Vilayet Law
[3] The Vilayet Law reorganized the provinces within the empire, replacing the medieval eyalet system.
[5] Instituted by Murad I, the eyalet system divided the empire into provinces, beginning with Rumelia in the Balkans and Anatolia in Asia Minor.
[8] The term kaza was originally used to designate areas of jurisdiction particular to each individual Islamic (Shari'a) court.
[9] The Vilayet Law created a bureaucratic hierarchy within each province, with many of the upper-level offices appointed directly from Constantinople (now Istanbul).
[10] The list of upper-level, Ottoman government appointed officials is as follows: Lower-level officials appointed directly by the Ottoman government are as follows: Midhat Paşa, through his time as the vali of the Danube Vilayet came to institute other offices and institutions within the vilayet system.
[11] The list is as follows: The office of the governor had been reorganized into departments of civil, financial, police, political, and legal affairs.
These councils were made up of both elected and appointed officials, seeking a balance between the people and the Ottoman government.
The upper-level idare meclises acted as "control organs" for the decisions of the lower councils.
For example, the Meclis-i Idare-i Vilayet routinely reviewed the decisions or resolutions passed by the sanjak and kaza level idare meclises.
While being closest to democratic on a village level, the process became much more stringently controlled by the government as upper-level elections took place.
[18] This election process was to make the institutions "more amenable to state control under the guidance of appointed officials.
Midhat Pasha presided as vali over the most successful of the vilayets, initially the Danube province and then five years later over the Baghdad area.
[20] Midhat's successes have been attributed to his imaginativeness in governing and creating new offices and institutions, as well as his ability to heavily influence those directly appointed from Constantinople.
