Balabat

{{Short description|Ethiopian wealthy aristocratic upper class}}

Balabat (Amharic: ባላባት, romanized: balabat or balebat, lit: 'with father'Balabat is a compound Amharic word (bale-abat, ባለ-አባት) which means 'with' and 'father'

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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).{{Cite book|last=Ofcansky|first=Thomas P|title=Ethiopia: A Country Study|publisher=Washington, D.C. : Federal Research Division, Library of Congress|year=1993|language=English}} Balabats were below the Mesafint (hereditary nobility "princes") and equal to the Mekwanint (appointed nobility "officers") in the class hierarchy.{{Cite book|last=Birhanu|first=Berhanu|title=A Tributary Model of State Formation: Ethiopia, 1600-2015|publisher=Springer|year=2018|location=New York|pages=87|language=English}} They were closely related to, commonly married to, and had the same economic base on land as the Mesafints and Mekwanints.{{Cite journal|last=Bekele|first=Shiferaw|date=1990|title=Reflections on the Power Elite of the Wärä Seh Mäsfenate (1786-1853).|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ethio_0066-2127_1990_num_15_1_951|journal=Annales d'Ethiopie|language=fr|volume=15|issue=1|pages=176|doi=10.3406/ethio.1990.951|issn=0066-2127}} Balabats officially ceased to exist when feudalism was abolished in 1975.{{Cite journal|last=CRUMMEY|first=DONALD|date=2003-08-26|title=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.).|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x03234364|journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies|volume=41|issue=3|pages=488–489|doi=10.1017/s0022278x03234364|issn=0022-278X}}