Ras (title)

Makonnen Wolde Mikael, known simply as Ras Makonnen, and his followers of the Ethiopian nobility

Ras (Amharic: ራስ, romanized: ras, lit. 'head' compare with Arabic Rais or Hebrew Rosh), is a noble title in the Ethiopian Semitic languages.[1] It is one of the powerful non-imperial titles. Pronounced rəʾs in Geʽez,[2] historian Harold G. Marcus equates the Ras title to a duke; others have compared it to "prince".[3]

The combined title of Leul Ras (Amharic: ልዑል ራስ) was given to the heads of the cadet branches of the Imperial dynasty, such as the Princes of Gojjam, Tigray, and the Selalle sub-branch of the last reigning Shewan Branch, and meaning "Lord of Lords", the highest title of lord.

Historic Ras

Other uses

An Italian Ras (from the homonymous Ethiopian title) was first the local leader of a squadrismo militia organised by the early fascists outside the authority of the Italian state[4] and later a type of gerarca (higher officer of fascist ruled italy) dominating a province. Italo Balbo was the Ras of Ferrara, Roberto Farinacci of Cremona, and Cesare Forni of Pavia.[5] Today the term is used for a local boss of organized crime or to describe an authority who exercises power despotically.[6]

One of the clearest attestations is at Palmyra, where Odaenathus and his son Hairan I bore the Palmyrene title ras in bilingual inscriptions, rendered in the Greek text as exarchos. Modern scholarship treats this as a local title of supreme authority or lordship,[7] probably created for Odaenathus in response to the Sasanian threat and vested with exceptional civil and military authority.[8][9]

  • Ras of Tayma (attested 203 CE), title known from a grave slab mentioning a syh, or chief, of Tayma[10]
  • Ras of Palmyra (attested October 251 CE), title borne by Hairan I
  • Ras of Palmyra (attested 252–267 CE), title borne by Odaenathus
  • Ras of Hegra (attested 356 CE), title known from a late Nabataean inscription as ryš ḥgrʾ (“chief of Hegra”)[11]

The term "Rastafari" derives from "Ras Tafari Makonnen", the pre-regnal title of Haile Selassie.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Haile Selassie, Western Education, and Political Revolution in Ethiopia. Cambria Press. ISBN 9781621969143.
  2. ↑ Bulakh, Maria (2010). "Observations on Some "Broken" Plurals of Gəʿəz". Aethiopica. 13: 131–149. the possibility that a Proto-Semitic biform *ra'š ~ *ri'š existed, that both variants were inherited in Gəʿəz
  3. ↑ E.g., Don Jaide, "An Etymology of the word Ras-Tafari – By Ras Naftali", Rasta Liveware, June 2, 2014; accessed 2019.06.24.
  4. ↑ Millan, M. (2013). "The institutionalisation of 'squadrismo': disciplinary Fascist dictatorship". Contemporary European History. 22 (4). Cambridge University Press: 557.
  5. ↑ Pansa, Giampaolo (2014). Eia Eia Alalà (in Italian). Milan: RCS Libri S.p.A. p. 122. ISBN 978-88-17-07726-2.
  6. ↑ Dizionario dell'italiano Treccani (2022), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
  7. ↑ Yon, Jean-Baptiste (2010). "Kings and Princes at Palmyra". In Ted Kaizer; Margherita Facella (eds.). Kingdoms and Principalities in the Roman Near East. Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 239–240. As we have seen, even his title of 'chief' could belong to a local tradition... See parallel denominations of local 'chiefs' in a late Nabataean inscription: resh Hegra and resh Teima.
  8. ↑ "Palmyra from the Severans to Zenobia". The Oxford Handbook of Palmyra. Oxford University Press. 2024. One is dedicated to the son of Odaenathus, Septimius Ḥairān, in October 251 ... and another to Odaenathus, in April 252 ... in both inscriptions Odaenathus and his son Ḥairān are called 'Roman senator' and exarchos. In the third, undated, inscription, 'Ogeilū, son of Maqqaī, calls Odaenathus only 'head of Tadmōr'.
  9. ↑ Potter, David (1996). "Palmyra and Rome: Odaenathus' Titulature and the Use of the Imperium Maius". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 113: 271–285. The same conclusion can be drawn about the description of Odaenathus as lamprotatos hypatikos on three inscriptions from the grand colonnade at Palmyra ... In this connection it may also be significant that he styled himself "Lord of Palmyra".
  10. ↑ Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Musée du Louvre / Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. 2010. The only written source from this period found in Tayma so far is a grave slab in the form of a tabula ansata from the year 203, mentioning a syh, or chief, of Tayma, plus a series of other Judaic names.
  11. ↑ Politis, Konstantinos D. (2007). "The Nabataeans in the Hawran and the Archaeology of Everyday Life". The World of the Nabataeans. Volume 2. Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 188. another Nabataean inscription now stored in Jeddah, refers to a man with the title 'chief of Hegra' and is dated to A.D. 356.
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