Kaza

This article is about a type of administrative unit in the Near East. For other uses, see Kaza (disambiguation).

A kaza (Arabic: قضاء‎, qaḍāʾ, pronounced [qɑˈd̪ˤɑːʔ], plural: أقضية, aqḍiyah, pronounced [ˈɑqd̪ˤijɑ]; Ottoman Turkish: kazâ‎[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 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:

References

  1. 1 2 3 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
  2. ↑ Suraiya Faroqhi. Approaching Ottoman History: An Introduction to the Sources. Cambridge University Press, 1999. p. 88. ISBN 9780521666480
  3. ↑ 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
  4. 1 2 3 4 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
  5. ↑ 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
  6. 1 2 3 Gökhan Çetinsaya. The Ottoman Administration of Iraq, 1890-1908. SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East. Routledge, 2006. p. 8-9. ISBN 9780203481325

See also

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