(a.), pl. ruʾasāʾ , from raʾs , “head”, denotes the “chief, leader” of a recognisable group (political, religious, juridical, tribal, or other). The term goes back to pre-Islamic times and was used in various senses at different periods of Islamic history, either to circumscribe specific functions of the holder of the office of “leadership” ( riʾāsa ) or as a honorific title ( laḳab [q.v.]).
1. In the sense of “mayor” in the central Arab lands.
Here, the raʾīs most commonly referred to was the head of a village, a city or a city-region. He emerged as a kind of local “mayo…