Bale (historical region)

This article is about the ancient region in the Horn of Africa. For the modern province in Ethiopia, see Bale Province, Ethiopia.

Bale (Oromo: Baalee; Amharic: ባሌ Somali: Baale ), also known as Bali, was a historical Muslim region located in the southeastern part of modern Ethiopia. It bordered the Dawaro to the north, Hadiya in the west, and Adal in the east and its core areas were located around the Shebelle River.[1] However, the borders of Bale during the medieval period are unclear - it is usually placed around the Wabe Shebelle river, another river that shaped its borders was the Wabe River. Overall, borders of historical Bale corresponded to the modern districts of Goba, Sinana-Dinsho, Agarfa, Gasera and Goro.[2] In the 14th century it was located between Ifat and Solomonic tributary state of Hadiya.[3] Taddesse Tamrat locates Bale south of the Shebelle River, which separated the kingdom from Dawaro to the north and Adal to the northeast;[4] Richard Pankhurst adds that its southern boundary was the Ganale Dorya River.[5] 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."[6]

  1. ^ Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia by Terje Østebø Page 52
  2. ^ Østebø, Terje (2012). John Hunwick; Rüdiger Seesemann; Knut Vikør (eds.). Localising Salafism: Religious Change Among Oromo Muslims in Bale Ethiopia. Islam in Africa. Vol. 12. BRILL. p. 58. ISBN 978-9004184787.
  3. ^ Braukamper, Ulrich; Braukämper, Ulrich (2002). Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia: Collected Essays. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 135. ISBN 9783825856717.
  4. ^ Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (1270-1527) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 142 n. 1.
  5. ^ Pankhurst, The Ethiopian Borderlands (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1997), p. 71
  6. ^ Braukämper, Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia: Collected Essays (Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 2002), p. 82