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Kaleb Kingdom of Aksum
Preceded by Ousas King of Aksum {{{years}}} Succeeded by Alla Amidas

Kaleb (c.520) is perhaps the best-documented, if not best-known, king of Axum. Procopius of Caesarea calls him "Hellestheaeus", a variant of his throne name Ella Atsbeha or Ella Asbeha (Histories, 1.20) On both his coins and inscriptions he left at Axum, as well as Ethiopian hagiographical sources and king lists, he refers to himself as the son of Tazena.^[1] He may be the "Atsbeha" or "Asbeha" of the Ethiopian legends of Abreha and Asbeha, the other possibility being Ezana's brother Saizana.

Procopius, John of Ephesus, and other contemporary historians recount his invasion of Yemen around 520, against the Jewish Himyarite king Yusuf Asar Yathar (also known as Dhu Nuwas), who was persecuting the Christians in his kingdom. After much fighting, Kaleb's soldiers eventually routed Yusuf's forces and killed the king, allowing Kaleb to appoint Sumuafa' Ashawa', a native Christian (named Esimphaios by Procopius), as his viceroy of Himyar.

Axumite control of South Arabia continued until c.525 when Sumuafa' Ashawa' was deposed by Abraha, who made himself king. Procopius states that Kaleb made several unsuccessful attempts to recover his overseas territory; however, his successor later negotiated a peace with Abraha, where Abraha acknowledged the Axumite king's authority and paid tribute. Munro-Hay opines that by this expedition Axum overextended itself, and this final intervention across the Red Sea, "was Aksum's swan-song as a great power in the region."^[2]

A reference map of the empire of Kaleb of Axum.

Ethiopian tradition states that Kaleb eventually abdicated his throne, gave his crown to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and retired to a monastery.^[3]

Later historians who recount the events of King Kaleb's reign include Ibn Hisham, Ibn Ishaq, and Tabari. Taddesse Tamrat records a tradition he heard from an aged priest in Lalibela that "Kaleb was a man of Lasta and his palace was at Bugna where it is known that Gebre Mesqel Lalibela had later established his centre. The relevance of this tradition for us is the mere association of the name of Kaleb with the evengelization of this interior province of Aksum."^[4]

Besides several inscriptions bearing his name,^[5] Axum also contains a pair of ruined structures, one said to be his tomb and its partner said to be the tomb of his son Gabra Masqal. (Tradition gives him a second son, Israel, whom it has been suggested is identical with the Axumite king Israel.^[6]) This structure was first examined as an archeological subject by Henry Salt in the early 19th century; almost a century later, it partially cleared and mapped out by the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition in 1906. The most recent excavation of this tomb was in 1973 by the British Institute in East Africa.^[7]

1. ^ S. C. Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), p. 84.
2. ^ Munro-Hay, Aksum, p. 88.
3. ^ Munro-Hay, Aksum, pp. 88f.
4. ^ The translation of one inscription, written in Ge'ez, appears with discussion in G.W.B. Huntingford, The Historical Geography of Ethiopia (London: The British Academy, 1989), pp. 63-65.
5. ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 26 n.1
6. ^ Munro-Hay, Aksum, p. 91.
7. ^ The report of the 1973 excavation of these structures was published in S.C. Munro-Hay, Excavations at Aksum (London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1989), pp. 42ff.