Kura (administrative division)
Kura or Koura was a term used by Muslims to describe the political administrative units of Egypt, equivalent to the nomes of pre-Islamic times. These administrative units are smaller than the modern governorates of Egypt.
In Egypt
The Arabized word is of Greek origin, meaning "territory" or "province". The is not exactly the same as the ancient pagarchy, because the refers to an administrative unit in general, while the pagarchy is a religious administrative unit. The Arabs also kept the names of these units, citing their Coptic origin, which was taken from the Pharaonic origin, after they distorted some of them and translated others in accordance with the Arabic language.Ibn Duqmaq mentioned in his book Al-Intisar li-Wasita Aqd al-Amsar that the 33 s of Lower Egypt included the s of al-Hawf al-Sharqi, which are:
And the kuras of Batn al-Rif, which are:
And the s of al-Jazira min asfal al-ard, which are:
And the s of al-Hawf al-Gharbi, which are:
As for the s of Upper Egypt, they are 22, which are:
The remained the chief administrative unit of Egypt well into the Middle Ages. It was not until the 1070s that the vizier Badr al-Jamali, the de facto ruler of the Fatimid Caliphate, abolished them and replaced them with 23 provinces, which in broad outlines survive to the present day, as the Egyptian governorates.