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Eyalets (, , ), also known as beylerbeyliks or pashaliks, were the primary administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire.
From 1453 to the beginning of the nineteenth century the Ottoman local government was loosely structured. The empire was at first divided into states called eyalets, presided over by a beylerbey (title equivalent to duke in Turkish language and Amir al-umara in Arabic) of three tails (feathers borne on a state officer's ceremonial staff). The grand vizier was responsible for nominating all the high officers of state, both in the capital and the states. Between 1861 and 1866, these eyalets were abolished, and the territory was divided for administrative purposes into (provinces).
The eyalets were subdivided into districts called Sanjak, each of which was under the charge of a pasha of one tail, with the title of mira-lira, or sanjak-bey. These provinces were usually called pashaliks by Europeans. The empires and cities of Asia (1873) by Forbes, A. Gruar. Page 188 The pasha was invested with powers of absolute government within his province, being the chief of both the military and financial departments, as well as police and criminal justice. , showing the Middle Eastern eyalets]] At official functions, the order of precedence was Egypt Eyalet, Baghdad Eyalet, Habesh Eyalet, Budin Eyalet, Anatolia Eyalet, "Mera'ish", and the Kapudan Pasha in Asia and Buda, Egypt, Abyssinia, Baghdad, and Rumelia Eyalet in Europe, with the remainder arranged according to the chronological order of their conquest.Çelebi, Evliya. Trans. by von Hammer, Joseph. Narrative of travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the seventeenth century,'' Vol. 1, p. 90 ff. Parbury, Allen, & Co. (London), 1834.
Pashaluk or Pashalik () is the abstract word derived from pasha, denoting the quality, office or jurisdiction of a pasha or the territory administered by him. In European sources, the word "pashalic" generally referred to the eyalets.
The term 'eyalet' began to be applied to the largest administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire instead of beglerbegilik from the 1590s onward, and it continued to be used until 1867.
In 1395, Bayezid I executed the last Shishmanid Tsar of Bulgaria, and annexed his realm to Rumelia Eyalet. In 1461, Mehmed II expelled the last of the Isfendyarid dynasty from Sinop Province, awarding him lands thus taxation authority near Bursa in exchange for his hereditary territory. The Isfendyarid principality became a district of Anatolia Eyalet. In 1468, Karaman Eyalet was established, following the annexation of the formerly independent principality of Karaman; Mehmed II appointed his son Mustafa as governor of the new eyalet, with his seat at Konya.
The 16th century saw the greatest increase in the number of eyalets, largely through the conquests of Selim I and Süleyman I, which created the need to incorporate the new territory into the structure of the Empire, and partly through the reorganisation of existing territory. A list dated 1527 shows eight eyalets, with Egypt Eyalet, Damascus Eyalet, Diyarbekir and Kurdistan added to the original four. The last eyalet, however, did not survive as an administrative entity. Süleyman's conquests in eastern Turkey, Iraq and Hungary also resulted in the creation of new eyalets.
The former principality of Dulkadir became the Dulkadir Eyalet at some time after its annexation in 1522. After the Iranian campaign of 1533–6, the new eyalets of Erzurum Eyalet, Van Eyalet, Sharazor Eyalet and Baghdad Eyalet guarded the frontier with Iran. In 1541 came the creation of Budin Eyalet from part of the old Kingdom of Hungary. The Eyalet of the Archipelago was created by Süleyman I especially for Hayreddin Barbarossa in 1533, by detaching districts from the shores and islands of the Aegean which had previously been part of the eyalets of Rumelia Eyalet and Anatolia Eyalet, and uniting them as an independent eyalet.
In 1580, Bosnia, previously a district of Rumelia, became an eyalet in its own right, presumably in view of its strategically important position on the border with the Habsburgs. Similar considerations led to the creation of the Kanije Eyalet from the districts adjoining this border fortress, which had fallen to the Ottomans in 1600. In the same period, the annexation of the Rumelian districts on the lower Danube and the Black Sea coast, and their addition to territories between the Danube and the Dniepr River along the Black Sea, created the Silistra Eyalet. At the same time, on the south-eastern shore of the Black Sea, Trebizond Eyalet came into being. The purpose of this reorganisation, and especially the creation of the eyalet of Özi was presumably to improve the defences of the Black Sea ports against the Cossacks. 1609, according to the list of Ayn Ali, there were 32 eyalets. Some of these, such as Tripoli, Cyprus or Tunis, were the spoils of conquest. Others, however, were the products of administrative division.
In 1795, the government launched a major reorganization of the provincial administration, with a law decreeing that there would be 28 provinces, each to be governed by a vizer. These were Adana Eyalet, Aleppo Eyalet, Anatolia Eyalet, Baghdad Eyalet, Basra Eyalet, Bosnia Eyalet, Childir, Crete Eyalet, Constantinople, Damascus Eyalet, Diyarbekir, Egypt Eyalet, Erzurum Eyalet, Habesh Eyalet, Karaman Eyalet, Kars Eyalet, Dulkadir Eyalet, the Archipelago, Morea Eyalet, Mosul Eyalet, Rakka Eyalet, Rumelia Eyalet, Sayda Eyalet, Sharazor Eyalet, Silistra Eyalet, Sivas Eyalet, Trebizond Eyalet, Tripoli Eyalet, Van Eyalet. In practice, however, central control remained weak, and beylerbeyliks continued to rule some provinces, instead of vizers.
By 1500, the four central eyalets of the Empire, Rumelia, Anatolia, Rum and Karaman, were under direct rule. Wallachia, Moldavia and the Khanate of the Crimea, territories which Mehmed II had brought under his suzerainty, remained in the control of native dynasties tributary to the Sultan. So, too, did the Kingdom of Hungary after the battle of Mohács in 1526.
| also called Sukhum Sohumkale or Georgia Gürcistan and included Mingrelia and Imeretia as well as modern Abkhazia – nominally annexed but never fully conquered | |
| either split from or coextensive with Samtskhe | |
| also called Demirkapı – assigned a serdar chief rather than a beylerbeyi | |
| probably replaced Tiflis after 1586 | |
| temporary promotion of the sanjak of IbrimV. L. Menage (1988): "The Ottomans and Nubia in the sixteenth century". Annales Islamologiques 24. pp.152-153. | |
| Kakhetian king was appointed hereditary bey | |
| Lazistān | |
| possibly never separate from Yerevan | |
| may have also been another name for Trabzon | |
| temporary division of Yemen | |
| may have also been another name for Shervan | |
| later transferred to Kanizsa | |
| overseen by a serdar chief rather than a beylerbeyi | |
| probably replaced by Gori after 1586 | |
| the rest of the time Wallachia was a separate autonomous principality | |
| sometimes also included Van | |
| temporary division of Yemen |
| Included areas on both sides of the Red Sea. Also called "Mecca and Medina" |
| Domain of the Kapudan Pasha (Lord Admiral); Also called Denizi or Denizli, later Vilayet of the Archipelago |
| Second Eyalet |
| Until the Treaty of Zuhab (1639), Ottoman rule was not consolidated. |
| Until the Treaty of Zuhab (1639), Ottoman rule was not consolidated. |
| Seldom directly ruled |
| Until the Treaty of Zuhab (1639), Ottoman rule was not consolidated. Bounded to Erzurum Eyalet in 1875. |
| Until the Treaty of Zuhab (1639), Ottoman rule was not consolidated. |
| First Eyalet |
| Also called Meskheti, later possibly coextensive with Akhaltsikhe (Ahıska) Province. Most of eyalet passed to Russia in 1829. Remained parts of eyalet bounded to Erzurum in 1845. |
| Also Shahrizor, Sheherizul, or Kirkuk. In 1830, this eyalet bounded to Mosul province as Kirkuk sanjak. |
| Later sometimes called Ochakiv (Özi); First beylerbeyi was the Crimean khan |
| Until the Treaty of Zuhab (1639), Ottoman rule was not consolidated. |
Sources:
| originally part of Aegean Archipelago Province |
| overseen by several (marshals) rather than by beylerbeyi (governors) |
| Kurdistan Eyalet | Kurdistan | 21 years (1846–1867) (2025). 9789004225183, Brill. ISBN 9789004225183 | |
==Maps==
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