Ethnarch refers generally to political leadership over a common ethnic group or heterogeneous kingdom. The word is derived from the Greek words for "people" and "leader".

Antiquity

The title of ethnarch was used in the Roman East to refer to rulers of vassal kingdoms who did not rise to the level of kings. The Romans used the terms natio and gens for a people as a genetical and cultural entity, regardless of political statehood. The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ... Look up monarch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A monarch (see sovereign) is a type of ruler or head of state. ...

The best-known is probably Archelaus, son of Herod the Great, who was ethnarch of the chief part, Samaria, Judea, and Idumea, from the death of his father in 4 BC to AD 6. His brother Philip received the north-east of the realm and was called tetrarch; and Galilee was given to Herod Antipas, who bore the same title, so Archelaus' title singled him out a the senior ruler, higher in rank than the tetrarchs, so the chief of the Jewish nation; these three sovereignties were reunited under Herod Agrippa from A.D. 41 to 44.. Herod Archelaus (23 BC - c. ... Herod I, also known as Herod the Great, was a Roman client-king of Judaea (c. ... Samaria, or Shomron (Hebrew שֹׁמְרוֹן, Standard Hebrew Å omÉ™ron, Tiberian Hebrew ŠōmÉ™rôn, Arabic سامريّون SāmariyyÅ«n (but commonly called in Arabic جبال نابلس Jibal Nablus), (in the New Testament Greek Σαμαρεία, in Russian Самария ) is a term used for the mountainous northern part of the area on the west bank of the Jordan... Desert hills in southern Judea, looking east from the town of Arad Judea or Judaea (יהודה Praise, Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew ) (Greek: Ιουδαία) is a term used for the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael), an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank, and... Edom (אֱדוֹם, Standard Hebrew Edom, Tiberian Hebrew ʾĔḏôm, Assyrian Udumi, Syriac ܐܕܘܡ), a Hebrew word meaning red, is a name given to Esau in the Hebrew Bible, as well as to the nation that purportedly traced their ancestry to him. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC - 0s BC - 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 9 BC 8 BC 7 BC 6 BC 5 BC 4 BC 3 BC 2 BC 1 BC 1 2 Events Archelaus becomes...   This article is about the year 6. ...

Post-antiquity

Rather different was the case of minority community ethnarchs, especially within the Ottoman Empire (Islamic successor to Byzantium) that were recognized as legitimate entities and thus allowed to be heard by the government through an officially acknowledged representative, though without political persona. Imperial motto (Ottoman Turkish) Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (the Eternal State) The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power (1683) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital Sogut (1299-1326), Bursa (1326-1365), Edirne (1365-1453), İstanbul (1453-1922) Imperial anthem Ottoman imperial anthem Sovereigns Padishah of the Osmanli Dynasty...

When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II decided to give such dialogue a more formal nature, the logical choice for the major Christian communities was the (Greek Orthodox) Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. For the far smaller, but also influential Jewish diaspora, a similar position was granted to the Hakham Bashi, i.e. Chief rabbi. Mehmed II Mehmed II (March 30, 1432 – May 3, 1481; nicknamed el-Fatih, the Conqueror) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481. ... The Patriarch of Constantinople is the Ecumenical Patriarch, the first among equals in the Eastern Orthodox Communion. ... Hakham Bashi (Turkish: Hakham BaÅ¡si) was the name for the Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire, and as such, the Hakham Bashi was the closest thing to an overall Exilarchal authority among Jewry everywhere in the Middle East in early modern times. ...

Sources and References

• Josephus
• The Bible

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain. The 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910–1911) is the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...