The ''Najashi'' () was the Arabic term for the ruler of the
Kingdom of Aksum
The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...
() who reigned from 614 to 630. It is agreed by Muslim scholars that Najashi gave shelter to early Muslim refugees from
Mecca
Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
, around 615–616 at
Aksum.
Reign
The Najashi reigned for almost 17 years from 614 to 630 CE. Not much is known about his personal life and reign other than that during his reign,
Muslims migrated to Abyssinia and met its ruler.
He died in 630. Some Muslim sources indicate that Muhammad prayed an absentee
funeral prayerSahih Muslim
() is the second hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj () in the format, the work is valued by Sunnis, alongside , as the most important source for Islamic religion after the Q ...
, ''Chapter 11:The Book of Prayer - Funerals'', No.951-953. () in
al-Baqi Cemetery,
Medina
Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...
which is performed for the departed soul of a Muslim.
Identification with historical Axumite king
Arabic sources state the king's name was "Ella-Seham", occasionally written as variant names "Ashama", "Asmaha", "Sahama" and "Asbeha".
Ethiopian regnal lists record multiple kings named "Saham" or "Ella Saham", but all of them reigned before
Kaleb (r. early 6th century) and are too early in the chronology for any of their reigns to coincide with the migration to Abyssinia. Ethiopian sources instead state that a different king named Adriaz was a contemporary of prophet Muhammad. An unpublished manuscript dates his reign to 603–623
E.C.. According to
Alaqa Taye Gabra Mariam, the Muslim migration took place in 620
E.C. and coincided with the reign of Aderaz.
See also
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Armah
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Saifu
*
List of mosques in Africa
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Al Nejashi Mosque in
Negash, Ethiopia
**
Mosque of the Companions in
Massawa
Massawa or Mitsiwa ( ) is a port city in the Northern Red Sea Region, Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak Archipelago. It has been a historically important port for ...
,
Eritrea
Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...
References
Bibliography
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* W. Raven, "Some early Islamic texts on the negus of Abyssinia", ''Journal of Semitic Studies'', 22 (1988), pp. 197–218
* {{cite book , last=Sellassie , first=Sergew Hable , title=Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270 , date=1972 , location=Addis Ababa
7th-century monarchs in Africa
Christian and Islamic interfaith dialogue
Hijrah
630 deaths