Wilaya

A wilaya or wilayah (Arabic: وِلَايَة, romanized: wilāya, plural وِلَايَاتwilāyāt; Classical Persian: wilāyat; Urdu: ولایتvilāyat; Turkish: vilayet) is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", "province" or occasionally as "governorate". The word comes from the Arabic root "w-l-y", "to govern": a wāli—"governor"—governs a wilāya, "that which is governed". Under the Caliphate, the term referred to any constituent near-sovereign state.