Talk:Mereb Melash

Nation or part of Ethiopia?
There seems to be some contradictions between the articles mentioning this state. Some appear to describe it as an independent nation, while others indicate it was part of the Ethiopian Empire. Which is it? Anasaitis (talk) 20:24, 1 February 2015 (UTC)


 * It was an independent state and there is plenty of material on it. It was an Eritrean kingdom 2A02:C7C:36FF:3600:4550:EFE1:F5BB:5170 (talk) 22:59, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

First and foremost the real question to be asked is did the "Ethiopian Empire" exist by the definition of what an Empire is? 2001:558:600A:83:6038:EDC9:C7AA:DB8C (talk) 03:06, 5 May 2016 (UTC)

Second off, being temporarily OCCUPIED by an Empire is Not the Same as Being Part and Parcel of that Empire, example: Ethiopians will argue that Ethiopia(Abysinnia) was NOT COlonized by Fascist Italy but only occupied for 5 years. If the legendary Tales of Abyssinians(Habeshans)/ moderndayEthiopians are taken as "FACT", then we have a problem with most articles regarding modern Ethiopia and their mentionings of modern Eritrea. 2001:558:600A:83:6038:EDC9:C7AA:DB8C (talk) 03:06, 5 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Name a single source mentioning the Medri Bahri prior to the Ethiopian Empire, let alone in 1137, and you can call it an independent state. Again, primary sources and not Eritrean nationalist garbage like TesfaNews! 2601:280:CB02:3067:894:1CAF:9CAE:D928 (talk) 10:46, 12 June 2022 (UTC)
 * There is! Medri Bahri was a separate entity with its own political process not part of Ethiopia 2A02:C7C:36FF:3600:4550:EFE1:F5BB:5170 (talk) 22:59, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

Henry Salt's description of Baharanegash/Medri Bahri
To CopticPhoenix, Please see the following 5 links and you will be able to find all his detailed descriptions 1) About his book that was published in 1814 and making his travel by 1809-10, 2)Description of Abysinia and about it's divisions, politics and geography, 3) Henry describing 1 of 3 division of Abysinia i.e. about Tigré state/kingdom, 4) Henry describes all the provinces of Tigré state from page 378-382 and describes Baharanegash which acording to him was province of Tigré Kingdom, 5) Hamasen is the farthest and narrowest part of 1 of the 3 divisions of Abyssinia i.e. Tigré state, 6) Beja or Boja people leave north of the Abysinian state i.e. Tigré and it's northern province Baharanegash. If you continue reading the book it tells that Ras Wolde Selassie was the ruler of the Tigré state, including it's province Baharanegash/Medri Bahari, and Henry in his diary tells that it is with his will and support that he could be able to enter through north Abyssinia and could be able to freely move around the provinces under his control. Unfortunately Henry couldn't be able to proceed to Gondar, capital of Abysinia and 1 of it's 3 divisions i.e. Amhara, because of Woldeselas's hostilities between Gugsa of Yejju (writen under his book as Guxo, probably that's how the Tigré elites pronounce his name) who was lord of Gondar/Amhara. — EthiopianHabesha (talk) 21:28, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

RFC for geographic boundaries and start and end date of Medri Bahri political entity
1. Looking for comment from editors that know the geographic boundaries of "Medri Bahri"(Merab Mellash), apologies for the multiple spellings.

2. Start date of "Medri Bahri"(Merab Mellash) as a recognised "political" entity

3. End date of "Medri Bahri" (Merab Mellash) as a recognised "political" entity Uknowofwiki (talk) 23:47, 21 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Close and reword – I recommend that you withdraw this Rfc, and start another one after reading the recommendations at WP:RFC.
 * There are several problems with the way you formulated this one, as evidenced by the fact that no one has respond d in two weeks:
 * It's a complex topic and the Rfc wording is vague
 * You have bundled three questions in one rfc, making it difficult to know what is being responded to, or how to determine when consensus is achieved or when to end it
 * The individual questions appear to call for open debate, rather than to settle a specific question.
 * All of these taken together is probably scaring away willing responders. Please make a statement below that you are withdrawing this Rfc, so it can be closed procedurally, and if you are still interested in resolving this, open another one with one, single, very specific question. Ideally, your question should be worded in such a way to elicit a response of "yes" or "no." Failing that, word it in such a way as to elicit a very small number (2, 3, or 4) choices from a multiple choice list you provide as part of the question.  Do not bundle multiple questions together—just pick the most important question for now, see how that goes, and when that Rfc is finished, open a second one for a different question, if need be.  I think you will get a better response rate if you do.  Hope this helps. Mathglot (talk) 01:35, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the recommendations. Please close this RfC procedurally because of the reasons stated in the recommendations. I will open a new RfC per these recommendations.Uknowofwiki (talk) 02:27, 8 March 2018 (UTC)


 * I will ask an uninvolved admin or user to handle this. Please stand by. Mathglot (talk) 03:43, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

The start, end, and entire history of the Medri Bahri
The Medri Bahri's previous revisions state that is began in "1137," supposedly after the fall of the Kingdom of Axum, but this is only the date of the start of the Zagwe dynasty, a true successor state to Axum. Not a single source on the page mentions the Medri Bahri as having been an independent kingdom in modern day Eritrea until the defeat of the rebellious Bahri Negus Yeshaq in 1578, where the region was stripped of its banner and war drums, effectively making it no longer part of the Ethiopian Empire. The terms "Medri Bahri" and "Bahri Negash" are first attested to during the reign of Zera Yaqob as both are Amharic and have no meanings in the local Tigrinya. The post "Bahri Negash" is said to have been created by Zera Yaqob himself. Prior to Zera Yaqob the region was known by its local Eritrean name: Mekelle Bahri, such as when it was conquered by Amde Seyon I after his northern campaigns and put under the rule of his son. The Zagwe are said to have controlled land stretching into the Eritrean highlands prior to that and the history of the land known as "Mekelle Bahri" after the fall of Axum is it being under the rule of Beja invaders from Sudan who attacked the weakening Axumite state after Dahlak and Aduls were invaded by the Umayyad Caliphate due to Axumite Pirates attacking Medina. These arabized Bejas, known as the Belew, established several kingdoms and their lineages and place names are preserved in modern western Eritrea to this day. During this Beja expansion the Beni Amir (Banu Amir or in Arabic: Sons of Amir) assimilated large amounts of Tigre speaking people which led to the modern pan-Beja-Tigre ethnic identity in eastern Eritrea. all sources are in my revision and I will get back to whoever wants it about the Arab sack of Adulis and conquest Dahlak where the famous Hadith stating to not attack al-habash was created. Likewise, I don't feel its accurate to state that the Kingdom of Italy wasn't a successor of the Medri Bahri despite the fact that Woldemichael Solomon was deposed by his previous overlord Ras Alula. — Preceding unsigned comment added by BeteAmora (talk • contribs) 19:38, 9 June 2022 (UTC)


 * To add on to this, the Bahri Negus was related to the Emperor of Ethiopia during the Ethiopian-Adal war and allowed the passage of Portuguese troups into the country due to the province's long history as a vassal state of Ethiopia. Explain Zara Yaqob's conquest of the Sultanate of Dahlak if he lacked suzerainty over the Eritrean highland regions? This is another heavily flasified page used to serve a nationalist purpose like its Afar counterpart: the Aussa Sultanate page, which claims its independence until the formation of Italian East Africa despite lying in well established Italian, French, and Ethiopian colonial borders for 40 years up until that point. BeteAmora (talk) 19:46, 9 June 2022 (UTC)
 * You're removing content that states Adal occupied the Medri Bahri, you're removing the term Adal on various articles. Adal held the territories along the coastal area, the references state this hence you need to stop removing it. Magherbin (talk) 04:36, 15 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Can't you see nobody on the page has problems with it but you? I've added numerous sources to every single one of my contributions and added a significant amount of information to the page, and you're the one who's removing it. Your game is reverting other peoples edits and claiming that somehow THEY were removing sourced information and started an edit war. It won't work. I noticed you have attempted to "Adalize" the history of the Malassay and Garad, despite both existing prior to Adal as a state and having their roots in multiple cultures that don't have anything to do with it. That is all. You have not, in this response, rebutted anything in my main post, only deflected about Adal (which has nothing to do with the Medri Bahri's history and the topic at hand). Stop reverting now. If you have a problem with anything stating Adal didn't hold the costal regions of modern day Eritrea you can revert that alone! This is just like the Cristóvão da Gama page where you've removed a highQ picture and numerous copyedits due to the location. You want to serve a nationalistic narrative and want to hide it through disingenuous edit descriptions. BeteAmora (talk) 08:25, 15 June 2022 (UTC)
 * If you're having trouble reading sources dont disrupt wikipedia, seek assistance from other noticeboards such as the reliable sources noticeboard. The reference clearly states Malassay originates during Adal on its page. You have removed references to Adal on this page as well, stop removing it. Magherbin (talk) 01:52, 19 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Have no meaning in the local Tigrinya they are both Tigrinya words not Amharic. Medri Bahri was a separate entity and most agree that there was a separate history there 2A02:C7C:36FF:3600:4550:EFE1:F5BB:5170 (talk) 23:03, 11 December 2023 (UTC)
 * "The terms "Medri Bahri" and "Bahri Negash" are first attested to during the reign of Zera Yaqob as both are Amharic and have no meanings in the local Tigrinya."
 * This is blatantly incorrect, as a Tigrinya-speaker. Look at any Tigrinya dictionary if you don't believe me.
 * And just because a term was first attested in a different language doesn't necessarily mean it originated there.
 * However, the name "Ethiopia" didn't originate in Amharic for crying out loud, it's from Greek. It would be equally ridiculous to add " (Greek: Αἰθιοπία) " on top of Ethiopia's wikipage so why has it been done here? Let's uphold Wikipedia's values and not insert a ethnonationalistic framework, please. Thank you. 2001:2042:33CC:B900:D466:8EC0:5368:A7A4 (talk) 20:02, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Adal kingdom never touched eritrean sea
firts look when did mohammeda family escape to Eritrea. To the christian rightious king negash. Medri bahri was created year 900. You can find proof of geez and sabean sqripture in eritrea way back befort islam. The ancient egyptians talk about adulis and who ruled it. The adal kingdom were never near the coast of adulis or assab. Why people take the time to distort the truth it crazy. adal was created very much later in the 1500 centuries. There is even proof of eritreans ruling yemen. In Saana you can find a old ortodox churh build buy eritreans. Eritreans were the ruler of the sea. 2A02:AA1:1011:F2B:1:2:E4F:9437 (talk) 15:52, 12 June 2023 (UTC)