De La Mecque au Maghreb : légitimité généalogique et autorité savante dans les lignages chérifiens (VIIe-IXe/XIIIe-XVe siècle)

This article compares western Arabia and the western Maghreb the 7th/13th and 9th/15th centuries to examine how prophetic lineages classified as part of the ashrāf gained prominence in historiography and in debates on the transmission of knowledge. It traces the gradual narrowing and reconfiguration of terms such as ahl al-bayt, ashrāf/shurafāʾ and sāda, showing how notions once tied to noble status and character came to mark specific genealogical groups, with discussions on nasab and sharaf exposing the contested boundaries of this category. The study then analyzes how, in Mecca and Tlemcen, ashrāf increasingly appeared as scholars, jurists and Sufi masters within Sunni learned milieus, and asks to what extent their genealogical prestige, social strategies and position in shifting elite configurations translated into a distinct, and sometimes disputed, advantage in the late medieval scholarly field