Sharif

Sharīf or Sherif (Arabic: شريف, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef, feminine sharīfa (شريفة), plural ashrāf (أشراف), shurafāʾ (شرفاء), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, from the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (c. 570 CE – 632 CE). It may be used in three senses: In the broadest sense, it refers to any descendant of Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim (the Banu Hashim or Hashimites, already in Muhammad's day an established clan within the Meccan tribe of the Quraysh), including all descendants of Muhammad's paternal uncles Abu Talib (the Talibids) and al-Abbas (the Abbasids). More often, it refers to a descendant of Ali, a son of Abu Talib and a paternal cousin of Muhammad (the Alids), especially but not exclusively through Ali's marriage with Muhammad's daughter Fatima (the Fatimids). In the sense of descendants of Fatima and Ali (the most common one), the term effectively refers to all descendants of Muhammad. In the narrowest sense, it refers only to someone who descends from Fatima and Ali's eldest son (and Muhammad's grandson) Hasan (the Hasanids). In this limited context, it is contrasted with the term sayyid ('lord', 'master', plural sāda, (سادة), which then refers only to the descendants of Hasan's younger brother Husayn (the Husaynids). The precise usage of the term has varied both historically and geographically.