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Awilayah (Arabic:وَلاية,romanized: walāya orwilāya, pluralwilāyat, wilayat;Urdu,Pashto andPersian:ولایت,romanized: velâyat, welāyat;Turkish:vilayet) is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", "province" or occasionally as "governorate". The word comes from theArabic root "w-l-y", "to govern": awāli—"governor"—governs awālāya (orwilāya), "that which is governed". Under theCaliphate, the term referred to any constituent near-sovereign state.
In Arabic,wilayah is used to refer to thestates of theUnited States, and the United States of America as a whole is calledal-Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah al-Amrīkīyah, literally meaning "the American United States".
ForMorocco, which is divided into provincesand wilāyas, the translation "province" would cause the distinction to cease. ForSudan, the termstate and forMauritania, the termregion is used.
Thegovernorates 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 formuhafazah (governorate) andwilāyah (province).
In the ethnically diverseXinjiang region of Northwest China, the seven undifferentiatedprefectures proper (Chinese:地区;pinyin:dìqū; that is, not prefecture-level cities, autonomous prefectures, etc.) are translated into theUyghur language asVilayiti (ۋىلايىتى). For the other, more numerous types ofadministrative divisions in Xinjiang, however, Uyghur uses Russian loanwords likeoblasti orrayoni, in common with other Xinjiang languages likeKazakh.
In Kenya and Tanzania, the termwilaya is aSwahili term which refers to the administrative districts into which provinces are divided.
InMalay (both inMalaysian andIndonesian standards) andTausug,wilayah orwilāya is a general word meaning "territory", "area" or "region".
InThailand, it is the standard Malay term[1] used to translate a "province"".[2]
InMalaysia, the term
In thePhilippines, the term
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Traditionally the provinces of theOttoman Empire were known aseyâlets, but beginning in 1864, they were gradually restructured as smallervilâyets—the Turkish pronunciation of the Arabic wordwilāyah. Most were subdivided intosanjaks.
The currentprovinces of Turkey are calledil in Turkish.
Theterritory under the governance of theIslamic State (ISIS) is referred to them as officially being divided intowilayah,[3] often translated into English as "province". An example isIslamic State – Khorasan Province andIslamic State - West Africa Province.
Territory controlled by Al-Shabaab (officially the Islamic Emirate of Somalia) is broken down intowilayah or local administrations.[4][5]
ThePersian word forprovince (velâyat) is still used in several similar forms inCentral Asian countries:
During theSoviet period the divisions of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were calledoblasts andraions, usingRussian terminology.
In theTsez language, the districts ofDagestan are also referred to as "вилайат" (wilayat), plural "вилайатйоби" (wilayatyobi). But the term "район" (rayon), plural "районйаби" (rayonyabi) is also used.
Caucasus Emirate, a self-proclaimed successor state to the unrecognizedChechen Republic of Ichkeria, is divided into vilayats.
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)
InUrdu, the termVilayat is used to refer to any foreign country. As an adjectiveVilayati is used to indicate an imported article or good.
InBengali andAssamese, the term isbilat andbilati (archaicbilaiti), referring exclusively to Britain and British-made. The British slang termblighty derives from this word, via the fact that the foreign British were referred to using this word during the time of the British Raj.[6]
Other Indian words include blighty ('one's home country', from the Hindi word 'bilayati' meaning 'foreign', whence 'British')
