A kaza (Arabic: قضاء, qaḍāʾ, pronounced [qɑˈd̪ˤɑːʔ], plural: أقضية, aqḍiyah, pronounced [ˈɑqd̪ˤijɑ]; Ottoman Turkish: kazâ) is an administrative division historically used in the Ottoman Empire and currently used in several of its successor states. The term is from Ottoman Turkish and means "jurisdiction"; it is often translated "district", "sub-district" (though this also applies to a nahiye), or "juridical district".
In the Ottoman Empire, a kaza was originally a "geographical area subject to the legal and administrative jurisdiction of a kadı. With the first Tanzimat reforms of 1839, the administrative duties of the kadı were transferred to a governor (kaymakam), with the kadıs acting as judges of Islamic law. In the Tanzimat era, the kaza became an administrative district with the 1864 Provincial Reform Law, which was implemented over the following decade. A kaza unified the jurisdiction of a governor (kaymakam) appointed by the Ministry of the Interior, a treasurer (chief finance officer), and a judge (kadı) in a single administrative unit. It was part of efforts of the Porte to establish uniform, rational administration across the empire.
The kaza was a subdivision of a sanjak and corresponded roughly to a city with its surrounding villages. Kazas, in turn, were divided into nahiyes (governed by müdürs) and villages (karye, governed by muhtars). The 1871 revisions to the administrative law established the nahiye (still governing a müdür), as an intermediate level between the kaza and the village.
The kaza or qadaa is used to refer to the following:
- districts of Iraq (second-level, below the governorate)
- districts of Lebanon (second-level, below the governorate)
- a third-level division in Jordan.
- subdistricts of Mandatory Palestine
- Selçuk Akşin Somel. "Kazâ". The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Volume 152 of A to Z Guides. Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. p. 151. ISBN 9780810875791
- Suraiya Faroqhi. Approaching Ottoman History: An Introduction to the Sources. Cambridge University Press, 1999. p. 88. ISBN 9780521666480
- Donald Quataert. The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. 2nd Ed. Volume 34 of New Approaches to European History. Cambridge University Press, 2005. p. 108. ISBN 9781139445917
- Eugene L. Rogan. Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921. Volume 12 of Cambridge Middle East Studies. Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 12. ISBN 9780521892230
- Selçuk Akşin Somel. "Kadı". The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Volume 152 of A to Z Guides. Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. p. 144-145. ISBN 9780810875791
- Gökhan Çetinsaya. The Ottoman Administration of Iraq, 1890-1908. SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East. Routledge, 2006. p. 8-9. ISBN 9780203481325