A nāḥiyah (Arabic: نَاحِيَة [ˈnaːħijah], plural nawāḥī نَوَاحِي [naˈwaːħiː]), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division while in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Xinjiang, and the former Ottoman Empire, where it was also called a bucak, it is a third-level or lower division. It can constitute a division of a qadaa, mintaqah or other such district-type division and is sometimes translated as "subdistrict".

Ottoman Empire

The nahiye (Ottoman Turkish: ناحیه) was an administrative territorial entity of the Ottoman Empire, smaller than a kaza. The head was a mütesellim (governor) who was appointed by the Pasha.

The kaza was a subdivision of a sanjak^[1] and corresponded roughly to a city with its surrounding villages. Kazas, in turn, were divided into nahiyes (each governed by a müdür) and villages (karye, each governed by a muhtar).^[2] Revisions of 1871 to the administrative law established the nahiye (still governed by a müdür) as an intermediate level between the kaza and the village.^[2]

The term was adopted by the Principality of Serbia (1817–1833) and Principality of Montenegro (1852–1910), as nahija (Serbian Cyrillic: нахија).

Examples

Arabic-speaking countries

Turkic-speaking territories

• Xinjiang, China: a subdivision of a prefectural.
• Ottoman Empire: subdistrict, commune, parish; a subdivision of a kaza (قضاء).

Other

• Districts of Tajikistan: a subdivision of a province.
• Donji Milanovac, a town in Serbia