Al-Habash
⇗ Al-Habash (, , Sabaic: ḤBS²T) was an ancient region in the Horn of Africa situated in the northern highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. The term continues to be used in the Middle east and surrounding regions in reference to modern-day Ethiopia and traveled to Europe where it took on the Latin form Abyssinia Although originally used to refer to the Ethio-Semitic language speaking Orthodox Christian population of modern day northern Ethiopia, in parts of the Middle East and South Asia the term Habshi would grow to encompass all East Africans irrespective of ethno-religious or regional backgroundss Origin The term derives from Semitic languages: Ge'ez: Ḥabäśät, first written in the vowelless Ge'ez Abjad as ሐበሠተ, romanized: ḤBŚT; Sabaean: ḤBS²T. One of the earliest known local uses of the term dates to the second or third century Sabaean inscription recounting the nəgus ("king") GDRT of Aksum and ḤBŠT. The Ezana Stone also has an early mention of HBŚT. The early Semitic term appears to refer to a group of peoples, rather than a specific ethnicity. The Al-Habash were known in Islamic literature as being rulers of a Christian kingdom, guaranteeing its a historical exonym for the Axumites of antiquity. In