Ashraf

Sharīf or Sherif, also spelled shareef, feminine sharīfa (شريفة), plural ashrāf (أشراف), shurafāʾ (شرفاء), or shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, from the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It may be used in three senses:In the broadest sense, it refers to any descendant of Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim, including all descendants of Muhammad's paternal uncles Abu Talib and al-Abbas. More often, it refers to a descendant of Ali, a son of Abu Talib and a paternal cousin of Muhammad, especially but not exclusively through Ali's marriage with Muhammad's daughter Fatima. In the sense of descendants of Fatima and Ali, 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 Hasan. In this limited context, it is contrasted with the term sayyid ('lord', 'master', plural sāda,, which then refers only to the descendants of Hasan's younger brother Husayn.

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