TRENDEFRAtlas of the Sultans · Glossary
Term · Provinces and land
Also known as: province, beylerbeylik
The largest administrative unit of the Ottoman provinces, governed by a beylerbey.
The word eyalet rarely appears in documents of the period; the same unit was usually called “beylerbeylik” or “vilâyet”. The first great provinces were Rumelia and Anatolia; conquests created new ones such as Buda, Damascus, Egypt and Baghdad. Each eyalet consisted of several sanjaks. The regional borders in the atlas are largely based on these administrative units.
Source: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, article “EYALET” (in Turkish); text condensed for the atlas.