ABSTRACT
Introduction Among the important but neglected topics pertaining to human mobility in Islamic history is the wide dispersal of the kinsfolk of the Prophet Muhammad, namely sayyids or sharlji.' Their dispersal is an astonishing phenomenon: sayyids dispersed from Hijaz throughout the vast Islamic world over a period of more than fourteen centuries, and yet they claim a pedigree going back to the Prophet himself. Sharing the kinship and pride of being relatives of Muhammad, 'Ali, and other important figures in Islamic history, sayyids seem to have had, to some extent, common tendencies to favor a specific version of Islam, such as various sorts of Shicism, or ah1
I would like to thank Professor Robert D. McChesney for his helpful comments as well as his assistance in translating this article. I also owe a debt of thanks to Professor Hossein Modarressi who kindly commented on a draft of this paper. ' Relatives of Muhammad have been referred to by various titles through
different periods and in different regions. For convenience the term sayyids will be used in this study.
