The terminology was used as early as 1918. For example: Taysīr Jabārah, Palestinian Leader Hajj Amin Al-Husayni : Mufti of Jerusalem, Kingston Press, , 221 p. (ISBN978-0-940670-10-5, lire en ligne) states that Storrs wrote on November 19, 1918 "the Muslim element requested the Grand Mufti to have the name of the Sharif of Mecca mentioned in the Friday prayers as Caliph".
The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition : Supplement, Brill Archive, , 128 p. (ISBN90-04-06167-3, lire en ligne), p. 68.
An answer in the Commons to a question on notice, given by the Secretary of State for the Colonies: Mr. Hammersley asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies why no appointment has yet been made to fill the posts of Mufti of Jerusalem and President of the Moslem Supreme Council? Colonel Stanley. An important distinction must be drawn between the two offices referred to by my hon. Friend. The post of Mufti of Jerusalem is a purely religious office with no powers or administrative functions, and was held by Haj Amin before he was given the secular appointment of President of the Supreme Moslem Council. In 1937 Haj Amin was deprived of his secular appointment and administrative functions, but no action was taken regarding the religious office of Mufti, as no legal machinery in fact exists for the formal deposition of the holder, nor is there any known precedent for such deposition. Haj Amin is thus technically still Mufti of Jerusalem, but the fact that there is no intention of allowing Haj Amin, who has openly joined the enemy, to return to Palestine in any circumstances clearly reduces the importance of the technical point.
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« Saad al-Alami Dead; Jerusalem Cleric, 82 », The New York Times, (lire en ligne).
