Dahlak

The Dahlak Islands lie in the Red Sea off Massawa, a scattering of dry islands amid coral reefs and shoals. Their pearl fisheries were famous as early as Roman times, while islanders also fished, tended flocks and raised camels. Dahlak was an early centre of Islam in the Horn of Africa, and the epitaphs of its medieval rulers preserve traces of a local sultanate.

In the sixteenth century control of the islands passed between Red Sea powers. Ottoman forces conquered Dahlak in 1517, and by 1526 Sultan Ahmad had become a tributary. During the war between Adal and Ethiopia he joined Adal and received the mainland port of Arkiko. Portuguese forces attacked Dahlak in 1541, and the Ottomans occupied the islands again in 1557, incorporating them into Habesh Eyalet.