Mqaddam

The local representative of state administration at neighbourhood (urban) or douar (rural) level. The mqaddam sits at the lowest tier of the Moroccan administrative hierarchy beneath the caid and the pasha; the role mediates between the population and the state — registering births and deaths, transmitting decrees, accompanying officials, and reporting on local affairs. The customary amghar and the administrative mqaddam coexist in many rural southern Moroccan settings, with the relationship between the two offices a recurring object of ethnographic study.