The Vilayet of the Danube or Danubian Vilayetis a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire from 1864 to 1878.
In the late nineteenth century it reportedly has an area of 34,120 square miles (88,400 km2).
The vilayet is created from the northern parts of Silistra Province along the Danube River and eyalets of Niš, Vidin and Silistra.
This vilayet is meant to become a model province, showcasing all the progress achieved by the Porte through the modernizing Tanzimat reforms.
Other vilayets modeled on the vilayet of the Danube are ultimately established throughout the empire by 1876, with the exception of the Arabian peninsula and the by then semi-independent Egypt.
Rusçuk, today Ruse in Bulgaria, is chosen as the capital of the vilayet due to its position as a key Ottoman port on the Danube.
The province disappears after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, when its northeastern part (Northern Dobruja) s incorporated into Romania, some of its western territories into Serbia, while the central and southern regions make up most of the autonomous principality of Bulgaria and a part of Eastern Rumelia.
