Šaraf, charité et pauvreté : aperçu d’une histoire sociale des chorfa au Maroc (années 1860-années 1930)

Abstract

Moroccan chorfa are presented as a group defined less by their sociology than by a common genealogy. By examining a corpus of administrative archives from the Makhzen, then from the colonial state, we aim to examine the links between šaraf and poverty, and to explore manifestations of material distress or collective generosity towards the chorfa. Without stopping at the break with the establishment of the protectorate, this article shows the chorfa’s continued privileged place in assisting the poor and the persistence of a statutory definition of the right to assistance, which has as much to do with spiritual humility as with a hereditary right to alms. This continuity illustrates the coherence of the group, despite its social heterogeneity, and its political usefulness for the Makhzen, which wished to preserve its chorfa from an indigence that was too perilous. It also shows that «poverty» in Moroccan society can never be reduced to mere material misery.