mamuriyat

Mamuriyat (also ma'mūriyat) is a term found in Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Urdu that designates the civil administration or the civil service of a state. The word is derived from Arabic ma'mūr, meaning “inhabited” or “cultivated,” with the abstract suffix -iyat, and came to signify the body of administrative offices, bureaucrats, and routines through which government functions are organized.

In historical practice within Persianate and Islamic governance, mamuriyat referred to the machinery of state administration. Its scope often included departments and activities related to revenue, justice, policing, taxation, and sometimes public works, though the exact configuration varied across eras and polities. The term appears in administrative literature and chronicles as a label for the civil service and bureaucratic apparatus, rather than for military or political branches.

In modern usage, mamuriyat is largely archaic. Contemporary discussions of administration prefer terms such as civil service or public administration, or refer to specific departments by their modern names. The concept remains of interest to historians studying bureaucratic organization in Islamic and Persianate empires and their successor states.

See also: Civil service, Public administration, Ottoman administration.