Bale Province, Ethiopia
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Bale is the name of two polities located in the southeastern part of modern Ethiopia
[edit] The province-kingdom of Bale
The earlier Bale was a Muslim tributary kingdom to the Emperor of Ethiopia during the Solomonic dynasty, between Ifat and Hadiya. This kingdom's earliest surviving mention is in the Soldiers Songs of Emperor Amda Seyon I.[1] The historian al-Umari described its size as 20 days travel by six days travel, and its lands were more fertile and with a better climate than its Muslim neighbors; it had an army of 18,000 horsemen and "many" foot soldiers.[2] Taddesse Tamrat locates Bale south of the Shebelle River, which separated the kingdom from Dawaro to the north and Adal to the northeast.[3]
The kingdom disappeared as a distinct polity following the invasion of Ahmad Gragn, and the subsequent Oromo migrations into the area.
[edit] The province of Bale
The later Bale, named for the earlier one, was a province in the south-eastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Goba. It was created in 1960 out of the province of Harerge south of the Shebelle. The lowlands of both Bale and Harerge encompassed Ethiopia's portion of the Ogaden.
Beginning in 1963, Waqo Gutu led a rebellion which at one point involved all of Bale. The Ethiopian military was not able to put it down until 1969. Waqo Gutu did not offer his surrender until February of the following year, and afterwards was granted a commission in the Ethiopian Army.[4]
With the adoption of the constitution of 1995, Bale was divided between the Oromia and Somali Regions of Ethiopia.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (1270-1527) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 142 n.1.
- ^ G.W.B. Huntingford, The Glorious Victories of Ameda Seyon, King of Ethiopia (Oxford: University Press, 1965), p. 21.
- ^ Taddesse Tamrat, p. 142 n.1.
- ^ Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 263f.
| Subdivisions of Ethiopia |  |
|
|---|---|---|
| Regions | ||
| Afar | Amhara | Benishangul-Gumaz | Gambela | Harari | Oromia | Somali | Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region | Tigray | ||
| Chartered cities | ||
| Addis Ababa | Dire Dawa | ||
| Provinces prior to 1995 | ||
| Arsi | Bale | Gamu-Gofa | Gojjam | Begemder | Hararghe | Illubabor | Kaffa | Shoa | Sidamo | Tigray | Welega | Wollo | ||
