What is "wilayah"

A wilayah ( in Arabic, velâyat/ in Persian, vilayet in Turkish and ولایت in Urdu), is an administrative division, usually translated as " province", or occasionally 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.