vilayet

Vilayet is a term used for an administrative division in the Ottoman Empire and, in modern Turkish, for a province. The word derives from Turkish vilayet, which comes from the Arabic wilāyah, meaning jurisdiction or domain. The concept was formalized in the 1864 Vilayet Law as part of Tanzimat-era reforms, creating standardized provincial governance and replacing the older eyalet system.

A vilayet was governed by a vali (governor) appointed by the central government. The administration was designed to be centralized yet capable of local management, with the vilayet subdivided into sanjaks (districts) headed by sanjakbeys, and further divided into kazas and nahiye to handle local affairs. In some regions, particular arrangements allowed a mutasarrıf to exercise greater autonomy within a sanjak or province, especially in sensitive areas.

The structure of the vilayet aimed to improve tax collection, public works, security, and judicial administration across a diverse empire. While the general framework remained in place through much of the late Ottoman period, practical implementations varied by region and era as reforms continued into the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the modern Turkish Republic, the term vilayet persists as the historical designation for provinces, but the state organization gradually shifted to the contemporary il (province) system. Today, vilayet is primarily used in historical, academic, or literary contexts to describe Ottoman provincial administration.