Hamasien (Tigrinya: ሓማሴን) was the name of a province including and surrounding Asmara, now part of modern Eritrea. The region has been divided and distributed amongst the modern Maekel, Debub, Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka and Anseba regions. Tigrinya (Geez ትግርኛ tigriññā, also spelled Tigrigna) is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigray-Tigrinya people in central Eritrea (there referred to as the Tigrinya people), where it is one of the main working languages (Eritrea does not have official languages), and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia (whose... Asmara Asmara (formerly Asmera) is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people. ... Maekel, or Maakel, or the Central region is one of the six regions of Eritrea. ... Debub is a region of Eritrea, also known as the Southern region. ... The Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea is one of the six main regions of Eritrea. ... Gash-Barka is one of the six main regions of Eritrea, where over 500,000 Eritreans live. ... Anseba is a region of Eritrea. ... Eritrea is divided into 6 regions (capitals follow Tigrinya names in parentheses): Central (Maekel) (Asmara) Anseba (Keren) Southern Red Sea (Debub-Keih-Bahri) (Assab) Northern Red Sea (Semien-Keih-Bahri) (Massawa) Southern (Debub) (Mendefera) Gash-Barka (Barentu) Categories: Lists of subnational entities | Eritrea | Regions of Eritrea ...

Hamasien's population are predominantly followers of Oriental Orthodox Christianity and members of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church with a considerable minority of Sunni Muslim, Roman Catholic and Lutheran communities. Traditionally being the center of the Kebessa (i.e. the Eritrean Highlands), it was the locality of the old palace town of Debarwa (the capital of Bahr negus Yeshaq). The border was changed further to place Debarwa in the province of Seraye before it's present status of being the capital of Tselema district in the Debub region. The term Oriental Orthodoxy refers to the communion of Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only the first three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the Council of Ephesus — and reject the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon. ... The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church is an Oriental Orthodox church. ... Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ... Debarwa is a market town with a population of about 25 000 in central Eritrea, about 25 km south of the capital Asmara. ... This is a list of Ethiopian aristocratic and religious titles used in Ethiopia until the end of the Monarchy in 1974. ... Bahr negus Yeshaq (died 1578) was a Bahr negus, or noble of medieval Ethiopia. ... Seraye is the name of a former Province of Eritrea. ...

History

The former province was the political and economic center of Eritrea, and judging from excavations in the Sembel area outside Asmara it has been so since at least 800 BC. The earliest surviving appearance of the name "Hamasien" is believed to have been the region ḤMS²M, i.e. ḤMŠ, mentioned in a Sabaic inscription of the Axumite king Ezana.^[1][2] The region may have been mentioned as early as Puntite times by Ancient Egyptian records as 'MSW (i.e. "Amasu"), a region of Punt.^[2] 804 BC - Adad-nirari III of Assyria conquers Damascus. ... The Sabey language was a language and alphabet used in Ethiopia up until the 8th Century AD. The Sabay language was replaced by the Geez language and writing system. ... The Kingdom of Aksum (or Axum, Geez አክሱም), was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from the proto-Aksumite period ca. ... Ezana of Axum was ruler of the Axumite Kingdom from about 320 to 350 AD. Ezana succeeded his father Ella Amida while still a youth and his mother, Sofya served as regent. ... The Land of Punt, which the Ancient Egyptians called Ta Netjeru, meaning Land of the Gods, was a fabled and exotic site in eastern Africa, which carried on extensive trade with Ancient Egypt, China and Arabia. ...

During the early medeival centuries, it was ruled by the Bahr negus from Debarwa. According to Francisco Alvares, writing in the early 16th century, the Bahr negus's authority extended almost as far as Suakin in modern Sudan. Despite the Emperor of Ethiopia's allegations and grants of control of the country of the Bahr negus during the Zagwe and Solomonic dynasties, the 1984 "Proceedings of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples," declares that "There was no administration that connected Hamasin and Serae to the centre of the Ethiopian Kingdom^[3] With the decline of the importance of the Bahr negus in the 17th to 19th centuries, the province enjoyed a period of communal rule under councils of village elders, the so called shimagile who enforced traditional laws which had prevailed uniquely in the region alongside feodal authority since ancient times. The region appeared in European maps as 'The Republic of Hamasien'. In the late 19th century, Hamasien was briefly invaded and occupied by the Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV who granted control of the region to a certain Ras Alula. Ethiopian forces wrestled for control over the region with Ottomans initially and later with Italian colonialists. Following the death of Emperor Yohannes at the Battle of Gallabat, Hamasien was occupied by the Italians, who incorporated it into their colony of Eritrea and making one of its villages, Asmara, the capital of the colony, a status it retains today as the capital of the sovereign country of Eritrea.^[4] This is a list of Ethiopian aristocratic and religious titles used in Ethiopia until the end of the Monarchy in 1974. ... Debarwa is a market town with a population of about 25 000 in central Eritrea, about 25 km south of the capital Asmara. ... Francisco Álvares (c. ... Suakin is a port in north eastern Sudan, on the Red Sea. ... The Emperor (Geez ንጉሠ ነገሥት, , King of Kings) of Ethiopia was the hereditary ruler of Ethiopia until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. ... The Zagwe Dynasty ruled Ethiopia from the end of the Kingdom of Axum to 1270, when Yekuno Amlak defeated and killed the last Zagwe king in battle. ... The Solomonid dynasty is the traditional royal house of Ethiopia, claiming descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who is said to have given birth to the traditional first king Menelik I after her Biblically-described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem. ... Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste. ... The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power Imperial motto El Muzaffer Daima The Ever Victorious (as written in tugra) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital İstanbul ( Constantinople/Asitane/Konstantiniyye ) Sovereigns Sultans of the Osmanli Dynasty Population ca 40 million Area 12+ million km² Establishment 1299 Dissolution October 29... Combatants Mahdist Sudan Ethiopia Commanders Zeki Tummal Yohannes IV† Strength 85,000 men 130,000 foot soldiers, 20,000 cavalry Casualties 15,000 killed? 15,000 killed? The Battle of Gallabat(a. ...

See also

• Provinces of Eritrea

The Provinces of Eritrea existed between Eritreas incorporation as a Colony of Italy until the conversion of the provinces into administrative regions. ...

Notes

1. ^ Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopian Borderlands (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1997), p. 21.
2. ^ ^{a b} Wolbert Smidt: "Ḥamasen," in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005).
3. ^ (1984) "Proceedings of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples". Session on Eritrea, Rome, Italy: Research and Information Centre on Eritrea. 
4. ^ Haggai Erlich, Ras Alula and the Scramble for Africa (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1996), chapters 11-13.