ABSTRACT
The Latin states in Palestine and Syria are often studied without reference to conditions prevailing before the arrival of the crusaders. In the medieval Muslim world, ra’is was a title given to one who had authority over a professional or religious corporation, a community such as the Jews, the quarter of a town, a village or even a clan. The derisory number of surviving examples of what must have been a numerous and widely-scattered group of officials leads one to wonder whether every village in the East was administered by a rays. The rayses in the countryside were heirs to a tradition of village headmen that dated from before the arrival of the Franks. The village rays seems normally to have corresponded with his lord through two intermediaries, the dragoman and the scribe, both of whom were probably the descendants of officers of the time before the arrival of crusaders.
