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Bale ( Amharic: ባሌ), also known as Bali, is the name of two former polities located in the southeastern part of modern
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
.


History of Bale

Bale was a Muslim kingdom part of the Zaila confederate states under
Sultanate of Showa The Makhzumi dynasty also known as Sultanate of Shewa or Shewa Sultanate, was a Muslim kingdom in present-day Ethiopia. Its capital Walale was situated in northern Hararghe in Harla country. Its territory extended possibly to some areas west of t ...
however later in the centuries it became involved in a tug of war between the rising Christian
Solomonic dynasty The Solomonic dynasty, also known as the House of Solomon, was the ruling dynasty of the Ethiopian Empire formed in the thirteenth century. Its members claim lineal descent from the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Tradition asserts ...
and Muslim states in the region. In the 14th century it was located between Ifat and Solomonic tributary state of Hadiya. Taddesse Tamrat locates Bale south of the
Shebelle River The Shebelle River ( so, Webi Shabeelle, ar, نهر شبيلي, am, እደላ) begins in the highlands of Ethiopia, and then flows southeast into Somalia towards Mogadishu. Near Mogadishu, it turns sharply southwest, where it follows the coast ...
, which separated the kingdom from Dawaro to the north and
Adal Adal may refer to: *A short form for Germanic names in ''aþala-'' (Old High German ''adal-''), "nobility, pedigree"; see Othalan **Adál Maldonado (1948-2020), Puerto Rican artist ** Adal Ramones (born 1969), Mexican television show host ** Adal ...
to the northeast;Taddesse Tamrat, ''Church and State in Ethiopia (1270-1527)'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 142 n. 1.
Richard Pankhurst Richard Marsden Pankhurst (1834 – 5 July 1898) was an English barrister and socialist who was a strong supporter of women's rights. Early life Richard Pankhurst was the son of Henry Francis Pankhurst (1806–1873) and Margaret Marsden (1 ...
adds that its southern boundary was the
Ganale Dorya River The Ganale Doria River ( so, Webiga Janaale) (also transliterated as Genale Dorya) is a perennial river in southeastern Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains east of Aleta Wendo, the Ganale flows south and east to join with the Dawa at the border wi ...
. Ulrich Braukämper, after discussing the evidence, states that this former dependency "occupied an area in the northeast of the province which later was named after it, between the mountain range of Urgoma and the eastern Wabi Bend." Bale was Part of the Sultanate of Bale. This kingdom's earliest surviving mention is in the Soldiers Songs of Emperor
Amda Seyon I Amda Seyon I ( gez, ዐምደ ፡ ጽዮን , am, አምደ ፅዮን , "Pillar of Zion"), throne name Gebre Mesqel (ገብረ መስቀል ) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1314 to 1344 and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He is best known ...
. The historian
Chihab al-Umari Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Fadlallah al-Umari ( ar, شهاب الدين أبو العبّاس أحمد بن فضل الله العمري, Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Faḍlallāh al-ʿUmarī), commonly known as Ibn Fadlal ...
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. While the Muslim Kingdom of Bale was the first territory under the Ethiopian Emperor Imam that Ahmad Gragn conquered after the
Battle of Shimbra Kure The Battle of Shimbra Kure ("chickpea swamp") was fought on 9 March 1529 between the forces of Adal led by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, and the Abyssinian army, under Dawit II (Lebna Dengel). Arab Faqīh states that many Somalis on the l ...
, Emperor Geladewos quickly reconquered it after the Imam's death. However, the territory eventually became the possession of the Oromo people, who had begun settling there as early as the Mudana gadaa (1530-1538). Amharas efforts to reconquer Bale ended when Fasil, brother of Emperor
Sarsa Dengel Sarsa Dengel ( gez, ሠርጸ ድንግል ; 1550 – 4 October 1597), also known as Sarsa the Great, was Emperor of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His throne name was throne name Malak Sagad I (መለክ ሰገድ ). Biograp ...
, was killed with all of his people by the Oromo Kingdom. Following a failed rebellion against his brother in 1567, Fasil had fled there apparently believing that the southern boundaries would serve him as a power base. Sarsa Dengel, during his successful campaign against the ruler of Harar, advanced as far as the Shabelle, but the Oromo had meanwhile migrated further north into the Amhara ruled empire behind his back. Although the ''Royal chronicle'' of Emperor Susenyos reports that Dagano, the governor of Bale had paid tribute to Emperor Yaqob, Braukämper concludes that "from the entirety of the historical situation that Ethiopia's claim to sovereignty later in the seventeenth century was purely theoretical." In the eighteenth century, Emir Abd-Shakur built a mosque in Bale. Bale was considered the domain of the
Emirate of Harar The Emirate of Harar was a Muslim kingdom founded in 1647 when the Harari people refused to accept Imām ʿUmardīn Ādan as their ruler and broke away from the Imamate of Aussa to form their own state under `Ali ibn Da`ud. Prior to its invasion ...
until Menelik's conquest of the kingdom in 1887 and consequently became incorporated into modern Ethiopia from thereon.


The province of Bale

The later Bale, named for the earlier one, was a
province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
in the south-eastern part of
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, with its capital city at Bale Robe. It was created in 1960 out of the province of Harerge south of the Shebelle. 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 afterward was granted a commission in the Ethiopian Army.Paul B. Henze, ''Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia'' (New York: Palgrave, 2000), pp. 263f. With the adoption of the constitution in 1995, Bale was divided between the
Oromia Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Be ...
and
Somali Region The Somali Region ( so, Deegaanka Soomaalida, am, ሱማሌ ክልል, Sumalē Kilil, ar, المنطقة الصومالية), also known as Soomaali Galbeed (''Western Somalia'') and officially the Somali Regional State, is a regional stat ...
s of Ethiopia.


See also

*
Bale Zone ( Oromo: Aaana ''Baalee'') is a zone in Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Bale is bordered on the south by the Ganale Dorya River which separates it from Guji Zone, on the west by the West Arsi Zone, on the north by Arsi Zone, on the northeast by the S ...
* Causes of Bale Rebellion


Notes

{{coord, 6, N, 42, E, region:ET_type:adm1st, display=title Provinces of Ethiopia States and territories disestablished in 1995 States and territories established in 1960