Akaza (Ottoman Turkish:قضا, "judgment" or "jurisdiction")[note 1] was anadministrative division of theOttoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the namesdistrict,[2]subdistrict,[3][4] andjuridical district.[5] Kazas continued to be used by some of the empire's successor states. At present, they are used byIraq,Lebanon,Jordan, and inArabic discussion ofIsrael. In these contexts, they are also known by the Arabic nameqada,qadā, orqadaa (Arabic:قضاء,qaḍāʾ).
In the Ottoman Empire, a kaza was originally equivalent to thekadiluk, the district subject to the legal and administrative jurisdiction of akadi or judge ofIslamic law.[6] This usually corresponded to a major city of the empire with its surrounding villages. A small number of kazas made up eachsanjak ("banner") under asanjakbey.[6] Each kaza was in turn made up of one or morenahiyes ("districts") under müdürs[clarification needed] andmütesellims and several karyes ("villages") undermuhtars.[7]
With the first round ofTanzimat reforms in 1839, the administrative duties of each district's kadi were transferred to akaymakam ("governor") appointed by theMinistry of the Interior[7] and a treasurer, with the kadis restricted to solely religious and judicial roles.[8] Kazas were further emended and distinguished from the kadiluks under the 1864 Provincial Reform Law, implemented over the following decade as part of efforts by thePorte to establish uniform and rational administration across the empire.[5] The 1871 revisions removed the kazas' responsibility for direct supervision of their villages, placing them all under nearby nahiyes instead.[7]
Thesubdistricts ofMandatory Palestine were known as nafa (נָפָה) inHebrew but as kaza, qada, etc. in Arabic. The same terms continue to be used in present-dayIsrael andPalestine.
Syria used kazas, qadas, etc. as its second-level administrative division after independence but later[when?] renamed themmintaqahs.
TheRepublic of Turkey continued to use kazas until the late 1920s,[when?] when it renamed themsubprovinces (ilçe).
Kaza, qada, etc. is also used to refer to the following: