Shortly after the 1917 Battle of Jerusalem, newly appointed British Military Governor Ronald Storrs met with Hussein al-Husayni, who explained that the majority of Jerusalem's 11,000 Muslim residents were followers of the official Ottoman Hanafi rite, with a minority following the Shafi’i school which had been predominant prior to the Ottoman conquest. At the time there was a Hanafi mufti and a Shari'a mufti of Jerusalem. Storrs advised the British government to declare that there would only be a single recognized post of mufti going forward.