Administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire in the context of "Sanjak"

A nāḥiyah (Arabic: نَاحِيَة [ˈnaːħijah], plural نَوَاحِي, nawāḥī [naˈwaːħiː]), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. The Ottoman nahiye, also called a bucak, was a third-level or lower administrative division, and remains as such in some successor states such as Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan, with the Balkan states of Serbia and Montenegro having preserved the term for a while after liberation for the highest administrative unit as nahija. In Tajikistan and the autonomous Chinese region of Xinjiang, both from the Turco-Persian or Turkic regions of Asia, it is a second- and third-level division, respectively. A nahiyah can constitute a division of a qadaa, mintaqah or other such district-type division and is sometimes translated as "subdistrict".

The Regency of Algiers was an early modern semi-independent Ottoman province and nominal vassal state on the Barbary Coast of North Africa from 1516 to 1830. Founded by the privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis (also known as the Barbarossa brothers), the Regency succeeded the Kingdom of Tlemcen as a formidable base that waged maritime holy war (Jihad) on European Christian powers. It was ruled by elected regents under a stratocracy led by Janissaries and corsairs. Despite its pirate reputation in Europe, Algiers maintained long-standing diplomatic ties with European states and was a recognized Mediterranean power.

The Regency emerged in the 16th-century Ottoman–Habsburg wars. As self-proclaimed ghazis gaining popular support and legitimacy from the religious leaders at the expense of hostile local emirs, the Barbarossa brothers and their successors carved a unique corsair state that drew revenue and political power from its naval warfare against Habsburg Spain. In the 17th century, when the wars between Spain and the Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of England and Dutch Republic ended, Barbary corsairs started capturing merchant ships and their crews and goods from these states. When the Ottomans could not prevent these attacks, European powers negotiated directly with Algiers and also took military action against it. This policy would emancipate Algiers from the Ottomans.

The Vilayet of Beirut (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت بيروت, romanized: Vilâyet-i Beyrut; Arabic: ولاية بيروت) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. It was established from the coastal areas of the Syria Vilayet in 1888 as a recognition of the new-found importance of its then-booming capital, Beirut, which had experienced remarkable growth in the previous years — by 1907, Beirut handled 11 percent of the Ottoman Empire's international trade. It stretched from just north of Jaffa to the port city of Latakia. It was bounded by the Syria Vilayet to the east, the Aleppo Vilayet to the north, the autonomous Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

At the beginning of the 20th century, it reportedly had an area of 11,773 square miles (30,490 km), while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 533,500. It was the 4th most heavily populated region of the Ottoman Empire's 36 provinces.

The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (Ottoman Turkish: قُدس شَرِيف مُتَصَرِّفلغى, Kudüs-i Şerif Mutasarrıflığı; Arabic: متصرفية القدس الشريف, Mutaṣarrifiyyat al-quds aš-šarīf, French: Moutassarifat de Jérusalem), also known as the Sanjak of Jerusalem, was a district in Ottoman Syria with special administrative status established in 1872. The district encompassed Jerusalem as well as Hebron, Jaffa, Gaza and Beersheba. Many documents during the Late Ottoman period refer to the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem as Palestine; one such describes Palestine as including the Sanjak of Nablus and Sanjak of Akka (Acre) as well, more in line with European usage. It was the seventh most heavily populated region of the Ottoman Empire's 36 provinces.

The district was separated from the Damascus Eyalet and placed directly under the supervision of the Ottoman central government in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1841, and formally created as an independent province in 1872 by Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha. Scholars provide a variety of reasons for the separation, including increased European interest in the region, and strengthening of the southern border of the Empire against the Khedivate of Egypt. Initially, the Mutasarrifate of Acre and Mutasarrifate of Nablus were combined with the province of Jerusalem, with the combined province being referred to in the register of the court of Jerusalem as the "Jerusalem Eyalet", and referred to by the British consul as the creation of "Palestine into a separate eyalet". After less than two months, the sanjaks of Nablus and Acre were separated and added to the Vilayet of Beirut, leaving just the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem. In 1906, the Kaza of Nazareth was added to the Jerusalem Mutasarrifate as an exclave, primarily in order to allow the issuance of a single tourist permit to Christian travellers.

The Ottoman Empire developed over the years as a despotism with the Sultan as the supreme ruler of a centralized government that had an effective control of its provinces, officials and inhabitants. Wealth and rank could be inherited but were just as often earned. Positions were perceived as titles, such as viziers and aghas. Military service was a key to many problems.

The expansion of the Empire called for a systematic administrative organization that developed into a dual system of military ("Central Government") and civil administration ("Provincial System") and developed a kind of separation of powers: higher executive functions were carried out by the military authorities and judicial and basic administration were carried out by civil authorities. Outside this system were various types of vassal and tributary states. Most of the areas ruled by the Ottomans were explicitly mentioned in the official full style of the sultan, including various lofty titles adopted to emphasize imperial rank and show the empire as being "successor-in-law" to conquered states.

A kaza (Ottoman Turkish: قضا, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. 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).