[2] Those who claimed this lineage were regarded as a kind of nobility and were privileged, in the words of Sahar Bazzaz, "as political agents, as interlocutors between various sectors of society, and as would be dynasts of Morocco".
[1] It became particularly important in the "Maraboutic Crisis", referring to the power struggles involving Sufi zawiyas or ribats following the end of the powerful Amazigh dynasties (the Almoravids, the Almohads, and the Marinids), which intensified after the death of Ahmad al-Mansur, when his sons Zidan Abu Maali and Abu Faris Abdallah fought for the throne.
[2] Examples of Sharifism in the pre-colonial period include the vast land holdings north of Fes of the shurafā' of Wazzān, the rebellions against the Makhzen led by the sheikhs of the Sharqāwi Sufi order, and the campaign of the pretender al-Jilāli az-Zarhūni.
[2] In 1830, for example, after the French invasion of Algiers, a group of merchants from Fes convinced Sultan Abd al-Rahman not to end relations with France, as their commercial interests in Algeria were too important to be threatened by political conflict.
[2] From the mid-19th century, Moroccan merchants joined the bureaucracy of the Makhzen, which was expanding to facilitate relations with Europe, in roles as tariff-inspectors or the umanā' established by Muhammad IV.