caliph

caliph

, calif, kalif, khalif

Islam the title of the successors of Mohammed as rulers of the Islamic world, later assumed by the Sultans of Turkey

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Caliph

 

the spiritual and secular head of the Muslim community and of the theocratic Muslim state, or caliphate. The caliphs were regarded at first as deputies of Allah’s messenger Muhammad, and later—from the time of the Umayyads—as deputies of Allah himself on this earth. Beginning with the first half of the tenth century, the title of caliph was adopted by the Fatimids and by the Umayyads in Spain, as well as by the Abbasids. After the fall of the Abbasid caliphate in the 13th century, the title was used by the heads, or sultans, of certain Muslim states (for example, the Turkish sultans) who claimed spiritual sovereignty over all the world’s Muslims. See references under .

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.