The Albanian Vilayet (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت ارناود, Vilâyet-i Arnavid) was a projected vilayet of the Ottoman Empire in the western Balkan Peninsula, which was to include the four Ottoman vilayets with substantial ethnic Albanian populations: Kosovo Vilayet, Scutari Vilayet, Manastir Vilayet, and Janina Vilayet. In some proposals, it included the Salonica Vilayet as well. The creation of the Vilayet was confirmed in September 1912, but negotiations were interrupted a month later in October by the beginning of the First Balkan War. Plans for an Albanian Vilayet were lost with the Partition of Albania.

A separate Albanian vilayet was a part of the agenda of many Albanian organizations and societies since 1877, during the period known as the Albanian National Awakening. Establishment of such a vilayet was agreed between the Albanian rebels and the authorized representatives of the Ottoman government on 4 September 1912, following the Albanian Revolt of 1912. Soon after that agreement however, the First Balkan War broke out and most of the remaining European territory of the Ottoman Empire was occupied by the Balkan League member states. After the army of the Kingdom of Serbia captured Skopje, Ismail Qemali invited a group of Albanians from all four Ottoman vilayets that were agreed to be united into the Albanian Vilayet, to attend an All-Albanian Congress in Valona. There they declared independence on 28 November 1912, and set up the Provisional Government of Albania.

The same territories were claimed by nations in the region that had already raised their national development to independent statehood: Shkodër vilayet was claimed by the Serbs and Montenegrins, Kosovo vilayet by the Serbs, Montenegrins and Bulgarians, Monastir vilayet by the Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians and Janina Vilayet by the Greeks. A few weeks after the beginning of the First Balkan War, the biggest part of the territories intended for the Albanian Vilayet was in the hands of Balkan League member states, as a condominium. Final frontiers between the Balkan League members and the new Principality of Albania were decided by the treaties of London and Bucharest, and ignored the frontiers of the proposed Albanian Vilayet, leaving substantial Albanian populations living outside the newly established Albanian nation-state.

The Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights was organization established in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, then Ottoman Empire in 1877 by an influential group of Albanian intellectuals, patriots, and politicians, such as Sami Frashëri, Vaso Pasha, Abdyl Frashëri and many others. The chairman of the Committee was Abdyl Frashëri.

This Committee published the idea for uniting the vilayets of Monastiri, Scutari, Kosovo and Janina into one Albanian vilayet in the paper Tercüman-ı Hakikat. Contrary to what is often said, a claim for territories very often included the Salonica Vilayet too.

The League of Prizren was an Albanian political organization founded on 10 June 1878 in Prizren, in the Kosovo province (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. The initial position of the league, based on the religious solidarity of the landlords and the people connected with the Ottoman administration and the religious authorities, was reason for naming the league — The Committee of the Real Muslims (Albanian: Komiteti i Myslimanëve të Vërtetë) On the first meeting of the league was written a decision memorandum (kararname) that did not mention reforms, autonomy, or the union of the Albanian populated vilayets into one vilayet.

Soon after the first meeting of this organization it adopted a new agenda, under the influence of Abdyl Frashëri, that included establishing of the Albanian Vilayet. It was not an appeal for Albanian independence, or even autonomy within Ottoman Empire but, as proposed by Pashko Vasa, simply the unification of all Albanian speaking territory within one vilayet.

Tercümân-i-Şark (English: The Oriental Interpreter) (newspapers which provided detailed coverage about events in Albanian populated area), in which Sami Frashëri was member of the staff, reported about the events in the Albanian populated area (Turkish: Arnavudluk) and about the unionist society (Turkish: cemiyet-i ittihadiye) established by the delegates of League of Prizren.