Wilayah

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