Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU History Faculty Publications History Department 9-2008 Breaking the Khaldunian Cycle? The Rise of Sharifianism as the Basis for Political Legitimacy in Early Modern Morocco Stephen Cory Cleveland State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clhist_facpub Part of the History of Religion Commons, and the Islamic World and Near East History Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Publisher's Statement This is an Author’s Accepted Manuscript of an article published in the Journal of North African Studies, September 2008, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/ 13629380701844706 Repository Citation Cory, Stephen, "Breaking the Khaldunian Cycle? The Rise of Sharifianism as the Basis for oliticalP Legitimacy in Early Modern Morocco" (2008). History Faculty Publications. 83. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clhist_facpub/83 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History Department at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Breaking the Khaldunian cycle? The rise of sharifianism as the basis for political legitimacy in early modern Morocco Stephen Coryà Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA This paper argues that the sharifian Sa’di and ‘Alawi dynasties ended the Khaldunian Cycle within Morocco through their development of a political creed based upon sharifianism (the idea that Islamic leadership should be held by descendants of the Prophet Muhammad). Within the context of a growing European threat, the Sa’dis created a doctrine that was both new and distinctly Moroccan while alleging it held a universal application deriving from the time of the Prophet.