The Collaborative International Dictionary
Shereef \Sher"eef\, Sherif \Sher"if\, n. [Ar. sher[=i]f noble, holy, n., a prince.] A member of an Arab princely family descended from Mohammed through his son-in-law Ali and daughter Fatima. The Grand Shereef is the governor of Mecca.
Wiktionary
n. Formerly, a member of an Arab princely family descended from Muhammad through his son-in-law Ali and daughter Fatima, the "Grand Shereef" being the governor of Mecca.
Usage examples of "shereef".
The message of the Khaleefa which Israel had not answered in his trouble was a request from the Shereef of Wazzan that he should come without delay to that town to count his rent-charges and assess his dues.
This request the Governor had transformed into a command, for the Shereef was a prince of Islam in his own country, and in many provinces the believers paid him tribute.
Israel was half a year absent in the town and province of Wazzan, and, having finished the work which he came to do, he was sent back to Tetuan loaded with presents from the Shereef, and surrounded by soldiers and attendants, who did not leave him until they had brought him to the door of his own house.
Boo-Hallal, and there the young grand Shereef himself, at the gate of his odorous orange-gardens, stood waiting to give audience with yet another conjecture as to the intention of his journey.
The black guard of the Shereef of Wazzan had gone off before him, chuckling and grinning in their disgust, and behind him his own little company of soldiers, guides, muleteers, and tentmen, who, like himself, had neither slept nor eaten, were dragging along in dudgeon.
Then Israel remembered the presents with which the Kaid of El Kasar and the Shereef of Wazzan had burdened him.
No Grand Shereef stood waiting to exchange horses with him, and no black guard led him through the town.
They pretended to take the procession for a triumphal progress--the departure of a Kaid, a Shereef, a Sultan.
The Shereef was surrounded by foreign merchants, all chatting in good humour.
The Shereef sent me a horse to ride on when I go out, and recommends me to do so.
This interpreter is a Shereef, and has been a sailor, in which capacity he has seen Malta, and many European countries.
Of Zinder merchants there are but two of consequence, the Morocco Shereef, Konchai, and Haj Amurmur, a Tibboo.
Where there are periodical razzias the sacredness of human life is unknown, and the Shereef has been, besides, many years in the camp of Abd-el-Kader, where a good deal of sanguinary work was carried on.
This is the explanation of the Shereef and the little court of Arabs and Moors by which he is surrounded.
Not succeeding in the souk, he went to the Shereef Kebir, and requested him to give him a fowl for a sick person.