Geography | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 15°50′N40°12′E / 15.833°N 40.200°E |
Adjacent to | Red Sea |
Major islands | Dahlak Kebir, Dhuladhiya, Dissei, Dohul (Dehil), Erwa |
Administration | |
Demographics | |
Population | c. 3,000 |
Languages | Dahalik |
The Dahlak Archipelago is an Eritrean island group located in the Red Sea, measuring around 643 square km (248 square miles) and lying roughly 58 kilometers (31 nautical miles, 36 miles) east of Massawa, the regional capital city. Consisting of two larger and 124 smaller islands, the local pearl fisheries of the archipelago have been famous since Roman times, and still produce a substantial number of pearls. [1]
Only three of the islands are permanently inhabited, with Dahlak Kebir being the largest and most populated. Other islands of the archipelago are Dhuladhiya, Dissei, Dohul (Dehil), Erwa, Harat, Harmil, Isra-Tu, Nahaleg, Nakura, Nora (Norah) and Shumma; besides Dahlak Kebir, only Nora and Dohul are permanently inhabited. The islands and surrounding seas are home to a high biodiversity of flora and fauna, particularly marine life and sea, shore and wading birds. These ecological treasures attract an increasing number of tourists. Residents of the archipelago speak Dahlik and maintain a traditional way of life, including fishing, shepherding and raising camels. The islands can be reached by boat from Massawa and are popular with scuba divers and snorkellers. [2]
G.W.B. Huntingford has identified with the Dahlak archipelago a group of islands near Adulis called "Alalaiou" in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea which were a source of tortoise shell. According to Edward Ullendorff, the Dahlak islanders were amongst the first people in the Horn of Africa to embrace Islam, and a number of tombstones in Kufic script attest to this early connection. [2]
In the 7th century, the Sultanate of Dahlak emerged in the archipelago. However, it was subsequently conquered by Yemen, then by the Ethiopian Empire. In 1517 the Ottoman Turks conquered the islands and placed them under the rule of the Pasha at Suakin as part of the province of Habesh. [2] By 1526 the Dahalik sultan, Ahmad, had been degraded to a tributary. There was a short revival of the sultanate during the Abyssinian-Adal war, where the sultanate of Adal waged a temporarily successful jihad with the help of cannons and guns from the Ottomans against the Ethiopian Empire. Sultan Ahmad joined the Adal Empire and was rewarded with the port town of Arkiko, which before the war had belonged to Medri Bahri. However, in 1541, one year after the death of sultan Ahmad, the Portuguese returned and destroyed Dahlak yet again. Sixteen years later, the islands were occupied by the Ottoman Empire again, who made them part of the Habesh Eyalet.
The Italian colony of Eritrea, formed in 1890, included the archipelago. However, during this time the islands were home to little except the Nocra prison camp operated by the Italian colonial forces. [2]
After Ethiopia allied itself with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, following the rise of the Derg, the Dahlak Archipelago was the location of a Soviet Navy base. [4] In 1990, Ethiopia lost control of the Dahlak Archipelago and the northern Eritrean coast to the Eritrean independence movement (EPLF) and by 1991 Ethiopia had lost control of all of Eritrea. [2] Following the international recognition of Eritrean independence in 1993, the Dahlak Archipelago became a part of Eritrea. [5]
Some of the islands are fringed with mangroves and others with salt brush scrub. The coral reefs and shoals that surround the islands are rich in marine life, and many sea birds visit the area. Dolphins, dugongs, sharks, and turtles can be seen as well as a great variety of invertebrates. [2]
Massawa or Mitsiwa is a port city in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak Archipelago. It has been a historically important port for many centuries. Massawa has been ruled or occupied by a succession of polities during its history, including the Kingdom of Aksum, the Ethiopian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy.
The Buri Peninsula extends from central Eritrea north into the Red Sea.
Dahalik is an endangered Afroasiatic language spoken exclusively in the Dahlak Archipelago in Eritrea. Its speech area is off the coast of Massawa, on three islands in the Dahlak Archipelago: Dahlak Kebir, Nora, and Dehil.
Yeshaq was the Bahr Negus during the mid to late 16th century. A subordinate of Ethiopian Emperor Dawit II, he was noted for supporting Gelawdewos during the Ethiopian-Adal war, and rebelling against his successors.
Habesh Eyalet was an Ottoman eyalet. It was also known as the Eyalet of Jeddah and Habesh, as Jeddah was its chief town, and Habesh and Hejaz. It extended on the areas of coastal Hejaz and Northeast Africa of Eritrea that border the Red Sea basin. On the Northeast Africa littoral, the eyalet comprised Suakin and their hinterlands.
Conflicts in the Horn of Africa have been occurring since the 17th century BCE. The Horn of Africa includes the nations of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
The Ethiopian Empire, also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or simply known as Ethiopia, was a sovereign state that historically encompasses the geographical area of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak approximately in 1270 until the 1974 coup d'etat by the Derg, which dethroned Emperor Haile Selassie. By 1896, the empire incorporated other regions such as Hararghe, Gurage and Wolayita, and saw its largest expansion with the federation of Eritrea in 1952. Throughout much of its existence, it was surrounded by hostile forces in the African Horn; however, it managed to develop and preserve a kingdom based on its ancient form of Christianity.
The Ethiopian–Adal War or Abyssinian–Adal War, also known in Arabic as Futūḥ Al-Ḥabaša, was a military conflict between the Christian Ethiopian Empire and the Muslim Adal Sultanate from 1529 to 1543. The Christian Ethiopian troops consisted of the Amhara, Tigrayans, Tigrinya and Agaw people, and at the closing of the war, supported by the Portuguese Empire with no less than four hundred musketeers. The Adal forces were composed of Harla, Somali, Afar, as well as Arab and Turkish gunmen. Both sides would see the Maya mercenaries at times join their ranks.
The Ottoman-Portuguese conflicts were a period of conflict during the Ottoman–Portuguese confrontations and series of armed military encounters between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottoman Empire along with regional allies in and along the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea.
Dahlak Subregion is a subregion in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea. It is the administrative subregion that covers the islands of the Dahlak Archipelago. The capital lies at Jimhil.
The Khedivate of Egypt was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and expulsion of Napoleon Bonaparte's forces which brought an end to the short-lived French occupation of Lower Egypt. The Khedivate of Egypt had also expanded to control present-day Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, northwestern Somalia, northeastern Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Greece, Cyprus, southern and central Turkey, in addition to parts from Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda, as well as northwestern Saudi Arabia, parts of Yemen and the Kingdom of Hejaz.
Mereb Melash, also known as Midri Bahr, Ma'ikele Bahr or Bahr Melash was a semi-autonomous province located north of the Mareb River, in the Eritrean highlands (Kebassa) and some surrounding areas. Mereb Melash corresponds to the administrative territory ruled by the Bahr Negash in medieval times. Mereb Melash comprised the historical provinces of Hamasien and Seraye.
The Ottoman Empire conquered the Habesh starting in 1557, when Özdemir Pasha took the port city of Massawa and the adjacent city of Arqiqo, even taking Debarwa, then capital of the local ruler Bahr negus Yeshaq. They administered this area as the province of Habesh. Yeshaq sought the assistance of emperor Gelawdewos, reinforced by a large Abyssinian army, he recaptured Debarwa, taking all the gold the invaders had piled within. In 1560 Yeshaq, disillusioned with the new Emperor of Ethiopia, revolted with Ottoman support but pledged his support again with the crowning of Emperor Sarsa Dengel. However, not long after, Yeshaq revolted once again with Ottoman support but was defeated once and for all, leaving the Ottomans with domain over Massawa, Arqiqo, and some of the nearby coastal environs, which were soon transferred to the control of Beja Na'ibs (deputies).
The Sultanate of Dahlak was a small medieval kingdom covering the Dahlak Archipelago and parts of the Eritrean coast. First attested in 1093, it quickly profited from its strategic trading location, gaining heavily from being near to Yemen as well as Egypt and India. After the mid 13th century Dahlak lost its trade monopoly and subsequently started to decline. Both the Ethiopian empire and Yemen tried to enforce their authority over the sultanate. It was eventually annexed by the Ottomans in 1557, who made it part of the Habesh Eyalet.
The Kingdom of Jarin was an early medieval kingdom centered in Northeast Africa. According to Al-Yaqubi, it was one of six Beja kingdoms that existed in the region during the 9th century. The kingdom's territory was located between Gash-Barka and Massawa. The king of Jarin rule extended from Massawa on the Red Sea coast, to the frontier of Gash-Barka having borders with the Baqlin kingdom.It was one of the five Beja kingdoms noted by Al-Yaqubi.
The military history of Djibouti encompasses the major conflicts involving the historic empires and sultanates in the territory of present-day Djibouti, through to modern times. It also covers the martial traditions and hardware employed by Djiboutian armies and their opponents.
Beginning with the Kingdom of Aksum, Ethiopia's territory evolved significantly through conquest of the lands surrounding it. Strong Aksumite trading partnerships with other world powers gave prominence to its territorial expansion. In 330, Aksum besieged the Nubian city of Meroë, marking the beginning of its great expansion. It finally declined after the rise of Islamic dominion in South Arabia, and it ultimately collapsed in the 10th century.
This is chronological list about the Ethiopian Empire, an empire dominated the present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea from the beginning of establishment of Solomonic dynasty by Emperor Yekuno Amlak in 1270 to fall of monarchy on 21 March 1975 under Haile Selassie.
Media related to Dahlak Archipelago at Wikimedia Commons