TIGRE  , 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 (q.v.), 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) .