Vilayetler

Vilayetler, or vilayets in Turkish, were the main administrative provinces of the Ottoman Empire after the Tanzimat reforms. The system was introduced to standardize governance and fiscal administration across the empire, replacing the older eyalet structure. The 1864 Vilayet Law formalized the vilayet as the primary unit of governance, headed by a vali (governor) appointed by the sultan. A vilayet was subdivided into sanjaks, each governed by a sanjakbey, and further into kazas (districts) and villages. The central government exercised oversight through the vali, who coordinated taxation, security, and civil administration, reporting to Constantinople.

The organization aimed to centralize authority and improve efficiency, though local administration varied by region and faced challenges from reform, nationalism, and war. In the aftermath of World War I and the dissolution of the empire, the new Turkish state replaced much of the vilayet system with iller (provinces) in the 1920s and 1930s, adopting a similar top-down governorate structure. The term vilayet survives mainly in historical contexts and in reference to the empire's late provincial organization; the modern Turkish provinces are called iller, governed by valılar.