kingdom of Daʾamat

The kingdom of Dämat, also spelled Dəmt or Da'amat, was a historical kingdom in what is now Ethiopia. It was established in the 7th century BCE in the northern highlands of Tigray by peoples speaking the Ge'ez language. Dämat dominated lands to its west, acquiring valuable resources like ivory, gold, and slaves, which were traded with merchants from South Arabia.

By 300 BCE, Dämat began to decline as trade routes shifted eastward towards coastal ports, leading to the rise of smaller city-states. This period eventually saw unification under the inland state of Aksum. The historical kingdom of Ifat, a Muslim state, later flourished in central Ethiopia from 1285 to 1415 CE.12