Wilayat

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An administrative province or governed district in certain Muslim-majority countries ; the authority or guardianship held by a legal guardian under Islamic law
2. A regional territory governed as a province in some Islamic states ; the jurisdiction or guardian's power recognized in Islamic legal tradition
3. A governorate or province within certain Muslim nations ; the custodial authority or guardianship exercised over a person according to Islamic law

Etymology: Wilayat comes from the Arabic root "wly", which carries the sense of being close to someone, so that a guardian is the one standing nearest to a ward. The Arabic noun "wilāya" meant authority, guardianship, or governance, and its plural "wilāyāt" came to name the territorial units that such authority covered. The word passed into Classical Persian as "wilāyat" and was later borrowed into English from both the Arabic plural and the Persian form, which explains why the English word keeps the Arabic-style plural ending in its spelling. The English word therefore carries two senses that follow the same chain of thought. A province is a territory under one governing authority, and a guardianship is a relationship of authority over a person, so both meanings grow from the idea of exercising control on someone else's behalf. In Islamic law, the wilaya of a guardian gives that person legal authority over a minor or a dependent, most often in matters of marriage.