Kura or Koura () was a term used by

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

to describe the political administrative units of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, equivalent to the nomes of pre-Islamic times. These administrative units are smaller than the modern

governorates of Egypt Egypt is administratively organized under a dual system that may consist of either two or three tiers, with further subdivisions occasionally resulting in an additional layer. It follows a centralized system of local government, officially term ...

In Egypt

The Arabized word is of Greek origin (; ), meaning "territory" or "province". The is not exactly the same as the ancient pagarchy, because the refers to an administrative unit in general, while the pagarchy is a religious administrative unit. The Arabs also kept the names of these units, citing their Coptic origin, which was taken from the

Pharaonic ''Pharaonic'' is an action role-playing game developed and published by Milkstone Studios. It was first released on April 28, 2016, for Microsoft Windows, and later for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, macOS, and Nintendo Switch. Plot The game ...

origin (not the Roman or Greek), after they distorted some of them and translated others in accordance with the Arabic language.

Ibn Duqmaq Sarim al-Din Ibrahim bin Mahammad bin Aidmar bin Duqmaq al-Ala’i () (1406 – 1349), known as Ibn Duqmaq al-Qahiri al-Hanafi, was a medieval Egyptian historian and biographer from the Mamluk era. Many historians made a mistake when they indicate ...

mentioned in his book ''Al-Intisar li-Wasita Aqd al-Amsar'' that the 33 s of

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

included the s of al-Hawf al-Sharqi, which are:Ibn Duqmaq, ''الانتصار لوساطة عقد الأمصار,'' The Grand Printing Press in

Boulaq Boulaq ( from "guard, customs post"), is a district of Cairo, in Egypt. It neighbours Downtown Cairo, Azbakeya, and the River Nile. History The westward shift of the Nile, especially between 1050 and 1350, made land available on its eastern ...

, 1310 AH/1893 AD, section two, pp. 42-43. And the ''kuras'' of Batn al-Rif, which are: And the s of al-Jazira min asfal al-ard, which are: And the s of al-Hawf al-Gharbi, which are: As for the s of

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

, they are 22, which are: The remained the chief administrative unit of Egypt well into the Middle Ages. It was not until the 1070s that the

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

Badr al-Jamali Abu'l-Najm Badr ibn Abdallah al-Jamali al-Mustansiri, better known as Badr al-Jamali () or by his eventual title as Amir al-Juyush (, ), was a military commander and statesman for the Fatimid Caliphate under Caliph al-Mustansir. Of Armenian origi ...

, the de facto ruler of the

Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, i ...

, abolished them and replaced them with 23 provinces (14 in Lower Egypt and 9 in Upper Egypt), which in broad outlines survive to the present day, as the Egyptian governorates.

In al-Andalus

The term was also used for the provincial districts of the

Emirate of Córdoba An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...

, in

al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...

. Some of them were originally "militarized zones" and they held contingents of soldiers. They were referred to as ''kūra mujannada''.

References

{{Reflist Former subdivisions of Egypt Arabic words and phrases 1070s disestablishments Government of the Fatimid Caliphate Medieval history of Egypt