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POWER, CHURCH AND THE GULT SYSTEM IN GOJJAM, ETHIOPIA

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Baye T. G.

Asian and African Studies

2016

vol. 25

issue 1

51 – 73

Since the introduction of Christianity to Ethiopia, there had been inter-dependence between the state and the church. Both parties benefited from this state of affairs. The Orthodox Church played as the ideological arm of the state. The king became head not only of the state, but also of the church. The church enjoyed royal protection and patronage, ranging in concrete terms like the granting of land, called the gult system. The gult system was an important economic institution and connection between the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the state. The system was essentially a political and economic relation between the state, the church and the cultivators. It not only included tribute and administrative rights, but also entailed direct control over land. In the Ethiopian academics, the issue of the gult system has been treated and examined in its totality. There is an evident gap in our knowledge of the dynamics of the gult system and its ideological, administrative, political and economic implications. This paper, based on published and unpublished materials, examines the dynamics of gult, state and church relations inter-sectionally. It attempts to identify changes and continuities in the basic pattern of relations and a variety of institutional linkages. To this end, a great deal of archive collections on Gojjam Governorate General from the Ethiopian National Archives and Library Agency has been consulted and reviewed to add new and useful insights and understandings on relations and interests between the cultivators, the church and state. Data was presented and mainly analysed qualitatively.

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1 Asian and African Studies

1 Baye T. G.

1 2016

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POWER, CHURCH AND THE GULT SYSTEM IN GOJJAM, ETHIOPIA