Najashi

Armah (Ge'ez: አርማህ) or Aṣḥamah (Arabic: أَصْحَمَة‎),[1] also known as Al-Najāshī (Arabic: ٱلنَّجَاشِيّ‎), was the ruler of the Kingdom of Aksum who reigned from 614–631 CE. He is primarily known through the coins that were minted during his reign.[2] It has been suggested that it was either he or more probably his father who gave shelter to the Muslim emigrants around 615–616 at Axum.[3]

King Najashi of Aksum
King of Aksum
PredecessorGersem
SuccessorKwestantitos
Personal Information
BornAsham
Around 560 CE
Kingdom of Axum
Died631(631-00-00) (aged 70–71)
Negash, Kingdom of Axum
(present-day Ethiopia)
ReligionIslam (disputed) , formerly Christianity

Accounts

Traditionnal Muslim sources indicate that the Islamic prophet Muhammad prayed an absentee funeral prayer (Arabic: صَلَاة الْغَائِب‎, romanized: Ṣalāt al-Ġāʾib) in Madinah[1] which is performed upon a dead Muslim if they die in a place with no Muslims to pray for the dead. This is one of the justifications provided by Muslims that Al-Najashi died as a Muslim.[4]

Scholar of ancient Ethiopia, Stuart Munro-Hay (1947–2004), stated that either Armah or Gersem was the last Axumite king to issue coins. Bronze coins from the reign of Armah depict him as a full-length figure enthroned, with Christian cross motifs throughout.[5]

Artifacts

Armah's silver coins have an unusual reverse, showing a structure with three crosses, the middle one gilded. Munro-Hay quotes W.R.O. Hahn as suggesting that this is an allusion to the Holy Sepulchre, as a reference to the Persian capture of Jerusalem in 614.[6]

See also

References
  1. al-Bukhari, Imam (2013). Sahih al-Bukhari: The Early Years of Islam》Chapter:THE BEGINNINGS OF ISLAM; Section:XIV THE DEATH OF THE NEGUS. Translated by Muhammad Asad. The Other Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-967-506-298-8. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  2. A letter to Antoine d'Abbadie, dated 8 January 1869, mentions a coin of this ruler. Rubenson, Sven, ed. (2 September 2000). Acta Aethiopica, Vol. III: Internal Rivalries and Foreign Threats, 1869–1879. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-765-80728-9.
  3. M. Elfasi; Ivan Hrbek (1988). Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. UNESCO. p. 560. ISBN 9789231017094.
  4. https://sunnah.com/search/?q=negus
  5. Markowitz, Mike (22 July 2014). "The Coinage of Aksum". CoinWeek. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  6. Munroe-Hay, Stuart C. (24 June 1991). Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 91. ISBN 0748601066.
  • Atkins, Brian; Juel-Jensen, Bent (1988). "The Gold Coinage of Aksum: Further Analyses of Specific Gravity, A Contribution to Chronology". Numismatic Chronicle (148).
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