Mukhtar

The mukhtar (Arabic: مختار, romanized: mukhtār, lit.'chosen one'; Turkish: muhtar; Greek: μουχτάρης) was a civilian administrator, a type of lesser mayor, in villages and neighbourhoods in the Ottoman Empire. The office was retained in the local administration of the Republic of Turkey as a village or neighbourhood mayor. It also exists in modern Lebanon as an elected local official, and in Gaza as a honorific for clan elders.