Banat (Hun. Bansag, a district governed by a ban), a part of S. Hungary, comprising the counties of Torontal, Temes, and Krasso, and, in a wider sense, the divisions of the Military Frontier adjoining these counties, thus bounded W. by the Theiss, S. by the Danube, N. by the Maros, and E. by the mountain ranges which separate Hungary from Wallachia and Transylvania; area, in the wider sense, about 12,000 sq. in.; pop. about 1,300,000, including Magyars, Germans, Wallachs, Rascians or Serbs, Jews, Bulgarians, and gypsies. About one third of the Banat is very hilly, the rest level, and in parts swampy. The interior is well watered by the Temes, Karas, and Bega. The Bega canal, nearly 90 m. long, is within the district. The Banat, though not unfre-quently visited by both droughts and inundations, is one of the most fertile regions of Europe, especially in wheat, maize, millet, tobacco, sumach, and fruit. Excellent wine is produced in moderate quantities; game and fish are plentiful. The minerals include iron, copper, and also some gold, silver, and zinc; coal, however, is the principal mineral production. The Romans formed several settlements in the Banat. on account of the mild climate.

Devastated by the Turks, it was wrested from them in 1716 by the Austrians, who governed it for some time as a military district, Temesvar being its capital. The Banat proper was separated from Hungary in 1849 to form with the county of Bacs a new Austrian crownland under the name of Voivodina or Serb way wode-ship of Banat of Temes; but it was reunited to the kingdom in 1860. In the summer of 1872 the Banat was desolated by inundations of uncommon magnitude.