Ottoman Empire In the 15th century, the
kaza included mostly several
nahiye or
vilayet, though the boundaries of
kaza and
nahiye/vilayet sometimes coincided. The
kaza was administrated by the
kadi (judge) but his administrative application was not yet acquired as in the later period. The reforms of
Suleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66) stabilized terminology and transformed the
nahiye into a subdivision of a
kaza, while the
vilayet became mainly a fiscal administrative unit for tax collection (the
cizye). The administrative hierarchy eyalet—sanjak—kaza—nahiye can be seen from 1550. The title of
mütesellim was abolished in 1842. The
Vilayet Law (1864) saw a general reorganization, with the hierarchy vilayet—sanjak—kaza—nahiye, administrated by the
Vali under whose authority was the
mutasarrif of the sanjak appointed by the Sultan, the
kaymakam of the
kaza appointed by the Interior Ministry, the
mudür of the
nahiye, the
muhtar of the village. The three higher levels were to have administrative councils. The 1871 revisions saw the
nahiye (a collection of villages or farms) the intermediate between
kaza and villages, administrated by a
mudür and its own administrative council.
Successor states in the Balkans The administrative unit continued its use in the
liberated states of the
Balkans,
Serbia and
Montenegro, as (), where it was the highest administrative unit. The
Principality of Serbia had 12
nahija, each having 2–8
knežine, and each
knežina having several villages. The
nahija were
Šabac,
Valjevo,
Soko, , ,
Rudnik,
Kragujevac, ,
Ćuprija,
Požarevac,
Smederevo and
Beograd. In 1833 another six
nahija,
Krajina,
Crna Reka,
Paraćin,
Kruševac,
Stari Vlah, and
Jadar-Rađevina, were transferred to Serbia by Sultan
Mahmud II. In 1834 the former Ottoman administrative units were abolished, replaced with five
serdarstvo, 19
okrug and 61
kapetanija (renamed
srez in 1835).
Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina began in 1878 and while they left the geographical division untouched, they replaced the names of units, thus the Bosnia Vilayet was renamed
Reichsland,
sanjak as
Kreis,
kaza as
Bezirk and
nahiye as
Expositur. ==References==