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Asanjak orsancak (Ottoman Turkish:سنجاق,sancak, "flag, banner") was anadministrative division of theOttoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak aliva (لوا,livâ) from the name'scalque inArabic andPersian.
Banners were a common organization of nomadic groups on theEurasian Steppe including the earlyTurks,Mongols, andManchus and were used as the name for the initial first-level territorial divisions at the formation of the Ottoman Empire. Upon the empire's expansion and the establishment ofeyalets as larger provinces, sanjaks were used as thesecond-level administrative divisions. They continued in this purpose after the eyalets were replaced byvilayets during theTanzimat reforms of the 19th century.
Sanjaks were typically headed by abey orsanjakbey. The Tanzimat reforms initially placed some sanjaks underkaymakams and others undermutasarrifs; a sanjak under a mutasarrif was known as amutasarriflik. The districts of each sanjak were known askazas. These were initially overseen byIslamicjudges (kadi) and thus identical to theirkadiluks.[1] During the 1864 round of reforms, their administrative duties were given tokaymakams instead. Under thetimar system of the early empire, fiefs held bytimariotsipahis were also an important feature of each sanjak.
Sanjaks were initially carried over into theRepublic of Turkey before being reorganized asprovinces (Turkish:il) in the 1920s.[when?]
Sanjak (/ˈsændʒæk/)[2] is oneEnglish transcription of theOttoman Turkish namesancak (سنجاق). The modern transcription varies asmodern Turkish uses the letter⟨c⟩ for the sound[dʒ]. The name originally meant "flag" or "banner", derived fromProto-Turkic reconstructed as *sančgak ("lance", "spear") from the streamers attached by Turkish riders. Shared banners were a common organization for Eurasian nomads, were used similarly by theByzantine Empire'sbanda, and continueto be used as the name for administrative divisions inInner Mongolia andTuva. Alternative English spellings includesanjac,sanjack,sandjak,sanjaq,sinjaq,sangiaq, andzanzack, although these are now all obsolete or archaic.[citation needed] Sanjaks have also been known assanjakships andsanjakates, although these more appropriately refer to the office of asanjakbey.
Sanjaks were also known aslivâ (لوا) from their name'scalque inArabic (لواء,liwāʾ) andPersian. In theother languages of the Ottoman Empire, they were known asnahang (նահանգ, "province") inArmenian; asokrǔg (окръг, "province") inBulgarian; assantzáki (σαντζάκι),libás (λιβάς),dioikēsis (Διοίκησις, "diocese"),eparchia (επαρχία, "eparchy") inGreek; and assancak inLadino.[3]
The first sanjaks appear to have been created byOrhanc. 1340 or earlier. These were Sultan-öyügü (later Sultan-önü), Hudavendigar-eli, Koca-eli and Karasi-eli.[4]
The districts which made up an eyalet were known as sanjaks, each under the command of asanjak-bey. The number of sanjaks in each eyalet varied considerably. In 1609,Ayn Ali noted thatRumelia Eyalet had 24 sanjaks, but that six of these in thePeloponnesos had been detached to form the separateMorea Eyalet. Anatolia had 14 sanjaks and theDamascus Eyalet had 11. There were, in addition, several eyalets where there was no formal division into sanjaks. These, in Ayn Ali's list wereBasra and part of theBaghdad,Al-Hasa,Egypt,Tripoli,Tunis andAlgiers. He adds to the listYemen, with the note that ‘at the moment the Imams have usurped control’. These eyalets were, however, exceptional: the typical pattern was the eyalet subdivided into sanjaks. By the 16th century, these presented a rational administrative pattern of territories, based usually around the town or settlement from which the sanjak took its name, and with a population of perhaps 100,000.[5]
However, this had not always been the case. It seems more likely that before the mid-15th century, the most important factor in determining the pattern of sanjaks was the existence of former lordships and principalities, and of areas where marcher lords had acquired territories for themselves and their followers. Some sanjaks in fact preserved the names of the dynasties that had ruled there before the Ottoman conquest.[5]
In 1609, Ayn Ali made a note on their formal status. In listing the sanjaks in theDiyarbekir Eyalet, he notes that it had ten ‘Ottoman districts’ and, in addition, eight ‘districts of the Kurdish lords’. In these cases, when a lord died, the governorship did not go to an outsider, but to his son. In other respects, however, they resembled normal Ottoman sanjaks, in that the revenues were registered and allocated to fief holders who went to war under their lord. In addition, however, Ayn Ali noted that there were five ‘sovereign sanjaks’, which their lords disposed of ‘as private property’, and which were outside the system of provincial government. Ayn Ali records similar independent or semi-independent districts in theÇıldır Eyalet in north-eastern Turkey and, most famously, in theVan Eyalet where the Khans ofBitlis ruled independently until the 19th century. There were other areas, too, which enjoyed autonomy or semi-autonomy. In the second half of the 16th century,Kilis came under the hereditary governorship of theJanbulad family, while Adana remained under the rule of the pre-Ottoman dynasty ofRamazanoghlu. In Lebanon, Ayn Ali refers to theDruze chieftains with the note: ‘there are non-Muslim lords in the mountains.’ There were other autonomous enclaves in the Empire, whether or not they received formal recognition as sanjaks but, by the 16th century, these were exceptional.[5]
In the 1840s, the boundaries of sanjaks were redrawn to establish equal units of comparable population and wealth. Each of these sanjaks was headed by amuhassil.[6]
The sanjak was governed as a vilayet, just on a smaller scale.[7] Themutesarrif was appointed by Imperial decree and represented thevali, corresponding with the government through him except in some special circumstances where the sanjak was independent. In such cases, the mutesarrif then corresponded directly with theMinistry of the Interior.[7] Most of the sanjaks throughout the Empire were under the rule of non-hereditary appointees, who had no permanent family of territorial connections with the area.[5]
A sanjak was typically divided intokazas, each overseeing a major city and its surrounding hinterland. Initially, the civil administration was headed by anIslamic judge (kadi) and the area equivalent to his jurisdiction (kadiluk).[1] During theTanzimat reforms, the kadis were eventually restricted to judicial functions and administration ceded to akaymakam and treasurer. The kazas were further divided into subdistricts (nahiye) and villages, each overseen by an appointed official or local council.
FollowingWorld War I, the sanjaks were used as the basis for theOccupied Enemy Territory Administration. OETA South was formed from the sanjaks ofJerusalem,Nablus, andAcre. OETA North—later renamed OETA West—was formed from the sanjaks ofBeirut,Lebanon, andLatakia, along with a number of surrounding subdistricts. OETA East was formed from the sanjaks ofSyria Vilayet andHejaz Vilayet.
TheSanjak of Alexandretta was ceded by theFrench Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon toTurkey in 1939, becoming itsHatay Province.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, theliwa was used by some of its Arab successor states as an administrative divisions until it was gradually replaced by other terms likemintaqah. It is still used occasionally inSyria to refer specifically to the formerSanjak of Alexandretta, known in Arabic asLiwāʾ Iskenderun and still claimed by the Syrian state.
The unofficial geocultural region ofSandžak inSerbia andMontenegro derives its name from the former OttomanSanjak of Novi Pazar.
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