Banner (administrative division) in the context of "Sanjak"

Liwa (Arabic: لواء, liwā’, "ensign" or "banner") has developed various meanings in Arabic:

• a banner, in all senses (flag, advertising banner, election publicity banner, etc.)
• a district; see also: banner (administrative division)
• a level of military unit with its own ensign, now used as the equivalent to brigade
• an officer commanding a number of liwa units, now equivalent to a major general

In Turkish, liva (لواء, livâ) was used interchangeably with sanjak to describe the secondary administrative divisions into which the provinces of the Ottoman Empire were divided. After the fall of the empire, the term was used in the Arab countries formerly under Ottoman rule. It was gradually replaced by other terms like qadaa and mintaqa and is now defunct. It is only used occasionally in Syria to refer to the Hatay Province, ceded by the French mandate of Syria to Turkey in 1939, when it was Liwa’ Iskenderun.

The Uryankhay Republic (Chinese: 烏梁海共和國; pinyin: Wū liáng hǎi gònghéguó; Tuvan: Урянхай) was a nominally independent state that broke away from the Qing dynasty of China during the Xinhai Revolution. It was proclaimed as a republic in 1911 by the Tuvan separatist movement and was encouraged by the Russian Empire. On 1 December 1911, Outer Mongolia declared independence from Qing China. Throughout the rest of December, bands of Uriankhai began to plunder and burn Chinese-owned shops.

Uriankhai nobles were divided on their course of political action. The Uriankhai governor (amban-Noyon), Oyun Kombu-Dorzhu, advocated becoming a protectorate of Russia, hoping that the Russians would appoint him Governor of Uriankhai. However, Balzhin'nima and Toqamid, the noyans (Mongolian for "mandarin") of two other kozhuuns (Tuvan for "banner") preferred to submit to the new Outer Mongolian state under the theocratic rule of Buddhist spiritual leader Jebstundamba Khutukhtu of Urga.Undeterred, Kombu-Dorzhu sent a petition to the Russian Tsar's Frontier Superintendent at Usinsk, stating that he had been chosen as leader of an independent Tannu Uriankhai state. He asked for protection and proposed that Russian troops be sent immediately into the country to prevent China from restoring its rule over the region. There was no reply – three months earlier, the Tsarist Council of Ministers had decided on a policy of cautious gradual absorption of Uriankhai by encouraging Russian influence. The Council feared that precipitate action by Russia might provoke China. Tsar Nicholas II ordered Russian troops into the Uryankhay Republic in 1912, under the pretext that Russian migrants were allegedly attacked.

The main subdivision in Iraq is the 19 muhafazah, also known as governorates. Before 1976 they were called liwas, or banner.

Under the Constitution of Iraq adopted in 2005, one or more provinces may elect to form a federal region, which has the right to a share of oil revenues.