ዘይተበርበረን ዘይተበከለን ጸጋታት ባሕርናን: ገማግማቱን።
(Freweini fitsum: @FitsumFreweini)
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After the fall of the port Adulis in 8th century B.C., the Dahlak islands rose as a new commercial route. Different materials such as turtle backs, elephant trunks, slaves and others passed through the islands to the Arab and Asian lands.

The Dahlak sultanate existed throughout the Medieval Period, until its decline as an independent polity during the 2nd half of the 15th century & its disappearance by the 1st half of the 16th C. The Sultanate was mentioned in a 1541 Portuguese reference, to an attack on Dahlak.

The presence of archaeological remains on both sides of the Red Sea coast proves the contacts b/n the Dahlak Archipelago & the western part of the Arabian Peninsula, which pre-dated the rise of 2 of the 3 major religions that originated in the Middle East, Christianity & Islam.

The Dahlak Islands, are a source of dev't & expansion of Islam in the Horn of Africa. Kufic scriptures, ancient Arabic calligraphy of 8-12th A.D., coral stone ruins with well-built structures & the use of special technique of spiral-curved columns are among the collections.

The archaeological remains of Dahlak Kebir are characterized by a complex town site, which embraces various tombs, different sized cisterns & various periodic settlements. These ancient remains, bear testimony to the fact that the history of the Island goes far back in history.

With the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th C, the golden age of the islands came to an end. The Portuguese began to destroy all the Arabian ships they met and to bomb. Dahlak Kebir, the main town of the Dahlak Sultanate, was bombarded in 1526.

In 1511, the Portuguese cruised Massawa under the command of
Alfonso de Albuquerque and Dahlak was sacked in 1513. The Sultanate was never to recover. The last ruler,
Ahmad bin Ismael died on 29 January 1539, as witnessed by an inscription on a gravestone. The Turks arrived at Dahlak in 1557 but they preferred the Sudanese port of Suakin, to that of Dahlak Kebir. Egypt began expanding its domain & in 1846, took possession of the coast of Eritrea and Dahlak. In the 17th C. AD, a Turkish traveler-
Evliya Celebi- mentioned that there were 600 households in Dahlak & each one of them had their own cisterns. However, a century later
James Bruce, a British traveller, stated that he had seen 360 cisterns at the village.
(History of Eritrea ታሪኽ ኤርትራ.تاريخ إريتريا: @Erihistory)