the trade and sale of finished goods and exotic materials, the new Aksumite economy was dominated by subsistence farming of teff. Politically, the once autocratic power of the Aksumite negus was divided among the increasingly powerful Tewhahedo Church and local landowners.

A Village in the Dahlak Islands

In addition to the declining power of the king, the power of the Aksumite merchants also declined during this era. Facing declining influence, the Aksumite merchant class became increasingly desperate. They began waging naval campaigns to reverse their declining fortunes. The main theater of these naval wars was the Dahlak archipelago. This region had been an Aksumite territory for centuries, but had been captured and converted into a prison colony by the Umayyad caliphate. Throughout the 8th and 9th centuries, the Aksumite merchants would repeatedly capture, lose, and recapture control over the islands from various Arabian powers on the Red Sea. At one point, the Aksumite merchants even successfully seized control of some cities on the Arabian coast, with Jeddah being the most prominent.

The City of Jeddah, captured and briefly occupied by Aksumite merchants in the 8th century, is now a major city in Saudi Arabia.

However, by the end of the 10th century, the islands inhabitants had established a local power base strong enough to challenge both Arab and Aksumite domination, resulting in the creation of an independent sultanate on the archipelago. In a final effort to reassert their power, Aksumite merchants made a desperate campaign to capture the island of Socotra in the late 10th century. The initial invasion was a success, with the Aksumite state seemingly endorsing the invasion through the decision to ordain a new bishop on the island. However, less than a decade later, Al-Salt bin Malik, the ruler of Oman, decided to respond to this challenge of Omani trade power in the region. He sent a fleet which successfully dislodged the Aksumites from the island, ending Aksumite merchant power in the Arabian and Red Seas.