The Emirate reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Emirate

Generally speaking, an imarat, or an emirate is a place that is administered by an emir.

An emirate usually refers to a province that is administered by a certain prince (a region in Saudi Arabia that is administered by an emir is called an emirate), although in Arabic the term can be generalized to mean any province of a country that is administered by a member of the ruling class. An example of the later use is seen in the United Arab Emirates, which is a country that is comprised of seven united emirates, and where each emirate is administered by a shaikh.

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