Talk:List of kings of Axum

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Issues

There some issues unaddressed in this list as it currently stands.

Sources Inevitably, this list will come from two sources: (1) the rulers of Aksum reconstruction from contemporary records, inscriptions & coins; (2) the traditional Ethiopian king list, which exists in several versions & is of uncertain origins. This needs to be noted at the beginning of the article.
The scholarly reconstruction Since this list is assembled from inference of the primary sources, as new evidence emerges & experts re-examine the primary sources, the identities, dates & order of these rulers changes. In some instances there are more than one plausible interpretations of the sources. (And there is one person currently included in the list which should be removed.) Thus the list needs updating, & perhaps notes explaining the problems.
Dates There are only three reliable anchors to this list: (1) Endubis issued his coins after AD 290, when his gold coins were tariffed at half an aureus (or quinarius); (2) Ezana was converted to Christianity c. 340, which means the pagan rulers who issued coins can be dated before this point, & the Christian rulers after; (3) there are several firm dates relating to Kaleb, which provide a flourit for him from c. 520 to c.550. From this point dates & order of the Aksumite rulers will vary between authorities. (I can provide at least three different sets of dates compiled by experts for the coin-issuing Aksumite rulers.)
The validity of the names in the traditional Ethiopian king list No one knows on what basis these names were selected, nor just how reliable they are, beyond a sense that the existence of the earlier rulers are less likely than the later ones. (None of the names match the Aksumite rulers attested from outside sources, although experts admit the traditional list may be a mixture of personal names & throne names.) There are a few post-Aksumite rulers that have been attested in outside sources, such as Armah, Degna Djan, & Dil Na'odm but the rest are dubious; meanwhile one personage who ruled after the fall of Aksum, Hatsani Daniel, is not included in this list. And, needless to say, any dates attached to them is equally questionable. Nevertheless, between the last Aksumite ruler to issue coinage & the first member of the Zagwe dynasty (which has issues of its own) the traditional Ethiopian king list is all we have.
How this list came to be I created the earliest version of this list, based on my incomplete knowledge of the subject. (It was an era of "Put something on the Wiki that is more-or-less accurate, & leave it for a future editor to fix".) Since then, I have learned more about this subject, & see where I was in error. On the other hand, a number of editors contributing in good faith to this article, have unknowingly degraded its accuracy. For this reason alone, this article needs work.

My point in listing these issues is not to say this article should not exist, but that these need to be acknowledged somehow in this article; reliable sources exist that confirm these issues. And that this article needs rewriting. (I'm writing all of this in case events prevent me from making these needed changes.) -- llywrch (talk) 06:24, 17 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]