Anāḥiyah (Arabic:نَاحِيَة[ˈnaːħijah], pluralnawāḥīنَوَاحِي[naˈwaːħiː]), alsonahiyeh,nahiya ornahia, is a regional or local type ofadministrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. InTajikistan, it is a second-level division while inSyria,Iraq,Lebanon,Jordan,Xinjiang, and the formerOttoman Empire, where it was also called abucak, it is a third-level or lower division. It can constitute a division of aqadaa,mintaqah or other suchdistrict-type division and is sometimes translated as "subdistrict".

The nahiye (Ottoman Turkish:ناحیه) was an administrative territorial entity of theOttoman Empire, smaller than akaza. The head was amütesellim (governor) who was appointed by thePasha.

Thekaza was a subdivision of asanjak^[1] and corresponded roughly to a city with its surrounding villages.Kazas, in turn, were divided intonahiyes (each governed by amüdür) and villages (karye, each governed by amuhtar).^[2] Revisions of 1871 to the administrative law established thenahiye (still governed by amüdür) as an intermediate level between the kaza and the village.^[2]

The term was adopted by thePrincipality of Serbia (1817–1833) andPrincipality of Montenegro (1852–1910), asnahija (Serbian Cyrillic:нахија).

• Xinjiang, China: a subdivision of aprefectural.
• Ottoman Empire: subdistrict, commune, parish; a subdivision of akaza (قضاء).

• Districts of Tajikistan: a subdivision of aprovince.
• Donji Milanovac, a town inSerbia

Persian has borrowed the Arabic word with the spelling ناحیه.Encyclopædia Iranica transliterates it mostly asnahia or, with diacritics,nāḥia/nāḥīa.^[3] In modern contexts it may be used with the meaning of anything between 'census region',^[4] and 'section' as in "Section (nāḥia) 2 of eleven local fishing stations".^[5]

• Nahia (disambiguation page)