government organization: Africa 493 chaeological evidence has limitations: Evidence is found in physical remains, and physical remains not tell complete stories; they often just offer possibilities Thus, there has been a great deal of speculation about government organization in medieval Africa, based on oral histories, rare written accounts, and the physical remains For instance, a community of large buildings and a fortress might be thought to be a capital of some sort, perhaps of a kingdom or of a province Written and archaeological resources often have been combined to create pictures of how a government organized itself For Ethiopia there are some written records of the doings of monarchs and church leaders; for Axum, Nubia, and East African city-states, archaeological findings are the primary source of knowledge, whereas oral traditions have been extensively studied for stateless societies and many of the empires of western, central, and southern Africa Axum, Ethiopia, and Nubia Axum was an old kingdom, having begun as a trading city in about the 11th century b.c.e., soon expanding to encompass its port city of Adulis, much of the Ethiopian highlands, and even for a time part of southern Arabia, ruled by a viceroy appointed by the king The wealth and power of Axum depended on trade with Europe, the Near East, and southern Asia Thus, the government was much concerned with controlling and protecting trade The government ships that kept the sea-lanes open were characterized by medieval geographers as large, powerful, and capable of great speed but were not described in greater detail in surviving documents To facilitate trade, the government created a mint and issued coins featuring depictions of the sun and the crescent moon, adding a cross in the fourth century when the royal family converted to Christianity A trader who arrived in Adulis would probably have first encountered representatives of Axum’s government at the port Axum charged tariffs on goods brought into its port, and officials assessed imported goods and enforced the law regarding tariffs Adulis had a governor, appointed by the king, who oversaw the city’s day-to-day operations The capital city, Axum, was an eight-day trek from Adulis Protecting the route from Adulis to Axum fell to an army directed by generals, who probably came from Axum’s nobility The fortresses of Axum dominated the heights above Adulis and were said to be intimidating to people who saw them when approaching Axum from the sea The fortresses, army, and port officials were all tightly governed by a king whose responsibility was to keep Axum’s borders secure, to collect enough taxes to maintain the military, and to keep open the sea-lanes and the overland trade routes from the interior of Africa In the seventh and eighth centuries Axum was powerful enough to shelter Muslims who had fled persecution in Arabia The first group of such refugees included followers of Muhammad, and Muslim historians gave credit to the Axumite government for saving the Islamic movement from its enemies Later, Muslims had a fierce dispute over who was the proper heir to Muhammad, with many fleeing to Axum for protection What exactly happened to these refugees is not known for certain, but they may have settled in Axum Such outsiders often were given honored status by the king, and they may have become vassals with their own territory This situation may have contributed to the near collapse of the Axumite government, because Muslims eventually seized control of much of the coastal lowlands of Axum With trade from the sea cut off and Muslim regimes to the north and the south, the king and his court retreated ever deeper into the Ethiopian highlands; for this reason most historians refer to the government as Ethiopia for the period from the 10th century onward Even though Ethiopia eventually regained control of Axum, its seat of government moved southward, following trade routes, onto the Shewan plateau The royal family tried to meld religious faith with secular power and solicited the help of clerics with generous gifts to monasteries, which were the most influential Christian institutions in Ethiopia In 975 there was a rebellion of the Jews in Ethiopia, nearly causing the collapse of the government The rebels met with much success The king survived by moving from camp to camp, setting up tents for himself, his bureaucrats, and his military aides It was likely his vassals who turned the tide of battle At present evidence suggests that in the medieval era Ethiopia formed a feudal society somewhat similar to that which developed in medieval Europe Various nobles, some of whom were powerful lords of their own fortresses, could have mustered troops from the minor nobility and farmers in their territories The rebellion was defeated, and the monarchy was more beholden to the goodwill of its vassals than ever Sometime in the early 12th century the royal family was deposed by Christian lords of the Agau people in the southern province of Lasta At least one medieval Ethiopian king list suggests that the Agau ruling family was founded in 916 in Lasta, with the 10th in their line seizing the throne of Ethiopia This lord founded the Zagwe Dynasty (ca 1100–1270) The Zagwe monarchs depended on the support of the church for their dominance of Ethiopia because they apparently were otherwise unpopular Thus, pleasing clerics by building churches, monasteries, and shrines was considered an essential part of the duties of government The Zagwe established their capital at the town of Roha They seem to have claimed that they were descended from Moses, an assertion