wilaya

A wilayah ( in Arabic) or velâyat ( in Persian), vilayet in Turkish or vilayat in Urdu), is an administrative division, usually translated as "province", or occasionally as "governorate". The word comes from the Arabic "w-l-y", "to govern": a wali—"governor"—governs a wilayah, "that which is governed". Under the Caliphate, the term referred to any constituent near-sovereign state.