Tigrayans
The Tigrayan people are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia. They speak Tigrinya, an Afroasiatic language belonging to the North Ethio-Semitic language descended from Geʽez, and written in the Geʽez script serves as the main and one of the five official languages of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is also the main language of the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea, who share ethnic, linguistic, and religious ties with Tigrayans.
According to the 2007 national census, Tigrayans numbered approximately 4,483,000 individuals, making up 6.07% of Ethiopia’s total population at the time. The majority of Tigrayans adhere to Oriental Orthodox Christianity, specifically the Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church, although minority communities also follow Islam or Catholicism.
Historically, the Tigrayan people are closely associated with the Aksumite Empire whose political and religious center was in Tigray, and later the Ethiopian Empire. Tigrayans played major roles in the political history of Ethiopia, including during the 17th-century Zemene Mesafint, and later in the 20th century through events the Woyane rebellion and the Ethiopian Student Movement, or movements like Tigray People's Liberation Front, which became the dominant faction in the coalition that overthrew the Derg in 1991 and ruled Ethiopia through the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front until 2018.
Like other northern highland peoples, Tigrayans often identify with the broader Habesha identity—a term used historically to describe the Semitic-speaking Christian populations of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Highlands.
Areas where Tigrayans have strong ancestral links are: Enderta, Agame, Tembien, Kilite Awlalo, Axum and Western Tigray.
Origin
In his Geographia, the 2nd-century Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy, identifies a people known as the Tigritae or Tigraei, located inland from the Red Sea coast in the area corresponding to the northern Horn of Africa. These names have been interpreted by some modern scholars as a possible early reference to the highlanders of modern-day Tigray and Eritrea. Though the identification remains tentative, it is often regarded as the earliest known external allusion to a group or region bearing a name similar to Tigray. On top of that, Ptolemy mentions the existence of a city called Coloe, which has been identified with Qohayto in Eritrea, placing his geographical framework close to the Tigray-Tigrinya highlands.The first clear references of Tigray emerged in 9th- to 12th-century Arabic geographical texts, where Islamic scholars such as Ibn Khurradādhbih, al-Yaʿqūbī, Ibn Ḥawqal, al-Maqdisī, al-Iṣṭakhrī, and al-Idrīsī refer to a region called Tīgrī or Tīgra, identifying it as a distinct Christian province within the broader kingdom of al-Ḥabasha. These sources portray Tigray as a politically and culturally autonomous highland territory, often differentiated from neighboring regions such as Amhār and al-Bajā, and ruled by its own Christian authorities under the suzerainty of a king.
File:Al-Idrisi's world map.JPG|thumb|left|260px|Al-Idrisi's world map from his Tabula Rogeriana
In his Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik, the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradādhbih lists “Tīgrī” as a distinct Christian-inhabited territory under the rule of a king within the lands of al-Ḥabasha, alongside other regions such as Nubia and al-Bajā. His account marks the first known external textual identification of a distinct ethno-political region in what would later be formalized as Tigray. A few decades later, al-Yaʿqūbī, in his Kitāb al-Buldān, echoed this distinstiguishing Tigri from other regions such as Amhār and Kūstantīn, this providing one of the earliest external sources to record a regional division resembling Ethiopia's later provinces. Al-Iṣṭakhrī, in his own version of al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik, similarly names Tīgrī as one of the Christian territories of the Ethiopian highlands. His contemporary, Ibn Ḥawqal, in his geographical treatise Kitāb Ṣūrat al-Arḍ, likewise refers to Tīgrī as a distinct region within the broader Christian kingdom of al-Ḥabasha, emphasizing its separation from other regions such as the land of the Beja and Nubians.
Shortly thereafter, al-Maqdisī, writing in his Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm fī Maʿrifat al-Aqālīm, includes Tīgrī in his description of the “land of the blacks”, specifically noting it as one of several Christian realms inland from the Red Sea. Later, al-Idrīsī, writing in Norman Sicily in 1154 CE, describes “Tīgra” as a province of the kingdom of al-Ḥabasha in his major work Nuzhat al-Mushtāq fī Ikhtirāq al-Āfāq. These texts collectively suggest that the toponym "Tigray" had entered the lexicon of Islamicate cartography and ethnography by the early medieval period.
While early Islamic geographers offered some of the first external references to Tigray, it should also be acknowledged that the Christian world, particularly through late antique and medieval sources, retained knowledge of the region primarily through ecclesiastical and geographic lenses. A notable example of that appears in a marginal 10th-century gloss to the works of Cosmas Indicopleustes, a 6th-century Alexandrian merchant and Christian monk who had traveled to the Red Sea. According to this source, the inhabitants of the northern Ethiopian highlands are referred to as the Tigrētai and the Agazē, the latter term referring to the "Agʿazi" people, who were associated with the Aksumite ruling elite and Semitic-speaking highlanders.
By the 14th century, the term Tigray appears in Geʽez royal chronicles and administrative records during the reign of Emperor Amda Seyon, referring to a northern province of the Ethiopian Empire governed by regional nobles and military leaders. In addition to that, ecclesiastical sources such as the Gädlä ''Ewostatewos documents the saint's journeys and religious activities in Tigray, highlighting the region's prominence as a monastic and theological center. Additionally, 15th-century royal land grant charters issued under emperors like Zara Yaqob mention specific districts in Tigray by name—including Tembien, Adwa, and Shire—demonstrating a sustained administrative and fiscal delineation of the region. Administrative land grant documents, preserved in church archives, also mention estates located in “the land of Tǝgray,” indicating that the term was used in formal legal and fiscal contexts. Baeda Maryam I's royal chronicle also describes military campaigns and religious patronage in Tigray, especially the emperor's support for monastic networks affiliated with Ewostatean traditions. These varied Ethiopian sources confirm that Tigray was not only a geographically defined province but also a central node in the religious, political, and symbolic landscape of the medieval Ethiopian state. Local chronicles from Enderta and Agame also reference Tigray as a broader regional identity, distinct yet integrated within the imperial order.
File:Carte d'Ethiopie et de l'Empire des Abyssins, autrement du Prestre Jan - faite sur les lieux par les RR. PP.Manoel d'Almeida, Affonso Mendez, Pero Pays & Jeronimo Lobo qui y ont demeurez long-temps - btv1b8493125n.jpg|thumb|300px| Melchisédech Thévenot's map of Abyssinia based on accounts by Jesuit missionaries Manuel de Almeida, Afonso Mendes, Pedro Páez and Jerónimo Lobo
The earliest known European references to the region of Tigray appear in the 16th century, during the period of Portuguese exploration and diplomatic engagement with the Christian Ethiopian Empire. One of the most important early witnesses was Francisco Álvares, a Portuguese priest and royal envoy who accompanied the 1520–1527 mission to the court of Emperor Lebna Dengel. In his account, Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias, Álvares explicitly names “Tigré” as a major province of the empire. He describes it as a land of stone churches, learned clergy, and ancient Christian traditions, particularly focusing on Aksum, which he identified as the site of royal coronations and religious reverence. Álvares also records the presence of the local nobility and refers to Tigré's role in resisting the Muslim incursions led by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi during the early stages of the Ethiopian–Adal War.
Following Álvares, the Jesuit missionary Jerónimo Lobo, who traveled through Ethiopia in the early 17th century, also emphasized the importance of Tigré as a Christian stronghold. In his travel narrative Itinerário e outras obras, he recounted the region's churches, monastic communities, and its connections to early Christian relics and traditions, including associations with the Ark of the Covenant in Aksum. He identified Tigré as distinct from other provinces such as Amhara or Shewa, and praised the piety and hospitality of its people. His writings were later translated and popularized in English by Samuel Johnson, further spreading knowledge of Tigré among European readers.
In the later 17th century, the most comprehensive European treatment of Ethiopian geography and culture was produced by Hiob Ludolf, a German orientalist and linguist whose Historia Aethiopica became the standard European reference on Ethiopia for decades. Ludolf based his work on Ethiopian sources, interviews with Ethiopian monks and emissaries in Rome, and correspondence with Jesuit missionaries in the Horn of Africa. He refers to Tigray as “Regio Tigrensis” or “Tigraia”, describing it as one of the core regions of the Empire. Ludolf notes its proximity to the Red Sea, its connection to the ancient Kingdom of Aksum, and its linguistic particularities — identifying Tigrinya as a variant of Geʿez still spoken by the people of the region. He includes maps and ethnographic details that distinguish Tigray from neighboring regions such as Amhara and Begemder.
These early European sources consistently depicted Tigray not only as a geographically distinct province but also as a religious and historical heartland of the Ethiopian state. They frequently associated it with the memory of Aksumite kingship, monastic scholarship, and the ecclesiastical authority of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Over time, references to "Tigré" and "Tigrai" became standard in European maps and writings on the region, including those by cartographers such as Ortelius, Blaeu, and d’Anville, who often marked “Tigre Regio” or “Regnum Tigré” on maps of East Africa produced between the 16th and 18th centuries.
File:19th cent Tigray map.png|thumb|270px|German cartographer Friedrich Handtke's map of Tigray, encompassing places as far as Debarwa to the north, Welkait to the east and Lasta to the south
The Scottish explorer James Bruce, writing in the late 18th century, described Abyssinia as geographically divided into two principal provinces: “Tigré, which extends from the Red Sea to the river Tacazzé; and Amhara, from that river westward to the Galla, which inclose Abyssinia proper on all sides except the north-west.” Moreover, he emphasized the commercial importance of Tigray due to its proximity to the Red Sea trade routes:
"Tigré is a large and important province, of great wealth and power. All the merchandise destined to cross the Red Sea to Arabia must pass through this province, so that the governor has the choice of all commodities wherewith to make his market."
By the early 19th century, English diplomat and Egyptologist Henry Salt also emphasized the strategic and military strength of Tigray. In his 1816 account A Voyage to Abyssinia, Salt identified three great divisions of the Ethiopian highlands: Tigré, Amhara, and Shewa. He considered Tigré to be the most powerful of the three, citing “the natural strength of the country, the warlike disposition of its inhabitants, and its vicinity to the sea coast,”'' which enabled it to secure a monopoly on imported muskets.
Salt further subdivided the kingdom of Tigré into smaller provinces, referring to the heartland as Tigré proper. This included districts such as Enderta, Agame, Wojjerat, Tembien, Shiré and Baharanegash. Within Baharanegash, the northernmost district of Hamasien marked the edge of Tigré, beyond which Salt noted the presence of the Beja people living further north.