Vilayet

A vilayet (Ottoman Turkish: ولایت, 'province'; [vi.laː.jet]), also known by various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the late Ottoman Empire. It was introduced under the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated by the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856. The Danube Vilayet had been specially formed in 1864 as an experiment under the leading reformer Midhat Pasha. The Vilayet Law expanded its use, but it was not until 1884 that it was applied to all of the empire's provinces. Writing for the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1911, Vincent Henry Penalver Caillard claimed that the reform was intended to provide the provinces with greater local self-government but in fact centralized more power with the sultan and local Muslims at the expense of other communities.