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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A noble lineage
By Nesmahar SayedBusinessman Mustafa Mohamed is very proud of his title. A Sharif, he can trace his lineage back to the Prophet Mohamed, and has the certificate to prove it from the Syndicate of Ashraaf. Others are not so lucky; they have heard, from parents or grandparents, that they can claim the honour of belonging to the prophet's family, but cannot provide irrefutable proof.
The pamphlets issued by the syndicate shed light on a group of people who may not be as active or newsworthy as the lawyers or doctors, but whose organisation differs from others like it in two crucial respects: you must be born into it, and its members can be found across the length and breadth of the Islamic world. The Ashraaf belong to the lineage of the Prophet Mohamed. Since the prophet lost his three sons when they were children, his lineage is traced through his daughter, Fatma, and her husband, Ali Ibn Abi Taleb, who had two sons, Al-Hassan and Al-Hussein. The title of Sharif is restricted to the descendants of Al-Hassan and Al-Hussein. In a traditionally patriarchal and patrilocal society, this is one of the few instances in which a revered female figure is the source of legitimacy and honour.
The Ashraaf trace their history back to the battle of Karbala, where Al-Hussein was martyred, and the ensuing massacre of Ashraaf by the Abbasids, who feared that the followers of Ali Ibn Abi Taleb would question their claims to religious legitimacy and political leadership. During this period, Zeinab, Ali's daughter, sought refuge in Egypt. The house where she stayed until her death was chosen thereafter as the site for the mosque of Sayeda Zeinab. The Ashraaf, however, dispersed throughout North Africa and Asia. In some cases, like that of Jordan's Hashemite ruling family, they succeeded in establishing a political entity. In the case of Egypt, where the regime does not derive its legitimacy from its lineage, the Ashraaf established a syndicate.
In countries like Jordan, proving that one belongs to the prophet's lineage is very difficult. The office that is responsible for this mission is situated in the royal palace. Since the royal family are Ashraaf, it is considered that the interests of the Ashraaf are well looked after, and there is no need for a syndicate to lobby in their favour. In Jordan and other countries, however, the difficulty of proving Sharif status has not prevented the Ashraaf from forming groups and issuing their own publications.
Omar Makram
Sheikh El-Bakri
Rifa'a El-Tahtawi
Mustafa El-Manfalouti
King Hussein
King Al-Hassan
Most of Egypt's Ashraaf live in the Sa'id; they believe that their families settled there because their ancestors had fled from Iraq under the Abbasids and taken refuge in Upper Egypt. Islam sought to replace tribal affiliations and loyalties with the equality of all Muslims; paradoxically, perhaps, this led to the belief that the Ashraaf, as the descendants of the prophet, were at the summit of the new hierarchy based on piety, and encouraged their desire to preserve the purity of their lineage.
With the Fatimids' accession to power, Al-Mu'izz Lidin Illah brought the organisation responsible for recording the names of the Ashraaf to Egypt. In Ayyubid and Mameluke times, the Ashraaf were recognised as a special group, but enjoyed no official status. During the Ottoman era, the syndicate once more participated actively in state matters: its head attended meetings of the Pasha's divan, supervised the Ashraaf's possessions and took up their complaints.
After the French Expedition of 1798, Omar Makram was elected head of the syndicate. He has gone down in history as the leader of the second Cairo revolution in 1800. Mohamed Ali exiled him to Damietta, then to Tanta, in 1808, and many historians believe that the syndicate was thereafter led by figures who had obtained official sanction but had no political power whatsoever.
In 1895, Khedive Abbas Helmi appointed Mohamed Tawfik El-Bakri, grand sheikh of the Sufi orders, as head of the Ashraaf Syndicate. His two successors were Omar Makram's grandson, appointed in 1914, and Mohamed El-Beblawi, appointed in 1920. After El-Beblawi's death in 1953, the syndicate faded into the background. It was only in 1991 that President Mubarak issued a presidential decree appointing Mahmoud Kamel Yassin as the chairman of the Ashraaf Syndicate in Egypt. Ahmed Kamel Yassin, appointed in 1994, continues to lead the syndicate until today.
Some of Egypt's best known intellectual figures were also Ashraaf, among them Rifa'a El-Tahtawi, chosen by Mohamed Ali to lead the first student mission to France, and lyrical writer Mustafa El-Manfalouti.
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