vilayet

[ vee-lah-yet ]

noun

1. a province or main administrative division of Turkey.

vilayet

/ vɪˈlɑːjɛt /

noun

1. a major administrative division of Turkey

Word History and Origins

Origin of vilayet¹

1865–70; < Turkish < Arabic wilāyah

Word History and Origins

Origin of vilayet¹

C19: from Turkish, from Arabic wilāyat, from walīy governor

Example Sentences

Reports from the Vilayet were confusing and tumultuous.

From The New Yorker

Because his father and uncles, selling tobacco across the region, depended on inter-urban commerce to make a living, they frequently travelled on the Baghdad Railway, commuting between the main cities of the Vilayet of Aleppo, a province of the Ottoman Empire.

From The New Yorker

The Ottoman Empire collapsed; civil war broke out; General Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of the Turkish National Movement, fought a prolonged war for independence against Armenian and French forces in the countryside of the Vilayet.

From The New Yorker

The IS infrastructure in the kingdom calls itself the Nejd Vilayet of the Caliphate.

From US News

IS claims it has already established an underground infrastructure in what it calls the "vilayet of the Nejd."

From US News