welayat

A wilayah ( ar, وَلاية, wālāya or ''wilāya'', plural ; Urdu" or occasionally as " governorate". The word comes from the Arabic root "''w-l-y''", "to govern": a '' wāli''—"governor"—governs a ''wālāya'' (or ''wilāya''), "that which is governed". Under the Caliphate, the term referred to any constituent near-sovereign state.

Use in specific countries

In Arabic, ''wilayah'' is used to refer to the states of the United States, and the United States of America as a whole is called ''al-Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah al-Amrīkīyah'', literally meaning "the American United States".

North Africa and Middle East

For Morocco, which is divided into provinces ''and'' wilāyas, the translation "province" would cause the distinction to cease. For Sudan, the term ''state'' and for Mauritania, the term ''region'' is used.
* Provinces of Algeria
* Provinces of Oman
* Regions of Mauritania
* States of Sudan
* Governorates of Tunisia

The governorates of Iraq (muhafazah) are sometimes translated as provinces, in contrast to official Iraqi documents and the general use for other Arab countries. This conflicts somehow with the general translation for ''muhafazah'' ( governorate) and ''wilāyah'' (province).

China

In the ethnically-diverse Xinjiang region of Northwest China, the seven undifferentiated prefectures proper (; that is, not prefecture-level cities, autonomous prefectures, etc.) are translated into the Uygur language as ''Vilayiti'' (). For the other, more numerous types of administrative divisions in Xinjiang, however, Uygur uses Russian loanwords like ''oblasti'' or ''rayoni'', in common with other Xinjiang languages like Kazakh.

Kenya and Tanzania

In Kenya, the term ''wilaya'' is a Swahili term which refers to the administrative districts into which provinces are divided.
* Districts of Kenya
* Districts of Tanzania

Southeast Asia

In Malay (both in Malaysian and Indonesian standards) and Tausug, ''wilayah'' or ''wilāya'' is a general word meaning "territory", "area" or "region".

In Malaysia, the term
* ''Wilayah Persekutuan'', often shortened to "Wilayah" in colloquial speech, refers to the three federal territories under direct control of the federal government: Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya.
* ''Wilayah Ekonomi Pantai Timur'', is translated as East Coast Economic Region

In Philippines, the term
* ''Wilāya sin Lupa' Sūg'' refers to the province of Sulu, Philippines.

Ottoman Empire

Traditionally the provinces of the Ottoman Empire were known as ''eyâlet''s, but beginning in 1864, they were gradually restructured as smaller ''vilâyet''s—the Turkish pronunciation of the Arabic word ''wilāyah''. Most were subdivided into sanjaks.

The current provinces of Turkey are called ''il'' in Turkish.

DAESH

The territory under the governance of the Islamic State (ISIS) is referred to them as officially being divided into ''wilayah'', often translated into English as "province". An example is Islamic State – Khorasan Province.

Central Asia and Caucasus

The Persian word for ''province'' (''velâyat'') is still used in several similar forms in Central Asian countries:
* Provinces of Afghanistan ( ps, ولايت, ''wilāyat'', plural: ولايتونه, ''wilāyatuna''), subdivided into districts ( ps, ولسوالۍ, ''wuləswāləi'' or fa, ولسوالی, ''wolaswālī'')
* Regions of Tajikistan (singular: viloyat, plural: viloyatho), subdivided into districts ( tg, ноҳия, ''nohiya'' or russian: район, ''raion'')
* Regions of Turkmenistan (singular: welaýat, plural: welaýatlar), subdivided into districts ( tk, etrap)
* Regions of Uzbekistan (singular: viloyat, plural: viloyatlar), subdivided into districts ( uz, tuman, script=Latn)

During the Soviet period the divisions of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were called ''oblasts'' and ''raions'', using Russian terminology.

In the Tsez language, the districts of Dagestan are also referred to as "вилайат" (''wilayat''), plural "вилайатйоби" (''wilayatyobi''). But the term "район" ('' rayon''), plural "районйаби" (''rayonyabi'') is also used.

Caucasus Emirate, a self-proclaimed successor state to the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, is divided into vilayats.

South Asia

In Urdu and Assamese, the term is ''bilat'' and ''bilati'' (archaic ''bilaiti''), referring exclusively to Britain and British-made. The British slang term blighty derives from this word, via the fact that the foreign British were referred to using this word during the time of the British Raj.

See also

*Vilayet

References

{{Terms for types of country subdivisions

Arabic words and phrases
Types of administrative division
Malay language