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Administrative division historically used in the Ottoman Empire From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A kaza (Ottoman Turkish: قضا, "judgment" or "jurisdiction")[note 1] was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district,[2] subdistrict,[3][4] and juridical district.[5] Kazas continued to be used by some of the empire's successor states. At present, they are used by Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and in Arabic discussion of Israel. In these contexts, they are also known by the Arabic name qada, qadā, or qadaa (Arabic: قضاء, qaḍāʾ).
In the Ottoman Empire, a kaza was originally equivalent to the kadiluk, the district subject to the legal and administrative jurisdiction of a kadi or judge of Islamic law.[6] This usually corresponded to a major city of the empire with its surrounding villages. A small number of kazas made up each sanjak ("banner") under a sanjakbey.[6] Each kaza was in turn made up of one or more nahiyes ("districts") under müdürs[clarification needed] and mütesellims and several karyes ("villages") under muhtars.[7]
With the first round of Tanzimat reforms in 1839, the administrative duties of each district's kadi were transferred to a kaymakam ("governor") appointed by the Ministry of the Interior[7] and a treasurer, with the kadis restricted to solely religious and judicial roles.[8] Kazas were further emended and distinguished from the kadiluks under the 1864 Provincial Reform Law, implemented over the following decade as part of efforts by the Porte to establish uniform and rational administration across the empire.[5] The 1871 revisions removed the kazas' responsibility for direct supervision of their villages, placing them all under nearby nahiyes instead.[7]
The subdistricts of Mandatory Palestine were known as nafa (נָפָה) in Hebrew but as kaza, qada, etc. in Arabic. The same terms continue to be used in present-day Israel and Palestine.
Syria used kazas, qadas, etc. as its second-level administrative division after independence but later[when?] renamed them mintaqahs.
The Republic of Turkey continued to use kazas until the late 1920s,[when?] when it renamed them subprovinces (ilçe).
Kaza, qada, etc. is also used to refer to the following: