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Caliphate

A caliphate or khilāfah (Arabic: خِلَافَةْ [xi'laːfah]) is a monarchical form of government (initially elective, later absolute) originated in the 7th century Arabia, whose political identity is based on a claim of succession to the Islamic State of Muhammad and the identification of a monarch called caliph[1][2][3] (/ˈkælɪf, ˈk-/; Arabic: خَلِيفَةْ [xæ'liːfæh], ) as his heir and successor. The title of caliph, which was the equivalent of titles such as king, tsar, and khan in other parts of the world, had led to many civil wars, sectarian conflicts, and parallel regional caliphates. Historically, the caliphates were polities based on Islam which developed into multi-ethnic trans-national empires.[4][5] During the medieval period, three major caliphates succeeded each other: the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), and the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1517). In the fourth major caliphate, the Ottoman Caliphate, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire claimed caliphal authority from 1517 until the Ottoman caliphate was formally abolished as part of the 1924 secularisation of Turkey. An attempt to preserve the title was tried, with the Sharifian Caliphate, but this caliphate fell quickly, leaving the claim in dormancy.

"Caliph" redirects here. For other uses, see List of caliphs, Caliph (disambiguation), and Caliphate (disambiguation).

Throughout the history of Islam, a few other Muslim states, almost all of which were hereditary monarchies such as the Mamluk Sultanate and Ayyubid Sultanate, have claimed to be caliphates.


Not all Muslim states have had caliphates. The Sunni branch of Islam stipulates that, as a head of state, a caliph should be elected by Muslims or their representatives.[6] Shiites, however, believe a caliph should be an imam chosen by God from the Ahl al-Bayt (the "Household of the Prophet"). Some caliphates in history have been led by Shiites, like the Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171).


From the late 20th century towards the early 21st century, in the wake of the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR, the war on terror and the Arab Spring, various Islamist groups have claimed the caliphate, although these claims have usually been widely rejected among Muslims.

Etymology

Before the advent of Islam, Arabian monarchs traditionally used the title malik (King), or another from the same root.[7]


The term caliph (/ˈklɪf, ˈkælɪf/),[8] derives from the Arabic word khalīfah (خَليفة, ), which means "successor", "steward", or "deputy" and has traditionally been considered a shortening of Khalīfah Rasūl Allāh ("successor of the messenger of God"). However, studies of pre-Islamic texts suggest that the original meaning of the phrase was "successor selected by God".[7]

Government

Electing or appointing a caliph

In his book The Early Islamic Conquests (1981), Fred Donner argues that the standard Arabian practice during the early caliphates was for the prominent men of a kinship group, or tribe, to gather after a leader's death and elect a leader from amongst themselves, although there was no specified procedure for this shura, or consultative assembly. Candidates were usually from the same lineage as the deceased leader, but they were not necessarily his sons. Capable men who would lead well were preferred over an ineffectual direct heir, as there was no basis in the majority Sunni view that the head of state or governor should be chosen based on lineage alone. Since the Umayyads, all caliphates have been dynastic.


Traditionally, Sunni Muslim madhhabs all agreed that a caliph must be a descendant of the Quraysh.[150] Al-Baqillani has said that the leader of the Muslims simply should be from the majority.

Sunni belief

Following the death of Muhammad, a meeting took place at Saqifah. At that meeting, Abu Bakr was elected caliph by the Muslim community. Sunni Muslims developed the belief that the caliph is a temporal political ruler, appointed to rule within the bounds of Islamic law (Sharia). The job of adjudicating orthodoxy and Islamic law was left to mujtahids, legal specialists collectively called the Ulama. Many Muslims call the first four caliphs the Rashidun, meaning the "Rightly Guided", because they are believed to have followed the Qur'an and the sunnah (example) of Muhammad.

Rashidun

Muawiyah I

As-Saffah

Selim I

Arnold, T. W. (1993). . In Houtsma, M. Th (ed.). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936. Vol. IV. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 881–885. ISBN 978-90-04-09790-2. Retrieved 23 July 2010.

"Khalīfa"

; Hinds, Martin (1986), God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-32185-3

Crone, Patricia

(1981), The Early Islamic Conquests, Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, hdl:2027/heb.00877, ISBN 978-0-691-05327-1

Donner, Fred McGraw

Fitzpatrick, Coeli; Walker, Adam Hani (2014). . Abc-Clio. ISBN 9781610691789.

Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God

(1911). "Caliphate" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Goeje, Michael Jan de

Weeramantry, Judge Christopher G. (1997). Justice Without Frontiers: Furthering Human Rights. . ISBN 90-411-0241-8.

Brill Publishers

(2007) [2006], The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, London: Vintage, ISBN 978-1-4000-3084-2

Wright, Lawrence

(1984). "Some Observations on the 'Abbāsid Caliphate of Cairo". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 47 (3): 501–507. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00113710. S2CID 161092185.

Holt, Peter M.

Özoğlu, Hakan (2011). . ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313379567.

From Caliphate to Secular State: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic

Wood, Graeme (2017). . New York: Random House. pp. 128–9. ISBN 978-0-8129-8875-8. Retrieved 22 March 2022.

The Way of the Strangers : Encounters with the Islamic State

by The Internet Islamic University

The theory of government in Islam

School Textbook, By Dr. 'Abdullah al-Ahsan, `Abdullah Ahsan

The History of Al-Khilafah Ar-Rashidah (The Rightly Guided Caliphates)

By Richard Stephen Humphreys, Stephen (EDT) Humphreys from The History of al-Tabari

The Crisis of the Early Caliphate

By Clifford Edmund (TRN) Bosworth, from The History of al-Tabari

The Reunification of the Abbasid Caliphate

By Franz Rosenthal from The History of al-Tabari

Return of the Caliphate to Baghdad

By Azmi Özcan

Pan-Islamism: Indian Muslims, the Ottomans and Britain (1877–1924)

By Guy Le Strange

Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate from Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources

By Peter C. Scales

The Fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba: Berbers and Andalusis in conflict

By Mubasher Ahmad

Khilafat and Caliphate

from The Economist, 8 March 1924

The abolition of the Caliphate

The Clash of the Caliphates: Understanding the real war of ideas, by Tony Corn, Small Wars Journal, March 2011

Hüseyin Yılmaz. Caliphate Redefined: The Mystical Turn in Ottoman Political Thought. Princeton University Press, 2018.  978-1-4008-8804-7.

ISBN

– a three-part documentary by Al Jazeera English

The Caliph

The Guardian.

The return of the caliphate

BBC News.

Islamists urge caliphate revival