r the second ti through Gaza Authentic Dan Bailey Jersey , Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramlah Acre, Tripoli, and Jabala to Ladhiqiya". Suakin In the Antiquity, Suakin was known as Ptolemais Theron (Ptolemais of the Hunters), and it was a Ptolemaic and Roman colony that remained out of the control of the great inland state of Ethiopia (which is Sudan) that had its capital at Meroe (today's Bagrawiyah), not far from the point where Atbarah river (Astavaras in Ancient Greek texts) joins the United Nile river. Meroe was far greater, wealthier, and more important than Axum Authentic Sean Lee Jersey , the capital of Abyssinia that stretched further on the south in the mountainous area of today's Northern Eritrea and the confines of Northern Abyssinia (today's Fake Ethiopia). Whereas Axum, capital of Abyssinia, controlled the harbor city of Adulis (nearby today's Massawa) and the surrounding coastland, Meroe did not control any portion the Red Sea coast of today's Sudan. Meroe was far larger and stronger a state, but its trade with Egypt (and later the Roman Empire) and ross Sahara turned it to a formidable continental power. After the Abyssinian Axumite attk and destruction of Meroe (370 CE), and following a 50-year period of migrations and confusion, most of Meroitic Ethiopia's territory beca the center of the Christian Ethiopian state of Makuria with capital at Dunqula Agouza, around 580 km south of today's EgyptianSudanese borderline. After Nobatia (further in the North) and Makuria, a third Christian state was incepted in the area of today's Khartoum. Makuria was stronger than the other o states and controlled today's Sudanese coastline, but in Sudan (i.e. the true Ethiopia) Christianity was spread from the North Authentic DeMarco Murray Jersey , not from the Southeast (Axumite Abyssinia). In reality, there were never good relations beeen the three Kuitic Christian kingdoms of Ethiopia and the Semitic kingdom of Abyssinia. With the early expansion of Islam, the Red Sea coast escaped from the control of both, Makuria (Ethiopia) and Abyssinia, being part of Islamic Caliphate's territory. As Makuria was a Sahara-centered kingdom (like Meroitic Ethiopia), the kings of Dunqulah managed to survive, prosper and expand ross Sahara for many long centuries; quite contrarily, as Axumite Abyssinia was a Red Sea Yen-centered kingdom, it disintegrated imdiately and disappeared quickly, leaving no posterior tres other ruins. The indigenous nation of Blemmyes (Beja) Authentic Tyron Smith Jersey , who live west of the Nile in the tis of the Egyptian Antiquity and whose pre-Islamic past is known for several millennia thanks to Egyptian Hieroglyphic, Greek, Latin and Coptic texts, may have enjoyed a limited independence around Suakin as a vassal state for several centuries after the early expansion of Islam. There was however no chance for a united Beja kingdom; this nation appears to have been divided ross tribal lines until they were progressively Islamized. In Islamic historiography, Suakin is first ntioned by al Hamdani. The Mamluk pressure started being felt as early as 1264, when Islamic armies from Upper Egypt took control of Suakin, although Makuria still existed in the inland. The rise of Mamluk influence in the Makurian affairs, the Islamization of part of the Makurian nobility, and the internal Beja royal rivalry beeen Aydhab and Suakin are the three reasons of the consolidation of Islamic control over Suakin. After 1317, Suakin was permanently under Islamic control and Authentic Tony Romo Jersey , few decades later, Makuria totally collapsed in the inland, leaving Alodia as the only Christian Ethiopian (Sudanese) state which survived until as late as 1600. The loyalty of the Suakin Beja ruler to the Mamluk ruler at Cairo was expressed after 1317 with the dispatch of no less than 80 slaves, 300 cals, and 30 tusks of ivory annually! Progressively the Beja beca Muslims. Al Dimaqi, who slightly antedates Ibn Battuta, ntioned the existence of a local king. Ibn Battuta referred to Suakin where he however never set foot, specifying that the local Sultan was the son of the Sharif of Mea, and that he had inherited this position from his maternal uncles, who were Beja Authentic Jason Witten Jersey , which in itself testifies to an advanced level of Beja Islamization. Massawa The Eritrean Red Sea coast ca under the Islamic Caliphate's control as early as the middle of the 7th c. The first Islamic naval attk against the Abyssinian harbor of Adulis took ple already in 640 even before the siege of Alexandria under the admiral of the Red Sea fleet Alkama ibn Mujazziz. After several battles and counterattks, Adulis was finally oupied and destroyed never to recover again. Subsequently, Axum, the Abyssinian capital, was cut off from the Red Sea trade routes and deprived from its main resources; it was therefore only normal that its end ca soon afterwards because the small country did not control any part of the African hinterland, having always been a Red Sea Yen-centered state. The ft that the three Christian Kingdoms of Ethiopia, notably Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia in today's Sudanese territory, had always isolated and quarantined Axumite Abyssinia played a determinant role in the final elimination of Axum. As Beja progressively expanded, several small local kingdoms were ford ross the forr Abyssinian coastland (i.e. the northern coast of today's Eritrea) Authentic Dez Bryant Jersey , and mixed marriages with Muslims (mainly Yenite rchants and navigators) consolidated their limited basis as vassals of the Caliph. Massawa rose gradually to prominence in the Dahlak archipelago region (around 50 km north of the ancient Abyssinian harbor of Adulis), but was always subordinated to the Islamic Caliphate as regards ernntal issues, and heavily dependent on northern Beja tribes and royal lines. This tribal royal tradition continued down to the Ottoman tis, when Massawa was a Turki stronghold in the South. Then, the 'viceroy' of Massawa had to report to the Ottoman ernor of Suakin. All the small sultanates that were ford on northern Eritrean territory were peefully kept as
