Caliphate

Caliphate is from the Arabic khilafah (Arabic: خلافة), from khalifa meaning successor or deputy[1]. The caliph (khalifa) is the successor to the Prophet Muhammad as the political and religious leader of the Muslim community[2]. The term entered English through the Latin and French rendering of the Arabic.

the caliphate is a historical and political concept that cannot be reduced to one modern slogan.

The first four caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali) are called the Rashidun (rightly guided) in Sunni tradition and are venerated as model leaders. The caliphate then passed to the Umayyad dynasty (661-750), the Abbasid dynasty (750-1258 in Baghdad, then in Cairo as a more limited office until the Ottoman period), and various other dynasties. The Ottoman sultans claimed the title from the 16th century, and the office was formally abolished by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924 in the formation of the Turkish Republic.

The caliphate combined political and religious leadership, though the exact balance varied by period and dynasty. In classical Sunni theory, the caliph was responsible for upholding sharia, defending the community, leading prayer in Mecca and Medina, organizing hajj, collecting and distributing zakat, and conducting jihad when appropriate. Religious authority in the sense of doctrinal teaching rested more with the ulama (scholars) than with the caliph as such.

Shia Islam has its own theology of leadership centered on the Imamate rather than the caliphate. The early Shia rejected the legitimacy of the first three caliphs in favor of Ali as the rightful successor, and Shia theology developed elaborate accounts of the divinely-appointed Imams.

The modern history of the caliphate is complex. The Ottoman caliphate's abolition in 1924 created a vacuum that various movements have responded to. Some 20th century pan-Islamic movements sought to restore the caliphate in various forms. The self-declared caliphate of the so-called Islamic State (Daesh, ISIS) in 2014-2017 was rejected by mainstream Muslim scholarship as illegitimate; it controlled territory briefly before being defeated militarily.

The caliphate is a historical and political concept that cannot be reduced to one slogan or movement. Its history is rich, contested, and central to Islamic political thought[3].

Caliphate studies is a developed historical field. Wilferd Madelung's The Succession to Muhammad[4], Patricia Crone's God's Rule, Hugh Kennedy's writing on the early Islamic empires[3], and many others have produced major scholarship. The relationship between classical caliphal theory and modern Islamic political thought is an active area of contemporary work.

• The Succession to Muhammadby Wilferd Madelung
  book
• Caliphate: The History of an Ideaby Hugh Kennedy
  book