a northern province of Abyssinia; one of the three principal divisions of the country, the others being Amhara or Gondar in the centre and Shoa in the south. The ras (or prince) of Tigre has been often a more powerful potentate than the nominal emperor. Tigre contains the town of Axum, capital of the ancient Ethiopic Empire. Adua (Adowa, q.v.) is the capital of the province. (See Abyssinia.) Tigrina, the dialect spoken in Tigre and Lasta, is nearer the ancient Geez than is Amharic, the official and more widely diffused language of Abyssinia. See J. Schreiber, Manuel de la langue tigrai (Vienna, 1887-1893); and L. de Vito, Grammatica della lingua tigrigna (Rome, 1895).