Balabat

Balabat (Amharic: ባላባት, romanized: balabat or balebat, lit: 'with father'[1] compare with English Patrician) was a largely traditional Ethiopian social class of wealthy land owners who lived on rent collected from their tenant framers (gebbars).[2] Balabats were below the Mesafint (hereditary nobility "princes") and equal to the Mekwanint (appointed nobility "officers") in the class hierarchy.[3] They were closely related to, commonly married to, and had the same economic base on land as the Mesafints and Mekwanints.[4] Balabats officially ceased to exist when feudalism was abolished in 1975.[5]

Politics

Balabats were a powerful figure in Ethiopian society and, had substantial influence on its politics. They were heavily represented in the imperial parliament that was established in 1931. Emperor Haile Selassie I had reduced their importance to centralize authority around the end of his reign as the last emperor.[6]

Revolution

After the February 1974 popular revolution the Derg overthrew the government of Emperor Haile Selassie. In 1975 the Derg abolished the monarchy and feudalism to establish Ethiopia as a Marxist–Leninist state. This ended the Ethiopian empire and Aristocracy.

See also

Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

References
  1. Balabat is a compound Amharic word (bale-abat, ባለ-አባት) which means 'with' and 'father' https://translate.google.com/?sl=am&tl=en&text=%E1%89%A3%E1%88%88&op=translate I attached a Google translate links here
  2. Ofcansky, Thomas P (1993). Ethiopia: A Country Study. Washington, D.C. : Federal Research Division, Library of Congress.
  3. Birhanu, Berhanu (2018). A Tributary Model of State Formation: Ethiopia, 1600-2015. New York: Springer. p. 87.
  4. Bekele, Shiferaw (1990). "Reflections on the Power Elite of the Wärä Seh Mäsfenate (1786-1853)". Annales d'Ethiopie (in French). 15 (1): 176. doi:10.3406/ethio.1990.951. ISSN 0066-2127.
  5. CRUMMEY, DONALD (2003-08-26). "A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855–1991 by BAHRU ZEWDE Oxford: James Currey; Athens, OH: Ohio University Press and Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press, 2nd edition, 2001. Pp. 300. £12.95 (pbk.)". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 41 (3): 488–489. doi:10.1017/s0022278x03234364. ISSN 0022-278X.
  6. C., Dunning, Harrison (2 December 1970). Land reform in Ethiopia : a case study in non-development. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Land Tenure Center. OCLC 1134608730.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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