Thenahiye ornahiya (Ottoman Turkish:ناحیه, fromArabic:nāḥiya) was anadministrative division in theOttoman Empire, a sub-district including several villages, being the smallest administrative unit of asanjak, below that of thekaza. The governor of thenahiye was titledmütesellim, until its abolishment in 1842.
In the 15th century, thekaza included mostly severalnahiye orvilayet, though the boundaries ofkaza andnahiye/vilayet sometimes coincided.[1] Thekaza was administrated by thekadi (judge) but his administrative application was not yet acquired as in the later period.[1] The reforms ofSuleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66) stabilized terminology and transformed thenahiye into a subdivision of akaza, while thevilayet became mainly a fiscal administrative unit for tax collection (thecizye).[2] The administrative hierarchy eyalet—sanjak—kaza—nahiye can be seen from 1550.[3]
| eyalet | beylerbey |
| sanjak | sanjak-bey |
| kaza | kadi |
| nahiye | mütesellim |
| village | muhtar |
The title ofmütesellim was abolished in 1842. TheVilayet Law (1864) saw a general reorganization, with the hierarchy vilayet—sanjak—kaza—nahiye, administrated by theVali under whose authority was themutasarrif of the sanjak appointed by the Sultan, thekaymakam of thekaza appointed by the Interior Ministry, themudür of thenahiye, themuhtar of the village.[4] The three higher levels were to have administrative councils.[4] The 1871 revisions saw thenahiye (a collection of villages or farms) the intermediate betweenkaza and villages, administrated by amudür and its own administrative council.[4]
The administrative unit continued its use in theliberated states of theBalkans,Serbia andMontenegro, asnahija (Serbian Cyrillic:нахија), where it was the highest administrative unit. ThePrincipality of Serbia had 12nahija, each having 2–8knežine, and eachknežina having several villages.[5] Thenahija wereŠabac,Valjevo,Soko,Užice [sr],Požega [sr],Rudnik,Kragujevac,Jagodina [sr],Ćuprija,Požarevac,Smederevo andBeograd.[5] In 1833 another sixnahija,Krajina,Crna Reka,Paraćin,Kruševac,Stari Vlah, andJadar-Rađevina, were transferred to Serbia by SultanMahmud II.[5] In 1834 the former Ottoman administrative units were abolished, replaced with fiveserdarstvo, 19okrug and 61kapetanija (renamedsrez in 1835).[6][5]
Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina began in 1878 and while they left the geographical division untouched, they replaced the names of units, thus the Bosnia Vilayet was renamedReichsland,sanjak asKreis,kaza asBezirk andnahiye asExpositur.[7]
