Vilayet

For other administrative divisions in Muslim countries using variants of the word, see wilayah.
Law of the vilayets (French: loi des vilayets; 1867), in Volume II of Legislation ottomane, published by Gregory Aristarchis and edited by Demetrius Nicolaides

A vilayet (Ottoman Turkish: ولایت, "province"), also known by various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867,[1] part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated by the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856. The Danube Vilayet had been specially formed in 1864 as an experiment under the leading reformer Midhat Pasha. The Vilayet Law expanded its use, but it was not until 1884 that it was applied to all of the empire's provinces.[1] Writing for the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1911, Vincent Henry Penalver Caillard claimed that the reform had intended to provide the provinces with greater amounts of local self-government but in fact had the effect of centralizing more power with the sultan and local Muslims at the expense of other communities.[2]

  1. ^ a b Birken, Andreas (1976). Die Provinzen des Osmanischen Reiches. Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients (in German). Vol. 13. Reichert. p. 22. ISBN 9783920153568.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference 1911-turk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).