Tigray Province
Tigray (, ) is a historical region and province of Ethiopia. It encompasses most of the territories of Tigrinya-speakers (and a few minority groups closely linked with them) in Ethiopia; Tigray is separated from the northern Tigrinya territories by the River Mereb, now serving as the state border to Eritrea.
Tigray Province
The spiritual core of Tigray was and is Aksum. Even if being formally under the rulership of the central province (Tigray proper), the town enjoyed a special status, as a free city with its own self-government. Its administrators were the , a governor appointed by the Ethiopian ruler, and the , the mayor elected by the male members of the seven "Aksumite clans" of Aksum, , , , , , , . These encompassed the entire whole indigenous city population, who was not to pay any taxes. The represented the sphere of the Ethiopian state and often descended from the local leading families; if he was a layman, he appointed an (speaker of the ) for the administration of church issues. Aksum as the guardian of the Tables of the Law (, also identified as ; Ark of Covenant) was regarded as "a church". On this ground its priests did not allow "atse" Yohannes IV to permanently establish his royal there, who therefore used Mekelle as his capital. The city population managed to defend their traditional self-government - with the being independent from the - even throughout the 20th century politics of centralization by "atse" Haile Selassie I.