The sharifs were Alawites who were always respected by the community they lived in throughout Muslim lands. They also managed to establish major government dynasties in the Muslim World throughout history. The sharifs are divided into Several branches the most important of which are the Hasani and the Husayni. The Hasani Sharifs, Whose ancestry goes back to Hasan al ه Muthanna, succeeded in establishing the Idrisid dynasty in the Muslim West )in their case, in Morocco(. The Husayni sharifs, Whose genealogical line goes back to Imam Jؤfar ibn Muhammad as ه Sadigh, were declared by the Fatimids to be their ancestors. This paper is a translation of the entry, "Sharif", in Encyclopedia Islam )Second edition( written by the wellknown French orientalist, Louis Provencal while investigating the genealogical lines of different sharif branches, Provencal has discussed major works attributed to them. In the paper before you, the sharif bibliography is of much importance to researchers and investigators of this field.
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