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Aksum adopts Christianity under King Ezana

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During Ezana's reign the Aksumite kingdom adopted Christianity, a change visible in the coinage: earlier symbols are replaced by the cross, among the earliest coin issues anywhere to carry it. The precise year is not fixed and is given variously between roughly 330 and 356. Aksum's case is important because the tradition arrived through Red Sea trade contact rather than conquest, and because Aksum and Armenia are rival claimants to the title of first Christian state.

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Connections · 4
Assembled narrative · 1

Assembled from 49 blocks · 1 evidence · 51 related

  1. Story
  2. During Ezana's reign the Aksumite kingdom adopted Christianity, a change visible in the coinage: earlier symbols are replaced by the cross, among the earliest coin issues anywhere to carry it. The precise year is not fixed and is given variously between roughly 330 and 356. Aksum's case is important because the tradition arrived through Red Sea trade contact rather than conquest, and because Aksum and Armenia are rival claimants to the title of first Christian state.
  3. Knowledge
  4. Christianity
  5. Indian Ocean maritime trade network
  6. Aksum
  7. Elite and state adoption as a diffusion mechanism
  8. Aksum adopts Christianity under King Ezana
  9. Connections
  10. Aksum
  11. Christianity
  12. Indian Ocean maritime trade network
  13. Elite and state adoption as a diffusion mechanism
  14. Indian Ocean maritime trade network
  15. Christianity
  16. Aksum adopts Christianity under King Ezana
  17. Church of the East (Nestorian Christianity)
  18. Alexandria
  19. Constantinople
  20. Judaism
  21. Jerusalem (Old City)
  22. Aksum
  23. Armenia's traditional adoption of Christianity as state religion
  24. The 'Edict of Milan' — toleration and restitution in the Roman Empire
  25. Aksum adopts Christianity under King Ezana
  26. Alopen received at the Tang court
  27. Measured global religious composition, 2010-2020
  28. Islam
  29. Silk Road religious corridor
  30. Aksum
  31. Kilwa Kisiwani
  32. Hinduism
  33. Zoroastrianism
  34. Aksum adopts Christianity under King Ezana
  35. Zoroastrian migrants reach Gujarat — the Parsi settlement
  36. Construction of Borobudur under Shailendra patronage
  37. Construction phases of the Great Mosque at Kilwa Kisiwani
  38. The ruling house of Malacca adopts Islam
  39. Measured global religious composition, 2010-2020
  40. Malacca (Melaka)
  41. Ashoka (Ashoka Maurya)
  42. Council at Pataliputra and the despatch of Buddhist missions (traditional account)
  43. Armenia's traditional adoption of Christianity as state religion
  44. The 'Edict of Milan' — toleration and restitution in the Roman Empire
  45. Aksum adopts Christianity under King Ezana
  46. Fall of the Sasanian Empire to the Rashidun Caliphate
  47. The ruling house of Malacca adopts Islam
  48. Evidence
  49. After King Ezana's conversion, around 340-356 CE, Aksumite coinage replaced pre-Christian symbols with the cross; Aksumite coins are among the earliest anywhere to depict crosses, and Aksum adopted Christianity as a state religion in the mid-fourth century.
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/atlas?object=EVENT_AKSUM_EZANA_CONVERSION_C340&experience=EVENT_AKSUM_EZANA_CONVERSION_C340