s. m. (M.), ) Corrupted from the Arabic word Muqaddam. (lit. a leader, a headman) A superior proprietor; a village headman; the class of persons who, in recognition of old proprietary right or of former connection with a village or tract of land as officials, farmers of revenue, or jagírdárs, are entitled to a small share of the produce. This tenure existed before Sikh times, but its position was first defined by Díwan Sáwan Mal. When he farmed the revenues of the Multan province from Mahárajá Ranjit Singh, and saw that cultivation could not be restored or increased by the representatives of former governors, holy men, broken down jagírdárs and loosely-connected tribes whom he found in possession of the lands, he encouraged strangers and Hindu capitalists to sink wells, dig canals, and cultivate the lands of the nominal owners, to whom he secured a share of the produce, usually half a seer in each maund by weight or a páí per path by measure. In some cases the old proprietors were strong enough to secure an institutionfee from strangers thus located on their lands. In this way two distinct classes of proprietors were formed—(1), the old possessors, known as mukaddams and zamíṇdárs, and in modern official language málíkán álá (superior proprietors); (2), the locatees, called chakkdárs, and now styled malikán adná (inferior proprietors)—the former claiming to be owners of all unappropriated land, and entitled to a small share of the crop produced in appropriated land; the latter being full proprietors of the land in their possession, subject to payment of the share of the old possessors and not liable to eviction even on failure to pay, and entitled to introduce tenants without reference to the former. Since the annexation the fortunes of the mukaddams have varied; in some cases they have disappeared; in others, especially where little unappropriated land was left, they have allowed their tenure to be absorbed into the lambardárship, but in a considerable number of villages they still exist in full possession of their rights.