Seraye is the name of a former Province of Eritrea. It has since been incorporated primarily into the Debub Region, though some western districts have become part of the Gash-Barka Region. It is believed that the name of the Province from the "dark forests" which once thrived on its fertile ground.[1]
Today the region is home to twelve monasteries of the Eritrean Orthodox Church as well as a number of new factories in the town of Mendefera.
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During the period of Aksum, the region became a successful trading region as it lay between the Red Sea port of Adulis, Asmara, and Axum. As Aksum continued its decline during the 9th century, Beja clans, who were also known Balaw (or Belew, known locally as Belew Kelew; some hagiographical sources note the presence of this people in the area as early as the time of Emperor Kaleb), who were also Orthodox Christian[2] and had been under the suzerainty of the Aksumite rulers. They came to form the major ruling class in what would become Serae and elsewhere in the northern highlands in what are now Eritrea and Tigray.[3] The Beja integrated with the local largely Semitic-speaking population of the Highlands and adopted their language and custom.[4]
After the decline of Aksum, Serae continued to be a part of the domain of the new Ethiopian Zagwe dynasty.[5] With the fall of this dynasty around 1270 to the Solomonic dynasty, Serae saw the immigration of another Cushitic-speaking group, the Agaw. The Agaw set up settlements scattered all across Serae and integrated into the local society's customs and traditions, but nevertheless leaving their mark in the form of the Adkeme Melega'e legal system which was to dominate Serae's villagers until modern times. In the 14th century, members of the House of Ewostatewos founded the monastery of Debre Mariam in Serae, which grew into an important center of learning.[5]
Although historian Richard Pankhurst states that the Ethiopian control over the region, with the rest of the northern periphery, was restored soon after the Solomonic restoration in 1270,[6] the 1984 "Proceedings of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples," declares that "[t]here was no administration that connected Hamasin and Serai to the centre of the Ethiopian Kingdom. Indeed, there was little sense in which the Bahr Negash could be said to "control" the area."[7] The first mention of the name "Serae" comes from a land grant of Emperor Sayfa Ar`ed (Newaya Krestos; r. 1344-1372) granting two tracts of land to the convent of Abba Medhanina Egzi'e of Bankwal. Emperor Yeshaq (r. 1414-1429) granted another area in Serae to the monastery of Debre Abbay. Although the area was spiritually tied to Aksum, it was also heavily influenced by the House of Ewostatewos, who was from Ger'alta in a more southerly district of Tigray.[8]
During the reorganization of the Ethiopian government under Zara Yaqob (r. 1434-1468), the power of the Bahr Negash (which may have been newly instituted by Zara Yaqob,[9] or had already replaced the earlier Ma'ekele Bahr) power was greatly increased and elevated above the Shum/Seyums. He was given control over the rulers of Shire (south of the Mareb River in what is today Ethiopia), the Shum of Serae, the Shum of the semi-coastal district of Bur (incorporating Agame, Akkele Guzay, and the Buri Peninsula), and two kentibas (local chiefs) of Hamasien, with Debarwa in Serae[1] as his capital. He also issued a charter granting land to the monastery of Debre Mariam in Serae; Lebna Dengel (r. 1508-1540) also gave a land grant in Serae, to a certain Habte Ab, whose position was not recorded.[10]
During the Italian colonial period, many plantations were established, the fertile ground attracting European colonizers.