Medri Bahri

After the Aksumite empire, Beja Kingdoms started appearing in the country north of the Mareb River 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)[3]. Eritreans were some of the first East Africans to be converted to Islam in the 8th century AD, they founded their own independent Sultanate of Dahlak which controlled much of the Eritrean coastline. In 935 AD Massawa and Arkiko was reported by a contemporary source as being inhabited by Muslims. Thus it was clear that after the fall of Aksum Muslims had controlled the area from the Eritrean coast to the Mareb River and were proselytizing the locals.[4][5] Ethiopian Emperor Amda Seyon I was wary of Muslim power along the Red Sea coast and therefore campaigned against them in 1332 AD. The regions of Hamasien and Akele Guzai would fall under Ethiopian rule following this campaign. It was later renamed as the Medri Bahri ("Land of the Sea", "Sea land" in Tigrinya, although it included some areas like Shire on the other side of the Mereb, today in Ethiopia).[6] The entire coastal domain of Medri Bahri was under the Adal Sultanate during the reign of Sultan Badlay.[7][8]

The first time the title Bahr Negash ("Ruler of the sea") appears is during the reign of Emperor Zara Yaqob (r. 1433-1468), who reconquered the region in 1448.[9] 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 (Tigrinya: ከበሳ) of what is now Eritrea including Hamasien and Seraye.[9][10] 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[9]. Near the end of his reign, in 1464/1465, Massawa and the Dahlak archipelago were pillaged by emperor Zara Yaqob, and the Sultanate of Dahlak was forced to pay tribute to the Ethiopian Empire[11].

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.[12] These tributes were traditionally paid with horses and imported cloth and carpets.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] They originated somewhere five to six days away from Medri Bahri, possibly Taka (a historical province named after Jebel Taka near modern Kassala).[16]

The Bahre-Nagassi ("Kings of the Sea") alternately fought with or against the Abyssinians (modern day Ethiopia) and the neighbouring Muslim Adal Sultanate depending on the geopolitical circumstances. Medri Bahri was thus part of the Christian resistance against Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi of Adal's forces, but later joined the Adalite states and the Ottoman Empire front against Abyssinia in 1572. During the 16th century said Ottomans also began making inroads in the Red Sea area.[17] 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.[18] Turks briefly occupied the highland parts of Baharnagash in 1559 and withdrew after they encountered resistance and pushed back by the Bahrnegash and highland forces. In 1578 they tried to expand into the highlands with the help of Bahr negus Yeshaq who had switched alliances due to power struggle, and by 1589 they were defeated by the Ethiopian Emperor Sarsa Dengel. After that Ottomans abandoned their ambitions to establish themselves on the highlands and remained in the lowlands until they left the region by 1872.[19]

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.

In 1831 the ethnic Amhara warlord Wube Haile Maryam conquered and ruled the Tigrinya speaking provinces of Tigray and parts of modern day Eritrea. Wube controlled significant parts of the Medri Bahri such as Akele Guzai. Wube and his army even reached the Bogos area, a dependency of the Hamasen lords of the Mereb Mellash. Wube was thus able to control all the caravan routes to the Red Sea, although his claim to the Ottoman port of Massawa was unsuccessful. Wube is remembered in Eritrea and Tigray as a ruthless and brutal warlord.[20][21]

The kingdom was conquered by Ethiopia in 1879, when Ras Alula seized control of the region after he betrayed Ras Woldemichael Solomon and imprisoned him. The region then became an Italian colony in 1890.[22][23]