Sultanate of Bale

The Sultanate of Bale was a Oromo-Hadiya sultanate founded in the Bale Mountains of the southern Ethiopian Highlands and Horn of Africa. It corresponds roughly to the modern Bale Zone of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia.[1]

Location

According to Ulrich Brakumper Bali was located in between Hadiya Kingdom and the Ifat kingdom.[2]

However Taddesse Tamrat locates it south of Shebelle River which separated it from Dawaro to the north and the Adal kingdom to the northeast.[3]

today the Bali kingdom would have consisted of the Arsi and Bale Province, Ethiopia.

Location of the falling Bale kingdom from 1800 within the Ethiopian Empire

Founding of Bali (Bale)

The Bale kingdom was founded in the 13th century from a Somali point of view the kingdom was founded by a Yemeni/Somali saint from Merca, Sheik Hussein it is also believed that he established the Bali dynasty .[4][5] However Brakumper interestingly claims that the Arab faqih claims that Oromos were living in several kingdoms and would have found many before the Oromo migrations, one of which was Bali. It is also mentioned that the Ifat kingdom would convert many Oromo. With this we can confirm that the Bali kingdom was a Oromo civilisation.[6][7]

History and military encounters

The kingdom of Bali kingdom was once part of the Showan Emirate. The Abyssinian christians and the local Showan Muslim tribes would battle for the important state. But later in the late 12th century the newly converted Oromo Muslim inhabitants created the independent Bale Sultanate. Brakumper claims that the kingdom conquered the Emirate of Arbabni and stretched from the Urgoma Mountains to the Shebelle River and Jubba rivers.[8]

The kingdom’s earliest mention is in the soldiers’ song of the Ethiopian king Amda Seyon I.[9]

Economic structure

The Arab historian Chihab Al-Umari notes that the kingdom had a better climate then the majority of the neighbouring civilisations. He also describes it as a 20 by 6 day travel. And 18000 horsemen and twice as many foot soldiers.[10]

The Bali kingdom would fall to the Abyssinian Empire for a short time. They regained independence just eight years afterwards.

Fall of Bale

Ifat

After gaining independence the Bali kingdom supported the local pastoralist tribes to get independence from Ifat.

Adal

The Sultanate of Bale yet again was invaded by the Christian Ethiopians. So the Adal sultan Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din led a conquest of Ethiopia. He was successful in his first Campaigns, and invaded Bale,Arsi,Dawaro. After finishing his problems in the North the Ethiopian monarch Zara Yaqob focused south east, leading a campaign against the Adal Governors. This campaign was successful for the Ethiopians, and ended at Battle of Gomit where the Adalites lost a lot of territory, this would also lead to Zara yaqob killing Sultan Badlay cutting parts of his body, and sending them to different places.[11]

. Bali would decisively be defeated. Then in the Adal war Bali was first to be captured by the new Kingdom of Harar by Ahmed Gurey at the Battle of Shimbra kure.[12]

One powerful man Garad Abbas successfully rebelled against the Imam and would invade many powers such as Bali,Dawaro,Fatager, he then planned to invade Sharkha but his reign wouldn’t be long enough due to Adalite Rebels and the Re conquest of Abyssinia.[13]

However the Abyssinian Emperor Gelawdewos quickly re-established Ethiopian rule in the area after the Imam’s death. Bali also had to face a Oromo conflict

The Bali kingdom fought fellow Oromos, however these Oromos were not Muslim and came from the south under their king Mudanna of Bali who reigned over Bale from 1530-1538.[14]

Ethiopian hopes of invading Bali kingdom ended when the Ethiopian Emperor Sarsa Dengel’s brother was killed by a rising Oromo kingdom. This would lead to a unsuccessful rebellion against his brother Fasil in 1567, Fasil had fled from the northern lands to Bali where he established a strong hold with the local Muslim imams. The emperor then campaigned against Bali invading as far as Shabelle but by this time Oromos had already invaded several northern kingdoms. The chronicle states that the Garad or Govorner of Bale Dagano paid tribute to Yaqob of Ethiopia and supported him more then he did Susynos Brakumper concludes with stating “from the entirety of Historical situation that Ethiopia’s claim to sovereignty later in the seventeenth century was purely theoretical.[15] Bali was later conquered as a tributary state by Harar and was it’s domain.[16]

References
  1. Østebø, Terje (October 2020). Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia. p. 52. ISBN 9781108839686.
  2. Brakumper, Ulrich (2002). Islamic history and culture in southern Ethiopia. Ulrich Brakumper. p. 135.
  3. Church and state in Ethiopia. Oxford Clarendon press: Taddesse Tamrat. 1972. p. 142.
  4. Gish, Steven; Winnie thay (2007). Ethiopia. Steven Gish. p. 83. ISBN 9780761420255.
  5. Pilgrimage: from Ganges to Graceland an encyclopaedia. Linda Kay. 2002. pp. 588–590. ISBN 9781576070048.
  6. The Journal of Oromo study's. Snippet view: Brakumper. 2008. p. 210.
  7. Africa,Islam and development:Islam and development in Africa. Snippet view: Thomas salter. 2000.
  8. Islamic history culture and culture in southern Ethiopia. Hamburg:lit verlag: Brakumper. 2002. p. 82.
  9. Church and state in Ethiopia. Oxford Clarendon press: Tadesse Tamrat. 1972. p. 142.
  10. The Glorious victorious of Ameda Seyon, king of Ethiopia. Oxford University press: G.W.B Huntingford. 1965. p. 21.
  11. Islam in Ethiopia. Oxford Geoffrey Cumberlege university press: J Spencer trimingham. 1952. p. 75.
  12. Futuh-Al-Habasha. Hollywood Tshai: This book was described in Sihab ad-din Ahmed bin Abd Al Qadeer the conquest of Ethiopia:Transalated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst. 2003. pp. 105–122.
  13. Ethiopian Borderlands. Library of congress: Pankhurst. 1997. p. 201.
  14. The Oromo of Ethiopia a history 1570-1860. Trenton:the Red Sea press: Muhammed Hassan. 1994. p. 22.
  15. Islamic history. Brakumper. p. 80.
  16. Harar. Ben-dor Avashai. 2018. p. 100. ISBN 9780815654315.
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