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Medri Bahri Land of the Sea Kingdomምድሪ ባሕሪ
?-c.1890
Medri Bahri at its height
Capital	Debarwa (Until 17th century) Tsazega (17th century–19th century)
Common languages	Tigrinya · Tigre · Beja · Ge’ez
Religion	Orthodox Tewahedo
Government	Elective monarchy
Bahri Negasi
• 1841–1879 (last)	Ras Woldemichael Solomon
Historical era	Early modern period
• Established	Unknown
• Zara Yaqob creates the post of Bahri Negash	c. 1450
• Habesh Eyalet established by the Ottomans	1554
• Invaded by the Kingdom of Italy	5 February 1885
Preceded by Succeeded by Ethiopian Empire Italian Eritrea
Today part of	Eritrea

Medri Bahri (Template:Lang-am, English: Sea Kingdom), known in Tigrinya as Mereb Melash, was a kingdom which emerged from the weaking of the Ethiopian Empire in the Early Modern Period to the Italian conquest of the region. It was situated in modern-day Eritrea, and was ruled by a Bahri Negasi, also called the Bahr Negash in Amharic, or "king of the sea" in English.

In 1680, Medri-Bahri’s political process was described by the German scholar J. Ludolph as being a republican monarchy. This republican political process was found no where else in the Horn of Africa and was distinct to the kingdom of Medri Bahri.

History

16th-17th century

After the Aksumite empire, the area from the Eritrean highlands to the Red Sea was known as Ma'ikele Bahr ("between the seas/rivers," i.e. the land between the Red Sea and the Mereb river) in Tigrinya. It was later renamed to the domain of the Bahr Negash ("Ruler of the sea"), the Medri Bahri ("Land of the Sea", "Sea land" during the Ethiopian Empire, although it included some areas like Shire on the other side of the Mereb, today in Ethiopia). The first time the title Bahr Negash appears is during the reign of emperor Zara Yaqob (r. 1433-1468), who perhaps even introduced that office. His chronicle explains how he put much effort into increasing the power of that office, placing the Bahr Negash above other local chiefs and eventually making him the sovereign of a territory covering Shire, in what is now Tigray, and the highlands (Template:Lang-ti) of what is now Eritrea including Hamasien and Seraye. To strengthen the imperial presence in the area, Zara Yaqob also established a military colony consisting of Maya warriors from the south of his realm.

In the 1520s, Medri Bahri was described by the Portuguese traveller and priest Francisco Alvares. The current Bahr Negash bore the name Dori and resided in Debarwa, a town on the very northern edge of the highlands. Dori was an uncle of emperor Lebna Dengel, to whom he paid tribute. These tributes were traditionally paid with horses and imported cloth and carpets. Dori was said to wield considerable power and influence, with his kingdom reaching almost as far north as Suakin, plus he was also a promoter of Christianity, gifting the churches everything they needed. By the time of Alvares' visit, Dori was engaged in warfare against some Nubians after the latter had killed his son. The Nubians were known as robbers and generally had a rather bad reputation. They originated somewhere five to six days away from Medri Bahri, possibly Taka (a historical province named after Jebel Taka near modern Kassala, however P. L. Shinnie suggests an origin in the area around Old Dongola, but this region could not be reached from Eritrea within five - six days

Yeshaq (Bahr Negus), the local ruler during the Ethiopian-Adal war, escorted a Portuguese force arriving to assist the Abyssinians against the neighbouring Ottoman-backed invasion. The Ottomans later invaded the Red Sea coast which was reconquered by Ethiopian Emperor Gelawdewos. However, Yeshaq later allied with the Ottoman general Özdemir Pasha and Mohammed IV Mansur of the Harari Sultanate and the against Abyssinia before being defeated and killed by Sarsa Dengel. The territory became an Ottoman province or eyalet known as the Habesh Eyalet. Massawa served as the new province's first capital. When the city became of secondary economic importance, the administrative capital was soon moved across the Red Sea to Jeddah. Its headquarters remained there from the end of the 16th century to the early 19th century, with Medina temporarily serving as the capital in the 18th century.

18th-19th century

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The Scottish traveler James Bruce reported in 1770 that Medri Bahri was a distinct political entity from Abyssinia, noting that the two territories were frequently in conflict. During the Zemene Mesafint, Wube Haile Maryam (the ruler of Simien and Tigre) led devastating raids into the region.

The kingdom was reconquered by Ethiopia in 1879, when Ras Alula seized control of the region after the betrayal of Ras Woldemichael Solomon, who had initially supported Yohannes IV during the Egyptian-Ethiopian war but later switched sides and fought against the Ethiopians. The Emperor would later exact collective punishment on the local populus, which caused native rebellions against southern rule. The region then became an Italian colony in 1890 after Menelik relinquished Ethiopia's claims to the Eritrean highlands in the Treaty of Wuchale.

Geography

At its peak, the Medri Bahri stretched from the Red Sea to the Mareb River and beyond, covering areas of Shire (Including Inda Selassie) and its surrounding regions. This vast region was subdivided into three main provinces, namely Akele Guzai, Hamassien and Serae. Of these three, Serae was the most politically important district, as the most influential and important people took up residence there. As a consequence, this was also the wealthiest, the best maintained and the best protected district. The Ethiopian Emperors gave the region the Amharic name "Medri Bahri" in reference to the [[Red Sea which Eritrea borders. In the Tigrinya language, however, it's referred to as "Mereb Melash," due to its location north of the Mareb River. This kingdom had a border to the south with Tigray Region, a province of the Ethiopian Empire also known as Abyssinia.

Demographics

Medri Bahri was composed of the following modern ethnic groups: Tigrinya people, Bilen people, Saho people, Tigre people, and the Irob people.

Notable people

• Bahr Negus Yeshaq
• Woldemichael Solomon
• Bahta Hagos

Notes

1. Caulk, Richard Alan (2002). "Between the Jaws of Hyenas": A Diplomatic History of Ethiopia (1876-1896). ISBN 9783447045582.
2. J. Ludolph(1977), Forschung, P. 38
3. Tamrat 1972, p. 74.
4. Daniel Kendie, The Five Dimensions of the Eritrean Conflict 1941–2004: Deciphering the Geo-Political Puzzle. United States of America: Signature Book Printing, Inc., 2005, pp.17-8.
5. ^ Pankhurst 1997, p. 101.
6. Connel & Killion 2011, p. 54.
7. Pankhurst 1997, p. 102-104.
8. Pankhurst 1997, p. 270.
9. Pankhurst 1997, p. 102-103.
10. Pankhurst 1997, p. 154-155.
11. Werner 2013, p. 149-150 & note 14..
12. Connel & Killion 2011, p. 96.
13. Okbazghi Yohannes (1991). A Pawn in World Politics: Eritrea. University of Florida Press. pp. 31–32. ISBN 0-8130-1044-6. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
14. Siegbert Uhlig (2005). Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 951. ISBN 978-3-447-05238-2. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
15. Jonathan Miran Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa. Indiana University Press, 2009, pp. 38-39 & 91 Google Books
16. Connel & Killion 2011, p. 66-67.
17. Richard Alan Caulk (2002). "Between the Jaws of Hyenas": A Diplomatic History of Ethiopia (1876-1896). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 143–149. ISBN 978-3-447-04558-2.
18. Henry Salt: A Voyage to Abyssinia. Published in 1816 pp
19. Tronvoll 1998, p. 38.

References

• Connel, Dan; Killion, Tom (2011). Historical Dictionary of Eritrea. ISBN 9780810875050.
• Pankhurst, Richard (1997). The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. ISBN 9780932415196.
• Tamrat, Tadesse (1972). Church and State in Ethiopia (1270–1527).
• Tronvoll, Kjetil (1998). Mai Weini, a Highland Village in Eritrea: A Study of the People. Red Sea Press. ISBN 9781569020593.
• Werner, Roland (2013). Das Christentum in Nubien. Geschichte und Gestalt einer afrikanischen Kirche.

Further reading

• d'Avray, Anthony (1996). Lords of the Red Sea. The History of a Red Sea Society from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries. Harrassowitz.

• History of Eritrea
• Former kingdoms