CALIPH

also spelled Calif, Arabic Khalifah (successor), ruler of the Muslim community. When Muhammad died (June 8, 632), Abu Bakr succeeded to his political and administrative functions as khalifah rasul Allah, or successor of the Messenger of God, but it was probably under 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, that the term caliph came into use as a title of the civil and religious head of the Muslim state. In the same sense, the term was employed in the Qur'an in reference both to Adam and to David as the vice-regents of God. Abu Bakr and his three immediate successors are known as the perfect or rightly guided caliphs (al-khulafa' ar-rashidun). After them the title was borne by the 14 Umayyad caliphs of Damascus and subsequently by the 38 'Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad, whose dynasty fell before the Mongols in 1258. There were titular caliphs of 'Abbasid descent in Cairo under the Mamluks from 1258 until 1517, when the last caliph was captured by the Ottoman sultan Selim I. The Ottoman sultans then claimed the title and used it until it was abolished by the Turkish Republic on March 3, 1924. After the fall of the Umayyad dynasty at Damascus (750), the title of caliph was also assumed by the Spanish branch of the family who ruled in Spain at Crdoba (7551031), and it was also assumed by the Fatimid rulers of Egypt (9091171), who claimed to descend from Fatimah (daughter of Muhammad) and her husband, 'Ali. According to the Shi'ite Muslims, who call the supreme office the imamate, or leadership, no caliph is legitimate unless he is a lineal descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The Sunnites insist that the office belongs to the tribe of Quraysh (Koreish), to which Muhammad himself belonged, but this condition would have vitiated the claim of the Turkish sultans, who held the office after the last 'Abbasid caliph of Cairo transferred it to Selim I.