A wilayah ( or wilāya, plural ; Urdu, Pashto and ; ) is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", "province" or occasionally as "governorate". The word comes from the Semitic root " w-l-y", "to govern": a wāli—"governor"—governs a wālāya (or wilāya), "that which is governed". Under the Caliphate, the term referred to any constituent near-sovereign state.
Use in specific countries
In Arabic,
wilayah is used to refer to the states of the
United States, and the United States of America as a whole is called
al-Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah al-Amrīkīyah, literally meaning "the American United States".
North Africa and Middle East
For Morocco, which is divided into provinces
and wilāyas, the translation "province" would cause the distinction to cease. For
Sudan, the term
state and for
Mauritania, the term
region is used.
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Provinces of Algeria
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Provinces of Oman
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Regions of Mauritania
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States of Sudan
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Governorates of Tunisia
The governorates of Iraq (muhafazah) are sometimes translated as provinces, in contrast to official Iraqi documents and the general use for other Arab countries. This conflicts somehow with the general translation for muhafazah (governorate) and wilāyah (province).
China
In the ethnically diverse
Xinjiang region of Northwest China, the seven undifferentiated prefectures proper (p=dìqū; that is, not prefecture-level cities, autonomous prefectures, etc.) are translated into the
Uyghur language as
Vilayiti (ۋىلايىتى). For the other, more numerous types of administrative divisions in Xinjiang, however, Uygur uses Russian loanwords like
oblasti or
rayoni, in common with other Xinjiang languages like
Kazakh language.
Kenya and Tanzania
In Kenya and Tanzania, the term
wilaya is a
Swahili language term which refers to the administrative districts into which provinces are divided.
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Districts of Kenya
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Districts of Tanzania
Southeast Asia
In
Malay language (both in Malaysian and Indonesian standards) and
Tausug language,
wilayah or
wilāya is a general word meaning "territory", "area" or "region".
In Thailand, it is the standard Malay term[Malay is an official language recognized by the Thai government.] used to translate a "province"".
In Malaysia, the term
-
Wilayah Persekutuan, often shortened to "Wilayah" in colloquial speech, refers to the three federal territories under direct control of the federal government: Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya.
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Wilayah Ekonomi Pantai Timur, is translated as East Coast Economic Region
In the Philippines, the term
-
Wilāya sin Lupa' Sūg refers to the province of Sulu, Philippines.
Ottoman Empire
Traditionally the provinces of the
Ottoman Empire were known as
eyâlets, but beginning in 1864, they were gradually restructured as smaller
vilâyets—the Turkish pronunciation of the Arabic word
wilāyah. Most were subdivided into
.
The current provinces of Turkey are called il in Turkish.
Islamic State
The territory under the governance of the
Islamic State (ISIS) is referred to them as officially being divided into
wilayah,
often translated into English as "
province". An example is Islamic State – Khorasan Province and Islamic State - West Africa Province.
Central Asia and Caucasus
The
Persian language word for
province (
velâyat) is still used in several similar forms in
countries:
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Provinces of Afghanistan (, wilāyat, plural: ولايتونه, wilāyatuna), subdivided into districts (, wuləswāləi or , wolaswālī)
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Regions of Tajikistan (singular: viloyat, plural: viloyatho), subdivided into districts (, nohiya or , raion)
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Regions of Turkmenistan (singular: welaýat, plural: welaýatlar), subdivided into districts ()
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Regions of Uzbekistan (singular: viloyat, plural: viloyatlar), subdivided into districts ()
During the Soviet Union the divisions of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were called and , using Russian language terminology.
In the Tsez language, the districts of Dagestan are also referred to as "вилайат" ( wilayat), plural "вилайатйоби" ( wilayatyobi). But the term "район" ( raion), plural "районйаби" ( rayonyabi) is also used.
Caucasus Emirate, a self-proclaimed successor state to the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, is divided into vilayats.
South Asia
The Persian word for province (velâyat) is still used in several similar forms in South Asian countries as well:
(Pashto: ولايت, wilāyat, plural: ولايتونه, wilāyatuna), subdivided into districts (Pashto: ولسوالۍ, wuləswāləi or Persian: ولسوالی, wolaswālī)
In Urdu, the term Vilayat is used to refer to any foreign country. As an adjective Vilayati is used to indicate an imported article or good.
In Bengali language and Assamese, the term is bilat and bilati (archaic bilaiti), referring exclusively to Britain and British-made. The British slang term blighty derives from this word, via the fact that the foreign British were referred to using this word during the time of the British Raj.
See also
