Medri Bahri

Medri Bahri was a Christian highland province north of the Mereb River, with its seat at Debarwa.

Under Emperor Zara Yaqob in the mid-fifteenth century, the Bahr Negash governed Hamasien and Seraye. In 1541 the Bahr Negash Yeshaq guided Portuguese musketeers against the Adalite invasion; the Ottomans captured Massawa in 1557. Yeshaq later rebelled with Turkish backing and died at Addi Qarro in 1578. By the seventeenth century hereditary families such as the Hab Sellus ruled the province.