page_title: Administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire
section_title: Vilayets (1864–1922)
hierarchical_section_title: Administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire / First-level divisions / Vilayets (1864–1922)
caption_attribution_description: XY Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (1900). Source: An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, Volume 2 at Google Books By Suraiya Faroqhi, Bruce McGowan, Donald Quataert, Sevket Pamuk
context_page_description: The administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire were administrative divisions of the state organisation of the Ottoman Empire. Outside this system were various types of vassal and tributary states.
  The Ottoman Empire was first subdivided into provinces, in the sense of fixed territorial units with governors appointed by the sultan, in the late 14th century. The beylerbey, or governor, of each province was appointed by the central government. Sanjaks were governed by sanjak-beys, selected from the high military ranks by the central government. Beylerbeyis had authority over all the sancakbeyis in a region. Kaza was a subdivision of sancak and referred to the basic administrative district, governed by a kadi.
  It is considered extremely difficult to define the number and exact borders of Ottoman provinces and domains, as their borders were changed constantly. Until the Tanzimat period, the borders of administrative units fluctuated, reflecting the changing strategies of the Ottomans, the emergence of new threats in the region, and the rise of powerful Ayans.
context_section_description: The Vilayets were introduced with the promulgation of the "Vilayet Law" (Turkish: Teskil-i Vilayet Nizamnamesi) in 1864, as part of the administrative reforms that were being enacted throughout the empire.
  Unlike the previous eyalet system, the 1864 law established a hierarchy of administrative units: the vilayet, liva/sanjak, kaza and village council, to which the 1871 Vilayet Law added the nabiye. The 1864 law also specified the responsibilities of the governor (wali) of the vilayet and their councils. At the same time, the law left to the governors vast scope for independent action as well as responsibility, as part of a system intended to achieve a large degree of efficiency in ruling the provinces.
  The new provincial system could not be introduced in provinces at the same time, due to both insufficient funds and a lack of experience in administering the new law. Therefore, the new Danube Vilayet, composed of the former eyalets of Silistria, Vidin, and Nis, was selected to be the pilot project. Midhat Pasha and Cevdet Pasha were particularly successful in applying the new law in the Vilayets of Danube and Aleppo, respectively.
  By 1865 the four vilayets of Danube, Aleppo, Erzurum and Bosnia were fully organized and in operation. Damascus, Tripolitania, and Edirne followed the next year. In 1867, 13 new vilayets were organized, including Bursa, Izmir, Trabzon, Salonica, Prizren, and Iskodra, with an autonomous Crete being organized as a vilayet by Ali Pasha in 1871. By the end of 1876 the new provincial system was in operation all over the empire, with the sole exception of the Arabian Peninsula and autonomous provinces like Egypt.
  Mahmud Nedim Pasha reduced the size of some of the larger provinces, thus taking Sofia from the Danube Vilayet, Sebinkarahisar from Trabzon, and Maras from Adana and making them into separate provinces, and also taking Herzegovina from Bosnia and joining it with Novipazar in a new province.
caption: Vilayets, between 1908 and 1912
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