Bale Province, Ethiopia
Bale is the name of two polities located in the southeastern part of modern
EthiopiaThe 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-Umar 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
Shabele River, which separated the kingdom from
Dawaro to the north and
Adal to the northeast.
3The kingdom disappeared as a distinct polity following the invasion of
Ahmad Gragn, and the subsequent
Oromo migrations into the area.
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. 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.
With the adoption of the constitution of
1995, Bale was divided between the
Oromia and
Somali Regions of Ethiopia.
# 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.
