During the course of his career, Shaykh Madmud Qabadu served in the shari'a judiciary as qadi to the chief judge at the Bardo. After 1868, Qabadu at Tunis was mufti of the Maliki rite (or Maliki 'school of law'). As one "of the eariest and most respected of Tunisia's religious reformers" and while serving as mufti, Qabadu, a "devout mystic," also continued as a sufi leader.[11]