Basra vilayet

Vilayet of Basra
Arabic: ولاية البصرة
Ottoman Turkish: ولايت بصره
Vilâyet-i Basra
1875–1880
1884–1918
Flag of Basra Vilayet
Flag
Coat of arms of Basra Vilayet
Coat of arms
The Basra Vilayet in 1900
The Basra Vilayet in 1900
CapitalBasra[1]
Governor 
• 1875-1877
Nasir Pasha
• 1916-1918
Khalil Pasha
History 
• Established
1884
1918
Area
1900[2]42,690 km2 (16,480 sq mi)
Population
• 1900[2]
500,000
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Baghdad Vilayet
Mandatory Iraq
Today part ofIraq
Kuwait
Qatar
Saudi Arabia

The Basra Vilayet (Arabic: ولاية البصرة, Ottoman Turkish: ولايت بصره, romanizedVilâyet-i Basra) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. It historically covered an area stretching from Nasiriyah and Amarah in the north to Kuwait in the south.[1] To the south and the west, there was theoretically no border at all, yet no areas beyond Qatar in the south and the Najd Sanjak in the west were later on included in the administrative system.[3]

At the beginning of the 20th century it reportedly had an area of 16,482 square miles (42,690 km2), while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 200,000.[2] The accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.[2]

The capital of the vilayet, Basra, was an important military centre, with a permanent garrison of 400 to 500 men, and was home to the Ottoman Navy in the Persian Gulf.[1]

  1. ^ a b c Reidar Visser (2005). Basra, the Failed Gulf State: Separatism And Nationalism in Southern Iraq. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 19. ISBN 978-3-8258-8799-5. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Asia by A. H. Keane, page 460
  3. ^ Reidar Visser (2005). Basra, the Failed Gulf State: Separatism And Nationalism in Southern Iraq. LIT Verlag Münster. pp. 18, 179. ISBN 978-3-8258-8799-5. Retrieved 2013-06-08.