Eyalets

Eyalet is a term used for a principal administrative division of the Ottoman Empire, functioning as a province from the 14th to the mid-19th centuries. The word eyalet comes from Turkish and means province or territory. Each eyalet was governed by a vali (often translated as governor) or beylerbey, who held civil and military authority and reported to the Porte in Istanbul. The governor was responsible for maintaining order, overseeing taxation, and provisioning troops.

An eyalet was subdivided into sanjaks (also called livas), each led by a sanjakbey who supervised local administration, justice, and revenue. The central government exercised oversight through provincial reports, and military manpower could be deployed from the eyalet as needed. Revenue, drawn from land tax and various dues, supported both civil administration and the Ottoman army.

Eyalets varied greatly in size and capacity; prominent examples included the Rumelia Eyaleti in Europe, the Anadolu (Anatolia) Eyaleti, the Egypt Eyaleti, and the Baghdad Eyaleti. Over time, local governors sometimes exercised considerable autonomy, particularly in frontier regions or during periods of central weakness.

In the Tanzimat era, administrative reforms culminated in the Vilayet Law of 1864, which replaced the eyalet system with vilayets—new provinces with standardized structures, budgets, and reporting lines. The term eyalet continued to be used in some contexts, but the contemporary provincial framework generally referred to vilayets until the empire’s dissolution in the early 20th century.