Medri Bahri

Ancient and Aksumite roots

The territory that would later form Medri Bahri was part of the heartland of the ancient Aksumite Empire. Archaeological evidence shows that the Hamasen highlands had been an area of economically flourishing culture since around 800 BC, with a settlement density among the highest on the African continent, linked to the so-called ʿOna culture.^[4] The name Hamasen itself may be ancient, with a possible identification with ʾMSW ("Amasu"), a province registered in the Egyptian "Lists of Foreign People" of Pharaoh Thutmosis III, ca. 1458 BC.^[5] In Aksumite times, Hamasen appears in a pre-Christian fourth-century inscription of King Ezana, who received the homage of the Métin peoples there after subduing the coastal kingdom of Gäbäz.^[6]

Seraye, the southernmost of the three highland provinces, also has a documented Aksumite presence. A rock inscription at Séhuf Émni, Qwähayn, in Epigraphic South Arabian script and palaeographically comparable to ʿEzana's trilingual inscriptions, testifies to the region's role in Aksumite times, and Aksumite-period church foundations survive at Énda Mikaʾel in Débarwa, on the border of Hamasen and Seraye.^[7] According to the historian Sergew Hable Selassie, the name of the Mareb River itself may derive from the South Arabian settlers who named it after the famous dam of Marib in Yemen, and "Serae" (Seraye) is similarly linked to the South Arabian "Sarwan" and "Sarat" mountains.^[8]According to written and oral traditions, around the end of the 13th and early 14th century, the former Balaw (of Beja origin) and Kunama inhabitants of Seraye were replaced by the Adkäma Mälga, Agaw immigrants from Lasta, who assumed the Tigrinya language and played a dominant role in the area until the 18th century, when they came into conflict with the Daqqi Tassem of Hamasen.^[9]

After the decline of Aksum around the seventh century AD, parts of Hamasen came under the control of Beja and other Muslim tribes, possibly responsible for the first exploitation of gold mines in the region. During the last decades of the Zagwe dynasty and the first period of the restored Solomonic dynasty, Agäw groups linked with the Zagwe fled from Lasta into Hamasen, and the ancestors of the Bogos (Bilin) people also migrated through Hamasen at this time. These population movements left traces in many Cushitic-origin toponyms in the region, including the name of Débarwa itself.^[10]

Trade routes departing from Massawa and then following the course of the Anseba river northward connected Hamasen with the lowlands of the Sudan, establishing its economic importance from early times. The local Tigrinya groups of Hamasen kept their own petty leaders but were possibly tributary to the maïékälä bahér (lit. "the middle of the coast"), as the governor of the provinces between the Ethiopian highlands and the Red Sea is called in a series of local 13th- to 15th-century documents from the "Golden Gospel" of Däbrä Libanos of Ham.^[11]

Bur Province

Bur (ቡር) was a large and vaguely delimited historical region that was a part of the present-day Ethio-Eritrean border, divided into Upper Bur and Lower Bur. Its territory covered parts of Agame, the entire province of Akkele Guzai, and lands further east, possibly including the Buri Peninsula.^[12] Hagiographic tradition records Bur's people rebelling against King Kaleb of Aksum, and from the 14th century the region fell into the sphere of the Ewostatean monastic movement.^[13]

In the first half of the 15th century, Bur seems to have been governed by a seyum whom Emperor Zara Yaqob placed under the supremacy of the Bahr Negash, alongside the governors of Shire, Hamasen, and Seraye.^[14] In the time of Emperor Lebna Dengel, the office of seyum was held by Zemal, a favourite of the Emperor, who fought alongside him against Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and was killed on 11 March 1529 in the battle of Shambera Kwere.^[14]

After the defeat of Bahr Negash Yeshaq in 1578, Bur fell under the rule of the tégre mäkwännén. The Ottoman Turks attempted to invade Bur during this period but were beaten back by local farmers (fälahin): the Chronicle of Galawdewos records how troops raiding "one of the districts of Bur" were repelled, their commander Yishaq killed, and his head sent to Emperor Galawdewos.^[15] During the reign of Emperor Susenyos, challengers of the central secular and ecclesiastical authorities found some support among Bur's ethnically and religiously heterogeneous population, prompting punitive expeditions against the region.^[14] Bur's economic contribution to the empire is documented in the Chronicle of Emperor Iyasu II, which describes it as part of Tigray and "the land of Bur which brings [the tribute of] 20 shekels of gold."^[14] In later periods, smaller territorial units appeared in the area and the name Bur fell out of use.

Zagwe period

Both Hamasen and Seraye "passed, like much of the northern highlands, under Zagwe suzerainty" according to Taddesse Tamrat, confirmed by a land grant of the Zagwe king Lalibela preserved in the monastery of Däbrä Libanos of the north.^[16] The Zagwe also pursued a deliberate strategy for annexing the regions beyond the Mareb River, at one point resettling Agäw groups from Wällo there.^[17] The title bahǝr nägaśi for a governor of the coast appears even in a land grant of the Zagwe king Tatadim, who ruled during the eleventh century, in a grant to the church of ʿUra Mäsqäl; the document threatened excommunication against the śǝyyuman ("appointed ones") of ʿAgämä, Bur, and Särawe, as well as an officer bearing the title of baḥǝr nägaśi, described as viceroy of the coast.^[18]

The fall of the Zagwe dynasty around 1270 and its replacement by the Solomonic dynasty "sparked off a series of population movements from the Lasta region to north-eastern Tigray, Akala-Guzai, Hamasen, and Saraye," resulting in a struggle for power between newcomers and original inhabitants, and the eventual transfer of political supremacy from the Christian Balaw tribes to new Tigrinya-speaking settlers.^[19] The Balaw tribes were of Beja origin and had dominated the Eritrean plateau, including probably some districts south of the Mareb, before this transformation.^[20]

The office of the Bahr Negash had roots stretching back to the Aksumite period. Local tradition records the existence of a ruler called the šum bahri (also íéyyumä bahér, meaning "ruler of the sea"), who controlled trade routes between Massawa and the Christian highlands, and who may originally have been a prefect appointed by the Aksumites. Even after the Sultanate of Dahlak became independent, its sultan continued to be referred to by Abyssinians using the Aksumite title íéyyumä bahér, reflecting the persistence of Ethiopian institutional memory over the coast.^[21]

Early Solomonic Administration

According to historian Richard Pankhurst, it was during the reign of Emperor Zara Yaqob (r. 1433–1468) when the title Bahr Negash ("Ruler of the sea") appeared for the first time.^[22] According to the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, the older title maýékälä bahér ("middle of the coast"), used during the Zagwe period and still in use during the reign of ʿAmdä Séyon, was abolished by Zara Yaqob, who sought to unify the administrative system of his kingdom. It was his son, Emperor Baeda Maryam I, who subsequently established the specific title of Bahr Negash for the three northern provinces of Angot, Qeda, and Tigray.^[23]

During the reign of Amda Seyon I (r. 1314-1344), the northern maritime provinces were brought under tighter imperial control. When a rebellion broke out in Tigre in 1328, the king placed one of his sons over the region with the title of maýékälä bahér, meaning "between the rivers or seas", covering the territory between the Mareb River and the Red Sea, a title already used in the Zagwé period and probably the precursor of the later Bahr Negash title.^[24]

Despite this appointment, the Ma‌ʾǝkälä baḥǝr did not yet constitute a formal administrative unit; rather, it remained a descriptive geographic term for the region between the Mareb River and the Red Sea, governed by local chiefs recognized by the Solomonic kings until the time of Zara Yaqob.^[25] By the same year, two named officials in Hamasén already appear in the sources as local rulers, reflecting how quickly imperial administration took hold in the region.^[26]

Before Zara Yaqob's formal administrative reforms, King Yǝsḥaq (r. 1414–1430) had already extended imperial presence along the coast by settling a military regiment at Massawa in 1417.^[27]

Zara Yaqob's chronicle records how, after arriving to the region, he put much effort into consolidating the imperial presence there, placing the Bahr Negash above other local chiefs and working to bring the northern highland districts under firmer imperial control.^[28][29] 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. These settlers were believed to have terrified the local population and it was said that the "earth trembled at their arrival" and the inhabitants "fled the country in fear".^[30]

Zara Yaqob grouped together the districts of Shiré, Seraye, Hamasén, and Bur and placed them all under one administration entrusted to the Bahr Negash.^[31] Zara Yaqob also placed two kantiba (district chiefs) of Hamasen under the authority of the Bahr Negash.^[32] The capital of the Bahr Negash was Debarwa, located next to the sources of the Mareb River; he occasionally moved to other district centres, including the nearby Addi Baro, which has sometimes been mistakenly identified as the original seat of the office.^[33]

These administrative and military arrangements in the highland districts were closely connected to a broader forward policy toward the coast. In 1449/50, only one year after establishing the military colonies on the plateau, Zara Yaqob began construction of a sea-port at Girar on the mainland opposite Massawa, intending a more permanent occupation of the coastal districts. This activity was met with hostility from the local Muslim population and led to armed conflict. It is reported that the islands of Massawa and Dahlak were pillaged in 1464/5, and that the Qadi of the islands lost his life in the encounter, though a lasting occupation of the coast ultimately did not succeed.^[34]

Ewostatean movement

A major factor in the Christianization and political consolidation of the northern highlands was the Ewostatean monastic movement, named after Ewostatewos of Däbrä Särabi (ca. 1273–1352), who was born and educated in eastern Tigray. His followers, the Däqiqä Ewostatewos ("Sons of Ewostatewos"), proved significant for the regions of Seraye, Hamasen, Shire, and Bur. They were initially forced to cross the Mareb River to escape persecution under Emperor ʿAmdä Ṣəyon I, and by the end of the fourteenth century had established themselves firmly along the western edge of the Eritrean plateau.^[35] The earliest monastic settlement of the Däqiqä Ewostatewos beyond the Mareb was Däbrä Maryam in Qwähayn (Seraye), founded by Absadi around 1374; it became the cradle of the Ewostatean movement for the entire northern highland zone.^[36]

The Ewostatean movement had a deep relationship with local political structures. The leader of the movement in the north, Wärasinä Égziʾ of Seraye, headed the Adkämä Mélgaʾ descent group and used the movement for enhancing local autonomy against both the emperor and the metropolitan.^[37] The Adkämä Mélgaʿ had initially sheltered Ewostatewos, but conflict arose when he demanded that Wärasinä Égziʿ renounce bigamy. According to hagiographic tradition, Wärasinä Égziʿ had him jailed, then drove him from Seraye to the land of the Agäw Bilin, from where he was eventually exiled to Nubia.^[38]

During the reign of Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob, the Ewostateans were reconciled with the imperial church. This reconciliation was mediated notably by Filéppos, the abbot of Däbrä Bizän, the great monastery in Hamasen that "dominates the road that leads from the highlands and the Hamasen plain to the seaboard and the port of Massawa."^[39] By this time there were three major Ewostatean centres: Däbrä Maryam, Däbrä Bizän, and Däbrä Däqqi Ita in Märagwéz, the southernmost district of Seraye, each with large numbers of monks and affiliated dependent houses.^[40]

Francisco Alvares and the early 16th century

In the 1520s, Medri Bahri was visited 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.^[41] These tributes were traditionally paid with horses and imported cloth and carpets.^[42] Dori was said to wield considerable power, with his authority extending from the Hamasien highlands to the port of Hirgigo. He was also a promoter of Christianity, generously gifting the churches and monasteries everything they needed.^[43] 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.^[44] They originated somewhere five to six days away from Debarwa, possibly Taka (a historical province named after Jebel Taka near modern Kassala).^[45][46]

Alvares witnessed the annual geber, or tax, paid by the Bahr Nagash's domains to Lebna Dengel alongside those from three other regions: Tegray, Gojjam and Hadeya. The Bahr Nagash arrived with many lords and troops stationed in his lands, spending the entire first day presenting 150 horses, which were run and made to jump before the Emperor. The remainder of the tribute, presented the following day, consisted of silks and thin cloth from India.^[47] The status of the territory was later specified by Lebna Dengel in a letter to King Manuel I of Portugal, in which he described the Bahr Nagash as "lord as far as Egypt."^[48]

The territory held particular economic value as a transit zone for long-distance trade. Two main caravan routes passed through it: the main route ran via Tambén and split around the Asmara area, one branch continuing toward Suakin on the Sudanese coast and the other descending from the plateau to the mainland port facing the island of Massawa. Control of these routes was a significant source of the Bahr Negash's wealth and political leverage.^[49]

The goods flowing through Hergigo and Massawa during this period consisted mainly of gold, ivory, slaves, honey, and wax, making control of the coastal access one of the most economically consequential offices in the northern empire.^[50]

Ethiopian-Adal War

The far north was among the last parts of the empire to face the forces of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi during the Ethiopian-Adal War. Prior to the invasion reaching the region, troops from Särayé had fought alongside the Tigrayan army in the south, where both the Bahr Nagash Zä-Wangel and the shum of Hamasén were killed, and the ruler of Särayé was taken prisoner at Damot.^[51] When Ahmad pushed into Tigray in 1535 and captured Aksum, part of his army crossed the Märäb River into Särayé, installing Tédros, a relative of local nobleman Täsfa Le'ul, as a puppet governor answerable to Ahmad's nephew Vizier Abbas. Täsfa Le'ul fiercely opposed the occupation, killing both Tédros and the Adal general Vizier Addolé, whose head was dispatched to the Ethiopian emperor.^[52]

Addolé's death prompted Ahmad to launch a punitive campaign into Särayé, where local fighters attempted resistance but were overwhelmed and driven back. The population submitted and agreed to pay tribute, and Ahmad installed new administrators over both Särayé and Hamasén. However, in Tigray the Adalite troops were plagued by a famine and an epidemic that was so severe that a number of Muslim soldiers converted to Christianity. Ahmad eventually recognized that holding the region was unsustainable and withdrew to the southwest in Begmeder.^[53]

When the Portuguese governor of India stopped at Massawa in February 1541, it was the Bahr Negash Yeshaq who informed him of King Gälawdewos's precarious situation, directly contributing to the formation of the Portuguese military company of 400 soldiers subsequently dispatched to aid Ethiopia.^[54]

The damage left by the Muslim occupation was documented by the Portuguese soldier Miguel de Castanhoso upon his arrival in 1541. He found a major church near the coast destroyed and the surrounding land devastated. The villages around Debarwa had been abandoned, their inhabitants having fled into the mountains with their livestock. Local monks emerged from hiding to greet the Portuguese "with crosses in their hands, in solemn procession, praying God for pity", pleading for retribution against those who had ravaged their land.^[55]

Ottoman period and Bahr Negash Yeshaq

After the death of Imam Ahmad in 1543, Emperor Gelawdewos soon established control over the country of the Bahr Nagash, where he renewed Emperor Zara Yaqob's land charter in favour of the monastery of Debre Bizen. Gelawdewos also exiled several of the Portuguese who had assisted in the Imam's defeat but were beginning to intrigue against him and attempting to convert the country to Catholicism, sending them to Debarwa, the capital of the Bahr Nagash.^[56]

The Ottoman province of Abyssinia, the Habeš eyaleti, had been formally created on 15 July 1555, initially headquartered at Sawākin before expanding inland.^[57]

In 1557, the Ottoman Turks conquered the port of Massawa and under Ozdemir Pasha led an expeditionary force inland where they occupied the town of Debarwa. The Turkish troops then built a large fort at Debarwa, containing gold and silver vases, precious stones, rich vestments, and other valuables obtained through looting, extortions from trade, and the imposition of a poll tax on the local population. The local populace, having acquired a sizeable number of firearms, succeeded in defeating the occupying force,^[58] killing an Ottoman military commander named Yǝsḥaq and sending his head to the Emperor in triumph.^[59]

Around this time, the Bahr Negash Yeshaq, described as an "old and tried servant of Galawedewos"^[60], became very powerful due to the access to firearms which were imported through the coast. After the death of Gelawdewos, Yeshaq revolted and attempted to place one of the new emperor's nephews, Tazkaro, on the throne, but was defeated by Emperor Menas. According to James Bruce, upon being defeated, the Bahr Negash "threw himself at the mercy of the Turks" and ceded Debarwa in exchange for their help.^[61][62][63] Reinforced by Ottoman military support, Yeshaq launched a new campaign against the Emperor. The royal chronicles record that in 1562, the troops of Emperor Menas were defeated by the coalition of Bahr Negash Yeshaq, an Ottoman force, and some Portuguese led by Francisco Jacome. Özdemir Pasha, the long-serving Ottoman governor of Ethiopia, had already died before this battle. The Chronicle of King Gälawdewos places his death in 1557, while scholarship based on Ottoman archival sources places it in 1561, and could not have commanded it.^[64][65]

Sarsa Dengel, the young son of Menas, succeeded to the throne in 1563. He then forgave and made peace with Yeshaq, and presented him with many horses, which his territory was known for having, as well as many imported items, such as luxurious clothes and carpets. The chronicle records that as part of the reconciliation, Yeshaq met with two royal women in ʾAbbāwi, one of whom was Wayzaro ʾAmata Giyorgis, Sarsa Dengel's paternal aunt. The Turks then chose to withdraw from Debarwa, where Yeshaq went to recapture. However, within a few years, Yeshaq revolted again, this time allying with both the Ottomans and Sultan Muhammad ibn Nasir of Harar.^[66][67]

Furious at Yeshaq's repeated treachery, Sarsa Dengel led a campaign into Medri Bahri, dated to 1576 in some secondary sources, though the chronicle of Sarsa Dengel places the first northern expedition against Yǝsḥaq in 1578 or 1579.^[68][69] Although Yeshaq's forces, backed by the Turks, were well provisioned with firearms of various kinds including cannon, Sarsa won a decisive victory at the Battle of Addi Qarro, where Yeshaq and the Ottoman commander paša Ahmed were both killed.^[70] As historian Merid Wolde Aregay argued, the revolt was not driven by "separatist motives" but by Yeshaq's ambition to influence imperial politics from the northern periphery.^[71] The defeat curtailed the broader aspirations of the provincial nobility to break free from the Ethiopian Empire.^[72] Sarsa Dengel thereafter reduced the prestige of the Bahr Negash office, which was temporarily merged with the governorship of Tigray.^[73]

After Yeshaq's death, the Emperor accorded another local chief the title of Bahr Nagash, but the post lost much of its former prestige. Bruce claims that because of Yeshaq's treachery the post "fell into disrepute", and that the standard and drum, the marks of supreme power, were taken from the office. When a new Bahr Nagash was appointed he still had the privilege of being crowned with gold, but had a cloak thrown over him, one side white and the other dark blue, the officer who crowned him admonishing him of what would befall him if he preserved his allegiance, signified by the white side, and of the disgrace and punishment that attended treachery, figured by the colour of mourning.^[74] However, according to the chronicles of Emperor Susenyos I, close contacts between the Bahr Nagash and the imperial interior were maintained during his reign; Susenyos married one of his daughters to the Bahr Nagash, a man by the name of Amda Mikael, for political and strategic reasons. During a punitive expedition against a pretender to the throne, Susenyos visited at least six localities north of the Mareb: Hamasien, Seraye, Akele Guzai, the Debarwa district, the Buri Peninsula, and the "country of the Sahos".^[75]

After the rains of 1587 the Turks again advanced inland to Debarwa and attacked the Emperor's governor Däjazmach Daharagot, who held the positions of both Bahr Nagash and governor of Tegray simultaneously, putting him to flight with heavy casualties. Särsä Dengel responded by mobilising his forces, and while the Turks were crossing the Märäb River they were ambushed by a local leader named Aquba Mika'el, an act which greatly pleased the monarch, who awarded him the title of Bahr Nagash and sent him gifts including a richly caparisoned mule. Särsä Dengel then advanced to Debarwa and launched a campaign to the coast at Hergigo, where the Turkish commander Kädawred Pasha was struck down. The Turks, realising the impossibility of gaining control of the northern Ethiopian highlands, abandoned the port of Hergigo entirely, handing it over to a local Beja chieftain whom they accorded the title of Na'ib, or Deputy, a title destined to remain in use for over two centuries.^[76]

The exact date of the first Na'ib's appointment is uncertain; most sources place it in the late seventeenth century, though some have suggested the sixteenth. The Na'ib family originated from the Balaw group, which had a power base at Hérgigo from around the fifteenth century. In the mid-eighteenth century, Na'ib ʿUthman ʿAmir (r. 1741–81) received from highland rulers 44 gwélt^[c] lands in exchange for firearms, covering localities near ʿAddi Qäyyéh, west of Halay, Émba Dérho, Bäläza, and Bet Maqa in Hamasen, as well as lands in Seraye and near ʿAdwa. By the early nineteenth century, Na'ib Hasan Idris had famously defied an Ottoman governor of Massawa by declaring that "the Sultan rules in Istanbul, the Pasha in Egypt, and Na'ib Hasan in Massawa." Egypt acquired Massawa from the Porte in 1865 under Khedive Ismaʿil, after which the Na'ib's political autonomy declined sharply.^[77]

Zemene Mesafint

The northern power of the Ethiopian crown over the region was fragmented by appointing several governors, but in the 17th century, a Daqqi Tassem dynasty loyal to the Gondarine kingdom emerged, with Daggiyat Hab Sellus based at Sa'azzaga near Asmara. Hamasen then gained a high degree of autonomy and came to include Seraye. In 18th-century versions of the administrative law code Ser'ata Mangest, Hamasen appears divided into Amasen gra and Amasen qann ("northern" and "southern Hamasen").^[78] The successive governors mostly came from Hab Sellus's dynasty, which eventually split into two competing branches: the Enda Sa'azzaga and the Enda Hazzaga. Their authority extended over Bogos, which paid tribute to them until it became Egyptian-controlled in the 19th century.^[79]

The founding figure of the Däqqi Täššǝm was Atäšším (ca. 1600–50), son of Hézbay, whose own sons included Täsfasen, Gäbrä Krǝstos, Abrǝham, Bǝruh, Monqoreyos, Zartonay and Musa. Täsfasen in turn established two hereditary ruling lines in Hamasen: Täkkälä ʿAggäba, centred around Saʿazzäga and Minab,and Minabä Zarʿay, centred around Hazzäga. After Täsfaʿeen's death around 1660, his sons all pressed competing claims to the governorship of Hamasen, and their descendants remained in conflict for generations. The height of Saʿazzäga power came under bahri nägaši Solomon Täsfasen, grandson of däggazmač Gäbrä Kréstos Habtä Sullus, while Hazzäga was contested by käntiba Zärʿay and his son Solomon. This rivalry eventually produced the well-known feud between Hazzäga, under the leadership of Ḥaylu Täwäldä Mädin, and Saʿazzäga, under the leadership of Wäldä Mikʿael Solomon, which ended with the death of Däggazmač Ḥaylu Täwäldä Mädin at the Battle of Wäkki Däbbä on 17 July 1876 against Wäldä Mikʿael Solomon.^[80]

Hab Sellus (also Habtä Ṣéllase) was born at Sälale to käntiba^[d] Gäbrä Ṣéllase of Sälale, son of Täsfallase, and étiye MärŸatä Ab. Hoping to secure the nägarit ^[e] of Hamasen, then held by his cousin Émméha, he went to Gondar to attend the court of Emperor Fasilides. After seven years there, he attracted the Emperor's notice, demonstrated his courage, and was given an honorary garment and eventually the title abeto.^[81]

Emperor Fasilides then married his daughter (or a relative) to him and appointed his son-in-law, Hab Sellus of Hamasien, as the governor of a province known as Bambolo-Mellash, which included Mereb Melash and much of Tigray. However, he abused his wife so violently that she died, after which he would make his way to the Emperor's palace in Gondar to seek forgiveness. Upon arriving in the palace he addressed the Emperor, saying, "Your Majesty, in your great magnanimity, gave me your daughter and appointed me; but when I wished to approach my wife in accordance with nature and the law she rejected my approach; whereupon I, incited by Satan, raised my hand and struck her; and she died as a result of my blow. Because of this misfortunate I stand before Your Majesty." Fasilides, fearing to alienate the people of Hamasien, spoke to one of his daughter's slaves to confirm the story. He then asked the theologians of his court: "If I pardon him, would I be guilty?" They told him no, so he decided to forgive his son-in-law, declaring, "You did to her what she deserved." But he significantly reduced his fiefdom to just Mereb Melash with the title of däggazmac. Hab Sellus subsequently returned to Hamasien and brought the entire region of Mereb Melash under his authority. ^[82]

His appointment dated to around 1663/64 according to tradition, and the region of Hamasen became so associated with his rule that the phrase médrä Ab Ṣéllus ("Land of Hab Sellus") was recorded in the short chronicles as a synonym for Hamasen. His hereditary fief ^[f] was Addi Sefalat in the Loggo Cewa district of Hamasen, where he was buried on 6 September 1704. He founded the dynasty known as the Ad Daggiyat ("family of the däggazmač"), drawn from the district of Daqqi Tassem, which held authority over the Marab Mellas until the appointment of Ras Alula Engeda in the 1870s.^[83]

Hab Sellus's son, Gäbrä Kréstos, later traveled to the imperial court in Gondar in his elder brother's place after his brother had refused to represent their father there to present the tribute owed; he used the opportunity to become the Emperor's guardian before rising to the rank of däğğazmač. Around 1675, the reigning Emperor gave him his relative Sabana Giyorgis as a wife, a descendant of Emperor Fasilides through a female line. In recognition of his rise at court, he was granted the full governorate of the Bambolo Méllaš, meaning authority over all the northern provinces (probably excluding Welkait), and became the co-governor of the Marab Mallas alongside his father, while he was still living. He took part in his father's government in a subordinate capacity, attending him during judicial proceedings and audiences with officials. Their joint government also produced a new law code for Hamasen, the Héggi Hab Séllus Gärä Késtos, drawn up with input from the region's assembly of elders; the government of Gäbrä Kréstos was also remembered as a period of enhancement of trade, with new regular markets appearing in Hamasen, including at Débarwa.^[84] After Hab Sellus died on 6 September 1704, Gäbrä Kréstos ruled alone until his own death on 8 November 1713. He was succeeded by his son Mammo, who extended his authority to include Oromo areas and from around 1722 also held the governorship of Welkait for seven years; he suppressed a rebellion in Seraye during his tenure, with Hamasen remaining the centre of power throughout his family's dominance.^[85]

The relationship between Hamasen and the Massawa Na'ib during this period was at times confrontational. In 1693, the Emperor Iyasu's Armenian trade agent Murad returned from a journey to the Dutch East Indies carrying presents for the monarch, which were seized by Na'ib Musa of Massawa. Iyasu, greatly angered, sent a message to Hab Sellus and two other functionaries, as well as "all the people of Hamasen," ordering them to proclaim throughout their domains that no one should bring honey, butter, cheese, or "anything necessary for life" to Massawa until he arrived to attack it, threatening that any transgressor would forfeit his life and have his house destroyed. Hab Sellus and the Hamasen officials enforced the blockade, cutting off provisions to the Na'ib, who was compelled to restore the seized property and added to it "objects a thousand times more numerous."^[86]

The commercial value of the region in this period is documented by Murad himself, who reported to the Dutch during his 1686-87 visit to Batavia that the Massawa trade was so considerable that Debarwa, the capital of Hamasen, and Seraye each provided Emperor Iyasu with five hundred ounces of gold a year.^[87]

The French physician Charles Poncet, visiting in 1700, left a description of Debarwa at the time. He noted that there were then two functionaries simultaneously bearing the title of Bahr Nagash. When news reached Debarwa of the death of Emperor Iyasu's eldest son Fasiladas, both governors immediately ordered the news proclaimed throughout the area by trumpet. The following day they led all the militia and "an infinite number of people" to a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin for a solemn service for the prince, after which they received the officers and persons of note in a great hall, where men and women sang mourning songs "in so doleful a tone" that Poncet was unable to keep from weeping for the entire hour the ceremony lasted.^[88]

The exact date of the establishment of the Mereb Melash as a distinct administrative unit is not known, though the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica suggests it may have emerged in the 17th century. Portuguese sources of the same period refer to a province called "Marebo", corresponding to the territory of the Mereb Melash. In that period, the province of Tigray was reported to consist of two segments: one governed by the Tigre Makonnen with twelve provincial governors, and the other by the Bahr Negash also with twelve provincial governors, which corresponds to what later became formally known as the Mereb Melash. The Mereb River was consolidated as a firm provincial boundary in the mid-18th century when Bahr Negash Booru Solomon received the government of the Mereb Melash following the partition of the older and larger province of Bambollo Melash.^[89]

The decline of the Gondarine monarchy coincided with the rise of Ras Mika'él Sehul of Tigray, who, as ruler of the north, inherited the imperial interest in the land of the Bahr Nagash and Massawa. In 1766, he crossed the Marab river to control Hamasen and Saraye, residing briefly at Debarwa. By the end of the 18th century, Ras Wäldä Sellasé of Tegray held nominal sovereignty over the region, and when he planned an expedition to Saraye and Hamasen in 1800, people from these districts arrived bearing tribute. Pankhurst concludes that the country of the Bahr Nägash "thus remained as for so long in the past a major tributary territory."^[90]

In November 1769, the Scottish traveller James Bruce became acquainted with the Bahr Negash while staying in the village of Hadawi (near Segeneiti). He described the unnamed ruler as a "brave, but simple man" and a deputy of Ras Mikael Sehul, but he also considered the land to be a "barbarous and unhappy country." Bruce later revealed that the influence of the Bahr Negash had significantly declined due to the loss of Massawa and Hirgigo to the Turks, stating that it was formerly of great importance; "Before the Abyssinians lost the maritime district of Arkeeko, and the port of Masuah, the office of Baharnagash was one of the most important in the kingdom. It is now nearly a nominal one, under the governor of Tigre." He also reports that the district had only been recently incorporated into the province of Tigray by Ras Mikael Sehul with the use of "violence and oppression."^[91][92][93]

The integration of Mereb Melash into the Ethiopian imperial system is further confirmed by documentary evidence: the province is listed in the tax records of Emperor Tewodros II as one of the northern provinces paying tribute to the crown, alongside Welkait and other Tigrinya-speaking territories not considered part of Tigray proper.^[94]

The core region of the Mereb Melash, Hamasen, was for centuries led mostly by two rival families from the villages of Hazega and Tsazega. The local elite groups enjoyed relative independence.^[95] Despite this, Tégrayan lords including Wolde Selassie, Sabagadis Woldu and Wube Haile Maryam at various points subdued and exercised authority over the region.^[96]

From the late 18th to mid-19th centuries, there was a long-standing rivalry between the rival Hazega and Tsazega villages. Ato Tewoldemedhin of Tsazega constantly fought to reduce his rivals to obedience. His son, Däggazmač Haylu Täwäldä Mädòén, had governed Hamasen since the 1830s. The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica describes him as "a local lord and an ally of ase Tewodros II," and he was eventually forced to flee to Gondar to seek the Emperor's support during the factional fighting.^[97] In September 1858, he fought in Hamasen on the Emperor's behalf, and later pushed back on the Egyptian advance. In 1860, he was reinstated as ruler of Hamasien and Seraye. He maintained this loyalty for years: a letter from Émnätä Maryam to Antoine d'Abbadie on 3 October 1867 described him as "the only one loyal to the king."^[98] Only as Tewodros's position collapsed did Haylu switch allegiance to Kassa Mercha, the future Yohannes IV. In December 1868, Kassa Mercha imprisoned him and appointed Wäldä Mikaýel Solomon in his place. ^[99]

Egyptian-Ethiopian War

The enduring prestige of the Bahr Negash office was acknowledged even by Ethiopia's rivals during this period. When Egypt established its own Red Sea province in 1866, its deputy in the Semhar plains was deliberately given the new title Naýib Al-Bahr, styled directly after the Bahr Negash title, reflecting Egyptian recognition of the institution's historical legitimacy.^[100]

When Kassa Mircha (later Yohannes IV) assumed power over Tigray and Mereb Melash as Dejazmatch in 1867, he inherited a province whose local rulers had already developed a pattern of seeking foreign patrons against each other. Woldemichael Solomon, head of the Hazzega family and one of the first to support Kassa, was given the command of Hamasen and Bogos in 1869, but soon fell into Munzinger's orbit and began secret letters with France. When Kassa learned of Wolde Mikael's communications with Napoleon III, he stripped him of his governorship and had him imprisoned at Adwa from late 1869.^[101]

Mereb Melash would gain international significance during the reign of Emperor Yohannes IV when it was defended against Egyptian expansionism during the Egyptian–Ethiopian War. In December 1875, a local ruler of the province, Woldemichael Solomon, submitted to the Egyptians at Massawa. This allowed the Egyptians to occupy the entire province with minimal resistance and build a large fort at Gura.

The occupation was not incidental. In a letter of September 1875, the Khedive had outlined plans to organize Hamasen either as a vassal state or an independent government under Egyptian protection, intended as a permanent buffer between Ethiopia and Egypt.^[102] The Khedive separately promised Wolde Mikael that Egypt would annex neighboring regions to Hamasen and name him their ruler.^[103] However, Yohannes IV would defeat the Egyptians at the Battle of Gura, forcing them to withdraw from the province.^[104]

After the Battle of Gura, Yohannes did not immediately install Alula. Hamasen was governed in the intervening years by Dejazmatch Gabru Wubet, who held authority over the territory beyond the Mareb from 1871 until 1875.^[105] After Hailu Tewolde Medhin was killed by Wolde Mikael at the battle of Wakidba in July 1876, Ras Bariau Gabre-Tsadiq was sent as the new governor of Hamasen, but Wolde Mikael killed him as well within months.^[106]

On 9 October 1876, Yohannes appointed Alula as governor of the whole Mereb Melash and promoted him ras. It was the first time in many centuries that an outsider had been placed over the province's established local families.^[107] Alula was then authorized to crush the remaining opposition in the province, which resulted in the defeat of the followers of Woldemichael Solomon. But, Woldemichael, with Egyptian backing, repeatedly regained control of the Mereb Melash whenever Alula was recalled south to assist Emperor Yohannes, holding the province from April 1877 until September 1878 before again retreating when new governors arrived. In December 1878, Woldemichael submitted to Emperor Yohannes. He was then confirmed as Ras in an effort to appease him, remaining as governor under Alula's authority.^[108]

After Ras Bariau Gabre-Tsadiq was killed by Wolde Mikael, the battle that claimed his life in 1878 took place at a site known as Bet Maqa, which corresponds to today's village of Haz Haz, a name meaning "catch catch" in reference to the engagement.^[109]

In the 1870s, Akkele Guzai was incorporated as a sub-province of Märäb Mällaš under Ras Alula Engeda, before regaining its status as a separate province in its own right in the 1880s and recovering a degree of its traditional autonomy.^[110]

Finally in December 1879, Alula imprisoned Woldemichael and convinced Yohannes to have him jailed in Tigray, eliminating the last hereditary local chief of Hamasen.^[111] Wolde Mikael remained detained through the rest of Yohannes's reign and was only released on the eve of the Metemma campaign in 1888; he subsequently lived out his remaining years in Axum, where he was buried in 1905.^[112] Alula then imposed central government and experimented with land reform aimed at establishing his followers from Tigray, many originating from his home region of Tämben, as Hamasen's new elite, while cultivating commercial relations with Muslim traders and attempting to renew trade with Massawa.^[113]

In a letter Yohannes wrote to Mahdist commander Hamdan Abu Anja in December 1888, reflecting on the war with Egypt, he described it himself:

"They come via Massawa and entered Hamasen. I fought them. God gave me power and I defeated them in two battles."^[114]

Hewett Treaty and Italian occupation

In June 1884, the Hewett Treaty was signed, which allowed the Ethiopians to gain free access to Massawa in exchange for the rescue of Egyptian garrisons besieged by the Mahdists. Under the treaty Ethiopia also received the surrender of the Bogos district, which had been held by the Egyptians, back to Alula's government.^[115] Ras Alula had been actively involved in the formulation of the treaty and according to British reports was fully in favour of it. Emperor Yohannes IV, however, was reportedly skeptical and only agreed to meet with the British mission in the final week of May, signing on 3 June 1884. The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica notes that the British ultimately interpreted the treaty wording as an Ethiopian abandonment of their claim to Massawa, a reading that served British strategic interests in preventing French domination of the Red Sea by allowing Italy to fill the vacuum left by the Egyptian retreat.^[116]

In late 1884, recognising the new opportunities presented by the Hewett Treaty, Alula moved his capital within the Mereb Melash from Addi Taqlay to the small trade centre of Asmara, which was better positioned for developing the commercial route to Massawa.^[117]

On 23 September 1885, Alula marched west and engaged a Mahdist force under the amir ʿUthman Diqna at the Battle of Kufit, halfway between Asmara and Kassala. The Mahdist army, estimated at between 6,000 and 12,000 men, was routed; between 3,000 and 5,500 Mahdists were killed, at a cost of around 1,500 Ethiopians including most of Alula's senior commanders. Alula did not then advance on Kassala. The Egyptian garrison there had already surrendered, and he returned to Asmara. The Mahdist defeat at Kufit led the Caliph ʿAbdullahi to declare a holy war against Ethiopia, a step that contributed to Yohannes's decision to march against the Mahdists in 1889 and his death at the Battle of Gallabat.^[118]

Frustrated and distrustful of the local tribes, Alula permitted his men to massacre many of the Nara and Kunama tribesmen in November 1886 and also embittered the Beni-Amer.^[119] In January 1887, before the fighting began, Alula wrote to the Italian military commandant General Gené demanding the withdrawal of Italian troops from the post at Uaa by the 21st of that month and from Zula within one month, warning that "if friendship is to continue, you must do this. Otherwise, you must know that friendship is at an end." Gené refused, replying that his soldiers would remain at Uaa because "they are necessary for the peace of the country." Within a fortnight, conflict broke out.^[120]

In January 1887, Alula attacked the Italians at Saati, but was beaten back with heavy losses. He subsequently ambushed an Italian battalion sent to reinforce Saati at the Battle of Dogali.

A key factor in the fall of Mereb Melash was internal betrayal. Debeb Araya, a Tigrayan rival of Alula who had long resented Yohannes favouring an outsider over the established noble families, had been collaborating first with the Egyptians and later with the Italians. In February 1888, he persuaded Yohannes that Italian aggression was the result of Alula's over-ambition, contributing to Yohannes's decision to recall Alula southward to face the Mahdists. With Mereb Melash thus left undefended, Debeb entered Asmara in February 1889 and killed Alula's deputy. The Italians subsequently entered Asmara without firing a single shot and proceeded uninterrupted to the Mareb River.^[121]

The 1870s brought a virtual depopulation of Hamasen through warfare and famine. In later decades, following the collapse of the traditional power structures of the Daqqi Tassem and the fragmentation of land under Italian rule, groups of Hamasen inhabitants migrated to other areas, especially western Tigray. Together with other Tigrinya speakers from Tigray, these migrants, known as the "Hamasenay," settled on the Shire-Kunama borderlands (Tahtay Adyabo), formerly Kunama grazing and hunting areas, and in the fertile Walqayt highlands. Some also appeared as semi-nomadic cattle-herders in the Humara area.^[122]

Formation of Italian Eritrea

Following the death of Yohannes at the Battle of Gallabat, Tigray was completely exhausted from decades of uninterrupted wars. It could no longer challenge the Italians to the north or the Amharas to the south. Menelik II was later recognized as the new emperor, thus cementing Shoan domination over Ethiopia. The loss of Mereb Melash was recognized by Menelik in the Treaty of Wuchale.^[123]

In 1890 (royal decree of 1 January 1890, n. 6592) Eritrea was officially declared an Italian colony, with its capital in Massawa. Its first governor was General Baldassarre Orero, replaced a few months later by General Antonio Gandolfi, a trusted friend of Francesco Crispi. The colony was named Eritrea (which came from the ancient Greek name of the Red Sea) by plenipotentiary minister Carlo Dossi, replacing the previous intended name of "New Ethiopia".^[124]