XIIth Century Migration of Arab-Sicilian Shurafā’ to Morocco: A Case Study for a Re-Reading of Sharifism, ʽAṣabiyya and Sectarianization

The historical/ethnographic sources relating to Arab-Muslim Sicily (827-1091 [‘Abbās 1970]) are powerful tools for in-depth inquiries into the socio-political and cultural complexity of North Africa (ad-Dūrī 2008). As pointed out by Berque-Pascon (1978), sharifism, which was an important aspect of the political systems in NA during the Almoravid (XI-XIIth) and Almohad (XII-XIIIth centuries) regencies, can be understood as a strong socio-political institution reinforced by its moral and religious standing. It is founded on the wilāya affiliated with the members of Ahl al-Bayt (i.e. shurafā’), and hence indicates the ʽaṣabiyya among social parties, operating as a social contract that acknowledges social sectarianization but avoids community fragmentation at the same time (Lévi-Provençal 1922). Moreover, the linkages between sharifism and Sufism in Morocco (al-Qādirī 1909) illustrate a set of affiliations which prompt a re-consideration of sectarianization as not only being an exclusively modern phenomenon (as-Sūsī 2014). This paper aims to underline the little investigated migration of Arab-Sicilian shurafā’ to Morocco during the XII-XIIIth centuries (Rizzitano 1956). In doing this I hope to uncover their centrality within the Moroccan political establishments and their influence upon Moroccan socio-cultural identity, a product of their genealogical prestige and their contribution to the debate between the Malikite schools (DeLuca 1989).