Caliph
Caliph is the term or title for the Islamic leader of the
Ummah, or community of
Islam. It is a
romanized version of the Arabic word خليفة or
Khalīfah () which means "successor" or "representative". Some of the early leaders of the Muslim community following the
prophet Muhammad's (570"632) death called themselves "Khalifat Allah", meaning representative of God, but the alternative title of "Khalifat rasul Allah", meaning the successor to the prophet of God, eventually became the standard title. Some academics prefer to transliterate the term as
Khalīf.
Caliphs were often also referred to as
Amīr al-Mu'minīn (أمير المؤمنين) "Commander of the Faithful", or, more colloquially, leader of the
Muslims. This title has been shortened and romanized to "emir". It is also found as a personal name in some countries (Amir or Aamir).
(Caliph,
Khalīfah, also became the term used to designate the head of a
Sufi order.)
After the first four Sunni caliphs (
Abu Bakr,
Umar ibn al-Khattab,
Uthman ibn Affan, and
Ali ibn Abi Talib), the title was claimed by the
Umayyads, the
Abbasids, and the
Ottomans, as well as by other, competing lineages in
Spain,
Northern Africa, and
Egypt. Most historical Muslim rulers simply titled themselves
sultans or
amirs, and gave token obedience to a caliph who often had very little real authority. The title has been defunct since the
Republic of Turkey abolished the
Ottoman caliphate in
1924.
Most academic scholars agree that Muhammad had not explicitly established how the Muslim community was to be governed after his death. Two questions faced these early Muslims: who was to succeed Muhammad, and what sort of authority he was to exercise.
Succession to Prophet Muhammad
Fred M. Donner, in his book
The Early Islamic Conquests (1981), argues that the standard Arabian practice at the time was for the prominent men of a kinship group, or tribe, to gather after a leader's death and choose a leader from amongst themselves. There was no specified procedure for this
shura, or consultation. 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.
This is also the argument advanced by
Sunni Muslims, who believe that Muhammad's lieutenant
Abu Bakr was chosen by the community and that this was the proper procedure. They further argue that a caliph is ideally chosen by election or community consensus, even though the caliphate soon became a hereditary office, or the prize of the strongest general.
Shi'a Muslims disagree. They believe that Muhammad had given many indications that he considered , his cousin and son-in-law, as his chosen successor. They say that Abū Bakr seized power by force and trickery. All caliphs other than were usurpers. and his descendents are believed to have been the only proper Muslim leaders, or
imams. This matter is covered in much greater detail in the article
Succession to Muhammad, and in the article on
Shi'a Islam.
A third branch of Islam, the
Ibadi, believes that the caliphate rightly belongs to the greatest spiritual leader among Muslims, regardless of his lineage. They are currently an extremely small sect, found mainly in
Oman.
The authority of the caliph
Who should succeed Muhammad was not the only issue that faced the early Muslims; they also had to clarify the extent of the leader's powers. Muhammad, during his lifetime, was not only the Muslim leader, but the Muslim prophet and the Muslim judge. All law and spiritual practice proceeded from Muhammad. Was his successor to have the same status?
None of the early caliphs claimed to receive divine revelations, as did Muhammad; none of them claimed to be a
nabī, "a prophet" or a "rasul" or divine messenger. Muhammad's revelations were soon codified and written down as the
Qur'an, which was accepted as a supreme authority, limiting what a caliph could legitimately command.
However, there is some evidence that the early caliphs did believe that they had authority to rule in matters not specified in the Qur'an. They believed themselves to be the spiritual and temporal leaders of Islam, and insisted that implicit obedience to the caliph in all things was the hallmark of the good Muslim. The modern scholars
Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds, in their book
God's Caliph, outline the evidence for an early, expansive view of the caliph's importance and authority. They argue that this view of the caliphate was eventually nullified (in Sunni Islam, at least) by the rising power of the
ulema, or Islamic scholars, clerics, and religious specialists. The ulema insisted on
their right to determine what was legal and orthodox. The proper Muslim leader, in the ulema's opinion, was the leader who enforced the rulings of the ulema, rather than making rulings of his own. Conflict between caliph and ulema was a recurring theme in early Islamic history, and ended in the victory of the ulema. The caliph was henceforth limited to temporal rule. He would be considered a righteous caliph if he were guided by the ulema. Crone and Hinds argue that Shi'a Muslims, with their expansive view of the powers of the
imamate, have preserved some of the beliefs of early Islam. Crone and Hinds' thesis is not accepted by all scholars.
Most Sunni Muslims now believe that the caliph has always been a merely temporal ruler, and that the ulema has always been responsible for adjudicating orthodoxy and Islamic law (
shari'a). The first four caliphs are called the Rashidun, the Rightly Guided Caliphs, because they are believe to have followed the Qur'an and the way or
sunnah of Muhammad in all things. This formulation itself presumes the Sunni ulema's view of history.
Abū Bakr nominated Umar as his successor on his deathbed, and the Muslim community submitted to his choice. His successor, Uthman, was elected by a council of electors, but was soon perceived by some Muslims to be ruling as a "king" rather than an elected leader. Uthman was killed by rebellious soldiers. then took control, but was not universally accepted as caliph. He faced numerous rebellions and was assassinated after a tumultuous rule of only five years. This period is known as the Fitna, or the
first Islamic civil war.
One of 's challengers was , a relative of Uthman. After 's death, managed to overcome all other claimants to the Caliphate. He is remembered by history as , the founder of the
Umayyad dynasty. Under , the caliphate became a hereditary office.
Umayyads
Under the
Umayyads, the Muslim empire grew rapidly. To the West, Muslim rule expanded across
North Africa and into
Spain. To the East, it expanded through
Iran and ultimately to
India. This made it one the largest Empires in the
History of West Eurasia, extending its entire breadth.
However, the Umayyad dynasty was not universally supported within Islam itself. Some Muslims supported prominent early Muslims like
az-Zubayr; others felt that only members of Muhammad's clan, the Banū Hashim, or his own lineage, the descendants of , should rule. There were numerous rebellions against the Umayyads, as well as splits within the Umayyad ranks (notably, the rivalry between Yaman and Qays). Eventually, supporters of the Banu Hisham and Alid claims united to bring down the Umayyads in
750. However, the
, "the Party of ", were again disappointed when the
Abbasid dynasty took power, as the Abbasids were descended from Muhammad's uncle,
Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and not from . Following this disappointment, the finally split from the majority Sunni Muslims and formed what are today the several denominations.
Abbasids
The
Abbasids would provide an unbroken line of caliphs for over three centuries, consolidating Islamic rule and cultivating great intellectual and cultural developments in the Middle East. But by
940 the power of the caliphate under the Abbasids was waning as non-Arabs, particularly the
Turkish (and later the
Mamluks in Egypt in the latter half of the 13th century), gained influence, and
sultans and
emirs became increasingly independent. However, the caliphate endured as both a symbolic position and a unifying entity for the Islamic world.
During the period of the Abassid dynasty, Abassid claims to the caliphate did not go unchallenged. The
Said ibn Husayn of the
Fatimid dynasty, which claimed descendancy of Muhammad through his daughter, claimed the title of Caliph in
909, creating a separate line of caliphs in
North Africa. Initially covering Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, the Fatimid caliphs extended their rule for the next 150 years, taking
Egypt and
Palestine, before the Abbassid dynasty was able to turn the tide, limiting Fatimid rule to Egypt. The Fatimid dynasty finally ended in
1171. The Umayyad dynasty, which had survived and come to rule over the Muslim provinces of
Spain, reclaimed the title of Caliph in
929, lasting until it was overthrown in
1031.
Shadow Caliphate
1258 saw the conquest of
Baghdad and the execution of Abassid caliph
al-Musta'sim by
Mongol forces under
Hulagu Khan. A surviving member of the Abbasid House was installed as Caliph at
Cairo under the patronage of the
Mamluk Sultanate three years later. However, the authority of this line of Caliphs was confined to ceremonial and religious matters, and later Muslim historians referred to it as a "shadow" caliphate.
Ottomans
See the article Ottoman Caliphate.
As the
Ottoman Empire grew in size and strength, Ottoman rulers beginning with
Mehmed II began to claim caliphal authority. Their claim was strengthened when the Ottoman Empire defeated the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517 and took control of most
Arab lands. The last Abbasid Caliph at Cairo,
al-Mutawakkil III, was taken prisoner and transported to
Constantinople, where he reportedly surrendered the Caliphate to
Selim I.
Ottoman rulers were known primarily by the title of Sultan and used the title of caliph only sporadically. Mehmed II and his grandson Selim used it to justify their conquest of Islamic countries.
 |
The Ottoman Caliphate. |
According to Barthold, the first time the title of caliph was used as a political instead of symbolic religious title by the
Ottomans was the peace treaty with
Russia in
1774. The outcome of this war was disastrous for the Ottomans. Large territories , including those with large muslim populations such as
Crimea were lost to the Christian
Russian Empire. However, the Ottomans under
Abdulhamid I claimed a diplomatic victory by assigning themselves the protectors of Muslims in Russia as part of the peace treaty. This was the first time the
Ottoman caliph was acknowledged as having political significance outside of Ottoman borders by a
European power. As a consequence of this diplomatic victory, as the Ottoman borders were shrinking, the powers of the Ottoman caliph increased. Around 1880 Sultan Abdulhamid II reasserted the title as a way of countering creeping European colonialism in Muslim lands. His claim was most fervently accepted by the Muslims of British India. By the eve of the
First World War, the Ottoman state, despite its weakness vis-a-vis Europe, represented the largest and most powerful independent Islamic political entity. But the sultan also enjoyed some authority beyond the borders of his shrinking empire as caliph of Muslims in Egypt, India and Central Asia.
End of Caliphate
On
March 3,
1924, the first
President of the Turkish Republic and its leader,
Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, constitutionally abolished the institution of the Caliphate. Its powers were transferred to the
Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament) of the newly formed Turkish Republic and the title has ever since been inactive. Though very unlikely, the Turkish Republic still retains the right to reinstate the Caliphate, if it ever chooses to do so.
Scattered attempts to revive the Caliphate elsewhere in the Muslim World were made in the years immediately following its dissolution by
Turkey, but none were successful as they did not receive any support from the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the institution which took the powers and dormant title of the dissolved Caliphate, that is the successor entity to the Imperial Ottoman Government and the Caliphate.
Hussein bin Ali, a former
Ottoman governor of the
Hejaz who had conspired with the
British during
World War I and revolted against
Istanbul, declared himself Caliph at
Medina two days after Turkey dissolved the title. But no one took his claim seriously, and he was soon ousted and driven out of Arabia by the
Saudis, a rival clan that had no interest in the Caliphate. The last Ottoman
Sultan Mehmed VI made a similar attempt to re-establish himself as Caliph in the Hejaz after leaving Turkey, but he was also unsuccessful.
Khilafat Movement
In the 1920s the
Khilafat Movement, a movement to restore the Turkish Caliphate, spread throughout the British colonial territories in Asia. It was particularly strong in India, where it was a rallying point for Muslim communities. A summit was convened in
Cairo in 1926 to discuss the revival of the Caliphate, but most Muslim countries did not participate and no action was taken to implement the summit's resolutions. Though the title
Ameer al-Mumineen was adopted by the King of
Morocco and Mullah
Mohammed Omar, former head of the now-defunct
Taliban regime of
Afghanistan, neither claimed any legal standing or authority over Muslims outside the borders of their respective countries. The closest thing to a Caliphate in existence today is the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an international organization founded in 1969 consisting of the governments of most Muslim-majority countries. But the OIC has limited influence.
Once the subject of intense conflict and rivalry amongst Muslim rulers, the caliphate has lain dormant and largely unclaimed for much of the past 82 years.
Though Islam is still a dominant influence in most Muslim societies and many Muslims might favor a caliphate in the abstract, tight restrictions on political activity in many Muslim countries coupled with the tremendous practical obstacles to uniting over fifty disparate nation-states under a single institution have prevented efforts to revive the caliphate from garnering much active support, even amongst devout Muslims. Popular apolitical Islamic movements such as the
Tablighi Jamaat identify a lack of spirituality and decline in religious observance as the root cause of the Muslim World's problems, and claim that the caliphate cannot be successfully revived until these deficiencies are addressed. No attempts at rebuilding a power structure based on Islam were successful anywhere in the Muslim World until the
Iranian Revolution in 1979, which was based on
Shia principles and did not deal with the issue of a global caliphate openly, but used covert actions to attempt to destablize other governments (Afghanistan before the US installed democratic government, and
Somalia most succesfully) and install Sharia, making it easier to unite the various muslim countries into a caliphate.
Various Sunni
Islamist movements have gained momentum in recent years, calling for a restoration of the caliphate. However many such movements have as yet been unable to agree on a roadmap or a coherent model of Islamic governance, and dialog on this issue amongst Muslim activists and intellectuals has yielded no clear consensus on what a modern Islamic state should look like. Islamic religious scholars and institutions have struggled to define the applicability of centuries-old doctrines within the context of a modern society, and Islamic scholarship is generally thought to have failed to keep pace with scientific, technological, and social progress. Many questions on the form a modern Islamic caliphate would take, such as whether the concept of the caliphate is compatible with the modern nation-state construct, have received minimal attention in traditional Islamic scholarly circles. Mainstream Islamic institutions in Muslim countries today have generally not made the restoration of the caliphate a top priority and have instead focused on other issues.
One
transnational group, the
Hizb ut-Tahrir, has tried to recruit the world's Muslims to a renewed caliphate. They have published a
draft constitution.
Struggle for Khilafat in Pakistan
Tanzeem-e-Islami is working for the revival of khilafat firstly in Pakistan and ultimately all over the World. Tanzeem-e-Islami has adopted the way for an islamic revolution from the life of
Muhammad which is called "Minhaj e Inqilab e Nabvi".
*
Abu Bakr - First
rightly guided caliph of the
Sunnis. Subdued rebel tribes in the
Ridda Wars.
*
Umar ibn al-Khattab - Second rightly guided caliph. During his reign, the Islamic empire expanded to include
Egypt,
Jerusalem, and
Persia.
*
Uthman ibn Affan - Third rightly guided caliph. The
Qur'an was compiled under his direction. Killed by rebels.
*
Ali ibn Abi Talib - Fourth and last rightly guided caliph, and considered the first
imam by
Shi'a Muslims. His reign was fraught with internal conflict.
*
Muawiya I - First caliph of the
Umayyad dynasty. Muawiya instituted dynastic rule by appointing his son
Yazid as his successor, a trend that would continue through all subsequent caliphates.
*
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz - Umayyad caliph considered by some (mainly
Sunnis) to be a fifth rightly guided caliph.
*
Haroon al-Rasheed - Abbasid caliph during whose reign
Baghdad became the world's preeminent center of trade, learning, and culture. Haroon is the subject of many stories in the famous work
1001 Arabian Nights.
*
Suleiman the Magnificent - Early Ottoman Sultan during whose reign the
Ottoman Empire reached its zenith.
Several Arabic surnames found throughout the Middle East are derived from the word
khalifa. These include: Khalif, Khalifa, Khillif, Kalif, Kalaf, Khalaf, and Kaylif. The usage of this title as a surname is comparable to the existence of surnames such as King, Duke, and Noble in the English language.
The more important dynasties include:
* The
Umayyad dynasty in
Damascus (
661-
750), followed by:
* The
Abbasid dynasty in
Baghdad (
750-
1258), and later in
Cairo (under
Mameluk control) (
1260-
1517)
* The Shi'ite
Fatimid dynasty in
North Africa and
Egypt (
909-
1171). Not universally accepted and not currently included in the following list.
* The Rahmanids, a surviving branch of the Damascus Umayyads, established 'in exile' as
Emirs of
Córdoba,
Spain, declared themselves Caliphs (known as the
Caliphs of Cordoba; not universally accepted;
929-
1031)
* The
Almohad dynasty in
North Africa and
Spain (not universally accepted;
1145-
1269). Traced their descent not from Muhammad, but from a puritanic reformer in Morocco who claimed to be the
Mahdi (a puritanic reformer in Morocco, bringing down the 'decadent'
Almoravid emirate) whose son established a sultanate and claimed to be a caliph.
* The
Ottomans (
1517-
1924; main title
Padishah, also known as
Great Sultan etc.), assumed the title after defeating the
Mamluk Sultanate and used it sporadically between the 16th and early 20th century
Note on the overlap of Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates: After the massacre of the Umayyad clan by the Abbassids, one lone prince escaped and fled to North Africa, which remained loyal to the Umayyads. This was
Abd-ar-rahman I. From there, he proceeded to Spain, where he overthrew and united the provinces conquered by previous Umayyad Caliphs (in 712 and 712). From
756 to
929, this Umayyad domain in Spain was an independent emirate, until
Abd-ar-rahman III reclaimed the title of Caliph for his dynasty. The Umayyad Emirs of Spain are not listed in the summary below because they did not claim the caliphate until
929. For a full listing of all the Umayyad rulers in Spain see the
Umayyad article.
Many local rulers throughout Islamic history have claimed to be caliphs. Most claims were ignored outside their limited domains. In many cases, these claims were made by rebels against established authorities and died when the rebellion was crushed. Notable claimants include:
* al-Zubayr -- held the
Hijaz against the Ummayad
* Caliph of the Sudan -- a
Songhai king of the
Sahel*
Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca -- claimed Caliphate at
Medina two days after it was abandoned by the
Republic of Turkey; subsequently defeated and ousted from Arabia by the
Saudis, who ignored the title.
*
Emir*
Sultan*
Shah*
Sheikh ul-Islam*
History of Islam*
Muhammad*
Succession to Muhammad*
:Category:Caliphs* Crone, Patricia & Hinds, Martin --
God's Caliph, Cambridge University Press, 1986
* Donner, Fred --
The Early Islamic Conquests, Princeton University Press, 1981
*
Worldstatesmen.org *
Hizb-ut-tahrir*
Hizb-ut-tahrir UK website*
Khilafah.com website*
Caliphate.eu website*
Khilafat.org website from Bangladesh
