(Arabic, “deputy”), in medieval Muslim states such as the Arabian Caliphate and the Golden Horde, the governor of a district or province; in the Azerbaijani khanates, the governor of a magal (district or province); and under the imamate of Shamil in Dagestan, the imam’s appointed deputy, who exercised military and administrative authority over a specific territory.

In some contemporary Muslim countries, a naib is the deputy of a government official or a member of the clergy, at times a local chief of police or a village elder. Under the Ottoman Empire the naib was a judge of a Sharia court, deputy of a supreme judge, or assistant to a gadi.