Debarwa

Province

Debarwa ( Tigrinya: ድባርዋ Dəbarwa, also Dəbarowa, Dbarwa ) is a city in the Debub region of Eritrea with about 25,000 inhabitants.

The city lies about 30 km south of the Eritrean capital Asmara on the river Mareb. The proximity to Asmara, the Eritrean infrastructure for relationships is well developed.

Debarwa is located on the traditional trade route from Massawa on the Red Sea into the interior and was the seat of Baher Negash. Francisco Álvares described Debarwa in the 16th century as the seat of the main residences of the Baher Negash and as a city, the "very good" and " situated on a very high rock " was. The "houses of the King" were, according to Alvares on the rocks above the Mareb River, were like a fortress created and guarded by more than 300 mounted men. Each day, they were visited by many people who came for business or on breaking petitions. Their " presence attracted many women ," and because " the men wealthy and as courtiers are ". The place consisted of "300 houses or more," and Thursday there was in each case a large market, which homed to another " 300 or 400 people " in Debarwa. The place had two adjacent churches, one for men and one for women.

History

1535 Debarwa was taken by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al - Ghazi. After its fall 1543 Debarwa became the seat of Baher Negash again, but then fell to the Ottoman Turks who had occupied Massawa in 1557. The Ottoman commander Özdemir Pasha was in Debarwa a fort built, " with a long wall and a very high tower ," which supposedly gold and silver objects, precious stones and expensive imported garments were stored. Trying to expand from there the Ottoman power over the countryside, but failed, and at that time well -armed populace stormed the fort, so that the Ottomans had to retreat temporarily. In the following period there was Debarwa in and around many battles between the Ottomans - were supported by Baher Negash Yeshaq - and the Ethiopian emperors and Sarsa Dengel Minas. Sarsa Dengel took the fort in 1576 and was destroying it.

Despite these struggles between three sides Debarwa kept in the following two centuries, its political and economic position. The French traveler Charles Jacques Poncet reported in 1699 that all the goods that were imported from the Red Sea to Ethiopia ago, came through Debarwa. A century later described the Scottish explorer James Bruce Debarwa as " usual passage " between Massawa and Tigray. An Armenian traders showed the city paid then 500 ounces of gold annually to the Emperor. At the beginning of the 19th century Debarwa but was already on the decline, because the ruler of Tigray Mikael Sehul had usurped the power of the Baher Negash, and trade lost Debarwa towards Adwa important. The British traveler James Theodore Bent described Debarwa end of the 19th century as " a few cairns, an almost ruined church and a few miserable huts ".