Sharif the Strong Fur is a black cat known for the small red fez he wears and for his office as gatekeeper of the Undercity. He has taken up the duties once held by Nazif the perfumist, and enforces a strict prohibition upon magic within his precinct, citing the dangers of its volatility and the need for secrecy. He claims dominion over all the cats, who answer to him, he says, since a legendary overthrow of the monkeys in Istanbul; and he acts upon a mutual understanding rather than at the orders of the Ghost of March, which marks him for a figure of independent standing.
Upon a covert entry into Nazif's perfumery, Sharif the Strong Fur revealed himself to the group, addressing them from beneath a table and requiring coin or a password for passage into the Undercity. When one of their number made to cast a spell, he slashed the offender's ankle to drive home his rule against magic. He then engaged with Sidra al-Najjar, asking her aid for four cats gravely ill and hinting at some larger matter that would want coordination.
The influence of Sharif the Strong Fur reaches to the guarding of a particular route to the University, where the cats under his hand keep a shared stance against magic. He is an enigmatic creature, associated with the Council of the Ninth Life and known for keeping order within the Undercity — his office bound up with the wider governance of that realm, which is famed for its self-rule and for the presence of the "ghost," a solitary leader who holds all in order.
Of late, during a chaotic affair in the Undercity that drew in various factions — among them a party led by a dwarf called Usta Kerim — Sharif the Strong Fur was named as one with whom the company might seek an audience. Alemdar Mustafa Pasha, the reputedly dead Sekban commander, remarked that Sharif the Strong Fur had reported favourably upon the deeds of the party, which points up the weight he carries in the dynamics of the Undercity. His connexion to the Council of the Ninth Life argues a network bent upon the overseeing and the protection of the interests of all who dwell there.