Vilayet

A vilayet (Ottoman Turkish: ولایت, "province"), also known by various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867,^[1] part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated by the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856. The Danube Vilayet had been specially formed in 1864 as an experiment under the leading reformer Midhat Pasha. The Vilayet Law expanded its use, but it was not until 1884 that it was applied to all of the empire's provinces.^[1] Writing for the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1911, Vincent Henry Penalver Caillard claimed that the reform had intended to provide the provinces with greater amounts of local self-government but in fact had the effect of centralizing more power with the sultan and local Muslims at the expense of other communities.^[2]

The Ottoman Turkish vilayet (ولایت‎) was a loanword borrowed from Arabic wilāya (وِلَايَة), an abstract noun formed from the verb waliya (وَلِيَ, "to administer"). In Arabic, it had meant "province", "region", or "administration" as general ideas, but following the Tanzimat reforms the Ottoman term formalized it in reference to specific areas in a defined hierarchy.^[3] It was borrowed into Albanian vilajet, Bulgarian vilaet (вилает),^[4] Judaeo-Spanish vilayet, and French vilaïet and vilayet, which was used as a lingua franca among the educated Jews and Christians. It was also translated into Armenian as gawaŕ (գաւառ), Bulgarian as oblast (област), Judaeo-Spanish as provinsiya, and Greek as eparchía (επαρχία) and nomarchía (νομαρχία).^[5]

The early Republic of Turkey continued to use the term vilayet until it renamed them il in the late 1920s.^[when?]

The Ottoman Empire had already begun to modernize its administration and regularize its eyalets in the 1840s,^[6] but the Vilayet Law extended this throughout the empire, regularizing the following hierarchy of administrative units.^[1][7]

Each vilayet or province was governed by a vali appointed by the sultan.^[7] Acting as the sultan's representative, he was notionally the supreme head of administration in his province,^[8] subject to various caveats. Military administration was entirely separate,^[7] although the vali controlled local police.^[7] His council comprised a secretary (mektupçu), a comptroller (defterdar), a chief justice (müfettiş-i hükkâm-ı şeriyye), and directors of foreign affairs, public works, and agriculture and commerce,^[8] each nominated by the respective ministers^[8] in Istanbul.^[7] The defterdar in particular answered directly to the finance minister rather than the vali.^[7] A separate vilayet council was composed of four elected members, comprising two Muslims and two non-Muslims.^[8]

If the vali fell ill or was absent from the capital, he was variously replaced by the governor of the chief sanjak (merkez sancak) near the capital,^[8] the muavin, and the defterdar.^[7] A similar structure was replicated in the lower hierarchical levels, with executive and advisory councils drawn from the local administrators and—following long-established practice—the heads of the millets, the various local religious communities.^[8]

Each vilayet was divided into arrondissements,^[2] subprovinces, or counties known as sanjaks, livas, or mutasarrifliks. Each sanjak or liva was administered by a sanjakbey or mutasarrif personally appointed by the sultan and a council (idare meclisi) composed of a secretary (tahrirat müdürü), comptroller (muhasebeci), deputy judge (naib), and representatives of the public works board (nafia) and the educational system (maarif).^[7]

Each sanjak was divided into cantons^[2] or districts known as kazas. Each kaza was under a kaymakam and a council composed of a secretary (tahrirat kâtibi), comptroller (mal müdürü), deputy judge, and representatives of the public works board.^[7]

Each kaza was divided into parishes or communes^[2] known as nahiyes. Each nahiye was under a müdir appointed by the vali but answerable to the regional kaymakam.^[7] He was responsible for local tax collection, court sentences, and maintaining the peace.^[7]

Each nahiye was divided into wards and villages (kariye). Each kariye was under a muhtar ("headman") chosen by its inhabitants and confirmed by the regional kaymakam.^[7] He was assisted in his duties by a local "council of elders" (ihtiyar meclisi).^[7]

Vilayets, sanjaks and autonomies, circa 1876:^[9]

Vilayets and independent sanjaks in 1917:^[10]

The early Turkish Republic had 63 vilayet in the 1927 Turkish census:

• 
  Vilayets of Europe in 1870
• 
  Vilayets in 1877
• 
  Vilayets of Europe in 1893
• 
  Vilayets of Asia in 1897
• 
  Vilayets of Asia in 1909
• 
  Vilayets of Europe in 1910
• 
  Vilayets of Asia in 1911

• Provinces of Turkey
• Six Vilayets, the Armenian vilayets of the empire
• Vilayet Law

• Sublime Porte (1867). Sur la nouvelle division de l'Empire en gouvernements généraux formés sous le nom de Vilayets. Constantinople.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - About the Law of the Vilayets

• Vilayet Law of 1864, official translation to French pp. 36–45, in Young, George, Corps de droit ottoman; recueil des codes, lois, règlements, ordonnances et actes les plus importants du droit intérieur, et d'études sur le droit coutumier de l'Empire ottoman, Volume 1, 1905.
• Vilayet Law of 1867, in French, in Législation ottomane, published by Gregory Aristarchis and edited by Demetrius Nicolaides, Volume 2