The

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

title ''nāẓir'' (ناظر, ) refers to an overseer in a general sense. In

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

, it is the normal term for the administrator of a ''

waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...

'' (charitable endowment). The office or territory of a ''nāẓir'' is a nazirate. According to al-Qābisī, writing in the tenth century, the pagan ruler of Tadmakka appointed a superintendent, which al-Qābisī calls a ''nāẓir'', from among the Muslims living in his land to oversee them. This was probably a common arrangement in the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

and

Sahel The Sahel region (; ), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a Biogeography, biogeographical region in Africa. It is the Ecotone, transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a ...

regions. The title was used in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

for the heads of government departments and agencies before it adopted a modern cabinet system. It was synonymous with inspector, supervisor or controller. In Egypt it may also be used for the directors or managers of commercial enterprises.Richard Hill, ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Sudan'' (Frank Cass, 1967), p. xiii. In the

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ( ') was a condominium (international law), condominium of the United Kingdom and Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt between 1899 and 1956, corresponding mostly to the territory of present-day South Sudan and Sudan. Legally, sovereig ...

, the title ''nāẓir al-khuṭṭ'' was used for the official in charge of a subdivision of a district. Usually he was a tribal head. ''Nāẓir ʿumūm'' was a traditional and usually hereditary Sudanese title for the head of a tribal confederation. It was only infrequently recognised by the Anglo-Egyptian government, but it was used for lower-level salaried officials in the Jazīra. As a traditional Sudanese title, ''nāẓir'' may be an Arabic rendering of the originally Funj titles ''mānjil'' and ''manfona''. One of the ''nāẓir'''s duties was to administer uncultivated land (''qifār'') within the tribal homeland (''dār'').Jay Spaulding (1979), "Farmers, Herdsmen and the State in Rainland Sinnār", ''The Journal of African History'', 20 (3), 329–47 . The language of these Funj titles is unknown.

References

{{reflist Arabic words and phrases Political titles