Ottoman Empire 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. 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. Each kaza was in turn made up of one or more
nahiyes ("districts") under müdürs and
mütesellims and several karyes ("villages") under
muhtars. 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 and a treasurer, with the kadis restricted to solely religious and judicial roles. 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. The 1871 revisions removed the kazas' responsibility for direct supervision of their villages, placing them all under nearby nahiyes instead.
Mandatory Palestine The
subdistricts of
Mandatory Palestine were known as kaza, qada, etc. () in Arabic but as nafa () in
Hebrew. The same terms continue to be used in present-day
Israel and
Palestine.
Syria Syria used kazas, qadas, etc. as its second-level administrative division after independence but later renamed them
mintaqahs.
Turkey The
Republic of Turkey continued to use kazas until the late 1920s, when it renamed them
subprovinces (). ==Current use==