Sanjak

State organisation of the Ottoman Empire
House of Osman
Classic period
Divan Porte Grand Vizier
Constitutional period
Imperial Government General Assembly Senate Chamber of Deputies
Millets Administrative divisions Vassal and tributary states
v t e

A sanjak (Ottoman Turkish: سنجاق, sancak, "flag, banner") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak a liva (لوا, livâ) from the name's calque in Arabic and Persian.

Banners were a common organization of nomadic groups on the Eurasian Steppe including the early Turks, Mongols, and Manchus and were used as the name for the initial first-level territorial divisions at the formation of the Ottoman Empire. Upon the empire's expansion and the establishment of eyalets as larger provinces, sanjaks were used as the second-level administrative divisions. They continued in this purpose after the eyalets were replaced by vilayets during the Tanzimat reforms of the 19th century.

Sanjaks were typically headed by a bey or sanjakbey. The Tanzimat reforms initially placed some sanjaks under kaymakams and others under mutasarrifs; a sanjak under a mutasarrif was known as a mutasarriflik. The districts of each sanjak were known as kazas. These were initially overseen by Islamic judges (kadi) and thus identical to their kadiluks.^[1] During the 1864 round of reforms, their administrative duties were given to kaymakams instead. Under the timar system of the early empire, fiefs held by timariot sipahis were also an important feature of each sanjak.

Sanjaks were initially carried over into the Republic of Turkey before being reorganized as provinces (Turkish: il) in the 1920s.^[when?]