Kaza
A kaza (Arabic: قضاء, qaḍāʾ, pronounced [qɑˈd̪ˤɑːʔ], plural: أقضية, aqḍiyah, pronounced [ˈɑqd̪ˤijɑ]; [kazâ] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)[1]) is an administrative division historically used in the Ottoman Empire and currently used in several of its successor states. The term is from Ottoman Turkish and means "jurisdiction"; it is often translated "district",[2] "sub-district"[3] (though this also applies to a nahiye), or "juridical district".[4]
Ottoman Empire
In the Ottoman Empire, a kaza was originally a "geographical area subject to the legal and administrative jurisdiction of a kadı.[1] With the first Tanzimat reforms of 1839, the administrative duties of the kadı were transferred to a governor (kaymakam), with the kadıs acting as judges of Islamic law.[5] In the Tanzimat era, the kaza became an administrative district with the 1864 Provincial Reform Law, which was implemented over the following decade.[4] A kaza unified the jurisdiction of a governor (kaymakam) appointed by the Ministry of the Interior,[6] a treasurer (chief finance officer), and a judge (kadı) in a single administrative unit.[4] It was part of efforts of the Porte to establish uniform, rational administration across the empire.[4]
The kaza was a subdivision of a sanjak[1] and corresponded roughly to a city with its surrounding villages. Kazas, in turn, were divided into nahiyes (governed by müdürs and mütesellims) and villages (karye, governed by muhtars).[6] The 1871 revisions to the administrative law established the nahiye (still governing a müdür), as an intermediate level between the kaza and the village.[6]
Turkey
The early Republic of Turkey continued to use the term kaza until it renamed them ilçe in the 1920s.
Arab countries
The kaza was also formerly a second-level administrative division in Syria, but it is now called a mintaqah.
The kaza or qadaa is used to refer to the following:
- districts of Iraq (second-level, below the governorate)
- districts of Lebanon (second-level, below the governorate)
- a third-level division in Jordan.
- subdistricts of Mandatory Palestine
- subdistricts of Israel
References
- ^ a b c Selçuk Akşin Somel. "Kazâ". The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Volume 152 of A to Z Guides. Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. p. 151. ISBN 9780810875791
- ^ Suraiya Faroqhi. Approaching Ottoman History: An Introduction to the Sources. Cambridge University Press, 1999. p. 88. ISBN 9780521666480
- ^ Donald Quataert. The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. 2nd Ed. Volume 34 of New Approaches to European History. Cambridge University Press, 2005. p. 108. ISBN 9781139445917
- ^ a b c d Eugene L. Rogan. Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921. Volume 12 of Cambridge Middle East Studies. Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 12. ISBN 9780521892230
- ^ Selçuk Akşin Somel. "Kadı". The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Volume 152 of A to Z Guides. Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. p. 144-145. ISBN 9780810875791
- ^ a b c Gökhan Çetinsaya. The Ottoman Administration of Iraq, 1890-1908. SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East. Routledge, 2006. p. 8-9. ISBN 9780203481325