NB: The semantic development is historically clearly from "province" to the large "capital" city of an administrative unit which can also be referred to by the same name/term, just as city-states
in Antiquity were often called by the name of their capital city. In Christian times such a city would headquarter a bishop.
A qryh is one of a number of large towns or villages within such a unit. A krk is somewhere in between, generally presupposing a surrounding wall. See, e.g., Jacob of Serough MemDan(Bedjan vol.2 #36) 102:17.