Mendoub
The Mendoub or Mandub (Arabic: مندوب, "delegate" or "representative") was a key official in the governance of the Tangier International Zone between 1925 and 1956, with a wartime interruption from 1941 to 1945. He represented the authority of the Sultan of Morocco in the zone, and was directly in charge of the affairs of the Muslim and Jewish communities which together formed the vast majority of Tangier's inhabitants. The foreign communities, by contrast, were under the authority of the zone's Administrator.
Naib
The Mendoub replaced the prior office of Naib (Arabic: نائب "deputy", plural Nawab), which from 1848 was also the Sultan's representative but under the previous regime in which the sovereignty of the Moroccan Monarchy in Tangier was less compromised.[1]
Residence
From 1851, the Naib was established in the building known as Dar al-Niaba ("House of the Naib") on Rue Es-Siaghine in the former home of the French Consulate.[2] In the International Zone era, the Mendoub's main residence and office was the Mendoubia, just north of the Grand Socco in the center of Tangiers, which had been vacated by the German consulate in August 1914.[3] The Mendoub Palace refers to a suburban mansion of the Mendoub built in the late 1920s in the waterfront neighborhood of Marshan.
List of Naibs and Mendoubs
- Naib Busilham bin Ali Aztut (1848-1851)[1]
- Naib Hajj Muhammad al-Khatib (1851-1860)
- Naib Muhammad Bargash (1860-1886)
- Naib Muhammad Torres (1886-1908)
- Naib Muhammad al-Guebbas (1908-1912)
- Naib, then Mendoub Muhammad at-Tazi Bu Ashran (?-1941 and 1945–1954)
- Mendoub Ahmad at-Tazi (1954-1956)
References
- C. Richard Pennell (2000). Morocco Since 1830: A History. New York City: NYU Press. p. 53.
- "Tanger au XIXe siècle". tangier.free.fr.
- Jean-Marc Delaunay (2008). Aux vents des puissances. Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle. p. 98.