A wilaya or wilayah (, plural ; ; ; ) is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", "province" or occasionally as "governorate". The word comes from the Arabic root "w-l-y", "to govern": a wÃÂliâÂÂ"governor"âÂÂgoverns a wilÃÂya, "that which is governed". Under the Caliphate, the term referred to any constituent near-sovereign state.
In Arabic, wilaya is used to refer to the states of the United States, and the United States of America as a whole is called (), literally meaning "the American United States".
For Morocco, which is divided into provinces and wilÃÂyas, the translation "province" would cause the distinction to cease. For Sudan, the term state and for Mauritania, the term region is used.
The governorates 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 for muḥÃÂfaáºÂa (governorate) and wilÃÂya (province).
In the ethnically diverse Xinjiang region of Northwest China, the seven undifferentiated prefectures proper (; that is, not prefecture-level cities, autonomous prefectures, etc.) are translated into the Uyghur language as (). For the other, more numerous types of administrative divisions in Xinjiang, however, Uyghur uses Russian loanwords like oblasti or rayoni, in common with other Xinjiang languages like Kazakh.
In Kenya and Tanzania, the term wilaya is a Swahili term which refers to the administrative districts into which provinces are divided.
In Malay (both in Malaysian and Indonesian standards) and Tausug, wilayah or wilÃÂya is a general word meaning "territory", "area" or "region".
In Thailand, it is the standard Malay term used to translate a "province"".
In Malaysia, the term
In the Philippines, the term
Traditionally the provinces of the Ottoman Empire were known as eyâlets, but beginning in 1864, they were gradually restructured as smaller vilâyetsâÂÂthe Turkish pronunciation of the Arabic word wilÃÂya. Most were subdivided into sanjaks.
The current provinces of Turkey are called il in Turkish.
The territory under the governance of the Islamic State (ISIS) is referred to them as officially being divided into wilayah, often translated into English as "province". An example is Islamic State â Khorasan Province and Islamic State - West Africa Province.
Territory controlled by Al-Shabaab (officially the Islamic Emirate of Somalia) is broken down into wilayas or local administrations.'
The Classical Persian word for province (wilÃÂyat) is still used in several similar forms in Central Asian countries:
During the Soviet period the divisions of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were called oblasts and raions, using Russian terminology.
In the Tsez language, the districts of Dagestan are also referred to as "òøûðùðÃÂ" (wilayat), plural "òøûðùðÃÂùþñø" (wilayatyobi). But the term "ÃÂðùþý" (rayon), plural "ÃÂðùþýùðñø" (rayonyabi) is also used.
Caucasus Emirate, a self-proclaimed successor state to the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, is divided into vilayats.
The Classical Persian word for province (wilÃÂyat) is still used in several similar forms in South Asian countries as well:
(Pashto: ÃÂÃÂçÃÂê, wilÃÂyat, plural: ÃÂÃÂçÃÂêÃÂÃÂÃÂ, wilÃÂyatuna), subdivided into districts (Pashto: ÃÂÃÂóÃÂçÃÂÃÂ, wulÃÂswÃÂlÃÂi or Persian: ÃÂÃÂóÃÂçÃÂÃÂ, wolaswÃÂlë)
In Urdu, the term vilÃÂyat is used to refer to any foreign country. As an adjective Vilayati is used to indicate an imported article or good.