Tigray-Tigrinya people
Encyclopedia
Tigray-Tigrinya are an ethnic group who live in the southern, central and northern parts of Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

 and the northern highlands of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

's Tigray province. They also live in Ethiopia's former provinces of Begemder
Begemder
Begemder was a province in the northwestern part of Ethiopia. There are several proposed etymologies for this name...

 (Gonder) and Wollo
Wollo
Wollo was a historical region and province in the northeastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Dessie. The province was named after the Wollo Oromo, who settled in this part of Ethiopia in the 17th century...

, which are today mostly part of Amhara Region
Amhara Region
Amhara is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia, containing the homeland of the Amhara people. Previously known as Region 3, its capital is Bahir Dar....

, though a few regions (e.g. Wolqayt
Wolqayt
Wolqayt is a woreda and region in northwestern Ethiopia...

, Tselemti
Tselemti
Tselemti is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The woreda name is derived from the name of the former province Tselemt, which also lay between the Tekezé River and the Semien Mountains....

, Raya
Raya
Rayas Group of Hotels may refer to:Places:*Raya, Nepal, village in NW Nepal*Raya, Simalungun, town in Indonesia*Raya, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaHistory:*Raya , administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire...

, Humera
Humera
Humera is a town in northern Ethiopia, near the borders of Sudan and Eritrea. Located in Mi'irabawi Zone of the Tigray Region, this town has a latitude and a longitude of . Humera is the administrative center of Kafta Humera woreda.- Overview :Humera is served by Humera Airport...

) were incorporated instead into modern Tigray Region
Tigray Region
Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...

. Their language is called Tigrinya
Tigrinya language
Tigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrnia, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two main languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it...

. They make up approximately 96.6% of the inhabitants of the Tigray Region
Tigray Region
Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...

, and are 6.1% of the population of Ethiopia as a whole, numbering about 5.5 million. Tigrinya speakers are 55% of the population in neighboring Eritrea at about 3.3 million people.

Not to be confused with the Tigre people
Tigre people
The Tigre are an ethnic group residing in Eritrea and Sudan. They are a nomadic and pastoralist people, related to the Tigray-Tigrinya people of Eritrea and Ethiopia and to the Beja people of Sudan.-History:...

 who speak Tigre
Tigre language
For other uses please see Tigre Tigre is a Semitic language, which, along with Tigrinya, is believed to be one of direct descendants of the extinct Ge'ez language...

, a closely related language, see Tigrinya language
Tigrinya language
Tigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrnia, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two main languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it...

. Proto-Tigrayans were the main ethnicity of kingdom of Axum in the first millennium CE. Their language, a form of Ge'ez, remained the language of later Ethiopian imperial court as well as the Ethiopian Church.

Name

There is no name generally agreed upon for the people who speak Tigrinya. All speakers of Tigrinya in Eritrea are officially referred to as Bihér-Tigrinya (or simply, Tigrinya). Some Muslims
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, however, are known as Jeberti
Jeberti
The Jeberti are an ethnic group mostly found in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea with a wider diaspora community in neighboring countries, primarily in the Arabian Peninsula...

s, although they are not recognized as a separate ethnicity.

History

Historically, the province of Tigray
Tigray Province
Tigray was a province of Ethiopia. The Tigray Region superseded the province with the adoption of the new constitution in 1995. The province of Tigre merged with its neighboring provinces, including Semien, Tembien, Agame and the prominent Enderta province and towards the end of 19th century it...

 and central Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

 was where Ethiopian and Eritrean civilization had its origins. The first kingdom to arise was that of D`mt in the 8th century BC
8th century BC
The 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 BC.-Overview:The 8th century BC was a period of great changes in civilizations. In Egypt, the 23rd and 24th dynasties led to rule from Nubia in the 25th Dynasty...

. The Aksumite Kingdom, one of the powerful civilizations of the ancient world, was centered there from at least 400 BC to the 10th century AD. Spreading far beyond modern Tigray, it moulded the earliest culture of Ethiopia and left many historical treasures: towering finely carved stelae, the remains of extensive palaces, and the ancient places of worship still vibrant with culture and pageantry.

The Tigray-Tigrinya people are descendants of early Semitic-speaking peoples whose presence in the region spanning central Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, is postulated to have existed from at least 2000 BC, based on linguistic evidence (and known from the 9th c. BC from inscriptions). According to Ethiopian traditions, the Tigrayan nobility; i.e. that of the Tigray province of Ethiopia, trace their ancestry to the legendary king Menelik I
Menelik I
Menelik I , first Jewish Emperor of Ethiopia, is traditionally believed to be the son of King Solomon of ancient Israel and Makeda, ancient Ethiopia Queen of Sheba. He ruled around 950 BC, according to traditional sources...

, the child born of the queen of Sheba and King Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...

 as do the priests of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the predominant Oriental Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All...

 (Ge'ez
Ge'ez language
Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...

 ካህን kāhin). Menelik I would become the first king of the Solomonic line
Solomonic dynasty
The Solomonic dynasty is the Imperial House of Abyssinia. Its members claim lineal descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the latter of whom tradition asserts gave birth to the first King Menelik I after her Biblically described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem .-Overview:The dynasty, a...

 of rulers of Ethiopia that ended only with the deposing of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.

Tigraway have long been subject to Amhara
Amhara people
Amhara are a highland people inhabiting the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26% of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census...

 rule and the prominence of the Amharic language above theirs in the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia, also called Abyssinia (from Habashat, an ancient group of Ethiopian clans). The Tigray-Tigrinya people share a common ancestry with them from the Ge'ez
Ge'ez language
Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...

-speaking peoples of the Aksumite kingdom; as the Tigray-Tigrinya were previously undifferentiated as a specific group from Semitic speakers in the Kingdom of Aksum, their first mention didn't come until relatively late. The first possibly mention of the group dates from around the 8th to 10th centuries, in which period manuscripts preserving the inscriptions of Cosmas Indicopleustes
Cosmas Indicopleustes
Cosmas Indicopleustes was an Alexandrian merchant and later hermit, probably of Nestorian tendencies. He was a 6th-century traveller, who made several voyages to India during the reign of emperor Justinian...

 (fl. 6th century) contain notes on his writings include a mention of a tribe called Tigretes.

Biher-Tigrinya

The Tigrinya people are one of Eritrea's nine ethnic groups and are referred to as Biher-Tigrinya roughly meaning "Tigrinya nation". Most of them live in rural areas in the highland administrative regions of Debub (Southern), the eastern fringes of Anseba and Gash Barka regions as well as the western fringes of Semenawi Keyih Bahri (Northern Red Sea). They are small holding farmers largely inhabiting small communal villages (unlike in Tigray where the rural make-up is dominated by large estates and homesteads owing to a feudal past). Most Biher-Tigrinya are christian and members of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church with small minorities of Catholics and Protestants. There is however a considerable Muslim minority of Tigrinya speakers who are officially included in the definition of Biher-Tigrinya but who are largely referred to as (and refer to themselves as) "Jeberti", some even pushing for recognition as such, separate from the Biher-Tigrinya. The Jeberti are largely urban and involved in trade and artisan professions. The predominantly Biher-Tigrinya (and Jeberti) populated urban centers in Eritrea are the capital Asmara
Asmara
Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people...

, Mendefera
Mendefera
Mendefera , formerly Adi Ugri, is the capital of Zoba Debub in Eritrea. It is situated 54 kilometers south of the capital city Asmara. The name Mendefera derives from the high hill in the center of the city and is a source of pride to Eritreans...

, Dekemhare
Dekemhare
Dekemhare is a town in Eritrea, lying south east of Asmara. Developed by the Italians as an industrial centre, it became known for its vineyards but was largely destroyed in the Eritrean War of Independence.-History:...

, Adi Keyh
Adi Keyh
Adi Keyh is a market town in Eritrea, lying approximatively 110 kilometers southeast of Asmara. It lies almost 2,500 metres above sea level and has a population of around 25,000 people...

, Adi Quala
Adi Quala
Adi Quala is a market town in Eritrea, lying south of Mendefera near the Ethiopian border, over 2,000m above sea level.-Overview:Adi Quala is known for its tukul church with its frescoes and its mausoleum for the Italian Army soldiers who died at the Battle of Adwa. The town has a population of...

 and Senafe
Senafe
Senafe is a market town in southern Eritrea, on the edge of the Ethiopian highlands. The surrounding area is inhabited by the Saho people and the Tigrinya people....

, while there is a significant population of Biher-Tigrinya (and Jeberti) in other cities including Keren
Keren, Eritrea
Keren is the second largest city in Eritrea. It is situated about 91 kilometers northwest of Asmara. The town serves as the capital of the Anseba region, and is home to the Bilen ethnic group.-History:...

, and Massawa
Massawa
Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa (Ge'ez ምጽዋዕ , formerly ባጽዕ is a city on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. An important port for many centuries, it was ruled by a succession of polities, including the Axumite Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate,...

.

Language

The name of the language is Tigrinya
Tigrinya language
Tigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrnia, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two main languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it...

. Tigrinya is descended from an ancient Semitic language called Ge'ez
Ge'ez language
Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...

. The Ethiopian
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the predominant Oriental Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All...

 and Eritrean Orthodox Churches officially use the Ge'ez
Ge'ez language
Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...

 as a liturgical language today, as in the past. The Tigrinya language is the direct descendant of Ge'ez, unlike Amharic
Amharic language
Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working...

 (thought to be descended from a specific dialect or cluster of dialects of Ge'ez) and other southern Ethiopian Semitic languages
Ethiopian Semitic languages
Ethiopian Semitic is a language group, which together with Old South Arabian forms the Western branch of the South Semitic languages. The languages are spoken in both Ethiopia and Eritrea...

, though Tigre may share this distinction with Tigrinya (its status is uncertain).

Tigrinya is closely related to the Tigre language
Tigre language
For other uses please see Tigre Tigre is a Semitic language, which, along with Tigrinya, is believed to be one of direct descendants of the extinct Ge'ez language...

, spoken by the Tigre people
Tigre people
The Tigre are an ethnic group residing in Eritrea and Sudan. They are a nomadic and pastoralist people, related to the Tigray-Tigrinya people of Eritrea and Ethiopia and to the Beja people of Sudan.-History:...

, as well as many Beja people
Beja people
The Beja people are an ethnic group dwelling in parts of North Africa and the Horn of Africa.-Geography:The Beja are found mostly in Sudan, but also in parts of Eritrea, and Egypt...

. Tigrinya and Tigre although close are not mutually intelligible, and while Tigrinya has traditionally been a written language which uses the same writing system called fidel (Ge'ez script
Ge'ez alphabet
Ge'ez , also called Ethiopic, is a script used as an abugida for several languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea but originated in an abjad used to write Ge'ez, now the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Church...

) as Amharic, Tigre has not. Attempts by the Eritrean government to have Tigre written using the Ge'ez script has met with some resistance from the predominantly Muslim Tigre people who associate Ge'ez with the Orthodox Church and would prefer the Arabic or the more neutral Latin alphabet. It has also met with the linguistic difficulty of the Ge'ez script being a syllabic system which does not distinguish long vowels from short ones. While this works well for writing Tigrinya or Amharic, which don't rely on vowel length in words, it does complicate writing Tigre where vowel length sometimes distinguishes one word and its meaning from another. The Ge'ez script evolved from the Epigraphic South Arabian script
South Arabian alphabet
The ancient Yemeni alphabet branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in about the 9th century BC. It was used for writing the Yemeni Old South Arabic languages of the Sabaean, Qatabanian, Hadramautic, Minaean, Himyarite, and proto-Ge'ez in Dʿmt...

, whose first inscriptions are from the 8th century BC in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Yemen.

In Ethiopia, Tigrinya is the third most spoken language and the "Tigray" are the third largest ethnic group, after the Oromo
Oromo people
The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...

 and Amhara
Amhara people
Amhara are a highland people inhabiting the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26% of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census...

. In Eritrea, Tigrinya is by far the most spoken language, and they represent 55% of the population (and the Tigre around 30%).

Political Situation

The Eritrean people, thereamong the Tigrinya speakers mounted a revolt against the status of Eritrea as a province in 1962, which culminated in the defeat of the Derg
Derg
The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...

 (Ethiopia's government) in 1991 and independence by referendum in 1993. During the time of the Derg in the 1970s, various movements arose in Tigray
Tigray Province
Tigray was a province of Ethiopia. The Tigray Region superseded the province with the adoption of the new constitution in 1995. The province of Tigre merged with its neighboring provinces, including Semien, Tembien, Agame and the prominent Enderta province and towards the end of 19th century it...

 and throughout Ethiopia against its persecution. One of these, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front
Tigrayan People's Liberation Front
The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front , known more commonly and sometimes pejoratively in Ethiopia as Woyane or Weyane is a political party in Ethiopia...

 (TPLF), formed in the mid 1970s, grew disgruntled with the Derg and advocated the secession of Tigray. By 1991, however, when the group defeated the Derg, its views had changed, and it became the helm of the EPRDF, created under its guidance (and dominated by the TPLF), the current dominant party
Dominant-party system
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a system where there is "a category of parties/political organizations that have successively won election victories and whose future defeat cannot be envisaged or is unlikely for the foreseeable future." A wide range of parties have been...

.

Culture

The way of life evokes images of Bible times. Camels, donkeys, and sheep are everywhere. Fields are plowed using oxen. The Orthodox Church is a large part of the culture for the large majority. The church buildings are built on hills. Major celebrations during the year are held around the church, where people gather from villages all around to sing, play games and observe the unique mass of the church, which includes a procession through the church grounds and environs. The Muslim minority of the Jeberti
Jeberti
The Jeberti are an ethnic group mostly found in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea with a wider diaspora community in neighboring countries, primarily in the Arabian Peninsula...

 however did not traditionally belong to a landowning pesantry as in Eritrea or serfs and lords as in Tigray, but to a class of artisans (weavers, goldsmiths, traders etc.) whose lives were very close to that of their Christian counterparts but revolved and to a great extent still revolve around working their trade in the market and praying
at the mosque.

Coffee is a very important ceremonial drink. The "coffee ceremony" is common to the Tigrinya and the Amhara. Beans are roasted on the spot, ground and served thick and rich in tiny ceramic cups with no handles. When the beans are roasted to smoking, they are passed around the table, where the smoke becomes a blessing on the diners.

The highlands receive most of their rainfall during the summer months, much of which goes into tributaries of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...

, 85% of whose water comes from Ethiopia. The soil has been depleted by many centuries of cultivation; water is scarce. Using methods that are thousands of years old, farmers plow their fields with oxen, sow seeds and harvest by hand. The harvest is threshed by the feet of animals. In the home, women use wood or the dried dung of farm animals for cooking. Women often work from 12 to 16 hours daily doing domestic duties as well as cultivating the fields.

Each family—some with eight or more children—must provide all of its own food. The women perform all work necessary to prepare the meals from grinding the grain to roasting the coffee beans. Children carry water in clay pots or jerry cans on their backs. Marriages are monogamous and arranged by contract, involving a dowry given by the bride's family to the couple.

The new couple spends some time in each family's household, before establishing their own home at a location of their choice. Inheritance follows both family lines. Inheritance is determined following a funeral commemoration a year after the death, which may consume most of the deceased's estate.

The country houses are built mostly from rock, dirt, and a few timber poles. The houses blend in easily with the natural surroundings. Many times the nearest water source is more than a kilometer away from their house. In addition, they must search for fuel for the fire throughout the surrounding area.

The Biher-Tigrinya people of Eritrea (former Hamasien
Hamasien
Hamasien was the name of an histoical 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....

 Republic) commonly practiced a form of communal land tenure known as diessa. Under this system the land of the village is reallocated among the villagers on a rotational basis every five to seven years. To qualify for a portion of the land, a male resident of the village would first have to marry and create a household separate from his parents. These members of the village, also known as Deqebats, were the only community members allowed a portion of the village’s arable land. The land of the village can not be sold or inherited, and it reverts back to the village upon death. Often village custom and law would allow single widows with children, orphans, and widowers a one-half share of the community’s land. The diessa land tenure system held all pasture land out for communal use.

The Tigray-Tigrinya have a rich heritage of music and dance, using drums and stringed instruments tuned to a pentatonic scale
Pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave in contrast to a heptatonic scale such as the major scale and minor scale...

. Arts and crafts and secular music are performed by mostly pariah artisan castes. Sacred music and iconic art is performed by monastically trained men.

Religion

In Ethiopia, the Tigray Region is 95.6% Ethiopian Orthodox, 4% Muslim
Islam in Ethiopia
According to the latest 2007 national census, Islam is the second most widely practised religion in Ethiopia after Christianity, with over 25 million of Ethiopians adhering to Islam according to the 2007 national census, having arrived in Ethiopia in 615...

 and the remaining 0.5% Protestant
P'ent'ay
P'ent'ay or Pentay is a slang term widely used in modern Ethiopia, and among Ethiopians living abroad, to describe Ethiopian Christians who are not members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso, Roman Catholic or Ethiopian Catholic churches...

 and Catholic
Roman Catholicism in Ethiopia
The Catholic Church in Ethiopia is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.The Ethiopian Catholic Church, the primary organization of Catholicism in the country, is especially close to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whose doctrine and...

. In Eritrea the Jeberti
Jeberti
The Jeberti are an ethnic group mostly found in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea with a wider diaspora community in neighboring countries, primarily in the Arabian Peninsula...

, some of whom do not consider themselves to be "Tigray-Tigrinya" are Muslim and account for about 5% of the Tigrinya people there. The remaining 95% are Christians, so divided: 78% of the Eritrean Orthodox faith, 12% Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic (whose mass is held in Ge'ez as opposed to Latin), and 5% belonging to various Protestant and other Christian denominations, the majority of which belong to the (Lutheran) Evangelical Church of Eritrea. These are the government registered (allowed) religions of Eritrea. Meanwhile there are those who profess faith to smaller Evangelical denominations whose rights to worship are currently suspended by the Eritrean government, such as the Pentecostals, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses as well as non Christian denominations such as the Bahá'í
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....

. Nevertheless The Protestant Evangelical Church is a visible presence among the Tigrinya in Eritrea.

The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches trace their roots back to the Axumite Church founded in the fourth century by Syrian monks. Historically, the Ethiopian and Eritrean churches have had strong ties with the Egyptian Coptic church, where the Egyptian Church appointed the Abuna
Abuna
Also see Leaders of ChristianityAbun is the honorific title used for any bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as well as of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church...

 (archbishop) for the Ethiopian Church (which then incorporated Eritrea) until 1959. The Ethiopian Church gained independence from the Coptic church in 1948 and began anointing its own pope. The Eritrean Orthodox church split from the Ethiopian Orthodox in 1993 and reverted back to having its pope in the Coptic Church of Alexandria, Egypt.

Over 6 million Tigrayans are Oriental Orthodox, with one priest for every 92 members—the highest concentration in Ethiopia. The remainder are Muslims. There are many Muslims in Tigray Province, but they generally belong to other ethnic groups than the Tigrayans. The Tigrayans are reported to have fewer than 500 Evangelicals, but there are more Evangelicals among the Tigrinya in Eritrea.

The faith of the church is very intimately woven into the culture of the Christian members of the Tigrinya people and is central to their way of life. In the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox and Catholic churches, Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

 is considered a saint, and the Ark of the Covenant
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...

 (tabot) features prominently in the Orthodox Church. Moreover, the Ge'ez bible preserves many texts considered apocryphal by Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants, such as 1 Enoch
Book of Enoch
The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work, traditionally ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. It is not part of the biblical canon as used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel...

, which has only been preserved in Ge'ez.

Church services are conducted in Ge'ez, the ancient language of Ethiopia and Eritrea, just as Latin once was in the Roman Catholic Church, and continues to be the liturgical language
Sacred language
A sacred language, "holy language" , or liturgical language, is a language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life.-Concept:...

.

The Eastern Catholic Church in Eritrea was established in the 16th century by Portuguese and Spanish missionaries who had come to help the Christian Abyssinians fight off a Turkish invasion. Centered in the former Akele Guzai province (the eastern part of the Eritrean highlands) the churches maintained most of the liturgy of the already existing Orthodox Church, including Ge'ez as the liturgical language, with minor differences thereamong sharing communion with, and submitting to the authority of the Vatican Pope as opposed to the Pope in Axum.

Roman Catholicism arrived in Eritrea with the advent of Italian colonialism and almost coincided with the arrival of Swedish missionaries who brought Lutheran Christianity to Eritrea at the end of the 19th century. The relationship between these two religions was especially tense as the Roman Catholic Italians resisted and discouraged the spread of Protestantism in their colony and even lay prohibitions and numerous constraints on the activities of the Swedish missionaries. The Roman Catholic Church as an instrument of the colonial authority has held mass in Latin and Italian since its inception, incorporating local languages in its missionary work throughout Eritrea. It initially sought to cater to Italian citizens as well as foster an elite of Eritreans into becoming good Italian subjects. Today the church is a distinctly Eritrean church, although masses continue to be held in Italian and Latin along with local languages thereamong Tigrinya and it also caters to the very small Italian and Italo-Eritrean community mainly in Asmara. The Lutheran Church of Eritrea and its Swedish and Eritrean missionaries were the ones who translated the Bible from the dead Ge'ez language only understood by higher clergymen, into the Tigrinya and other local languages and their main goal was to reach and "enlighten" as many people as possible in the world through education. They were instrumental in raising the literacy rate of their community.

Christianity

Though Christianity in Africa was largely a European import that arrived with colonialism, but this is not the case with the Tigray-Tigrinya (or with the Amhara people). The ancient empire of Axum centered in north Tigray and the central highlands of Eritrea had intimate connections with the Mediterranean world in which Christianity grew. Christianity arrived in the Eritrean and Tigrayan area in the fourth century, growing dynamically in the pre-existing Jewish/Animistic mixed environment. The Tigrayan-Tigrinyas thus converted to Christianity centuries before most of Europe, thereby establishing one of the oldest state churches in the world.

Many Tigrayan-Tigrinya churches were cut out of solid cliffs or from single blocks of stone, just as they were in Petra and as well in Turkey and in parts of Greece. More commonly, churches and monasteries were built high up in the mountains on flat tops known as ambas. Religion is a central feature of the communities and of each family's daily life. Each community has its own church and a designated patron saint.

Islam

Early in the history of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed's companions found sanctuary in the Kingdom of Axum. When some of the Prophet's companions returned to the Arabian Peninsula some of these refugees remained, while some Axumites converted to Islam. These people were called Jeberti
Jeberti
The Jeberti are an ethnic group mostly found in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea with a wider diaspora community in neighboring countries, primarily in the Arabian Peninsula...

 (the elect of God). One of their oldest settlements is said to be Negash
Negash
Negash is a village in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, which straddles the Adigrat-Mekele road 10 kilometers north of Wukro. Located in Wukro woreda, this settlement has a longitude and latitude of ....

, in the Tigray Region. Most Tigrinya-speaking Muslims, or Jeberti, are today Eritreans, although many of these trace their origins to the neighbouring province of Tigray in the former Kingdom of Ethiopia. In the late 19th century, during the reign of Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia, who was a devoutly Christian Tigrayan, Muslim Tigrayans were forcibly expelled from their homes and found refuge in the nearby northern areas in what is now Eritrea, out of reach of royal Ethiopian authority.

Although they continued to live as a minority among a Christian majority of landowning peasants and were denied rights to own land on account of their religion, they were allowed to settle in the market towns and engage in trades which the landowning Christians either considered taboo or frowned upon, deeming farming the only honorable form of sustenance. The Jeberti thus excelled as Eritrea's earliest mercantile bourgeoisie and skilled artisans, engaging in trades such as metalworking, goldsmithing, tailoring, pottery-making as well as shopkeeping.

Notable Tigray-Tigrinya people

  • Ras Mikael Sehul
    Mikael Sehul
    Mikael Sehul was a Ras or governor of Tigray 1748–71 and again from 1772 until his death...

    , Governor of Tigray and Semien
  • Dejazmach Kifla Iyasus, Hereditary chief of Enderta
  • Ras Wolde Selassie
    Wolde Selassie
    Wolde Selassie He was an Overlord of Tigray-Mereb Milash and a Ras Bitwoded of Ethiopia. He was the second son of Dejazmach Kefla Iyasus Amdamikael, hereditary chief of Enderta...

    , Governor of Tigray, Gondar and Mereb Milash (Eritrea)
  • Dejazmach Sabagadis
    Sabagadis
    Sabagadis was a Dejazmach or governor of Tigray, a province in northern Ethiopia. He was the son of Shum Waldu of Agame, and a member of the Irob people.- Life :...

    , Governor of Tigray
  • Emperor Yohannes IV, Emperor of Ethiopia
  • Ras Araya Selassie Yohannes
    Araya Selassie Yohannes
    Araya Selassie Yohannes was an army commander and a member of the Royal family of the Ethiopian Empire.- Biography :Leul Araya Selassie Yohannes was born in Enderta, Tigray in 1867, the legitimate son of Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia...

    , son of Emperor Yohannes IV, Governor of Enderta,Tigray and Wello
  • Ras Mengesha Yohannes
    Ras Mengesha Yohannes
    Mengesha Yohannes was the "natural" son of Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia, Ras of Tigray, and, as a claimant of the Imperial throne, is often given the title of Leul. Ras Araya Selassie Yohannes was his older half brother.-Biography:Prior to the Battle of Metemma, Mengesha Yohannes was...

    , son of Emperor Yohannes IV and Prince of Ethiopia
  • Ras Gugsa Araya Selassie
    Gugsa Araya Selassie
    Gugsa Araya Selassie was an army commander and a member of the Royal family of the Ethiopian Empire.- Biography :Leul Gugsa Araya Selassie was the legitimate son of Ras Araya Selassie Yohannes...

    , son of Ras Araya Sellassie Yohannes, Governor of Eastern Tigray
  • Ras Seyoum Mengesha
    Seyum Mangasha
    Seyum Mangasha KBE was an army commander and a member of the Royal family of the Ethiopian Empire.-Biography:...

    , son of Ras Mengesha Yohannes, Governor of western Tigray
  • Prince Mengesha Seyoum
    Mangasha Seyum
    Ras Mengesha Seyoum GCVO is a member of the imperial family of the Ethiopian Empire. In 1974, the monarchy was abolished by the Derg, a communist military junta.- Biography :...

    , son of Ras Seyoum Mengesha, Governor of Tigray
  • Ras Alula Engida
    Alula Engida
    Ras Alula Engida was a general and Ethiopian politician...

    , Governor of Midri Bahri (present day Eritrea) and hero of the Battle of Adwa
  • Bahta Hagos
    Bahta Hagos
    Bahta Hagos was Dejazmach of Akkele Guzay, and retrospectively considered an important leader of Eritrean resistance to foreign domination...

    , Dejazmach of Akkele Guzay
  • Tedla Bairu
    Tedla Bairu
    Tedla Bairu was an Eritrean political figure. He was the last independent head of state of Eritrea in 1952. He was then the first Chief Executive of Eritrea from 1952 in federation with Ethiopia, until he resigned in 1955. He was described as an "opportunist" by his opponents for his unwavering...

    , Head of State of Eritrea
  • General Aman Andom
    Aman Andom
    http://nazret.com/blog/media/blogs/new/aman_andom.jpgAman Mikael Andom was the first post-imperial acting Head of State of Ethiopia. He was Eritrean. He was appointed to this position following the coup d'état that deposed Emperor Haile Selassie on 12 September 1974, and served until his death in...

    , former President of Ethiopia
  • Tesfaye Gebre Kidan
    Tesfaye Gebre Kidan
    Tesfaye Gebre Kidan was an Ethiopian general who was President of Ethiopia for one week in late May 1991.Tesfaye was a student at Holetta Military Academy, where he met Mengistu Haile Mariam; according to Gebru Tareke, along with Legesse Asfaw and Gebreyes Wolde Hana Tesfaye was part of Mengistu's...

    , former President of Ethiopia
  • Fisseha Desta, former Vice President of Ethiopia
  • Dr.Dejazmach Zewde Gebreselassie,Historian,Diplomat
  • Meles Zenawi
    Meles Zenawi
    Meles Zenawi Asres is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Since 1985, he has been chairman of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front , and is currently head of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front .Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from...

    , Prime Minister of Ethiopia
  • Isaias Afwerki, President of Eritrea
  • Petros Solomon
    Petros Solomon
    Petros Solomon is an Eritrean politician. He was an Eritrean People's Liberation Front commander during the Eritrean War of Independence, and following independence he served in several positions in the Cabinet, including Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs...

    , Defense Minister, Eritrea
  • Mahmoud Ahmed Sherifo
    Mahmoud Ahmed Sherifo
    Mahmoud Ahmed Sherifo , commonly known simply as Sherifo, served briefly as the Head of State of Eritrea while the President was away. He joined the Eritrean Liberation Front in 1967....

    , Head of State of Eritrea
  • Haile Woldetinsae, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eritrea
  • Seyoum Mesfin
    Seyoum Mesfin
    Seyoum Mesfin Gebredingel is an Ethiopian politician and diplomat. He was Ethiopia's Foreign Minister from 1991 until September 2010 and has subsequently served as Ethiopia's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China....

    , Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia
  • Mesfin Hagos
    Mesfin Hagos
    Mesfin Hagos was a founding member of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in 1977. Before founding that organization he had joined the Eritrean Liberation Front in 1966 as an ordinary member. He eventually would become Deputy Commander of ELF Zone 5.Mesfin Hagos left the ELF in 1970 with...

    , Defense Minister, Eritrea
  • Estifanos Seyoum
    Estifanos Seyoum
    Estifanos Seyoum is an Eritrean politician.He joined the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in 1972. Since independence, he has held the following positions:*member of the Central Council of People's Front for Democracy and Justice,...

    , Minister of Finance, Eritrea
  • Berhane Ghebrezgabiher, Minister of Industry, Eritrea
  • Helen Meles
    Helen Meles
    Helen Meles is a prominent Eritrean singer and actress. She has released several albums and appeared in many top-rated Eritrean films.-Biography:"Helen Meles - Soulful voice which sends strong vibes all over"...

    , singer
  • Eyasu Berhe
    Eyasu Berhe
    Eyasu Berhe was an Ethiopian singer, writer, producer and poet, as well as a member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front ....

    , singer
  • Miruts Yifter
    Miruts Yifter
    Miruts Yifter ]] is a former Ethiopian athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics. His name is also sometimes spelled as Muruse Yefter....

    , athlete
  • Zeresenay Alemseged
    Zeresenay Alemseged
    Dr. Zeresenay Alemseged is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist and Chair of the Anthropology Department] at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, USA...

    , scientist
  • Abune Teklehaymanot
    Tekle Haymanot
    Tekle Haymanot or Takla Haymanot was an Ethiopian monk who founded a major monastery in his native province of Shewa...

    , Patriarch of Ethiopian Orthodox Church
  • Abune Paulos
    Abune Paulos
    Abune Paulos is Abuna and Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church . His full title is "His Holiness Abuna Paulos, Fifth Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Ichege of the See of St...

    , Patriarch of Ethiopian Orthodox Church
  • Abune Phillipos
    Abune Phillipos
    Abune Phillipos was the first Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church. He was born Tewoldeberhan and began his religious training at the Debre Bizen Monastery at the age of eleven....

    , Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church
  • prof. Kinfe Abraham
    Kinfe Abraham
    Kinfe Abraham is an Ethiopian academic and politician. He was President of the Ethiopian International Institute for Peace and Development, as well as President of Horn of Africa Democracy and Development....

    , professor, historian, Ethiopian diplomat and ambassador at large.
  • General Hayelom Araya
    Hayelom Araya
    Major General Hadush "Hayelom" Araya is a former member of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front , which is the leading member of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front political coalition...

    , Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force
  • Siye Abraha, former Ethiopian Minister of Defense
    Ministry of Defense (Ethiopia)
    The Ministry of National Defense of Ethiopia is a cabinet level office in charge of defense related matters of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia...

  • Gebru Asrat
    Gebru Asrat
    Gebru Asrat is a former president of Tigray Region and one of the top leaders and executive central committee member as well as politburo member of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front , and the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.Gebru was born in Mekelle with in Enderta county, a...

    , President of Tigray
    Tigray
    Tigray may refer to:* Tigray Region* Tigray Province* Tigray people...

  • Dr.Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher
    Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher
    Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher is an Ethiopian who won the Right Livelihood Award in 2000 "for his exemplary work to safeguard biodiversity and the traditional rights of farmers and communities to their genetic resources."Tewolde Berhan graduated in 1963 from Haile Selassie I University Tewolde...

     Scientist, Environmentalist
  • Sebhat Guèbrè-Egziabhér
    Sebhat Guèbrè-Egziabhér
    Sebhat Guèbrè-Egziabhér is an Ethiopian writer. He was born in 1928 in Tigray region near the historical town of Adwa in a village called Erba gered. He has published works of fiction and non fiction in French and Amharic...

    , writer,novelist,journalist
  • Negadras Gebre hiwot Baykedagn, Economist,statesman and political theorist,one of the prominent reformist intellectuals of the early 20th century Ethiopia.

External links

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