Emirate
Territory ruled by an emir / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the political term "emirate". For other uses, see Emirates (disambiguation).
"Imarat" redirects here. For places in Iran, see Imarat, Iran (disambiguation).
"Islamic emirate" redirects here. For other uses, see Islamic emirate (disambiguation).
An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir,[1] a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate.[2] It can be considered equivalent to a principality in non-Muslim contexts.
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Currently in the world, there are two emirates that are independent states (Kuwait and Qatar), one state ruled by an unrecognised emirate (Afghanistan), and a state that consists of a federation of seven emirates (the United Arab Emirates). A great number of previously independent emirates around the world are now part of larger states, as can be seen in Nigeria.[3]