I hadn't heard of this word before, but it evidently is an Islamic leader. I found it used in this phrase: "...the establishment of a primitive, messianic caliphate-redeeming Islam....."

One citation in Dictionary.com defined it as "Successor or vicar." Can it be used generically, or does "caliph" always refer to Islamic leaders? For example, could I say that my caliph (or successor) for the Task Force will be so and so?

I've only ever seen it used for Islamic leaders.

The caliph (Arabic khali:fah) is both the spiritual and temporal leader of the Muslim world, the successor of Muhammad.

The first four (three?) were appointed by consultation after Muhammad's death, and after that there was a split between two hereditary lines, and their adherents to this day are the Sunnites and the Shiites.

Caliphates ruled mainly from great dynasties -- the Umayyads, the Abbasids, and the Fatimids -- in Iraq or Egypt. Historically the last rulers to claim the title of caliphs were the Ottoman emperors till about 1923. Other Islamic states either accepted their nominal supremacy or didn't, but called their own rulers sultans or emirs, secular or military titles. At one point I believe there was a rival Idrisid caliphate in Morocco: but at any one time there'd only be at most one Sunni and one Shii caliph.

The Arabic word khali:fah is unusual in that the ah is usually a feminine ending.

Great post, aput. It's my understanding that the Sunni are from a granddaughter of Mohamed, thus counting lineage in a way that seems more Hebrew than Arabic. Also, the original Sunni were Arabs, whereas Shii are of other races, thus possibly accounting for the enmity that exists in Islam between the two factions. Have you more information?

The Four Righteous Caliphs were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, all companions of the Prophet.

Ali, son-in-law of Muhammad, was murdered in 661 and power was seized by a descendant of Muhammad's uncle Umayya, so this became known as the Umayyad Caliphate and was hereditary. In opposition to them were the faction (shi'ah) supporting Hasan, the son of Ali, and they're the Shi'ites, claiming the caliphate belongs with Imams, descendants of Ali and Fatima. The mainstream are the Sunnites. It was not originally an ethnic divide.

The Umayyad Caliphate was replaced in 750 by the Abbasid Caliphate, both Sunni. The Shiites founded caliphates in North Africa, of which the Fatimid Caliphate in 969 took Egypt and leadership of the Islamic world from the Abbasids. The Fatimids, though weakened by Seljuk Turkish incursions, were the ones who still held Jerusalem until the First Crusade.

The subject of these dynasties as a whole is known as Khali-fahnia and the study of same is quite popular in the U.S. on the west coast.

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Chris J. Strolin
Junior Member

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After a remark like that, I think your new status descibes you quite well!

I prefer "Born-Again Wordcrafter."