Editing Royal House of Saxe-Gessaphe (section)

==Lebanese heritage==
Afif family claimed to belong [[patrilineality|patrilineally]] to an ancient princely [[Lebanese Turkmen]] and [[Maronite Church|Maronite]] Catholic family in what is now [[Lebanon]].<ref>{{cite book|last= Willis|first= Daniel|title= The Descendants of Louis XIII|year= 1999|publisher= Clearfield|location= Baltimore|isbn= 0-8063-4942-5|pages= 327–328, 766|chapter= The Ducal Family of Parma}}</ref> Afif, [[emir]] in [[Keserwan District|Keserwan]] and grandson of the Lebanese emir [[Assaf dynasty|Mansur 'Asaf bin Hasan (1522-1580)]], is said to be the ancestor of the [[Christianity|Christian]]ised [[Sheikh#Lebanon|cheikh]]s of [[Jezzine|Bkassine]], from which Roberto Afif was assumed to descend.<ref>{{cite book|last= Cannuyer|first= Christian|author-link= Christian Cannuyer|title= Les maisons royales et souveraines d'Europe|year= 1989|publisher= Editions Brepols|location= Tournhout, Belgium|language= fr|isbn= 2-503-50017-X|chapter= Saxe|quote= Descendant en ligne directe de l’Emir Mansur ‘Asaf bin Hassan, prince du Liban (1522-1580), dont le petit-fils Afif, Emir en Kisrowan, fut l’ancêtre de la lignée des Sheikhs de Bkessin qui se convertirent au christianisme et dont l’époux de la Princesse Marie-Anne est issu.|page= 207}}</ref> 

According to the royal genealogical book series, ''L'Allemagne dynastique'', Princess Anna maintains that her husband's family descend from [[Suleiman]], who was granted the province of Keserwan, north of Beirut, in 1306 by the [[Mamluk]]s. She further avers that Roberto's father, Alexander Afif (1883-1971), a lifelong resident of Beirut, was a knight of the [[Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Catholic)|Order of the Holy Sepulchre]] and was Prince of "[[Assaf dynasty|Assaph]]" (or Afif-''Gessaphe'') in Lebanon.<ref>{{cite book |last= Huberty |first= Michel |author2=Alain Giraud |author3=F. and B. Magdelaine  |title= L'Allemagne Dynastique Tome VI Bade/Mecklembourg |year= 1991 |location= France|chapter = Familles Nobles Alliées|language= fr |isbn= 2-901138-06-3 |pages= 475–476}}</ref> 

Roberto emigrated to Mexico, obtained a [[Doctor of Law|law degree]], and made his living as a businessman. The family was associated with some of the most prominent Mexican families. Although not as wealthy as they used to be, the family lives an [[upper middle class]] life in one of [[Mexico City]]'s better neighbourhoods, [[Polanco]].{{Fact|date=March 2009}}

Roberto's sister, Alexandra Afif, born in Beirut in 1919, [[morganatic marriage|morganatically]] married Prince Karl Anton [[Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen|of Hohenzollern]] (born 1922), in Rome in 1951.<ref>{{cite book |last= Huberty |first= Michel |author2=Alain Giraud |author3=F. and B. Magdelaine  |title= L'Allemagne Dynastique Tome V Hohenzollern-Waldeck|year= 1988 |location= France |language= fr |isbn= 2-901138-05-5 |page= 267 }}</ref> Prince Karl Anton was a nephew of Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony, and is thus a first cousin of Margrave Maria Emanuel and Princess Anna.