Aksumite eraRIÉ 189

ʿEzana’s Noba campaign

mid-4th century CEAksum, Ethiopia

The inscription presents ʿEzana’s titles and narrates his campaign against the Noba and into Kush, including troop movements, captives, casualties, and livestock totals.

Deutsche Aksum-Expedition photograph of the 52-line RIÉ 189 Ethiopic inscription recording Ezana’s Noba campaign. — Deutsche Aksum-Expedition; Enno Littmann (ed.), Sabäische, griechische und altabessinische Inschriften (1913), Tafel V. Resized and converted to WebP.Public domain · 1913 edition.Enlarge image ↗

Geʿez

Excerpt · opening titulary

በኀይለ፡ እግዚአ፡ ሰማይ፡ ዘበ፡ ሰማይ፡ ወምድር፡ መዋኢ፡ ሊተ፡ አነ፡ ዔዛና፡ ወልደ፡ እሌ፡ ዐሚዳ፡ ብእስየ፡ ሐልን፡ ንጉሠ፡ አክሱም፡ ወዘ፡ ሕሜር፡ ወዘ፡ ረይዳን፡ ወዘ፡ ሰበእ፡ ወዘ፡ ሰልሔን፡ ወዘ፡ ጽያሞ፡ ወዘ፡ ብጋ፡ ወዘ፡ ካሱ፡

Reading after the cited edition; word dividers retained.

Transliteration

[ba]hayla ʾegziʾa samay [zaba] samay wa-medr mawaʾi lita ʾana ʿE[zā]na walda ʾElle ʿAmida beʾeseya Halen neguśa ʾAksum wa-za-Heme[r] wa-za-Raydan wa-za-Sabaʾ wa-za-Salhen wa-za-Seyamo wa-za-Bega wa-[za]-Kasu

English translation

By the might of the Lord of Heaven, who is in heaven and on earth and makes me victorious: I, ʿEzana, son of Ǝllä ʿAmida, a man of Ḥalēn, king of Aksum, Ḥimyar, Raydān, Sabaʾ, Salḥēn, Ṣeyāmō, Bega, and Kāsū…

English rendering after Beta Maṣāḥǝft, RIÉ 189 (CC BY-SA 4.0); compared with Binyam and Krebs (2024), p. 17.

Sources & references

RIÉ 189
RIÉ 189 — Beta maṣāḥǝft / Hiob-Ludolf-Zentrum für Äthiopistik; CC BY-SA 4.0

Habesha History corpus

Yonatan Binyam and Verena Krebs, Ethiopia and the World, 330–1500 CE, p. 17

Abraham J. Drewes, Recueil des inscriptions de l’Éthiopie III.B, p. 232–241