Look up muhafazah in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A muḥāfaẓah (Arabic: مُحَافَظَة [muˈħaːfaðˤa]; pl. مُحَافَظَات muḥāfaẓāt [muħafaˈðˤaːt]) is a first-level administrative division of many Arab countries, and a second-level administrative division in Saudi Arabia. The term is usually translated as "governorate", and occasionally as "province". It comes from the Arabic root ح-ا-ف-ظ ḥ-a-f-ẓ (verb: حافظ ḥafaẓa), which means to "keep" and "guard". The head of a muḥāfaẓah is the (مُحَافِظ) muḥāfiẓ .