Kura or Koura (Arabic: كورة) 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.[1]
The Arabized word is of Greek origin (χώρα; Latin: chora), 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 (not the Roman or Greek), after they distorted some of them and translated others in accordance with the Arabic language.[2]
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:[3] 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:[4]
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 (14 in Lower Egypt and 9 in Upper Egypt), which in broad outlines survive to the present day, as the Egyptian governorates.
See main article: Kura (al-Andalus). The term was also used for the provincial districts of the Emirate of Córdoba, in al-Andalus.