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THE
CALIPHATE
THE
CALIPHATE
BY
SIR THOMAS W. ARNOLD, C.I.E., LITT.D.
Professor of Arabic, University of London
School of Oriental Studies
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1924
Oxford University Press
London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen
New Tork Toronto Melbourne Cape Tom
Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai
Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY
PREFACE
THE following pages are based on lectures
delivered in the University of London ; the
publication of them has been delayed owing to
the exacting nature of the author's work in the
School of Oriental Studies. Students of Muslim
history will at once recognize his indebtedness to
the works of Barthold, Becker, Caetani, Nallino,
and Snouck Hurgronje, and he cannot claim to
have done much more than present the result of
their researches to English readers who may be
unacquainted with the scattered writings of these
distinguished authorities.
A part of Chapter IV has already appeared in
the Edinburgh Review, and is reproduced here with
the permission of the editor
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
I. The Caliphate and the Holy Roman
Empire ..... 9
II. Origin of the Caliphate. The titles of
the Caliph . . . . .19
III. Theological Sanction for the Caliphate
in the Qur'an and the Traditions . 42
IV. Historical survey of the Abbasid
dynasty ..... 55
V. The exposition of the jurists . . 70
VI. Recognition of the Abbasid Caliphate
from the eleventh to the thirteenth
century ..... 77
VII. Establishment of the Abbasid Cali-
phate in Cairo .... 89
VIII. Relations of the Abbasid Caliphs in
Cairo with other princes in the
Muslim world .... 99
IX. Assumption of the title Khalifah by
independent Muslim princes . .107
X. The exposition of philosophical and
ethical writers . . . .121
XI. The Ottomans and the Caliphate . 129
8 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
XII. Sultan Sallm in Egypt . . .139
XIII. The Mughal emperors in India . . 159
XIV. The later Ottoman Sultans ^ and the
Caliphate ..... 163
Appendix A. Shiah and Khawarij doctrines
of the Caliphate .... 184
Appendix B. The alleged spiritual powers
of the Caliph .... 189
Appendix C. Popular uses of the term
Khallfah 200
Appendix D. The title Sultan . . .202
Appendix E. The titles of the Ottoman
Sultan 203
References to Authorities . 205
Index 216
THE CALIPHATE AND THE HOLY ROMAN
EMPIRE
DURING the early part of the Middle Ages two
rival political systems, one in the West and the
other in the East, dwelt face to face, ignorant and
entirely unappreciative of one another's ideals.
Each claimed to exist by divine appointment and
appealed for sanction of its authority to the
revealed Word of God. When Pope Innocent III
declared that the Lord had entrusted to Peter not
only the Universal Church but the government of
the whole world, 1 he enunciated that doctrine of
a world religion which Christianity has held from
its very inception ; and the theory of the Holy
Roman Empire set before it as its aim a World-
State in which the Emperor would be universal
sovereign, controlling and guiding the secular
affairs of the faithful with an ever-widening
authority, until it should embrace the whole
surface of the globe. Similarly, Islam is a uni-
versal religion and claims the jaUfigiance of all men
and women, who must either accept the Muslim
faith or pay tribute as subject peoples ; corre-
sponding to this common recognition of the same
creed there was to be a unity of political organiza-
tion in which all believers were to owe obedience
to the supreme head of the community, the
Khallfah.
10 THE CALIPHAT1 AND
But in spite of these characteristics of resem-
blance the two systems were fundamentally
different. The Holy Roman Empire was con-
sciously and deliberately a revival of a pre-
existing political institution that had been in exis-
tence before the birth of Christianity and was now
revived under a specifically Christian character.
Charlemagne assumed a title which had been held
by heathen emperors before him, though the func-
tions of his imperial office took upon themselves
a specifically Christian character in consequence
largely of his constant study of Saint Augustine's
De Civitate Dei. But side by side with the Emperor
was the Pope, and the Pope possessed spiritual
authority and functions which were denied to the
Emperor ; as the Vicar of God upon earth, he
ruled over and guided the souls of men, while it
was the part of the Emperor to deal with the
concerns of their bodies. As every student of the
Holy Roman Empire knows, there was a long
conflict over the problem of the true relationship
between these two independent authorities ; but
throughout the centuries during which the Holy
Roman Empire was a living force in Europe,
the distinction between temporal and spiritual
authority was never lost sight of.
The circumstances under which the Caliphate
arose were entirely different. It grew up without
any deliberate pre- vision, out of the circumstances
of that vast empire which may almost be said to
have been flung in the faces of the Arabs, to be
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 11
picked up with the minimum of effort, by the
rival empires of Persia and Rome, exhausted as
they were by the age-long struggle in which they
had endeavoured to tear one another to pieces, and
in the case of the Roman empire, distracted by the
acOTbjfy of the theological antagonisms of rival
Churches, still more embittered by racial antipathy.
No one at the beginning of the seventh century,
least of all an Arab, could have anticipated in
imagination the vast extent, the immense wealth
and power, which were to be under the control of
the Successor of the Prophet when he reigned in
Damascus or Baghdad. ^Unlike the Holy Roman
Empire, the Caliphate was no deliberate imitation
of a pre-existent form of civilization or political
organization. It was the outgrowtk of conditions
that were entirely, unfamiliar to the Arabs, and
took upon itself a character that was exactly
moulded by these conditions. The Caliphate as
a political institution was thus the child of its age,
and did not look upon itself as the revival of any
political institution of an earlier date.
The theory as embodied in the works of Muham-
madan theologians and jurists was elaborated in
order to suit already operating facts ; \he history
of the development of this theory is obscure, but
it ctainly does not make its
literature until after the^Arab empire had become
an ^cco^^^^^rei^ty. As we know ^t, this
theory first finds e:g^es^^
which claim to b^jy^^ Prophet
12 THE CALIPHATE AND
Muhammad or his int^ _These
at .first ha^ Jby word of
mouth*, jgere. embodied in
during the third centu^oj the Muhammadaa
4 in all matters.^ dogma, religious obser-
vance, law jind ^the jgractices of the devout life they
were ro|Hd^_e^ authorities secpnd^nly _tp the
Indeed reverence for the Traditions
reached such a point that their prescriptions were
placed on a level with the sacred text of the
Qur'an, and so early as the end of the first century
of the Muhammadan era it had been laid down
that in arriving at a decision in regard to the
meaning of the Qur'an, the finding of the Tradi-
tions was decisive, and that it was not the Qur'an
which sat in judgement on the Traditions. 2 Thus
it is impossible to appreciate the place which the
Traditions occupy in Muslim thought unless due
recognition is given to the unassailable authority
which is assigned to them.
The word * tradition ' is a somewhat unsatis-
factory translation for the Arabic c Hadlth ' as
*wiA,,.i W . -(W>
technically employed to mean a record of the
actions and sayings of the Prophet, for in the
Christian system of theology a tradition does not
generally carry the same weight as a text from the
revealed Word of God, and Christian tradition has
not received verbal embodiment in the same rigid
form as in Muhammadan literature ; 3 for in
Muslim theology a Hadlth is believed in many
cases to represent the actual words of God, even
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 13
as a verse of the Qur'an is held to be the eternal
Word of God ; and if all the Traditions do not
actually thus take the form of divine utterances,
still they are regarded as having been divinely
inspired in substance, if not in the actual form of
their verbal expression. Thus they carry with
them the sanction of divine authority and they
serve, together with the Qur'an itself, as one of the
bases of religious doctrine, religious practice, and
ritual observance, as well as being the source of
political theory and law. European scholars have
made it clear that many of these so-called Tradi-
tions of the Prophet were invented in the interests
of some political party or theological sect, and even
Muhammadan theologians themselves have frankly
recognized the fact that some utterances claiming
to be Traditions were really forgeries ; but when
the authoritative collections of Traditions, to
which reference has already been made, were
compiled in the third century, they were accepted
without question and were held to admit of no
cavil or dis^fe. Quite early in the Muhammadan
era it became obvious that the various problems
that faced the Muslim thinker, problems not only
of the political order but also problems connected
with the framing of systems of religious dogma and
the settling of metaphysical controversies, could
not be satisfactorily solved by reference merely to
the Qur'ftn, for they had never presented them-
selves to the primitive society to which the Qur'an
had been revealed. It was, therefore, necessary in
14 THE CALIPHATE AND
a religious community that relied for guidance on
the inspired Word of God, to have some settlements
of these various difficulties, couched in a form of
authority equal to that of the
Qur'an itself, if they were to win acceptance
in the minds of the faithful. It was this in-
tellectual and practical need that gave rise to
the literature of the Traditions and claimed for
them so unassailable a prerogatiye. Such Traditions
as embodied the theory of the Caliphate were,
therefore, to be received as matters of faith
and could demand the unhesitating allegiance of
the believer.
Apart from the question of its inception, the
theory of the Caliphate differed in another impor-
tant respect from that of the Holy Roman Empire.
The orthodox Muslim world has never accepted the
existence of any functionary corresponding to a
Pope, though among the Shiahs an exalted degree
of authority has been assigned to the Imam as an
exponent of divine truth ; but among the Sunnls,
to whom the historic Caliphate (the subject of the
present inquiry) belongs, divine revelation is held
to have ceased with the Qur'an and the Traditions,
and the task of interpretation of these sources of
truth was assigned to the 'Ulama (the learned) and
did not belong to the Caliph. Thus the Caliph, as
will be explained later, enjoyed no spiritual
functions. As Imam he could lead the faithful in
prayer, in acts of public worship ; but this was
a privilege which the meanest of his Muslim
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 15
subjects could enjoy,* since for ou^n an office no
special ordination or consecration was required,
and the performance of this religious activity
implied the possession of no specific spiritual
character, such as is connected with the doctrine
of the Christian priesthood. JLglamJo^^ no
priesthood, of no body of m^n set apart for jjhft
performance of religiouj3j|ufe
RTstrue that in Muhammadan society there are
persons known as the 'Ulama, who have given
themselves up exclusively to the study of theology
with a degree of self-sacrificing devotion that is
worthy of all praise ; but these men, as their
designation indicates, are only c the learned ' ;
they are laymen and they receive reverence only
because they have devoted themselves to the
unceasing study of the Word of God and the divine
law ; nor have they been set apart for this form of
activity by any distinct form of religious appoint-
ment, nor do they in any such manner acquire any
religious or spiritual powers of operation, which
would lift them to a higher stage in an ecclesiastical
organization, if the Muslim religion possessed one.
Moreover, for the punctual performance of public
worship at the five prescribed periods of daily
prayer, it has been found convenient to assign to
any public Mosque an Imam, who is always present
at such times and can lead the devotions of the
* A slave, a nomad from the desert, a callow youth, or the
son of a prostitute may act as Imam. 4
16 THE CALIPHATE AND
faithful. But such mJbnibn has no priegtly
not hegn^ ordained to this office
functionary ; he is
a layman, just like the members of his congrega-
tion, but since their daily avocations in the world
would not always admit of their regular attendance,
it is found convenient to employ a man who is not
hampered by such ties; but any one of his
congregation could at any time take his place and,
as adequately, perfdrm all the prescribed ritual
observances and satisfy all the demands of the
religious law. Much misunderstanding has arisen
from the failure to recognize all the implications
connected with the absence of a priesthood in
Islam. Familiarity with Christian doctrine and
Christian ecclesiastical systems has caused obser-
vers to view Muslim society and Muslim institutions
from a point of view familiar to themselves but
entirely foreign to that of the Muslim world. The
Muslim doctrine of the nature of God and the
explanation of the Divine attributes as being
utterly unlike and distinct from human attributes,
implies a relation between man and his Creator
entirely different from that taught by a system of
dogma embodying the doctrine of the Incarnation.
The divine nature is so absolutely unrelated to,
and so far removed from, human nature, that
(according to orthodox Muslim teaching at least)
no single man can claim to be nearer to God than
his fellows ; all believers are alike,- in their utter
subjection to the unapproachable divine majesty, 5
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIKE 17
Accordingly, in the Muslim world there is not that
separation between Church and State which has
been a source of so much controversy in Christen-
dom. Ifi Is true that the Muslim 'Ulama have
often denouncjed^JJbte .unrighteous ways of the
Cgliplt and his government, and have demanded
for the religious law an extensive operation which
the officers of government have generally refused
to grant ; but these have been matters of dispute,
i^tTet^eST\priesthood and the civil authorities,
but between indivicteaHaymenjtnd other laymen.
For the understanding of the status of the Caliph,
it is important therefore to recognize that he is
pre-eminently a political functionary, and though
he may perform religious functions, these functions
do not imply the possession of any spiritual powers
setting him thereby apart from the rest of the
faithful.
In one other respect does the Caliphate differ
from the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman
Empire is dead ; in reality it had perished long
before Napoleon in 1806 declared that he would
no longer recognize the existence of it, and
Francis II invented for himself the new title of
Emperor of Austria. There is no monarch left
who makes any pretension to be the successor of
Charlemagne, nor is any defence any longer put
forward for the political theory on which the
institution of the Holy Roman Empire was based.
But the case is very different in the Muhammadan
world. There are still rival claimants for the
18 THE CALIPHATE AND HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
possession of the title of Caliph, and the theory
of the Caliphate is still cherished by theological
students who shut their eyes to the altered circum-
stances of the political world, and expound the
doctrine of the Caliphate as though they were still
living in the ninth century.
II
ORIGIN OF THE CALIPHATE. THE TITLES OF
THE CALIPH
THE Prophet Muhammad nominated no succes-
sor. It would be idle to speculate why with his
genius for organization he neglected to make such
provision for the future of the new religious
community he had founded. His health had been
failing for some time before his final illness, and
perhaps, like Oliver Cromwell, he was ' so dis-
composed in body or mind, that he could not
attend to that matter V It j^morejpnal^
he was a child of his aj^jwndj^
feeling*, which_
no hereditary principle in its primitive forms of
and left the InembersT of the tribe
entirely Jree .to .select their- own leader.
As soon as the news of his deatK reached the
ears of his most faithful followers and earliest
converts, Abu Bakr, 'Umar and Abu Ubaydah,
they immediately took action to secure the election
of Abft Bakr, in accordance doubtless with plans
they had matured in anticipation of the approach-
ing death of the founder of their faith. 2 Hearing
that some of the chiefs of the Banu Khazraj, the
most numerous tribe in Medina that supported the
Muslim cause, were holding a meeting to elect
a chief, they hurried to the house in which this
meeting was being held, and after some discussion
20 THE CALIPHATE
the election of Abu Bakr was carried by acclama-
tion. Apparently very few persons were present
at this meeting, and when on the following morning
Abu Bakr took his seat on the Minbar in the
Mosque where the dead Prophet had been accus-
bomed to address his followers, 'Umar called upon
bhe faithful to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr, and
those who had been present at the meeting the
night before, renewed the oath of allegiance they
had then made, and the rest of the assembly
followed their example.
We have here an exemplification of the ancient
Arab custom, in accordance with which, when the
chief of a tribe died, his office passed to that
member of the tribe who enjoyed the greatest
influence, the leading members of the tribe
selecting to fill the vacant place some one among
themselves who was respected on account of age,
or influence, or for his good services to the common
weal ; there was no complicated or formal method
of election, nor within such small social groups
Vould any elaborate procedure be necessary, and
when the choice of a successor had been made,
those present swore allegiance to him, one after
another, clasping him by the hand.
Abu Bakr was sixty years of age when he was
elected to succeed the Prophet, and he enjoyed the
dignity for two years only. According to the
tradition recorded by Muslim historians, Abu Bakr
nominated 'Umar as his successor. But actually
during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, 'Umar had been
ORIGIN 21
the virtual ruler, and he assumed the functions of
Head of the state immediately after Abu Bakr's
death without any formality. ^Ehia^-j^gain^jwas
quite in^ accordance with primitive Arab custom,
when the prominent position of any^^partlcular
individual clearly marked him out as the ultimate
successor of the head of the tribe ; but though no
formalities might be necessary, it was virtually by
election that such a man would take the place of
bhe dead chief, and the rest of the tribe would
sxpress their assent by swearing allegiance to him.
When ten years later 'Umar had received a
mortal wound at the hand of an assassin, he is said
to have appointed a body_pf electors* six in
number, to choose a successor. Doubt has been
cast on the truth of this story, and there is reason
for thinking that 'Umar, like the Prophet
Muhammad himself, left the matter entirely in the
hands of those concerned. 3
The greatest living historian of Islam, Prince
Caetani, has suggested that this story of 4 Umar
having nominated a body of electors was an
invention of later times, in order to justify the
practice that prevailed during the Abbasid period,
of first having a private proclamation of the
Caliph in the presence of the magnates of the
empire, at which they swore allegiance to the new
sovereign, and then following it up by the public
proclamation, in which the populace received the
communication of the election and gave assent by
acclamation. 4 However this may have been, there
22 THE CALIPHATE
was certainly some form of election in the case of
the first four Caliphs Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 6 Uthman,
and 'All ; injaeitheri_instance was there any
choice of^^ther of these Caliphs
cqQsi^m^
As will be shown later on, in the theory of the
Caliphate, the fiction of an election was always
kept up, and, in ih& opinion of the Sunm
the Caliphate wg^gjy a Y s ^JJlJalective office^and
they accordingly lay down rules as to the qualifica-
tions of the electors. Even up to modern times
there are survivals, under the Ottoman Sultanate,
of this primitive form of the institution.
InJgSlJJ^^ passed into the
hands of Mu'awiyah, the founder of the Umayyad
dynasty. Mu'awiyah was the first to establish the
hereditary principle, and in 67^, (four years before
his death) he^^imnated his son Yagldr^s his
successor. Deputations from the chief cities in the
empire came to Damascus, and took the oath of
allegiance to Yazld. When Syria and 'Iraq had
thus paid homage to the heir apparent, the Caliph
took his son with him to the holy cities of Medina
and Mecca, and compelled the citizens there to
accept this innovation, though in the face of
considerable opposition.
The precedent thus established was generally
followed in later times throughout the Abbasid
period also. The reigning Caliph proclaimed as his
successor the most competent of his sons, or his
ORIGIN 23
favourite son if affection or prejudice influenced
his choice, or the best qualified of his kinsmen.
The oath of allegiance was then paid to this prince
as heir apparent, first in the capital, and then
throughout the other cities of the empire. But the
direct succession of father and son was so little
in a.nt.i^^l^XiLQMg^jn jthe case of the
that for a period of more than,
(754-974) only_six of them were L jra.p.ceeded Jby
a on. When the power of the Abbasid Caliphate
had sunk into insignificance, it- became, more
common for son to succeed father* but throughout
the wliole j)^od4)cdifcical theory maintained that
the office was _electiYe*-
Before going into the details of the theory,
it will be convenient to complete this historical
survey of the institution of the Caliphate. The
establishment of the Umayyad dynasty, with its
capital in Damascus, marked a distinct breach with
the pious tradition of the original converts to
Islam, whose interest was rather in Islam as a body
of doctrine and a code of practice, than as a
political organization. One of the most illuminat-
ing discoveries made by modern historians in
regard to Muslim history is the recognition of the
fact that the enormous expansion of Islam in the
second half of the seventh century, was not the
result of a great religious movement stimulated by
a proselytizing zeal for the conversion of souls,
but was an expansion of the Arab tribes, breaking
24 THE CALIPHATE
through the frontiers which their powerful neigh-
bours in the Roman and Persian Empires had
grown too weak to defend. It has been made clear
that religious interests entered but little into the
consciousness of these conquering Arab armies
which overran Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and
Persia, for this expansion of the Arab race was
rather the migration of a vigorous and energetic
people driven, by hunger and want, to leave their
inhospitable deserts which had become impover-
ished through increasing desiccation, and overrun
the richer lands of the more fortunate neighbours. 5
So long as the central government remained in
Medina, Islamic influences were predominant, and
the faithful Companions of the Prophet could
attempt to organize the new society in accordance
with the teaching of their dead master. But when
in 661 Mu'awiyah made Damascus the capital of
the empire, the old heathen sentiment of the Arabs
was able to assert itself. In place of the theoretical
equality of all believers in the brotherhood of
Islam, we find the Arabs asserting themselves as
a dominant aristocracy ruling over subject peoples.
They exhibit as much pride of race and boast as
much of their genealogies as in the old heathen
days before Islam came to condemn such vain-
glorious vanities. VPuring the whole of the
Umayyadperiod, pious circles in Mecca and
la which clung to the primitive apostolic
traditions felt that-Mu'awiyah instead of preserving
the piety and primitive simplicity of the Prophet
ORIGIN 25
and his Companions, had transformed the Caliphate
into a temporal sovereignty, animated by worldly
motives and characterized by luxury and self-
indulgence. The Umayyads were accused of
having secularized the supreme power in the very
midst of Islam, and of having exploited the
inheritance of the Muslim community for the
benefit of the members of their own tribe and
family. This breach of sentiment between the
centres of Muslim orthodoxy and the capital of the
Arab empire is of importance for the student of
the development of Muslim political theory. For
though the political theory of the Caliphate could
not entirely ignore the actual facts of history, yet
it was in Medina especially that Islamic speculation
of all kinds theological, legal, and political had
its beginning, and at the outset such theories were
worked out without any reference to actual giving
fact. This jis the reason why so much of Muham-
madan law is purely theof^^nTits character; ^raid
many principles that have liardly ever
been put into pmctlceT^" While Tffii^awiyahj with
hisjrenius for administration, and
in dealing withntEeTEiall'gli Ly aristocracy out of
which he had himself sprung, was laying the
foundations of a great empire, the theorists
jurists as well as theologians were elaborating in
Medina the principles of the laws that were to
govern the Muslim community, and were framing
systems that had very little to do with the actual
life of their co-religionists.
26 THE CALIPHATE
The unprejudiced student of history can realize
how unjust was the judgement which these
theorists, and the historians of the Abbasid period
who accepted their point of view, passed upon the
Umayyads ; they were under the delusion that the
life of a simple and patriarchal religious society
such as the Companions of Muhammad had lived
in Medina, could be reproduced in a vast empire
that had absorbed countries accustomed to the
civilized administrative methods of the Roman
world ; they could not recognize that the larger
sphere of activity such as primitive Muslim society
during the life-time of the Prophet never dreamt
of, demanded methods of administration and
organization, for which the inspired Word of God
provided no guidance.
Before the Umayyad dynasty came to an end,
the Caliph in Damascus ruled over a vast empire
stretching from India and the borders of China in
the east, to the shores of the Atlantic and North
Africa in the west comprising all the territories
of the old Persian empire and the eastern provinces
of the Roman empire (with the exception of Asia
Minor) and his generals after conquering Spain,
had even sent troops north of the Pyrenees. It
was from the greatness of this empire, and the
riches and power it had brought to the head of the
State, that the title of Khallf ah derived its secular
grandeur. At the outset this title merely implied
succession to the Prophet Muhammad. As accord-
ing to Muslim theology, Muhammad was the
ORIGIN 27
of the prophets, 6 of course the prophetic office
ceased with him, and no one of his successors could
lay claim tojspeak as the mouthpiece of divine
revelation. But for the community that acknow-
ledged him as their head, Muhammad had been
ruler, judge, administrator, j^e^S^f^ndle^er of
public worship and these functions were held to
have passed on to his successors, and acquired an
added glory and magnificence with each brilliant
success of the Arab arms.
Under the new dynasty of the Abbasids the
Persian converts had come to the front, and the
transference of the capital from Syria to Mesopo-
tamia, and ultimately in 762 to Baghdad, marks
the recognition by the new dynasty of its reliance
upon its Persian supporters, and consequently the
chief offices of state came to be held by men of
Persian origin. Whereas the symbols of Umayyad
rule had been the sceptre and the seal, under the
Abbasids increased emphasis was laid on the
religious character of their dignity, and the mark
of their exalted office became the mantle of the
Prophet, This sacred relic was worn by the
Abbasid Caliph on the day of his succession when
his subjects first took the oath of allegiance to him,
and on every ceremonial occasion, as when, for
example, he appeared in the Mosque to lead the
prayer in public worship. Theologians and men
of learning (which in Muslim society means pre-
eminently religious learning) received a welcome
in the Abbasid Court such as they had never
28 THE CALIPHATE
enjoyed under the Umayyads. The precepts of
the religious law were zealously upheld by the head
of the government and by the officers of state
appointed by him, and all branches of learning
connected with religious dogma and law received
a great impetus under the generous patronage of
the Khallfah. Several of the Abbasid Caliphs took
pleasure in being present at religious discussions,
invited men of learning to their court, and had
a theological education imparted to their sons.
At the same time they showed their spirit of
orthodoxy by the persecution of heretics.
This emphasis laid on religious considerations
re-acted on the status of the Khallfah himself, and
increased emphasis came to be laid on t&& ui title
6 Imam '. This title first appears on coins and
inscriptions in the reign of Ma'mun (813-833) and
various traditional utterances (to which reference
will be made later on) ascribed to the Prophet, in
regard to the obedience due to the Imam, are
significant of the added dignity with which this
title had become invested. Such injunctions of
obedience were made all the more impressive by
another characteristic of the Abbasid court, which
distinguished it from the more patriarchal spirit
of the Umayyad court, namely, the presence of the
executioner by the side of the throne. The Umay-
yads, as true Arabs, retained something of the
frank intercourse of the desert, and would con-
descend, on occasion, to bandy words with their
but approach to the Abbasid Caliph
ORIGIN 29
was hedged round with more pomp and ceremony,
and by his throne stood the sinister figure of the
executioner, with a strip of leather to catch the
blood of the victim. Summary executions became
characteristic of the administrative methods of the
Abbasids, and many a man summoned in haste to
the Palace took the precaution of carrying his
shroud with him. The elaboration of Court
etiquette which developed alongside with this
autocratic exercise of authority, tended further
to enhance the awe with which the office of
Khallfah was regarded, for the Abbasids adopted
the servile ritual of the old Persian court and made
their subjects kiss the ground before them, or in
the case of higher officials, or more favoured
personages, permission was given either to kiss the
Caliph's hand or foot, or the edge of his robe.
It was under such circumstances connected with
the increasing extension and wealth of the Arab
Empire ^that the theory of the Caliphate was
elaborated. None of the authoritative statements
of tjais theory appear to belong to the primitive
period of Muslim history, though the date at which
they attained their final expression is uncertain.
But certain technical terms connected with this
supreme office are certainly of an early date, e. g.
when, after the death of Muhammad in 632, it
became necessary to invent some official designa-
tion for the new leader of the community Abfl Bakr
gave orders that he should be described by the
modest title of ' Khallfah Rasul Allah ' (successor
30 THE CALIPHATE
of the Apostle of God), In this haphazard manner
originated the title which was to describe the ruler
of one of the greatest empires the world has ever
seen.
The Prophet had been at one and the same time
head of the State and head of the Church. The
paramount control of political policy was in his
hands ; he received the ambassadors who brought
the submission of the various Arab tribes, and he
appointed officers to collect dues and taxes. He
exercised ^supreme authority in military matters
and the dispatch of military expeditions. He was
at the same time supreme legislator, and not only
promulgated legal statutes but sat in judgement to
decide cases, and against his decision there was no
appeal. In addition to the performance of these
offices of the administrative and political order as
ruler, general, and judge, he was also revered as the
inspired Prophet of God and the religious dogmas
he enunciated were accepted by his followers as
revelations of divine truth, in regard to which there
could be no- doubt or dispute. At the same time
he performed the highest ecclesiastical functions,
and as Imam led the prayer in public worship at
the canonical hours in the Mosque of Medina. In
all these respects Abu Bakr was a successor of the
founder of the faith with the exception of the
exercise of the prophetic function, which was held
to have ceased with the death of the Prophet.
The choice of the designation * Successor ' was
doubtless prompted by a genuine feeling of
ORIGIN 31
humility on Abu Bakr's part, in the difficult days
when the existence of the young Muslim com-
munity was threatened, and when it might still
have appeared to some observers to be doomed
to extinction owing to the death of its founder.
There is no evidence that Muhammad in his
promulgation of the Qur'an ever contemplated the
possibility of the word Khallfah becoming a title
of his successor, nor is it likely that it was any use
of this word in the Qur'an itself which suggested
to Abu Bakr that he should style himself 4 the
Successor of the Apostle of God '. That this simple
title of Successor, or Khallfah, should have
acquired so much dignity is due to the rapid
extension of the Arab conquests and to the
en,ormous wealth and power which these conquests
brought to the rulers of the newly established
empire.
There were two other titles that have been
commonly associated with the title Khallfah. The
Caliph 'Umar, who succeeded Abu Bakr in 634,
was at the outset of his reign first styled * Khallfah
of the Khallfah of the Apostle of God ', but soon,
as this designation was recognized to be too long
and clumsy, he decided to be called ' Khallfah '
simply, and it is from 'Umar's reign, the period of
the great conquests, that this simple title begins to
attain so much si^ificaiice. But 'Umar was the
first to assume the other title of c Amir ul-
Mu'minln' (the Commander of the Faithful).
This was obviously a more arrogant designation,
32 THE CALIPHATE
and 'Umar is said at first to have hesitated to allow
himself to be addressed by a title that appeared to
be so vainglorious, though the title was not a new
one and had been held by 'Abdullah ibn Jahsh, one
of the early converts of Muhammad, who was
killed in the battle of Uhud, in the third year of the
Hijrah, it having been bestowed upon him after his
successful raid at Nakhlah in the previous year. 7
This Insignificant personage is said to have been
the first to have been so styled, though tradition
has sometimes ascribed it to others, 8 but for the
head of the Muslim community to assume such
a title gave it an entirely different significance, and
the constantly reiterated statement in the Qur'an
that power (Amr) belongs to God alone might well
have caused the pious soul of 'Umar to shrink from
so presumptuous a designation ; moreover the
word Amir, much less the phrase, Amir ul-
Mu'minln, unlike the titles Khallfah and Imam,
does not occur anywhere in the Qur'an at all. But
after c Umar had once adopted it, it became one of
the commonest titles of his successors, and the rare
instances in which other Muslim princes have
ventured to arrogate it to themselves have
generally been significant of an attempt to shake
off allegiance to the head of the Muslim community
and claim independence of the generally recognized
Caliphate.
It was by this title, Amir ul-Mu'minln, that the
Caliph was commonly known to Christian Europe
during the Middle Ages, under such strange forms
ORIGIN 33
as : ' Elmiram mommini ', ' Miralomin ', c Mir-
mumnus ', &c.
In its assumption of authority this title was
characteristic of the immense power which the
Caliphate had achieved during the reign of 'Umar.
His armies tore from the Roman empire some of
its fairest provinces in the East, annexed the
fertile land of Egypt, and pushed their way
westward along the coast of North Africa ; they
overran Palestine and Syria, and after crushing
the armies of the Persian king, established Arab
rule over practically the whole of the old Persian
empire, until they reached the banks of the Oxus
in the extreme north east.
While the title of 4 Amir ul-Mu'minin ' empha-
sized the secular aspect of the high position of the
Caliph, a third title, that of * Imam ', had special
reference to his religious function as leader of the
faithful in public worship. The word occurs
frequently in the Qur'an as meaning a leader,
a guide, an example, model, &c., e. g., in chap, ii,
verse 118, where God says to Abraham, ' I will
make thee a leader for men, 5 and in xxi. 73, God
speaking of Isaac and Jacob, says * And we made
them leaders who should guide (men) by our
command ' ; again in xxv. 74, the righteous are
represented as saying c O Lord, . . , make us
examples to those who fear Thee ', and in xvii. 73,
God describes the Day of Judgement as * The Day
when we shall summon all men with their leader '.
The word is used not only of a person, but also of
34 THE CALIPHATE
a thing, such as an inspired book, e. g. in xi. 20,
and xL 11, the Book of Moses is described as
6 A guide (imam) and a mercy *. How little the
later orthodox use of the word c Imam ', whether
in its wider sense as meaning any leader of public
worship or in its more restricted reference to the
supreme head of the Muslim community, was
anticipated in the Qur'an, may be recognized by
the fact that it is used in the Qur'an not only to
describe the prophets of God and -other devout
personages, but unbelievers also, as in ix. 12,
where God says 4 Fight against the leaders of
infidelity ' ; and in chapter xv, where reference is
made to the destruction of Sodom and another
evil city, God says c We took vengeance upon them
and they both became a manifest example (imam) '
(xv. 79), It is strange that the word c Imam '
nowhere appears in the Qur'an in its common
signification of a leader of public worship. As is
well known, it is customary in the Muslim world
in the ritual observance of public worship at the
five canonical times appointed for the daily
prayers, for the believers to stand in rows behind
a conductor, called the * Imam ', and this * Imam '
standing by himself in front of them all, performs
the various ritual movements of bowing, kneeling,
and prostration, while the rest follow his example,
and bow, or kneel, or touch the ground with their
foreheads at the same time as he does* As the
leader of the Muslim community, Muhammad was
accustomed during the whole of the ten years of
ORIGIN 35
his life in Medina to act in this manner as Imam,
and lead the public worship for his followers ; it
was only when he was absent from Medina on some
military expedition that he delegated this office to
one of his followers, whom he nominated for this
express purpose ; they* were mostly obscure
persons, and the name of a blind man who is said
to have thus officiated for as many as thirteen
times has remained quite unknown to us, as
no historian appears to have thought it worth
while to put it on record. The fact that during
Muhammad's last illness, while he himself was in
the sacred city, Abu Bakr was ordered to lead the
public worship in the mosque in his stead, facili-
tated his election as the Prophet's successor,
because leadership in prayer had been one of the
most obvious and frequently recurring indications
of the position that Muhammad held as head of the
new social order, at once political and religious. 9
After Muhammad's death, one Khallfah after
another continued to perform this office, and this
leadership in public worship was looked upon as
a symbol of leadership generally. As the Arab
dominions expanded, and provincial governors
were dispatched to assume authority over newly
annexed territories, one of the first public func-
tions that a governor would perform was to appear
in the mosque and take his place at the head of
the assembled company of believers as leader of
divine worship. With this public function was
closely connected another institution which has an
36 THE CALIPHATE
interesting history and an important place in
the institution of the Caliphate. In early Arab
society the judge sat upon a seat called a 4 Minbar '
and thence delivered his judgements. The word
* Minbar ' has survived to the present day and now
indicates the pulpit in a mosque ; but during the
lifetime of Muhammad and in the primitive
Muslim society of Medina, the mosque was not
only a place of prayer, but was the equivalent of
the Roman forum the centre of the political and
social life of the community. In the mosque at
Medina, the Prophet received the submission of
the various Arab tribes who sent ambassadors to
swear allegiance to him, and in the mosque he
conducted all the business of state, from the
* Minbar '. He not only gave instructions to his
followers in matters of dogma and religious
observance, but made political pronouncements
also.
This association of the mosque with political
life, and of the Minbar with the seat of authority
of the rule?, did not disappear with the death of
the Prophet. It was from the Minbar in Medina
that the Caliph c Umar read out before the
assembled congregation the announcement of a
disastrous check to the progress of the Muslim
armies in Persia, and made an appeal for volun-
teers. It was from the Minbar too that his
successor, the Caliph 'Uthman, delivered a speech
defending himself against the attacks brought
against his methods of administration.
ORIGIN 3 1 !
Further, there are several recorded instances oi
a newly-appointed governor of a province making
a declaration of policy from the Minbar, after he
had for the first time publicly assumed office by
leading the congregation in worship. But as time
went on, the Caliphs gradually discontinued this
practice, and other symbols of the exercise of
authority came more into evidence.
In connexion with the Minbar there is another
technical term of some importance, the Khutbah,
the address that is delivered to the congregation
from the Minbar at the time of public worship as
is the practice at the present day and has been
for many centuries past, particularly on Fridays.
In pre-Muslim days the Khatlb was the orator of
the Arab tribe, who acted as judge in primitive
Arabian society, and the utterance he made from
the jeat jot ^autlliaity . Ka.s. jthe ' Khutbah '. The
' Khutbah ', in the mouth of Muhammad, was
often a political pronouncement, and might almost
in some instances be described as a speech from the
throne. After his death, as the boundaries of
Muslim territory became extended and a provincial
governor would have his own Minbar from which
to address the assembled congregation, his 4 Khut-
bah ' might likewise bear the character of a
political speech, but of course it would not carry
the same importance as the Khutbah uttered by
the supreme head of the community. Owing to
a number of circumstances, the Khutbah gradually
came to lose much of its original meaning and
38 THE CALIPHATE
importance. Whereas in Medina, when the Muslim
community was in its infancy, there was only one
mosque and one Minbar, and only one person who
pronounced the Khutbah, namely the Prophet
himself on the other hand, as the Arab empire
grew, so the number of mosques increased, and the
Khutbah could no longer be an address to the
whole body of the faithful, for persons of slight
political importance had on occasion to lead the
prayer in public worship, and the Umayyad
Caliphs themselves grew weary of this particular
method of announcing their will to their subjects.
The introduction of administrative methods copied
from those of the provincial organization of the
Roman empire, whose provinces had passed under
Arab rule, made this form of verbal communication
of the decisions and orders of the government,
clumsy and unnecessary. Just as the Minbar
gradually ceased to represent the throne of the
monarch, or the seat of the judge, and became
a mere pulpit, so the Khutbah, by a similar
process of evolution, took on the character of a
sermon or a bidding-prayer, repeated by any one
who happened to be the Imam of the mosque. In
modern times and for many centuries past, the
Khutbah has largely consisted of ascription of
praise and glory to God, and the invoking of
blessings upon the Prophet, his descendants and
companions ; but it has retained something of its
primitive political importance inasmuch as it
generally includes also a prayer for the reigning
ORIGIN 39
sovereign, and the substitution in the Khutbah of
a new name may announce the accession of a new
monarch, or the transference of authority from one
government to another ; e. g. when Ghazan Khan,
the Mongol Sultan of Persia, in 1300 withdrew his
troops from Damascus and this city once again
passed into the possession of the Mamluk govern-
ment of Egypt, the Khutbah in the great mosque
was read in the name of Sultan Nasir and of the
Khallfah, after all mention of them had been
intermitted for a hundred days. 10 One of the signs
of sovereignty in the Muhammadan state has
always been the inclusion of the name of the
reigning prince in the Khutbah, pronounced by
the Imam in the course of the congregational
worship on Fridays and the great festivals, and on
various occasions throughout the course of Muslim
history, there have been such dramatic instances
of the substitution of one name for another, as
indicating a recognition of a change of government.
It has also in more recent days been sometimes
a matter of perplexity to European governments,
as to how far they should allow or should forbid
the name of a reigning Muslim monarch to be
mentioned in the Khutbah of their Muhammadan
subjects.
( The early Caliphs could be described by either
one of these three titles Khallfah, Amir ul-
Mu'minln, and ImamA Each was a title of one and
the same personage, but Khallfah emphasized
his relation to the founder of the faith, 'The
40 THE CALIPHATE
Apostle of God,' and put forward this apostolic
sjiccjgssion as a claim for the obedience of the faith-
ful ; the second title, c Amir ul-Mu'minin,' asserted
more distinctively the authority of the ruler as
supreme war lord and head of the civil administra-
tion ; the third, c Imam,' emphasized rather the
religious activity of the head of the state as per-
forming a certain definite religious function. This
last title Imam is the favourite designation for
the head of the Church among the Shiahs, since
they lay special emphasis on the sacrosanct
character of the successors of the Prophet, to whom
they gradually attributed mysterious and almost
supernatural powers, until, as at present, they
came to believe in a hidden Imam who, unseen by
men, guides and directs the faithful upon earth.
Though the doctrine of the Imam was of no less
importance in Sunnl theology, and though Imam
was an official description of the Sunn! Khallfah,
it was not so favourite a designation with the
Sunnls as with the Shiahs, and it was probably
under the influence of Shiah opinion that the
Abbasid Caliph, Ma'mun (813-833), was the first
to put the title * Imam ' on his coins and inscrip-
tions. The coins of his predecessors had generally
borne the title ' Amir ul-Mu'minln '. It was also
no doubt owing to the hieratic character that the
institution of the Caliphate assumed under the
Abbasids, that this ecclesiastical title ' Imam ' came
to be inserted on the coins of Ma'mun, and in this
practice he was followed by succeeding Abbasids,
ORIGIN 41
Some differentiation between these various
appellations may be recognized in cases where
pretenders have arrogated to themselves one or
other of the three, e. g. it was not until Abu'l-
* Abbas as-Saffah (afterwards the first Caliph of the
Abbasid dynasty) had broken out into open revolt
that he assumed the title of Amir ul-Mu'minln ;
his brother, Ibrahim, who had been regarded as
leader of the Abbasid party before him, was known
only as the Imam. Similarly, at a later period, in
Western Africa, when the Shiah movement had
won a large number of adherents from among the
Berbers, their leaders were styled Imam, and it was
not until 'Ubaydullah, the ancestor of the Fatimid
Caliphs, was proclaimed Khallfah in Qayrawan in
the year 909, that he assumed the title of Amir
ul-Mu'minm. The latter title emphasizes the aspect
of secular authority, whereas that of Imam indi-
cates rather the status of the ruler in the religious
order. 11
Ill
THEOLOGICAL SANCTION FOR THE CALIPHATE
IN THE QUR'AN AND THE TRADITIONS
WHEN the Muslim theologians began to search
the Qur'an for warrant for the use of these titles,
they found, as has already been pointed out, no
justification whatsoever for the use of Amir ul-
Mu'minln, very little for that of Imam, and cer-
tainly none at all for the connotations that had
already become connected with this word ; and
though the word Khalifah and other words with
a cognate meaning and derived from the same
Arabic root occur constantly, yet in no instance
is there any clear and definite anticipation of the
technical use of the term so common in later
Muhammadan theological and political literature.
But just as the theologianl^tnd statesmen of
medieval Europe appealed tdjBte Bible in support
of both Papal and Imperial W^p&s, so the theolo-
gians and jurists of the MuslirrTWorld sought for
some support of the political theory of the Cali-
phate in the revealed Word of God, and for them
the authority of the Qur'an was a matter of still
greater weight and importance, since by theory
the Qur'an was the primary basis for law, both
religious and civil. Many of tjjj^ verses in which
the term occurs were incapable of any interpreta-
tion directly connecting them with the political
institution they were to defend, since the reference
THEOLOGICAL SANCTION 43
to Successor (Khalifah) or Successors (Khala'if,
Khulafa) was made in general terms, and clearly
had no reference to one single exaltedjndividual.
Such was the case in the following verses, fc God
to those among^ ^jOjUMgho^, believe
and work righteousness, that God will make them
successors upon tjia^artlv fcyj&iLS^LlI^
who were before, them. successors, and that He will
eat^Mish for them their religion which is pleasing
to them ? and that after their fear He will give them
8S.urity in ^xohange - (xxiv. 54) ; ' It is He (God)
who has made you successors (Khala'if) on the
earth, and has raised some of you above others
by (various) grades in order that He may test
you by His gifts ' (vi; 165). Here the reference
appears to be to the general mass of believers, who
are c successors ' as entering into the inheritance
of their forefathers. A similar use of the word
* successor ' is made with a narrower reference
when in the Qur'an (vii. 67, 72) God reproaches
an idoj&txoiis tribe ( 6 Ad), who rejected the message
of the Prophet He had sent to them ; this Prophet
(Hud) says to his fellow tribesmen : c Marvel ye
that a warning is given to you from your Lord
through one of yourselves, that He may warn
you ? But remember that He made you successors
after the people of Noah and increased you in
tallness of tature ' (vii. 67). Here, clearly, all
that is meant is that the people of this tribe
succeeded to the blessings enjoyed by the people
of Noah before them. A few verses further on
44 THE CALIPHATE
(vii. 72) another prophet (Salih) whose message of
divine truth was likewise rejected by his fellow
tribesmen, the tribe of Thamud, appeals to these
unbelieving Arabs to recognize the blessings that
God has conferred upon them. * And remember
that He made you successors of 'Ad and gave
you dwellings in the land, so that ye build castles
on its plains and hew out houses in the mountain.
Then remember the benefits of God and do not
do evil in the land.' Here again the reference is
to a number of persons, and the word c Khallfah '
cannot be explained in connexion with the historic
Caliph, the supreme head of the Muslim com-
munity.
But there are two passages in which we find an
individual reference, in each instance to a dis-
tinguished ggrsonage. In the first case it is Adam,
and in the second David ; these two verses from
the Word of God have been quoted and discussed
by generations of Muslim writers on the Caliphate,
in order to emphasize their distinctive doctrine
of the nature of this institution. The verse in
which reference is made to David is the simpler
of the two. * O David, verily we have made thee
a successor (Khallfah) in t the land ; then judge
between men with the truth, and follow not thy
desires, lest they cause thee to err from the path
of God ' (xxxviii. 25). In the other passage God
is represented as announcing to the angels his
intention to create Adam. 4 When thy Lord said
to the angels, Verily I am about to place on the
THEOLOGICAL SANCTION 46
earth a successor (Khalifah), they said, Wilt thou
place there one who will make mischief therein
and shed blood ? ' (ii. 28).
These two verses have produced volumes of
commentary. It would seem that the word
' Khalifah ' means here something more than mere
* successor ', though some commentators say that
when God declared his intention of creating Adam,
He called him a Khalifah, a successor, because
Adam was to be the successor of the angels who
used to live upon earth before the creation of man.
But other Muslim authorities interpret * Khalifah '
as meaning a vicegerent, a deputy, a substitute
a successor in the sense of one who succeeds to
some high function, and they accordingly explain
that Adam and David are given the designation
of c Khalifah ' since each was on earth a vice-
gerent of God, in their guidance of men and in the
warnings they gave as to the commands of God.
It is obvious that such an interpretation could be
employed to enhance the dignity and authority of
the Caliph.
For a more clear and definite exposition of the
political theory of the Caliphate it was necessary
to appeal to the Traditions, and it was these
Traditions that served as the basis of the syste?
matic treatment of the doctrine of the Caliphate,
which we find in the writings of the Muhammadan
theologians and jurists. As explained above, it is
impossible to assign an exact date for the earliest
appearance of these Traditions, but there is no
46 THE CALIPHATE
doubt that they were put forward in justification
of the political institution that had gained accep-
tance with the main body of the faithful, and that
the theory, in the main, grew out of the facts, and
represents the crystallization of opinion in the
minds of the supporters of the Sunnl Caliphate
during the course of the first two centuries of the
Muhammadan era. But it is important to re-
member that, though the critical investigations of
European scholars have set out in a clear light the
tendencious character of many of the Traditions,
such an origin was entirely unsuspected by pious
Muslims, and no such critical considerations
entered into their minds, to shake their faith in
the divine sanction which the Traditions provided.
Too much emphasis cannot be laid on the fact
that law and political theory are considered in the
Muslim world to be as much derived from divine
revelation as religious dogma is. European writers
are apt to lose sight of this fact, because they are
accustomed to systems of law that are not derived
from the same source as statements of Christian
doctrine, for Roman law was in existence before
the rise of Christianity, and though it was absorbed
into the structure of Christian civilization, as were
also the political institutions of the Barbarians
who overran the Roman empire, still the political
institutions derived from these sources were clearly
recognized to have had an origin independent of,
and prior to, the revealed documents on which the
Christian Creed is based. But in Islam the case
THEOLOGICAL SANCTION 47
is quite different, for from the Qur'ftn proceed
dogma and law alike, and the jurist as well as the
theologian takes as the foundation stone of his
system first the Qur'an and next the Traditions,
and explains in cases of doubtful interpretation
the former by means of the latter. Consequently
the legist in dealing with the subject of the
Galiphate can regard it as a divinely appointed
institution and look to God's revelation in the
Traditions for guidance in his account of it.
The Traditions clearly state that the Caliph
must be a member of the tribe of the Quraysh, to
which the Prophet himself belonged, and this
qualification was fulfilled throughout the whole
of the historical period considered above, in the
persons of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs, as
it was also in the case of their Shiah rivals, the
Fatimids of Egypt. This principle is variously
laid down as follows : c The Imams shall be of
the Quraysh ' ; * * There shall always be a ruler
over men from among the Quraysh ' ; 2 * The
Khallfah shall be of the Quraysh, judicial authority
shall be in the hands of the Auxiliaries, and the
call to prayer with the Abyssinians ' ; 3 c The
Imams shall be of the Quraysh ; the righteous of
them, rulers over the righteous among them, and
the wicked of them, rulers over the wicked among
them '. 4
The Caliphate thus recognized was a despotism
which placed unrestricted power in the hands of
the ruler and demanded unhesitating obedience
48 THE CALIPHATE
from his subjects. This autocratic character of
the Muslim Caliphate was probably an inheritance
from the Persian monarchy, into the possession
of whose dominions the Muslim community had
entered ; for pre-Islamic Arab society had never
known any such form of political institution, nor
was it in harmony with the Qur'anic dcrctrigp of
the equality of all believers or with that attitude
of independence which marked the relations
between the first Caliphs and the Arabs who had
so recently come out of the desert. For we now
find an uncompromising doctrine of civic obedience
taught in one Tradition after another, e. g. * The
Apostle of God said : Whoso obeys me, obeys
God, and whoso rebels against me, rebels against
God ; whoso obeys the ruler, obeys me ; and whoso
rebels against the ruler, rebels against me '. 6
* The Apostle of God said : After me will come
rulers ; render them your obedience, for the ruler
is like a shield wherewith a man protects himself ;
if they are^ righteous and rule you well, they shall
have their reward ; but if they do evil and rule
you ill, then punishment will fall upon them and
you will be quit of it, for they are responsible for
you, but you have no responsibility/ 6 * Obey
your rulers whatever may hap, for if they bid you
do anything different to what I ha^ve taught you,
they shall be punished for it and you will b re-
warded for your obedience ; and if they bid you
do anything different to what I have taught you,
the responsibility is theirs and you are quit of it.
THEOLOGICAL SANCTION 49
When you meet God (on the day of judgement),
say, " O Lord, Thou didst send us Prophets and
we obeyed them by Thy permission, and you set
over us Caliphs and we obeyed them by Thy
permission, and our rulers gave us orders and we
obeyed them for Thy sake " ; and God will
answer, " Ye speak the truth ; theirs is the
responsibility and you are quit of it 'V 7 ' The
Prophet said : Obey every ruler (Amir), praj
behind every Imam and insult none of my Com-
panions.' 8
It was not merely the Caliph, but any lawfully
constituted authority whatsoever, that was to
receive the obedience of the subject, for in one
Tradition the Prophet is reported as saying :
6 O men, obey God, even though He set over you
as your ruler a mutilated Abyssinian slave,' 9
The political theory thus enunciated appears
to imply that all earthly authority is by divine
appointment, the duty of the subjects is to obey,
whether the ruler is just or unjust, for responsi-
bility rests with God, and the only satisfaction
that the subjects can feel is that X-Srod will punish
the unjust ruler for his wi%ed deeds, even as he
will reward the righteous monarch. Such a doctrine
seems also to be implied in the following Tradition
in which the Prophet says : 4 When God wishes
good for a people, He sets over them the for-
bearing and wise, and places their goods in the
hands of generous rulers ; but when God wishes
evil for a people, He sets over them the witless
50 THE CALIPHATE
and base and entrusts their goods to avaricious
rulers/ 10
Further, in a Tradition in which the Prophel
was represented as foretelling the future of the
Muslim community and the troubles tljat^ would
immediately precede the appearance of Antichrist,
he says : ' When in those days you see the Cali-
phate of God upon earth, attach yourself closely
to it, even though it may consume your body and
rob you of your property/ Again : ' If the govern-
ment is just, it may expect reward frdm God and
the subjects ought to show their gratitude to it ;
if it is unjust, it incurs the guilt of sin, but the
subjects must give proof of their support.'
The exalted position with which the Caliph was
thus endowed and the hieratic character assigned
to his office was still further emphasized by another
designation, which makes its appearance at an
early period, viz. Shadow of God upoi^ ^e$rth.
Whatever exaggerated interpretation the flatterers
of a later ^age might give to this phrase, its primi-
tive signification was hat % the protection which
the temporal power agpfded was just like the
protection which God himself gives to men. The
shadow of God, of course, originally meant the
shadow provided by God, not the shadow which
God in any anthropomorphic sense Himself cast.
The word * shadow ' here is equivalent in meaning
to a 6 place of refuge % for just as in the shade
a man may find protection from the blazing heat
of the sun, so a government may ward off harm
THEOLOGICAL SANCTION 51
from its subjects. 11 In later times morejo^terious
meanings undoubtedly attached themselves to the
phrase, as when a rebel, brought before Mutawakkil
in 849, addressed lEe^Caliph as the rope stretched
between God and His creatures. 12
A similar exaltation of his office was implied
when the Caliph came to be styled ' Khallfah of
Allah '. Abu Bakr is said to have protested against
being so addressed, 13 maintaining that he was
only Khalifah of the Apostle of God. Though
this designation occurs as early as the year 65&
in an elegy which the poet Hassan ibn Thabit, 1
a contemporary of the Prophet, wrote on the death
of the Caliph 'Uthman, in this primitive period
it was probably taken to mean only ' the Successor
of the Prophet of (i.e. approved by) God ', and it
was probably only as the empire became enriched
rind the ceremgcial surrounding the Caliph Became
more stately and pomjx>us, that the phrase was
taken to mean the Lieutenant or Substitute or
Vicegerent of God ; and more than one theologian
protested against the use of it 15 on the ground
that only one who is dead or absent can have
a successor, and God of course can never be sup*
posed to be in either of these conditions. 16
Under the Abbasids it became quite a common
agellation, and even the second Caliph of this
dynasty, Mansur, in a Khutbah in the year 775
had declared that he was the power (sultan) of
God upon His earth. 17 But under his successors
the commoner phrase * Khalifah of God ' became
52 THE CALIPHATE
a mere convention. From the Abbasids this title
was adopted, as will be shown later on, by many
princes in succeeding centuries who arrogated to
themselves the title of the Caliph afteiHbhe break-
up of the Abbasid empire.
The tendencious character of some of the
Traditions appears clearly in those which exalt
the Abbasids to the discredit of the Umayyads,
such as : * The Apostle of God saw the children
of al-Hakam ibn Abi'l- c As * leaping upon his
Minbar with the leap of apes, and this grieved him,
and he never brought himself to smile until his
death.' Again, the Prophet is represented as
saying : * I saw in a vision the children of Marwan
taking possession of my Minbar one after another,
and this grieved me, and I saw the children of
4 Abbas taking possession of my Minbar one after
another and that gladdened me,' Again : c The
children of 'Abbas shall reign two days for every
one in which the children of Umayyah shall reign,
and two months for every month/ 18
Such Traditions certainly appear to be the
invention of some political pamphleteer who
wished to bring the Umayyad dynasty into con-
tempt. There are also Traditions which grog^cy
that the Caliphate would remain in the possession of
the Abbasids until they resigned it into the hands
of Jesus or of the Mahdl ; e. g. * The Caliphate
shall abide, among the children of my paternal
* The ancestor of all the Caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty,
with the exception of the first three.
THEOLOGICAL SANCTION 53
uncle ('Abbas) and of the race of my father until
they deliver it unto the Messiah.' lg Further, the
Prophet is represented as having said to *AbMs :
* When thy children shall inhabit the Sawad (the
alluvial plain of 'Iraq) and clothe themselves in
black and their followers shall be the children of
Khurasan, the government shall not ceajja to
abide with them until they resign it into the hands
of Jesus, the son of Mary.' 20 Such Traditions
indicate clearly how the theory grew up out of the
actual historic facts ; they were quoted in support
of what had become a despotism, though in spite
of its autocratic character it still retained some
show of the earlier political institution of election.
In one respect only was the ^y^trary, autocratic
power of the Caliph limited, in that he, just as
every other Muslim, was obliged to submit to the
ordinances of the Shari'ah, or law of Islam. This
limitation arose from the peculiar character of
Muslim law as being primarily (in theory at least)
derived from the inspired Word of God, and as
laying down regulations for the conduct of every
department of human life, and thus leaving no
room for the distinction that arose in Christg^^
between cangp law and the law of the state.
The law being thus of divine origin demanded
the obedience even of the Caliph himself, and
theoretically at least the administration of the state
was supposed to be brought into harmony with the
dictates of the sacred law. 21 It is true that by theory
the Caliph could be a Mujtahid, that is an authority
54 THE CALIPHATE
on law, but the legal decisions of a Mujtahid are
limited to interpretation of the law in its applica-
tion to such particular problems as may from time
to time arise, and he is thus in no sense a creator
of new legislation. Further, this particular activity
was hardly assumed by any of the Caliphs, probably
largely in consequence of the indifference of most
of the Umayyads to religious problems which
they left to professed theologians, and by the time
the Abbasids had come into power, the c Ulam&
had made good their claim to be the only authorita-
tive exponents of the law.
IV
HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE ABBASID DYNASTY
IN the year 750, after the defeat of the Umayyads
in the battle of the Zab, the headship of the
Muhammadan world passed into the hands of the
Abbasids, and for five centuries each successive
Caliph was a member of this family. As the name
indicates, the Abbasids claimed descent from
'Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet, and were able
to magnify their office by this claim to relationship
with the founder of the faith. Their rise to power
and their overthrow of the Umayyads was the
result of a number of circumstances, the most
important of which were the following. The Shiah
party which upheld the claims of the family of
'All to the Caliphate, had on more than one occasion
broken into open revolt, and had never ceased
secretly to foster dissatisfaction towards Umayyad
rule. The Shiahs were the legitimists of Islam ;
they claimed that 'All, the cousin and son-in-law
of Muhammad, was the only rightful successor of
the Prophet, and that after his death, by right of
succession, the Caliphate should have passed to
his descendants, and the descendants of his wife
Fatima, daughter of the Prophet. In their schemes
for the destruction of Umayyad rule, the Abba-
sids allied themselves with the Shiahs, pretending
a common devotion to the 6 Family of the
Prophet ' a phrase which to the Shiahs meant the
56 THE CALIPHATE
descendants of 'All, while the Abbasids applied it to
the descendants of the Prophet's uncle. After the
Abbasids had achieved success and had got all the
help they wanted from the Shiahs, they, without
hesitation, threw them over, and even persecuted
those members of the Shiah party whom they
deemed dangerous to the stability of their rule.
Considerable sympathy for the Shiah cause had
been felt in Persia, and the Persians had a further
grievance against the Umayyads in that though
the Persians had embraced Islam, the Umayyads
had kept them in a condition of humiliation and
had refused to them that recognition of equality
which was their right, in accordance with the
doctrines of the faith. The Abbasids thus came
into power largely in consequence of their claim
to be the defenders of the faith, and partly
through their support of the family of the Prophet
as against the representatives of the old pagan
Arab aristocracy that had usurped the throne.
This loyalty to the faith they showed by their
vindication of the claims of the converts and of
the children of converts to an equal place in
Muslim society along with those Arabs whose
pride of race had hitherto led them to disregard
the Islamic ideal of the brotherhood of all believers.
The change from the Umayyad to the Abbasid
dynasty wa thus the substitution of a Muslim
rule for an Arab kingdom. Under the Umayyads
Arab nationality had been predominant ; the
habits and udfeges of the old heathen Arab culture
TBE ABBASID DYNASTY 57
before the rise of Islam had flourished unchecked.
The Umayyad Caliph had distributed his favours
among the members of the Arab aristocracy to
the exclusion of others, and the narrow tribal
sympathy which was shown by the members of
the reigning house was one of the circumstances
that weakened their authority and paved the way
for the revolt of the Abbasids.
It was under the Abbasids that the decline of
the empire set in. The year 800, the date of the
coronation of Charlemagne in Rome and the
establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, may be
taken as the culminating point of the prosperity
of the Abbasid empire, though a prince of the
Umayyad family, who had fled to Spain, had
already made that countty a separate kingdom
in 756, and North Africa from 800 practically
became an independent I$ingdom under the
governor who founded the Aghlabid dynasty and
made his post hereditary inf his family. One
province after another rapidly* made itself inde-
pendent, Egypt and Syria weiy cut off from the
empire, and separate dynasties were established
in Persia. By the tenth century the authority of
the Abbasid Caliph hardly extended beyond the
precincts of the city of Baghdad, and the Caliph
himself was at the mercy of his foreign troops,
for the most part of Turkish origin, lawless and
undisciplined. The Caliph Muqtadir (908-932)
was twice deposed, and at the end of an inglorious
reign, marked by drunkenness, sensuality, and
58 THE CALIPHATE
extravagance, was killed in a skirmish with the
troops of one of his generals ; his head was stuck
upon a spear, and his body left lying on the ground
where he fell.
The degradation to which the Caliphate had sunk
during this reign was signalized by the great
schism which established a rival Caliphate in the
Sunn! Church. Up to this period the Umayyad
rulers of Spain had made no attempt to claim for
themselves that headship of the Muslim world
which their ancestors in Damascus had enjoyed
during the great days of the Arab conquests, and
had contented themselves with such titles as
* Amir ', ' Sultan ', or ' Son of the Khalifah '. But
now the great 'Abd ur-Rahman III, who during
his long reign brought Muslim Spain to a loftier
position than it had ever enjoyed before, decided
himself to assume the title which the Abbasids
in Baghdad appeared no longer worthy to hold.
Accordingly, in the year 928 he ordered that in
the public prayer and on all official documents he
should be styled ' Khalifah ' and * Commander of
the Faithful '. He might well have looked with
pity and contempt upon Muqtadir, the representa-
tive of the rival house, who still continued in
Baghdad to use such high-sounding titles.
After the death of Muqtadir, his brother Qahir
was elected to succeed him, but after a reign of
terror of two years he was deposed, and his eyes
were blinded with red-hot needles. He was tor-
tured to induce him to reveal the place where his
THE ABBASID DYNASTY 59
treasures were hidden, andi remaining obstinate in
his refusal, was thrown into prison and kept there
for eleven years. After his release he was seen
begging for alms in a mosque in utter destitution,
though his own nephew sat upon the throne. The
conspirators set up in his place Radl, a son of the
murdered Muqtadir, and for seven years he was
the helpless tool of powerful ministers, ' having
nothing of the Caliphate but the name', as a
Muhammadan historian puts it. He is said to
have been the last of the, Caliphs to deliver a
Khutbah at the Friday prayer. On his death in
940 he was succeeded by his brother, MuttaqI,
another son of Muqtadir. But a few months later
a revolt of the Turkish mercenaries compelled
MuttaqI to flee from his capital and take refuge
in Mosil, where he sought the protection of the
great Hamdanid princes, Sayf ud-Dawlah and
Nasir ud-Dawlah, who in their brilliant courts in
Mosil and Aleppo extended a generous patronage
to Arabic poets and men of letters. These two
brothers wore renowned for their splendid military
achievements, and they restored the fugitive
Caliph to his capital ; but there they had soon to
leave him, in order to look after affairs in their
own dominions.
Another conspiracy compelled the unfortunate
Caliph to flee from Baghdad a second time, and
after fruitless appeals to various Muslim princes
for assistance, he rashly placed himself in the hands
of the Turkish general, Tuzun, who had been the
60 THE CALIPHATE
cause of many oi his troubles. Though Tuzun at
first received him with all marks of outward
respect, he subsequently blinded the Caliph with
a hot iron and compelled him to abdicate. Tuzun
then set up another puppet Caliph, Mustakfi. In
the following year Tuzun died, but the Caliph only
passed from the hands of one master to another,
for he was presently compiled to welcome in his
capital the Buwayhids, wHfo in their victorious
progress southward from Persia challenged the
authority of the Turkish troops that had for so
long terrorized the population of Mesopotamia.
The Buwayhid prince feigned respect for the
Caliph Mustakfi, and received from him titles of
honour ; but the real power rested with the new
conquerors of the Muslim capital, and presently
Mustakfi too was blinded.
Thus there were at one and the same time three
Abbasid princes living, who had held the high office
of the Caliphate, all cruelly blinded, all robbed of
their wealth, and in their blindness dependent upon
charity or such meagre allowance as the new
ruler cared to dole out to them. Henceforth, the
history of the Abbasids assumed a new character ;
for during the next two centuries the Caliphate
became entirely subordinate to some powerful and
independent dynasty that thought to add to its
prestige by taking the helpless Caliphs under its
protection. The first of these dynasties was that
of the Buwayhids, already mentioned. They were
a Persian family who took their rise in the north
THE ABBASID DYNASTY 61
of Persia and gradually extended their authority
southwards, until in 945 their troops entered
Baghdad. For more than a century the authority
of the Buwayhids was paramount in Baghdad and
the Caliphs were merely tools in their hands, set
upon the throne, or deposed, according to the will
of their captors. Humiliating as the position was,
it was rendered all tj$e more galling by the fact
jftfcWW''
that the Buwayhids were Shiahs, and therefore
did not really recognize the claim of the Sunnl
Khallfah to the supreme headship of the Islamic
world. They were the first princes who insisted
on having their names mentioned in the Khutbah
along with that of the Caliph a practice that
afterwards became common as the Caliph ceased
to exercise effective authority.
Ahmad, the youngest of the three Buwayhid
brothers, but the real conqueror, contented himself
with the humble title of Mu'izz ud-Dawlah
( 4 Strengthener of the State '), while his brothers,
'All and Hasan, were designated respectively
Imad ud-Dawlah (' Pillar of the State ') and Rukn
ud-Dawlah ( c Prop of the State '). But under this
pretended show of submission, Mu'izz ud-Dawlah
did not hesitate to exert his authority whenever
stern measures seemed called for. In less than
a fortnight after he had taken the oath of allegiance
to the Caliph, he was alarmed by rumours of a plot
directed against his own authority, and accordingly
resolved to depose the Caliph. Going to the palace
of Mustakfi, who was on that day to receive an
62 THE CALIPHATE
ambassador in solemn audience, he kissed the
ground before the throne ; he then kissed the
Caliph's hand, and remained standing for a while
before him talking. When he had taken his seat
two of his officers came forward, and the Caliph,
thinking that they too wished to kiss his hand,
stretched it out to them ; but they pulled him
ignomiriiousryTforaTiis throne^twsted Els turiban
round Jbisjieck, "and dragged him along the ground
to Che palace of Mu'izz ud-Dawlah, where he was
kept a prisoner and his eyes were put out.
His cousin, Mutl 4 , was set upon the throne of
the Caliphate in his place, but though he held the
office for twenty-eight years (946-974) he was a
mere cipher in the state, and living on a scanty
pension might well complain that nothing was left
to him but the Khutbah, the bidding prayer in
which his~name was mentioned during the Friday
service. 1 But even this last symbol of his exalted
office might be taken away. TaT, the successor
to Mutl', fell out with the Buwayhid prince,
'Adud ud-Dawlah ( 4 The Arm, or Support, of the
State '), son of the eldest of the three Buwayhid
brothers mentioned above. In revenge this prince
caused the Caliph's name to be omitted from the
Khutbah in Baghdad and other cities for two
whole months. But even though the actual power
of the Caliph was thus reduced to zero and he
became a mere puppet in the hands of his Buway-
hid master, the same pomp and show were observed
on ceremonial occasions, when it was considered
THE ABBASID DYNASTY 63
necessary to impress on men's minds the majesty
and dignity of his exalted office.
Under 'Adud ud-Dawlah, who had inflicted such
humiliation upon the Caliph, the Buwayhid king-
dom reached the culmination of its greatness.
Before his death in 983 he had become master of
all the lands from the Caspian Sea to the Persian
Gulf, and from Ispahan to the borders of Syria.
While his father was still alive, he had already
given vent to his ambitious schemes by taking
advantage of the difficulties into which his cousin,
Bakhtiyar, had fallen in 'Iraq on account of the
insubordination of his Turkish mercenaries, and
he had occupied Baghdad in 975, rescued his
cousin, but afterwards threw him into prison and
seized his lands. Hereupon 4 Adud ud-Dawlah' s
father interfered and insisted on the release of
Bakhtiyar and the restoration to him of his
dominions ; but the breach between the two
cousins naturally continued, and 'Adud ud-Dawlah
showed hisj^indictiveness in every possible way.
The Arab historians tell a long story of his having
robbed his cousin of a favourite Turkish page-boy,
the loss of whom appears to have reduced Bakh-
tiyar almost to a state of imbecility, so that he
shut himself up and refused to eat, spending his
time in weeping, even neglecting the most im-
portant function of an oriental monarch, in that
period, of giving public audience at court. In the
following year, on the death of his father, 4 Adud
ud-Dawlah again attacked his cousin, defeated
64 THE CALIPHATE
him and put him to death. 'Adud ud-Dawlah
thus became master of 'Iraq and overlord of the
helpless Caliph in Baghdad.
It has been necessary to make this excursion
into the troubled politics of the Buwayhid family
in order to illustrate the position that the Caliph
still held in the economy of the Muslim State in
spite of his entire lack of political power. In order
to celebrate his victory, 'Adud ud-Dawlah made
use of the Caliph, Ta'i', as his instrument for his
own glorification. Since by theory the Caliph
was still head of the whole Muslim world and the
fountain of honour, if 'Adud ud-Dawlah had
invented some new dignity for himself, public
sentiment would not have been impressed. Accord-
ingly the Caliph, doubtless much against his will,
conferred upon 'Adud ud-Dawlah a robe of honour,
like that of a sultan ; crowned him with a jewelled
crown, and bestowed upon him other insignia of
royal rank bracelet, collar, and sword and pre-
sented him- with two banners, one of them decked
with silver such as was carried before an Amir,
and the other decked with gold such as was carried
before the heir apparent. What was the whole
purpose of *Adud ud-Dawlah in making the
captive Caliph bestow on him such an unusual
honour is not quite clear. Such a banner had
never before been given to any one not belonging
to the imperial family, and it would seem to
indicate that *Adud ud-Dawlah contemplated the
ultimate seizure of the Caliphate for himself. A
THE ABBASID DYNASTY 65
diploma of investiture as heir apparent had also
been drawn up, and to the horror of the courtiers
it was read aloud. This was a breach of the
etiquette of the court, for on all previous occasions
it had been the custom for such a diploma to be
handed to the heir apparent unopened, and for
the Caliph to declare : ' This is the diploma I have
granted to you ; take care that you act in accord-
ance with it.'
But 'Adud ud-Dawlah was still not content, and
in the following year he made a still further
encroachment on the imperial prerogatives of the
Caliph by compelling him to give orders that the
drums should be sounded at the gate of the
prince's palace three times in a day morning,
sunset, and nightfall an honour that hitherto
had been reserved exclusively for the Caliph
himself. More than this, the Caliph even made
a further concession by permitting the name of
4 Adud ud-Dawlah to be inserted in the Khutbah
and pronounced in the mosque on Friday. The
insertion of the name of a monarch in the Khutbah
was a symbol of the assumption of sovereignty,
and it marks the lowest depths of degradation
that the Caliphate in Baghdad had ever reached*
The infliction of such humiliations on the Caliph
is in striking contrast with the honour and rever-
ence paid to him, whenever it was politic to
bring him forward, as the supreme head of the
faith. In the very year after 'Adud ud-Dawlah
had extorted the privileges above-mentioned, an
66 THE CALIPHATE
ambassador was sent to Baghdad in 980 by the
Fatimid Caliph of Egypt, 'Aziz bi'llahi. He was
received with impressive ceremonial : the troops
were drawn up in serried ranks, and the nobles
and officers of the state were arranged in order of
their dignity in the place of audience, but the
Caliph was invisible behind a curtain. When
'Adud ud-Dawlah received permission to approach,
the curtain was raised, and the spectators could
see the Caliph seated on a high throne surrounded
by a hundred guards in magnificent apparel and
with drawn swords. Before him was placed one
of the most sacred relics in Islam the Qur'an of
the Caliph 'Uthman ; on his shoulders hung the
mantle of the Prophet ; in his hands he held the
staff of the Prophet, and he was girt with the sword
of the ' Apostle of God \ 'Adud ud-Dawlah kissed
the ground before this spectacle of imposing
majesty, and the Egyptian envoy, awe-struck,
asked him: 'What is this? Is this God Almighty ?'
'Adud ud-Dawlah answered : * This is the Khallf ah
of God upon earth,' and he continued to move
forward, seven times kissing the ground before the
Caliph. Then TaY ordered one of his attendants
to lead him up to the foot of the throne. 'Adud
ud-Dawlah continued to make a show of rever-
ence before such unapproachable and impressive
majesty, and tjhe Caliph had to say to him :
' Draw near/ before he would come forward and
kiss the Caliph's foot. Ta'i' stretched out his right
hand to him and bade him be seated. 'Adud
THE ABBASID DYNASTY 67
ud-Dawlah humbly asked to be excused, and only
after repeated injunctions would he consent to
sit down in the place assigned to him, after first
reverently kissing it. After this elaborate cere-
mony, TaT said : * I entrust to you the charge
of my subjects whom God has committed to me
in the East and in the West, and the administration
of all their concerns, with the exception of what
appertains to my personal and private property.
Do you, therefore, assume charge of them, 9 'Adud
ud-Dawlah answered : 4 May God aid me in
obedience and service to our Lord, the Commander
of the Faithful.' This solemn farce ended with
the bestowal of seven robes of honour upon 4 Adud
ud-Dawlah, who kissed the ground on the pre-
sentation of each, and then took his leave followed
by all the rest of the great assembly. 2
It is typical of the unreality that marks much of
the history of the institution of the Caliphate from
this time onwards, that 'Adud ud-Dawlah, as
a Shiah, did not accept the claims of the Caliph
before whom he made such a pretence of submission
and reverential awe. But as an administrator, he
had to deal with a Sunni population which
regarded the Caliph as Imam and as head of its
faith, and like Napoleon he found it politic to make
concessions to the religious prejudices of his sub-
jects. He may also have wished to show the
Egyptian ambassador that (though a Shiah) he
rejected the claims of the Caliph in Cairo to be
descended from F&timah. The man who in this
68 THE CALIPHATE
public manner had shown such signs of slavish
respect to the majesty of the Caliph, was capable
the very next year when returning to Baghdad
from a journey, of so insulting the Caliph as to
send a messenger bidding him come out of the
city to meet him, and the helpless Ta'i* was unable
to refuse, though it was unprecedented for the
Caliph to go out of Baghdad to meet any one.
The Buwayhid tyranny continued throughout
the next reign, that of Qadir (991-1031), and for
the greater part of that of his son, Qa'im (1031-
1075). Reduced to absolute insignificance these
Caliphs could only look on helplessly while others,
more powerful and strenuous, controlled the
political life of the Muslim world, without any
reference at all to the prince who claimed to be
Commander of the Faithful. But in spite of the
insignificance of the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad,
the Muslim world was not prepared to select
another member of the tribe of the Quraysh, to
take his place as head of the faithful, and the
attempt made by the Amir of Mecca, Abu '1-Futuh,
in 1011, to get himself so recognized, hardly
deserves mention. The Fatimid Caliph of Egypt,
Hakim, had put to death one of his Wazirs, and
the son of the murdered man, in the hope of being
able to take revenge for his father, fled to the
powerful Bedouin tribe of the Tayy in Syria, and
invited Abu '1-Futflh to declare himself Caliph.
The Amir of Mecca fell in with the proposal, and
after inducing the inhabitants of the Hijaz to take
THE ABBASID DYNASTY 69
the oath of fealty to him, joined the Banu Tayy,
taking with him such holy relics as the staff of
the Prophet and the sword of 'All. Though at
first he received a warm welcome from this tribe,
he soon recognized that the bribes of Hakim had
more influence with them than his holy relics,
and so he abandoned his project in the following
year, and hastened back to Mecca, where his
position was threatened by the ambitions of one
of his relatives. 3
V
THE EXPOSITION OF THE JURISTS
\
IT was during this period of the degradation of
the Caliphate that the earliest systematic treatise
on the theory of this institution, that has been
made accessible to the historical student, was
compiled. Born in the reign of TaT, and dying
at the age of eighty-six in the year 1058, in the
reign of Qa'im, Mawardl saw the Caliphate at the
lowest ebb of its degradation, and the theoretical
character of his account of it is in striking contrast
to the actual historic facts of the case. He was one
of the most distinguished jurists of his day andjbuejd
the office of judge in several cities, lastly in the
capital, Baghdad, itself ; besides a number of
works on political theory, he wrote also a com-
mentary on the Qur'an. With an entire disregard
for the facts of history during the four preceding
centuries otthe Muhammadan era, he maintains
that the offi^jof^Cillph or Imam is elective, and
he lays down as qualifications for the electors
that they must be of good reputation and upright
life ; of the male sex and of full age ; they must
have knowledge of the qualities required in an
Imam, and necessary insight and judgement for
making a wise choice. In an ingenious manner
he endeavours to make the theory of election fit
in with what he knew to be the actual fact, viz.
that almost every Caliph had nominated his
EXPOSITION OF THE JURISTS 71
successor. He states that authorities are not
agreed as to t*ie number of electors required to
make an election valid, for some maintained that
there must be unanimous agreement on the part
of all duly qualified Muslims in every part of the
Muslim world; obviously, such an electorate
could never have acted under the conditions of
life in that period ; so he cites the election of Abu
Bakr as evidence that those present at the time
of the death of the former leader of the community,
were sufficient to represent the whole body of the
faithful. The question then arises as to the number
of persons who could in such a case be permitted
to represent the opinion of the whole community.
In the election of Abu Bakr Mawardi states that
it was five ; before his death, 'Umar appointed
an electoral jsollege of six ; but other authorities
were of opinion that three persons were sufficient,
on the analogy that a contract of marriage may
be drawn up by one person in the presence of two
witnesses. Others, however, have held that an
election might be announced by a single voice,
and thus Mawardi arrives at the conclusion that
each Caliph may appoint his own successor, and
yet the elective character of the institution may
be preserved. 1
But before any one is eligible for election to this
high office, he must possess the following qualifica-
tions : he must be a member of the tribe of the
Quraysh ; he must be of the male sex, of full age,
of spotless character and be free from all physical
72 THE CALIPHATE
or mental infirmity ; he must have sufficient
knowledge for the decision of difficult cases of law,
and the sound judgement required for public
administration, and he must show courage and
energy in the defence of Muslim territory.
The Caliph must thus be a person capable of
fulfilling administrative, judicial, and military
functions. These functions Mawardl sets out in
detail as follows : the defence and maintenance of
religion, the decision of legal disputes, the protec-
tion of the territory of Islam, the punishment of
wrong-doers, the provision of troops for guarding
the frontiers, the waging of war (jihad) against
those who refuse to accept Islam or submit to
Muslim rule, the collection and organization of taxes,
the payment of salaries and the administration of
public funds, the appointment of competent officials,
and lastly, personal attention to the details of
government. 2 These varied activities expected of
the Caliph, Mawardl sums up as being ' the defence
of religion and the administration of the state '.
As explained above, Mawardl practically ignores
the dependent position into which the Caliphate
had sunk and the rise of independent MuslinLBtates
that disregarded its authority^ Jbut ^ his distin-
guished contemporary, al-Berun^ witin^iij the
reign^of Qa'im (i031~1075), with that exactitude
of , scientific observation which characterized his
genius^ frankly recognized the true nature of the
situation, and stated that what was left in the
hands of the Abbasid Caliph was only a matter
EXPOSITION OF THE JURISTS 73
that concerned religion and dogmatic belief, since
he was not capable of exercising any authority
in the affairs of the world whatsoever. 3
A later writer of the twelfth century, Nizaml-i-
'Arudl, who put forward much the same theory as_
Mawardi, found ajplace in it for the numerous inde-
pendent monarchs that Imd^Bxisen in dominions
once forming part of the Caliphate. After ex-
plaining the nature of the prophetic office, he
goes on to say that after the death of the Prophet
he must assuredly require, in order to maintain
his Law and Practice (sunnat), a vicegerent, who
must needs be the most excellent of that com-
munity and the most perfect product of that age
in order that he may maintain this Law and give
effect to this Code (sunnat) ^ and suchi & one
is called an Imam. But this Imam cannot reach
the horizons of the East, the West, the North, and
the South in such wise that the effects of his care
may extend alike to the most remote and the
nearest, and his command and prohibition reach
at once the intelligent and the ignorant. Therefore
must he needs have lieutenants (na'iban) to act
for him in distant parts of the world, and not
every one of these will have such power that all
mankind shall be compelled to acknowledge it.
Hence there must be an administrator and com-
peller, which administrator and compeller is called
a * Monarch % that is to say, a king ; and his
vicarious function (niyabat) c Sovereignty *. The
king, therefore, is the lieutenant (na'ib) of the
74 THE CALIPHATE
Imam, the Imam of the Prophet, and the Prophet
of God (mighty and glorious is He !). 4
In any study of the theoretic exposition of the
doctrine of the Caliphate mention must be made
of Ibn Khaldun, one of the greatest thinkers that
the Muhammadan world has produced, and it will
be convenient to give his account of the doctrine
here, though he belongs to a later period than has
been reached in the preceding historical survey.
Born in Tunis in 1332, he took an active part in
the political life of his time in the service of one
prince after another, until, in 1382, he settled in
Egypt where he was made chief Qadl of the
Malikl school of law, and he died in Cairo in 1406.
With encyclopaedic knowledge and a judgement
sharpened by a wide and varied experience of
affairs, he takes a broad survey of Muslim history
and works out an attractive theory of the origin
and development of human society and culture.
He attached himself to no philosophic system, but
relied upon revelation for final guidance in
matters of belief. He lays it down that the most
solid basis for an BmpireJ^rgligion f since man has
been placed in the world to perform the duties
imposed upon him by religion in preparation for
the future life ; in order that he may come to
know the divine law, which "will secure for him
happiness in the next world, he must be guided
by a Prophet, or one who takes the place of a
Prophet, that is the Khallfah. Whereas ordinary
kingship is a human .institution, and the laws
EXPOSITION OF THE JURISTS 75
made by a king are based only upon reason and
have reference only to the well-being of men on
earth, the Khalifah guides men in accordance with
the dictates of the religious law (shar 4 ), the
precepts of which always bear in mind their
ultimate destiny in the world to come. Accord-
ingly, Ibn Khaldun bases the necessity of an Imam
or Khalifah on the religious law given by divine
revelation, adding to it, in accordance with the
commonly accepted doctrine of the Sunni legists
the concensus of the companions of the faith and
their followers ; and he rejects the opinion of
those philosophers who jput forward a jrational
basis^Fthe necessity of an Imam and urge that
men jnaust jiave a leader, because civilized life^is
only possible in an ordered society. On the
contrary, the Khalifah exists by divine appoint-
ment, and God makes him His vicegerent in order to
guide men to the good and turn them away from
the evil. At the same time he attacks the Shiah
doctrine that an Imamate is one of the pillars of
the faith, and rather takes a utilitarian view of
this institution, as existing only for the general
good and as having been entrusted to human
agency. He defends at some length the principle
that the Khalifah must belong to the tribe of the
Quraysh, not only on the theological grounds that
the office would thus enjoy the blessing of God,
since the Prophet himself had belonged to this
tribe, and that God Himself had recognized that
the tribe comprised persons who were capable of
76 THE CALIPHATE
performing the difficult functions of a Khallfah ;
but also on the basis of certain considerations of
a purely historical character, e. g. the Quraysh
being one of the most powerful and respected
tribes of Arabia could assume leadership over the
rest, and one member of the tribe, elevated to
the exalted position of Imam, would have the
support of a powerful body of men, linked to him
by ties of relationship, and could thus, in spite
of the separatist tendencies of the Arabs, form
a centre for united political life and historical
development. Unlike MawardI, he recognized
that as an institution the Caliphate had undergone
considerable change during the course of the
various dynasties which had upheld it.
At thfe outset (he says) the Caliphate was only
a religious institution for guiding the faithful to
the observance of the religious law ; but under
the Umayyads it took on the character of a secular
monarchy, and its original religious character
became inextricably mixed up with the despotic
rule of the king, compelling obedience by the
sword. As the power of the Abbasids declined, soon
after the death of Harun ur-Rashid, the essential
features of the Caliphate gradually disappeared,
until there remained nothing but the name. Now
that power had passed out of the hands of the
Arabs altogether, the Caliphate might be said to
have ceased to exist, though sovereigns of non-
Arab origin have continued to profess obedience to
the Caliph out of a feeling of religious reverence. 6
VI
RECOGNITION OF THE ABBASID CALIPHATE FROM
THE ELEVENTH TO THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
STILL throughout the whole period of the decline
of the Caliphate up to the date of the death of
Musta'sim (1258), the Caliph was to all orthodox
Sunnis the Commander of the Faithful, and as
Successor of the Prophet he was held to be the
source of all authority and the fountain of honour.
The Caliph by his very name led men's thoughts
back to the founder of their faith, the promulgator
of their system of sacred law, and represented to
them the principle of established law and authority.
Whatever shape the course of external events
might take, the faith of the Sunn! theologians and
legists in the doctrines expounded in their text-
books remained unshaken, and even though the
Caliph could not give an order outside his own
palace, they still went on teaching the faithful
that he was the supreme head of the whole body
of Muslims. Accordingly, a diploma of investiture
sent by the Caliph, or a title of honour conferred
by him, would satisfy the demands of the religious
law and tranquillize the tender consciences of the
subjects of an independent prince, though the
ruler himself might remain entirely autonomous
and be under no obligation of obedience to the
puppet Caliph.
To this strange political fiction there is a
78 THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
parallel in the history of the Holy Roman Empire
during the fifteenth century. While the unfor-
tunate Emperor, Frederick III, having been driven
out of Vienna, was wandering about from monas-
tery to monastery as a beggar, making what
money he could out of the fees paid by those on
whom he conferred titles, a contemporary jurist,
Aeneas Piccolomini (afterwards famous as Pope
Pius II), could write that the power of the Emperor
was eternal and incapable of diminution or injury,
and that any one who denied that the Emperor
was lord and monarch of the whole earth was
a heretic, since his authority was ordained by Holy
Writ and by the decree of the Church. 1 Similarly,
the Caliph was still by theory the head of the
Muslim state, and however much any other ruler
might take power into his own hands, he might
still find it politic to recognize the Caliph as the
theoretical source of all authority. The Muslim
legists continued to make such extravagant claims
on behalf of the Caliph, .even in the days of his
deepest humiliation, and even the Buwayhids,
though their occupation of Baghdad was the
culmination of the rapid growth of their extensive
dominions, and though the Caliph was their
pensioner and practically a prisoner in their hands,
found it politic to disguise their complete inde-
pendence under a pretence of subserviency and to
give a show of legitimacy to their rule by accept-
ing titles from him. m Quite a number of otjjier
princes followed their example. When Mahmud of
ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURY 79
Ghazna at the close of the tenth century renounced
his allegiance to the Samanid prince whom his
father had served as a Turkish slave, he turned to
the Abbasid Caliph, Qadir bi-llah, in order that he
might receive some justification for his rebellion.
The Caliph bestowed upon him the high-sounding
title of Yamin ud-dawlah, Amln ul-Millah, the
friend of the Amir ul-Mu'minln. 2 Mahmud was
one of the most powerful sovereigns of his day in
the East, and he had no need of any support for
his authority other than that of his own armies.
The allegiance he professed to the Caliph was thus
merely a recognition of the imperial authority
of law.
From the year 945 till 1055 the Buwayhids had
continued to appoint and depose Caliphs as they
thought fit. The rise of a new power in Persia,
the Saljuqs, destroyed the ascendency of the
Buwayhids, and the guardianship of the Caliph
passed into their hands. This new and vigorous
Turkish race, which first appears in Muslim history
at the beginning of the eleventh century, entered
upon a career of conquest by which it built up an
empire stretching in the days of its greatness from
the Oxus and the Hindu-Kush to tfie Syrian shore
of the Mediterranean in the west, and from the
north of Persia to the borders of the Arabian
desert in the south. The power of the Buwayhids
declined before the rise of this new power, till
the Saljuqs swept them away entirely, and when
the Saljuq prince, Tughril, entered Baghdad in
80 -THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
1055, he was received as a deliverer and the
Caliph conferred on him the title of * Sultan of
the East and the West ' 3 (Appendix IV). The
Caliphate passed under a new tutelage, but, in
this case, not of so oppressive a character, since
instead of being Shiahs as the Buwayhids had been,
the Saljfiqsr were Sunms and accordingly revered
the Caliph not merely out of political considera-
tions, but as being the Khallfah of God ; but they
assumed for themselves the designation ' Shadow
of God ', which had in former days been the
prerogative of the Caliph only, 4 and they even
robbed the Caliph, Mustarshid (1118-1135), of
that sacred relic, the mantle of the Prophet, which
was worn by the Caliphs on the occasion of their
coronation and on other solemnities. 5 Under the
protection of the Saljuqs, however, the position
of the Abbasid Caliph improved, and when they
fell out among themselves and became weakened
by dynastic wars, the Caliph was able to regain
something oi his lost authority. Mustarshid even
raised an army, and taking the field, ventured to
march against his Saljuq overlord, Mas'ud ibn
Muhammad ibn Malikshah, the ruler of 'Iraq and
Kurdistan. He made his way right up to Kirman-
shah, and before the engagement in which he was
defeated, he delivered after the Friday service
a Khutbah which the historian declares * in
eloquence transcended the highest zenith of the
sun and attained the height of the Heavenly
Throne and the Supreme Paradise '. The bolder
ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURY 81
attitude which a Caliph could now take towards
the family that had, for eighty years, kept the
Caliphate in subserviency may be judged by
the words : ' We entrusted our affairs to the
house of Saljuq and they rebelled against us. 5
This attempt to achieve independence ended in
disaster and the death of the Caliph. Still, as
the authority of the Saljuqs declined, successive
Caliphs repeated the attempt, and at last Nasir
had the satisfaction of seeing the head of Tughril
ibn Arslan, the last Saljuq ruler of Persia, exposed
in front of his palace in Baghdad (1194).
But this short-lived flicker of independence was
soon to be followed by the crowning disaster of
a Mongol invasion, when, in 1258^ the army of
Hulagu captured Baghdad and put the Caliph
Musta'sim to death.
The awe with which the institution of the
Caliphate was regarded even in these days of its
weakness,* may be realized by the fact that, cruel
and bloodthirsty savage though Hulagu was, even
he hesitated to put to death the successor of the
Prophet, for the Muhammadans who accompanied
him in his army in the expedition against Baghdad
had warned him that if the blood of the Khalifah
was shed upon the ground the world would be
overspread with darkness and the army of the
Mongols be swallowed up by an earthquake.
It is difficult to estimate the bewilderment that
Even as early as the eighth century, superstition had
regarded the Caliphs as free from the attacks of plague. 6
2882
82 THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
Muslims felt when there was no longer a Caliph on
whom the blessing of God could be invoked in the
Khutbah ; such an event was without precedent
throughout the previous history of Islam. Their
suffering finds expression in the prayer offered in
the great mosque of Baghdad on the Friday
following the death of the Caliph : * Praise be to
God who has caused exalted personages to perish
and has given over to destruction the inhabitants
of this city. ... God, help us in our misery, the
like of which Islam and its children have never
witnessed ; we are God's and unto God do we
return. 5 7
When pious souls in later years looked back
upon this tragedy in Baghdad, they realized how
its horror had been prognosticated by terrible
portents, e. g. a furious rushing wind had torn
the curtain from the Ka'bah so that it remained
bare for twenty-one days ; an earthquake had
shaken the Minbar of the Prophet in the mosque
of Medina ;- fire had burst forth from a hill at
Aden, and numerous other prophetic horrors, fire,
flood, and plague, had marked the approach of this
dread disaster that caused the Muslim world to be
without a Khallfah for three years and a half. 8
But so long as there was a Caliph in Baghdad
various Muslim princes, either for political reasons
or out of pious feeling, acknowledged his nominal
headship of the Muhammadan world. Such a
recognition as was given by the powerful monarch
ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURY 83
the tenth century, came nearly a century later from
the distant West, when about 1086 Yusuf ibn
Tashftn, who was destined to establish the Al-
moravid dynasty in Spain, sent a request to the
Caliph Muqtadl that he would confirm him in the
possession of his dominions. The Caliph replied
by sending him robes of honour and standards,
and bestowing upon him the new title of Amir
ul-Muslimln. This is startingly like the Caliph's
own title of Amir ul-Mu'minln, and probably the
Caliph merely gave his consent to the use of a title
which Yusuf ibn Tashfln had already himself
assumed. If the Caliph had wished to protest,
he was in much too weak a position to make any
such protest effective, and he was probably only
too pleased to receive this recognition of his
theoretical overlordship in the world of Islam,
a recognition that was so markedly in contrast
to his dependent position under the Saljuq.
Moreover, such a submission was all the more
impressive as coming from Spain, which, for
a century and a half had upheld an independent
Caliphate of its own. Yusuf ibn Tashfln, while
arrogating to himself none of the actual titles of
the Caliph, probably invented as a mark of his
own dignity this title of Amir ul-Muslimin as
setting him up above all other Sunnl princes by
its very obvious resemblance to the designation
of every Caliph since the great days of 'Umar.
The Almoravid movement began as an orthodox
propaganda among the Berbers in North Africa,
84 THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
and stirred up this vigorous race to a career of
conquest, of which the foundation of Morocco
is a permanent memorial. But in less than a
century their power had declined, for they failed
to fulfil the promise of their brilliant successes
when they had crossed over into Spain and defeated
the Christian forces in the battle of Zallaka (1086),
and a few years later added the provinces of
Muhammadan Spain to their empire. Their
dynasty was swept away in 1146 by the new
movement of the Almohads, who also arose
among the Berbers, and, as will be shown later,
claimed to have an Imam of their own. But the
recognition of the Abbasid Caliph by the Almora-
vids, so long as this dynasty lasted, constituted
a distinct addition to his prestige ; and there was
some compensation for the disappearance of the
Almoravids, when, in 1171, the news reached
Baghdad that the rival Fatimid Caliphate in Cairo
had come to an end. For more than two centuries
and a half the Shiah Caliph had flaunted the claim
of the Abbasids to the headship of Islam and had
enjoyed immense wealth and power in the posses-
sion of Egypt and Syria, while the Abbasids in
Baghdad had been suffering a miserable decline.
A new champion of Islam had appeared, and the
victorious career of Saladin had raised up new hopes
in the Muslim world. He signalized his conquest
of Egypt, as soon as he felt his position secure in
that country, by displacing the Shiah Caliph,
whose wazir he was supposed to be, and the
ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURY 85
faithful once more prayed for the Abbasid Caliph
in the mosques of Cairo and the other cities of
Egypt. Muqtadl had the city of Baghdad illu-
minated in honour of this great event, and sent
flags and robes of honour to Saladin, the champion
of orthodoxy.
A few years later, in 1174, Saladin displaced the
youthful heir of his deceased master, Nur ud-Din,
who had died in May of that year, and himself
assumed the royal title. In 1175 he wrote to the
Caliph, Muqtadl, announcing his victory over the
Franks and his conquests in the Yaman and in
North Africa, and reminded the Caliph how he had
established the Khutbah in Egypt in the name of
the Abbasid, and asked for a diploma of investiture
over Egypt, the Maghrib, the Yaman, and Syria ;
the Caliph gave away what was not his to give,
but what it was flattering to him not to refuse,
and sent the required diploma together with a robe
of honour.
The founder of another dynasty this time in
the south, in the Yaman Nur ud-Din 'Umar
(1229-1249), the Rasulid, in 1234, sent large
presents to the Caliph Mustansir, asking for the
title of Sultan and a diploma of investiture as his
lieutenant. The Caliph was naturally delighted
to receive such a recognition of his office, but it
was characteristic of the lack of real authority in
his hands that his envoys carrying the diploma
were unable to make their way by land to the
Yaman; they joined the pilgrim-caravan that
86 THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
had set out from 'Iraq to Mecca, but the Arabs
blocked their way, and all the pilgrims had to
return to Baghdad. It was not until the following
year that it was possible to send the diploma by
sea ; whereupon the envoy of the Khalif ah
ascending the pulpit delivered the message of his
master, conferring on Nur ud-Din 'Umar the
governorship of the Yaman, and clothed him with
a robe of honour. 9
Still more interesting is the homage that came,
for the first time, from India. Here the Muslim
conquests had resulted in the submission of nearly
the whole of Northern India, and a dynasty had
been established, known as that of the c Slave
Kings ', because the first monarchs of this dynasty
had been Turkish slaves, who, distinguishing
themselves by their military prowess, had been
appointed generals of armies and afterwards
governors of provinces. One of these, named
Iltutmish, in 1211 set aside the son of his prede-
cessor and Brought the greater part of Hindustan
under his subjection. Iltutmish apparently felt
the need of some legal sanction for his usurpation.
But he had already been for some years on the
throne of Delhi before he made his application to
the Caliph, and it was not until 1229 that a
diploma of investiture was sent by Mustansir,
confirming Iltutmish in the possession of all the
lands and seas he had conquered and bestowing
upon him the title of the great Sultan. The
document was solemnly read out in a vast assembly
ELEVENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURY 87
held in Delhi, and Iltutmish from that date put
the name of the Caliph on his coins.
His successors followed this pious example.
The name of the last Abbasid Khallf ah of Baghdad,
Musta'sim (1242-1258), first appears on the coins
of 'Ala ud-Dm Mas'ud Shah (1241-1246) ; and
though Musta'sim was put to death by the
Mongols ia 1258, his name still appears on the
coins of successive kings of Delhi, e. g. Mahmud
Shah Nasir ud-Dm (1246-1265), Ghiyath ud-Din
Balban (1265-1287), and Mu'izz ud-Dm Kayqubad
(1287-1290), the last monarch of the so-called
* Slave ' dynasty ; and the first of these continued
to have the name of Musta'sim mentioned in the
Khutbah. 10
A new dynasty arose, that of the Khaljl ; the
same need for legitimization was apparently still
felt, and the coins of Jalal ud-Din Flruz Shah II
(1290-1295) continued to bear the name of
Musta'sim, though this Caliph had been trampled
to death by the Mongols more than thirty years
before. 11
What was an unfortunate Muslim monarch
to do, who felt that his title was insecure ? He
knew that it was only his sword that had set him
on the throne, that his own dynasty might at any
time be displaced, as he had himself displaced the
dynasty that had preceded him, while his legal
advisers and religious guides told him that the
only legitimate source of authority was the
Khallfah, the Imam, and he realized that all his
88 THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
devout Muslim subjects shared their opinion. So
he went on putting the name of the dead Musta'sim
on his coins, because he could find no other, and
the Muslim theory of the state had not succeeded
in adjusting itself to the fact that there was no
Khallfah or Imam in existence. His successor,
'Ala ud-Dm Muhammad Shah I (1295-1315), got
out of the difficulty by ceasing to insert Musta'sim's
name and by describing himself merely as Yamln
ul-Khilafat Nasir Amlri 5 l-Mu'minm, * The right
hand of the Caliphate, the helper of the Com-
mander of the Faithful V 2 and this was sufficient
for the satisfaction of tender consciences, though
in reality he was giving no help at all to any Caliph,
any more than either of his predecessors had done
who had seen the unhappy Musta'sim trampled
to death without moving a finger, though they
had gone on making use of his name, for their
own selfish political purposes.
The situation was no doubt a puzzling one, even
as it was unprecedented. The Muslim world found
by experience that it had to get on without a
Caliph and this circumstance undoubtedly made
an impression on the minds of thinking men. It
is probable that from this period the opinion gained
strength that the institution of the Caliphate had
really ceased in the apostolic age. This was a
doctrine that had found expression much earlier,
and (as will be seen later on) has been from time
to time revived.
VII
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
IN CAIRO
THOUGH the Caliphate had in this tragic manner
ceased to exist, politicians could not forget the
important part that the Caliph had played in the
political life of the Muhammadan world, by giving
a show of legitimacy to such monarchs as had by
murder or usurpation, or by their military prowess,
established themselves upon a throne and after-
wards sought for a title to it.
Such a difficulty arose in Egypt in the period
of the decay of the Ayyubid dynasty that had been
founded by Saladin, when fifty years after this
great monarch's death the reins of power were
slipping from the weak hands of his successors, and
the administration of the country had passed to
Mamluk Amirs Turkish slaves, who had risen to
commanding positions in the army. These Mam-
luks who, for more than two centuries and a half,
ruled the rich lands of Egypt, first endeavoured to
give an appearance of legitimacy to their rule by
pretending to govern the country as viceroys for
infant princes, e.g. Aybak (1250-1257), for a child
of the Ayyubid family and a descendant of-
Saladin, and Aybak's successor, Qutuz (1257-
1259), for the infant child of Aybak ; but this was
an unsatisfactory arrangement, and both of these
Mamluk Amirs found it necessary after a short
2882
90 THE CALIPHATE
time to thrust aside the nominal Sultan and assume
sovereignty in their own name. The fourth
Mamluk ruler, Baybars (1260-1277), extricated
himself from this difficult situation by inviting an
uncle of the last Abbasid Caliph, who had managed
to escape the massacre in Baghdad, to come to
Cairo. He was escorted into the city with great
pomp and ceremony in June 1261 and was there
installed as Caliph. After his genealogy had been
investigated by the jurists, the chief Qadl solemnly
attested its correctness and took the oath of
allegiance to him, followed by Baybars and the
officers of state, promising to obey the ordinances
of the Word of God and of the Traditions, and to
fight in defence of the faith. A few days later the
Caliph, who assumed the title of Mustansir, by
which his brother, the penultimate Caliph (1226-
1242) had been known, with due solemnity
conferred upon Baybars a robe of honour together
with a diploma of investiture, which was couched
in the following terms : c Praise be to God who
has displayed upon Islam the robes of glory, and
has made the brightness of its pearls shine forth,
that aforetime were hidden under a thick shell ;
and has so firmly established the edifice of its
prosperity that thereby He has caused all record
of what went before to be forgotten ; and has
ordained for its support kings with whom even
those who otherwise differ are in agreement. . . .
I bear witness that there is no God save God, One,
without a partner. . . . I bear witness that our
IN CAIRO 91
Lord Muhammad is His servant and His Apostle,
who has repaired the breaches of the faith and has
displayed all manner of noble qualities (may God
bless him and his family, the memorial of whose
virtues will never perish, and his Companions who
wrought noble deeds in the faith and merited
increase in good things !). Now 4 , that ruler is most
deserving of honour and good report and most
worthy that the pen should bow down and
prostrate itself while writing the recital of his
virtues and his righteous deeds, who puts forth
all his efforts and sees praise coming to meet them,
who calls on men to obey him . . . and ever sets
his hand to generous deeds with might and main,
and, sword in hand, never destroys the hiding-place
of error, without giving it over to the flames and
drenching it in blood. Since all these noble
qualities are the special characteristics of his
sublime highness, Sultan Malik uz-Zahir Rukn
ud-Din (may God ennoble and exalt him !), the
High Chancellery of the descendant of the Prophet,
the Imam Mustansir (may God exalt his power),
has been pleased to extol the lofty merit of this
prince and to proclaim his good offices, which even
the most eloquent language would fail adequately
to express or fittingly commend, for it is he who
has raised up again the Abbasid dynasty after it
had been crippled by the blows of ill-fortune and
robbed of all its welfare and blessings ; on its behalf
he has reproved its adverse fortune and has won
for it the favour and goodwill of fate, that had
92 THE CALIPHATE
attacked it with destructive fury ; he has taken
captive the ill-fortune that was once its bitter
enemy ; he has lavished his care upon it and has
turned away from it all its woes. He showed kind-
ness and sympathy to the Commander of the
Faithful as soon as he arrived, and displayed
conspicuous eagerness for divine reward, and
exhibited such zeal for the cause of the holy law
and for the paying of homage by the nobles, that
if any other had set his hand to this task, he must
inevitably have failed. But God has bestowed
upon him such abundant virtue, in order that the
scale of his merits may be weighted down thereby
and the account that he will have to render on the
Day of Judgement may be lightened Therefore
the Commander of the Faithful gives you thanks
for such kindness, and makes known to all, that
but for your watchful care, the ruin would have
been without repair. He confers on you authority
over Egypt, Syria, Diyar Bakr, the Hijaz, the
Yaman, the land of the Euphrates and whatever
fresh conquests you may achieve, on plain or
mountain. He entrusts to you the government of
them and the control of their troops and their
population, so that you may become for them
a paragon of generosity, and he makes no exception
of any single city or fortress or any object, great
or small. Then keep a watch over the interests
of the whole body of the faithful, since this
burden has been laid upon you.' Then follow
exhortations to righteous government, and a
IN CAIRO 93
number of directions as to the appointment and
supervision of officials, the abolition of oppressive
taxation, &c. The Caliph next emphasizes his own
claim to recognition in an impressive and em-
phatic manner, with the words, c I offer praise to
God for that He has set by your side an Imam to
guide you in the right way ; it is your bounden
duty to show him the greatest possible honour.'
Lastly, he urges the Sultan to prosecute with zeal
the war against unbelievers, saying, * One of the
matters of which mention must be made is the
divine command to wage Jihad, for this is an
obligation resting upon the whole body of the
faithful, and an achievement that shines out
brightly on the pages of history. God has pro-
mised a rich reward to those who fight in Jihad,
and has reserved for them a high place near
Himself, and has assigned to them a special seat
in Paradise, wherein is no vain discourse or
incitement to sin. . , . Through you God has
preserved the defences of Islam from desecration,
and by your firm resolution has maintained for
the Muslims good order in these realms, and your
sword has inflicted incurable wounds on the hearts
of the unbelievers. Through you we hope that
the Caliphate will regain its ancient glory. Then
for the sake of the victory of Islam be watchful
and let not your eyes be heedless or asleep. In
waging Jihad against the enemies of God, be a
leader that is followed and follows none, and
support the doctrine of the Unity of God, and you
94 THE CALIPHATE
will find all men ready to follow and obey you in
support of it.' Then come various instructions
as to the protection of the frontiers, the repair of
fortified places, and the equipment of the fleet.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Sultan
made a triumphal progress through the city of
Cairo, accompanied by his officers of state, one of
whom bore the diploma of investiture in front
of him. 1
One of the most remarkable features of this
document is the assumption of authority by the
Caliph over territories that had not owed allegiance
to the Abbasid dynasty for centuries, his claim
to supreme jurisdiction in the Muslim world,
though he himself had no troops or resources of
any kind at his disposal, and his interference,
though an entire stranger, in the administrative
details of so highly organized a bureaucratic
system as that of the government of Egypt.
Baybars might well have felt doubts as to the
wisdom of the action he had taken in welcoming
the Abbasid prince into his capital, and he seems
to have at once set about making preparations
for the departure of his guest, who was to be
provided with troops for the reconquest of
Baghdad. About three months later they set out
together from Cairo, with a large force, but when
they reached Damascus, Baybars was warned by
a friend that the re-establishment of the Caliphate
in Baghdad might endanger his own independence ;
so he abandoned the unfortunate Mustangir to his
IN CAIRO 95
fate, and the Caliph, while making his way across
the desert with a small body of troops, was attacked
by the Mongol governor of Baghdad, and nothing
more was ever heard of him.
A year later another prince of the Abbasid
family, Abu'l 'Abbas Ahmad, who escaped the
disaster that befell Mustanir, made his way to
Cairo, and after some delay was there installed as
Khalifah with the title of Hakim; but this time
Baybars took care not to have a rival to his own
power, and though he treated the Caliph with
every mark of outward respect, he practically
kept him a prisoner in the citadel and allowed him
to exercise no influence in the political life of the
country.
The same forms and ceremonies were observed
as in the case of Mustansir ; the genealogy of the
fugitive was scrutinized and declared to be
authentic by the chief Qadi, but Baybars allowed
nearly a year to elapse, during which coins con-
tinued to be struck in the name of Mustanir,
before arranging in November 1262 for the formal
ceremony of paying allegiance to the new Caliph,
who in return conferred upon him royal authority.
The next day was Friday and the Caliph delivered
the following Khutbah : 4 Praise be to God who
has raised up for the family of 'Abbas a pillar and
a helper, and has appointed for them a Sultan as
their defender. I praise Him both for good and
evil days ; may He help me to give thanks for the
blessings He has lavished upon me, and make me
96 THE CALIPHATE
victorious over my enemies. I bear witness that
there is no God save God, One only, without
a partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and
His Apostle (may God bless him, his family and
his Companions, those stars to guide men aright,
those Imams who are patterns of righteousness,
the four first Caliphs, and 'Abbas, his paternal
uncle, the consoler of his griefs, and the illustrious,
rightly-guided Caliphs, and the Imams who followed
on the right way, and the other Companions
and those who followed after them ! May God
pour His blessings upon them until the Day
of Judgement !). Know, O ye men, that the
Imftmate is one of the obligations of Islam, and
that Jihad is binding on all men ; that the
standard of Jihad cannot be upraised unless men
are united ; that women can only be led away into
captivity when the obligations of honour are
violated ; that blood can only be shed through sin
and wickedness. You have seen the enemies of
Islam enter the Abode of Peace (i.e. Baghdad),
sacrificing _ blood and riches, slaying men and
children, profaning the sanctuary and the sacred
precints of the Khilafat, and inflicting upon those
they left alive the most terrible sufferings ; every-
where there rose up cries of lamentation and
wailing ; everywhere were heard cries of terror by
reason of the horrors of this long drawn out day.
How many old men had their white hair stained
with blood ! How many children wept and there
was none to take pity on their tears ! Then gird
IN CAIRO 97
up your loins in your efforts to fulfil the obligation
of Jihad. Fear God while ye are able. Hear and
obey, spend the wealth of your own lives. Those
who refrain from being niggardly of their lives will
assuredly be blessed. There is no longer any
excuse to prevent you from attacking the enemies
of religion and from defending the Muslims. This
Sultan Malik uz-Zahir, the illustrious, .wise and
just ruler, who wages Jihad and brings succour,
the pillar of the world and of religion, has risen
up to defend the Imamate, when there were but
few to Help it, and he has scattered the armies of
the unbelievers when they had already begun to
pry into the recesses of our dwellings. Through
his care the oath of allegiance has been taken by
men who have bound themselves by covenant, and
the Abbasid dynasty has thereby gained numerous
soldiers. Servants of God, make haste to show
your gratitude for such a blessing ; purify your
intentions and you will be victorious ; fight
against the followers of the Devil and you will gain
the advantage ; do not let yourselves be terrified
by past events, for war has its chances, but success
in the end comes to the God-fearing. Time
endures but for two days, and the next world is
reserved for the true believers. May God unite
you all on the basis of piety and give you a glorious
victory through the faith. Pray God to pardon
me, yourselves and all Muslims ; pray for His
forgiveness, for He is forgiving and compassionate/
The Caliph then sat down for a while in accordance
2882 N
98 THE CALIPHATE
with the usual custom, and rising up again began
the second part of the Khutbah, consisting merely
of pious ejaculations and prayers for the blessing
of God. 2
Such was the beginning of a long line of
Caliphs in Cairo, one descendant of Hakim after
another occupying this office for two centuries
and a half. They were even more powerless and
ineffectual than the later Abbasids in Baghdad had
been ; but their presence in Cairo gave a show of
legitimacy to Mamluk rule in Egypt, and the
Caliph used to be brought out from his seclusion
on the occasion of the accession of each new
Sultan, in order to invest him with authority and
give to his rule the sanction of the law.
How much importance Sultan Baybars attached
to his having secured in his capital the presence of
the Caliph, though he kept him as a virtual
prisoner, may be judged from the fact that, on
a tablet at Horns commemorating the endowments
he had bestowed on the grave of Khalid ibn
al-Walid, the conqueror of Syria, he sums up
a long string of titles with the statement that it was
he * who had given orders for allegiance to be paid
to the two Khallfahs 5 . 3
VIII
RELATIONS OF THE ABBASID CALIPHS IN CAIRO
WITH OTHER PRINCES IN THE MUSLIM
WORLD
FOR more than two centuries and a half, thirteen
other members of the same family held the shadowy
office of Khalifah in Cairo. They were brought
out with great pomp and ceremony to instal each
successive Mamluk Sultan who rose to power, often
after the assassination of his predecessor, and
(as will be seen) other Muslim princes made use
of them to give a show of legitimacy to their rule.
But the presence in Cairo of the theoretical source
of all authority in the Muslim world made the
Mamluk ruler claim for himself a higher status
than that of any other Muhammadan ruler and
deny to any of his rivals the right to assume the
title of Sultan, for on him alone was it conferred
by the Caliph in accordance with the prescriptions
of the Holy Law. 1
The position of the Abbasid Caliphs in Cairo was
a very humiliating one, and contemporary his-
torians have not hesitated to speak freely about
their dependent condition. One of the greatest
of the Mamluk Sultans, Qala'un (1279-1290),
never even condescended to ask the Caliph to
invest him with authority. A later Sultan about
the middle of the fourteenth century Nasir
Muhammad, deprived the Caliph, Wathiq bi'llahi
100 THE CALIPHATE
Ibrahim, for some months even of the empty
dignity of having his name mentioned in the
Khutbah, and as the Muslim historian laments,
* The name of the Caliph passed from the pulpits
as if it had never risen above them, and the prayer
for the Caliphs vacated the mihrabs of the mosque
as if it had never reverberated at their gate.' 2
Moreover, the allowance granted to this Caliph
was so scanty that the populace in derision nick-
named him ' the beggar '. 3
But whatever might be the practice in Egypt,
to none of these Abbasid Caliphs (with the single
exception to be mentioned later) was the privilege
accorded of having his name mentioned in the
Khutbah in the Holy City of Mecca. Since the
murder of the last Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad,
Musta'sim, in 1258, no Caliph had been prayed
for in the great Friday services round the Ka'bah,
the centre of Islamic unity, either because the
ecclesiastical authorities concerned believed that
the Muslim world was now without a Khallfah,
or else (in view of the fact that there were other
claimants) from a special distrust of the claim
made by the Caliphs in Cairo to the possession of
that dignity. The reason they alleged was that
none of these faineant Caliphs struck coins in
his own name or issued decrees from a chancellery
of his own ; they obviously held the theory that
the office of the Caliphate implied de facto sove-
reignty, 4 The one exception was when the Caliph
Musta'ln was made the plaything of rival political
RELATIONS WITH OTHER PRINCES 101
factions and was elected Sultan of Egypt in 1412,
only to find that he was as much a prisoner as
before and that all actual power was in the hands
of others ; six months later he was compelled
to resign his office into the hands of the man whose
tool he had been, who now had himself proclaimed
Sultan as al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad. 5
Another historian, Suyuti, writing at the end
of the fifteenth century, also speaks of the subordi-
nate position that the Caliph occupied in his day ;
he writes : 4 Things have come to such a pass in
our time that the Caliph visits the Sultan to
congratulate him at the beginning of every month,
and the utmost that the Sultan condescends in his
favour is to come down from his dais and the two sit
down together beyond the dais ; then the Caliph gets
up and goes away like an ordinary person and the
Sultan seats himself again upon his throne of state.' 6
Still the theorists could look upon the Caliph
in Cairo as ruler over all Muslim territories and
as head of the Muslim community. Khalll ibn
Shahm az-Zahiri (1410-1468), who wrote a book
on the organization of the Mamluk state, describes
the Amir ul-Mu'mimn as follows : 4 He is the
Khallfah of God on His earth, cousin of His
apostle, the chief of the apostles, and has inherited
the Khilafat from him (the Prophet). God
Almighty has made him (the Khallfah) ruler over
the whole land of Islam. None of the kings of
the East or the West can hold the title of Sultan,
unless there be a covenant between him and the
102 THE CALIPHATE
Khalifah. Some religious authorities have laid it
down that any one who sets himself up as a Sultan
by violence, by means of the sword, and without
a compact with the Khalifah, is a rebel and cannot
appoint any one as an official or qadi ; if any one
is so appointed, the decisions and marriage con-
tracts they make are invalid.' 7
In the fifteenth century we have a description
of the Caliph accompanying the Mamluk Sultan,
Barsbay (1422-1438), on a campaign, as riding
before him and acting as his chamberlain, while
all dignity and honour were reserved for the Sultan,
the Caliph appearing merely as one of the nobles
in the Sultan's suite. 8
Maqrizi, who died in 1441, makes the following
contemptuous remarks upon this institution : 4 The
Mamluks installed as Caliph a man to whom they
gave this name and the titles that went with it, but
he had no remnant of authority, not even the right
of expressing his opinion. He spent his time among
the nobles, the high officials, scribes, and judges,
paying them visits to thank them for the dinners and
entertainments to which they had invited him.' 9
In spite of such conditions of humiliation, there
were other Muslim princes besides the Mamluks,
who found the Abbasid Caliph in Cairo useful, as
giving a title to the possession of dominions
acquired by fraud or force. The founder of the
Muzaffarid dynasty, which ruled in southern
Persia for eighty years (1313-1393), Mubariz
ud-Dm Muhammad ibn Muzaffar, threw off his
RELATIONS WITH OTHER PRINCES 103
allegiance to his overlord, the Mongol Ilkhan, and
started on a career of conquest. Towards the
end of his career (he was deposed and blinded
in 1357) he took the oath of allegiance to the
Caliph, Mu'tadid bi'llahi, in 1354, and after his
capture of Tabriz in 1357, had the Caliph's name
inserted in the Khutbah. His son, Shah Shuja'
(1357-1384), similarly recognized the Caliph, Muta-
wakkil, in 1369. 10
There are circumstances of special interest con-
nected with the recognition of the faineant Caliph
of Cairo by the Turkish Sultans of Delhi. In 1325
Muhammad ibn Tughlaq came to the throne by
murdering his father under circumstances of
peculiar treachery. He had had a temporary
wooden structure erected for his father's accom-
modation, and arranged that during a parade of
the state elephants, they should collide with the
building, so that it buried in its fall the Sultan and
his favourite son, while Muhammad took care
that assistance should be delayed until it was
too late. The new monarch was one of the most
remarkable figures in the history of Muhammadan
India. His oppressive government ruined the
country and drove his subjects into rebellion ;
whereupon he massacred them without mercy ;
even in normal times he appears to have had a lust
for blood and a passion for savage executions. He
indulged in wild schemes of administration and
conquest that resulted in widespread misery ; one
of his mad ideas was to change the capital from
104 THE CALIPHATE
Delhi to Daulatabad, a distance of forty days'
journey ; accordingly the whole population of
this vast city was turned out of their homes, and
many of them perished on the journey. The
Sultan's officers made a rigorous search for any
who had evaded his orders and remained behind ;
they found two men in the city, one a paralytic
and the other blind ; these men were brought
before the Sultan, who ordered the paralytic to
be shot from a catapult, and the blind man to be
dragged from Delhi to Daulatabad ; he fell to
pieces during the journey and only one of his legs
reached the new capital. But Muhammad ibn
Tughlaq was a pious Muslim, regular in his devo-
tions, abstaining from wine, and scrupulous in the
observance of the precepts of his faith. He had
been on the throne for upwards of eighteen years
when he began to be troubled with doubts as to
the legitimacy of his rule, inasmuch as it had not
received the confirmation of the Abbasid Caliph,
So he made inquiries from a great many travellers
and discovered that there was an Abbasid Caliph
named Mustakfl, in Egypt. He entered into
correspondence with him, and when a diploma of
investiture was sent from Cairo, Sultan Muhammad
received it with marks of exaggerated respect, had
the Caliph's name inserted in the Khutbah and
struck upon his coins, and sent rich presents to
the Caliph in return. 11 How little in the matter
of personal relations was implied by this exchange
of compliments may be judged from the fact that
RELATIONS WITH OTHER PRINCES 105
the name of Mustakfl, who died in 1340, continued
to appear on the coins of Muhammad ibn Tughlaq
up to the years 1342 and 1343, with the prayer
4 May God make his Caliphate abide for ever V 2
His pious successor, Firuz Shh (1351-1388),
who was as gentle as Muhammad ibn Tughlaq had
been savage, made a similar submission to the
Caliph in Cairo, and in an interesting little auto-
biographical sketch which he wrote, he thus makes
reference to his attitude of mind in the matter :
c The greatest and best of honours that I ob-
tained through God's mercy was, that by my
obedience and piety, and friendliness and sub-
mission to the Khalifah, the representative of the
holy Prophet, my authority was confirmed ; for
it is by his sanction that the power of kings is
assured, and no king is secure until he has sub-
mitted himself to the Khalifah and has received
a confirmation from the sacred throne. A diploma
was sent to me fully confirming my authority as
deputy of the Khilafat, and the leader of the
faithful was graciously pleased to honour me with
the title of Sayyid us-Salatm. He also bestowed
upon me robes, a banner, a sword, a ring, and a
foot-print as badges of honour and distinction.' 13
In Transoxiana also it was felt that the Abbasid
Caliph in Cairo might be made use of for dynastic
purposes. Tlmur had nominated his grandson,
Pir Muhammad, as his heir, but when the con-
queror died in 1404 there was at once a scramble
for the possession of his vast empire, and Pir
2882
106 THE CALIPHATE
Muhammad found his claim opposed by his cousin,
Khalll Sultan. Some of his supporters urged him
to apply for a royal diploma from the Abbasid
Caliphs in Cairo, and thus annul the laws accepted
by the Mongols (i. e. the Yasaq). It was a poor
expedient at the best, but it was an expression of
belief in the power of an appeal to Muhammadan
sentiment, by recognition of the lost ideals of the
Muslim world, the supremacy of the Caliph and the
authority of the Shari'ah. 14 But the proposal does
not appear to have been adopted ; Plr Muhammad
decided to recognize the overlordship of his uncle,
Shah Rukh, and was murdered two years after
his grandfather's death.
It was probably a similar desire to find political
support that led the Ottoman Sultan Bayazld I,
in 1394, to apply to the Abbasid Caliph in Cairo
for the formal grant of the title of Sultan. 15
There is no evidence that this request for formal
recognition was ever granted, and doubt has been
thrown on the possibility of its ever having been
made, 16 but in a letter that Bayazld wrote about
1400 to Tlmur, he reminded him of the Abbasids,
' heirs of the throne of the Caliphate ', who had
taken refuge in Egypt 17 as if to give the ruthless
conqueror a hint that there was still a possible
centre of common Muslim effort, or that at least
Turks and Egyptians could be joined together by
the memory of a once undivided Muslim empire, to
resist the destruction that Tlmur was working
among the faithful.
IX
ASSUMPTION OF THE TITLE KHALlFAH BY
INDEPENDENT MUSLIM PRINCES
WHILE some Muslim potentates believed that
there was still a Khallfah in existence as head of
the Muslim world, there were others who mocked
at the pretensions of the Abbasid Caliphs of Cairo.
There were some persons who cast doubt upon their
genealogy and did not accept their claim to be
descended from the Caliphs of Baghdad ; others
revived the theory, to which reference has already
been made, that the Caliphate had really lasted
for only thirty years. This doctrine had found
expression in the authoritative collections of Tradi-
tions, and accordingly must have come into
existence so early as the third century of the
Muhammadan era, e. g. one Tradition represents
the Prophet as saying : ' The Caliphate after me
will endure for thirty years ; then will come the
rule of a king.' l The historian, MaqrM, to whom
reference has already been made several times,
adopts this doctrine when he says that after the
four rightly directed Caliphs, that is, after the
death of 4 All (661), with the rise of the Umayyads
the Caliphate had became a kingdom characterized
by violence and tyranny. The great jurist, Ibn
Khaldun, held that after the reign of Harun
ur-Rashld, there was left of the Caliphate nothing
but the name, since by that time it had become
108 THE CALIPHATE
transformed into a mere kingdom, and that with
the disappearance of the hegemony of the Arab
race the office of the Khalifah had ceased to exist. 2
A later writer, Qutb ud-Din, who died in 1582,
speaks quite as emphatically, but dates the dis-
appearance of the Caliphate from the death of
the last Caliph of Baghdad at the hands of the
Mongols in 1258 ; 3 he reiterates the opinion that
the Caliphs of Cairo were Caliphs only in name
and that there was no meaning whatsoever in their
being so styled, 4
Such thinkers clearly recognized that there was
a disparity between the subservient position of the
Caliph and the pretentious claims associated with
his title, e, g. that he was the protector of Islam
and should wage war against its enemies, &c.
There was doubtless a growing feeling that political
power and the control of armed force should be
conjoined with such high pretensions. As early as
the period when the Buwayhids were holding the
Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad in tutelage, a distin-
guished Sunnl theologian, al-Baqilani, who died
in that city in 1012 during the reign of the insigni-
ficant Qadir, had declared that the Caliph need not
be of the Quraysh, seeing that this tribe had by
that time become so degenerate and feeble. 5
When the doctors of the law could so boldly
express themselves and cast doubt upon the claim
of the Abbasid Caliph in Cairo to represent the
headship of the Muslim world, it was but natural
that the men of the sword, who had carved out for
INDEPENDENT MUSLIM PRINCES 109
themselves kingdoms and taken advantage of the
disturbed state of society to set themselves up as
independent sovereigns, should not have hesitated
to make the boldest assertions of their own dignity*
This is especially characteristic of the Mongols into
whose hands the greater part of the eastern pro-
vinces of the original Arab empire had passed.
Though the Mongol princes of Persia and other
countries ultimately adopted Islam, they still
remained for some time under the influence of the
ancient Mongol constitution, the so-called Yftsaq,
the code of regulations embodying the primitive
Turkish and Mongol customs. 6
When one of these Mongol princes came entirely
under the influence of the Muslim 'Ulama, he
would substitute for this tribal system of law the
Sharl'ah, but such a process was slow in view of the
impressive character of the Mongol conquests.
The masterful descendants of Chinglz Khan were
more ready to put forward descent from this world-
conqueror as a justification for their exercise of
authority than seek a diploma of investiture from
the alleged descendants of that Abbasid Caliph
whom their relatives had put to death in 1258.
The vastness of the Mongol empire with its
admirable administration, that made it possible
for travellers to pass with safety from China to the
eastern frontiers of the Byzantine empire, con-
stituted a more impressive spectacle in the political
world than was afforded by the story of the power-
less and ineffectual Caliphs during the latter days
110 THE CALIPHATE
of the Abbasids in Baghdad, to say nothing of the
faineant Caliphs in Cairo.
Accordingly we find that even such a zealous
Muslim as Ghazan Khan, the Ilkhan of Persia
(1295-1304), who had made Islam the state
religion throughout his dominions and built many
mosques and endowed colleges, could boast of his
descent from the pitiless Mongol conqueror who
had put to death countless Musalmans and had
devastated the great centres of Muslim civilization
in Central Asia. Ghazan Khan was the great
grandson of Hulagu, the conqueror of Baghdad,
and had been brought up as a Buddhist, but had
been converted to Islam before he came to the
throne in 1295. He avenged the check inflicted
by the Egyptians on the armies of his ancestor
Hulagu in the battle of 'Ayn Jalut (1260), by
attacking Syria and occupying Damascus in
December 1299, after inflicting a crushing defeat
on the Egyptian army. When he received a
deputation from the leading men of the city, he
asked them 4 Who am I ' ? With one accord they
replied c Shah Ghazan, son of Arghun Khan, son of
Abaqa Khan, son of Hulagu Khan, son of Tuluy
Khan, son of Chinghlz Khan ' . Then he asked, 'Who
was the father of Nasir ? ' (theMamluk Sultan) ; and
though they could give the name of his father, no
one knew the name of the boy-king's grandfather
(he was only fourteen at the time). So the deputa-
tion was put to silence, recognizing that no rightful
claim could be made out for the Mamluk prince,
INDEPENDENT MUSLIM PRINCES 111
and prayed to God for blessings on 4 the Padshah
of Islam '. 7 Thus Ghazan Khan felt that he needed
no authorization from the Abbasid in Cairo, nor
would his dignity be enhanced by the assumption
of the title of Caliph ; accordingly after his occupa-
tion of Damascus he was described in the Khutbah
merely as ' the august Sultan, the Sultan of Islam
and the Muslims '. 8
But as the Mongols became more completely
Islamized and the Muslim law, the Sharl'ah, dis-
placed the heathen Yasaq, pious Muslim monarchs
naturally ceased to boast of their descent from
Chinglz Khan or other enemies of the faith ; but
then on the other hand, they did not turn to the
insignificant Abbasid Caliph in Cairo for ratification
of their claim on the obedience of their subjects.
It became customary to appeal directly to God
Himself. When Khalil Sultan, a grandson of
Tlmur, was asked by what right he had set himself
up in Samarqand as successor to the empire of his
grandfather had Tlmur bequeathed to him the
throne and the kingdom in his will ? he replied :
c The Almighty who gave the throne and the
kingdom to Tlmur, has bestowed it also upon me.' 9
He was soon thrust aside by his abler and more
energetic uncle, Shah Rukh, who appealed to the
same irrefragable source of authority, declaring :
' God alone is immortal ; to Him alone belongs
dominion ; He giveth and taketh it away as it
pleaseth Him.' The theologians found justification
in the Word of God for this direct appeal to divine
112 THE CALIPHATE
appointment, by quoting from the Qur*an the verse ;
* O God, king of the kingdom, Thou givest the king-
dom to whomsoever Thou wilt, and Thou takest
away the kingdom from whomsoever Thou wilt,
and Thou raisest to honour whomsoever Thou
wilt, and Thou abasest whomsoever Thou wilt *
(iii. 25). In accordance with this high claim of
divine appointment and his exalted position in the
Muhammadan world, Shah Rukh undoubtedly
cherished the ambition of being recognized as
Khallfah and overlord of other Muslim princes.
That his near neighbours who had reason to dread
his armies should acquiesce in his pretentious
claim, is not surprising, and Qara Yusuf, chief of
the Turkomans of the Black Sheep dynasty,
writing about 1416 to the Ottoman Sultan,
Muhammad I, to warn him of the aggressive policy
of the Timurid monarch, speaks of him as c Shah
Rukh Bahadur Gurganl, may God make the days
of his Caliphate endure for ever V and Hamzah
Beg, chief of the Turkomans of the White Sheep
from 1406 to 1444, refers to him as c the shadow of
God upon earth \ in a letter to Sultan Murad II. 11
Even Muhammad I found it politic in writing to
Shah Rukh in 1416, to address him as * Your
exalted majesty, who has attained the pre-
eminent rank of the Caliphate V 2
But it was another matter when he attempted to
impose his authority on independent princes whose
geographical position put them at a safer distance
from his aggression. In January 1436 Barsbay,
INDEPENDENT MUSLIM PRINCES 113
the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, received an embassy
from Shah Bukh, demanding that he should
recognize him as his overlord, apply to him for
a patent of investiture, strike coins in his name,
and have mention made of him in the Khutbah.
Barsbay tore in pieces the robe of honour that
Shah Rukh had sent, had his envoy cudgelled and
thrown into a tank, so that he was in danger of
being drowned and nearly died of cold, and sent
back a message that he dared Shah Rukh to come
in person to Egypt, to avenge the insults paid to
his ambassador. At the same time Barsbay wrote
to Sultan Murad II, who had received a similar
invitation but had treated the matter as a jest,
and invited him to join him in an alliance against
Shah Rukh. 13 Equally unsuccessful were Shah
Rukh's efforts in India ; the unfortunate *Abd
ur-Razzaq has* left us a vivid account of the
miserable failure of his embassy to the Zamorin of
Calicut ; 14 and if it is true that the insignificant
Khizr Khan of the so-called Sayyid dynasty in
Delhi (1414-1421) caused the Khutbah to be read
in the name of Shah Rukh, as he had done for his
father, Timur, before him, 15 then this was an
achievement hardly worth boasting of, since Khizr
Khan's authority was confined within a very
limited area and indeed barely extended outside
the city of Delhi. Shah Rukh himself provided
the text of the Khutbah that Khizr Khan was to
have read : * O God, cause the foundations of the
kingdom and of the religion to abide for ever,
2882
114 THE CALIPHATE
uplift the banner of Islam, and strengthen the
pillars of the incontestible Sharl'at, by maintaining
the kingdom of the exalted Sultan, the jufet
Khaqan, the noble overlord of the necks of the
nations, the ruler of the sultans of the Arabs and
non-Arabs, the shadow of God upon earth, the
ruler over land and sea, who enlarges the founda-
tions of peace and security, who uplifts the banner
of justice and benevolence, who protects the
territories of God, who gives help to the servants
of God, and to whom the help of God has been
given, to whom has been granted victory over his
enemies, the supporter of truth, the world and the
religion, Shah Rukh Bahadur Khan (may Al-
mighty God make his rule and sultanate abide for
ever in the Caliphate over the world, and grant
increase of His goodness and blessings for the
inhabitants of the earth).' 16
This ambitious aim finds further literary expres-
sion in the work of Shah Rukh's biographer who
speaks of * his sacred titles being recited on the
pulpits of the two Sanctuaries ', 17 an ambition that
does not appear to have ever achieved fulfilment.
That a mere historian who had enjoyed the
patronage of Shah Rukh should follow such dis-
tinguished monarchs, is not to be wondered at, and
Hafiz Abru while recounting the praises of his bene-
factor prays that God may make hisKhilafatand his
power endure for ever, 18 and styles him ' the shadow
of God, the sultan of the world (may God make his
Khilaf at and dominion and power endure for ever).' 19
INDEPENDENT MUSLIM PRINCES 115
But by this period the practice of assuming the
title of Khallfah had become too common for any
one individual to attempt to revive the associations
of universal sovereignty connected with it in the
glorious days of the eighth century, least of all a
monarch like Shah Rukh, whose kinsmen constantly
broke out in revolt against him, and the capital of
whose dominions, Samarqand, was in the extreme
north-west of the historic Muslim empire. Indeed,
so many princes, since the destruction of the
Abbasid dynasty of , Baghdad in 1258, had adopted
the habit of styling themselves Khallfah, that by
the reign of Shah Rukh their number had become
quite considerable.
One of the first of such princes to recognize that
this supreme title was at the disposal of any one
who cared to snatch at it, was Abu 'Abdallah
Muhammad, of the Hafsid dynasty in Tunis
(1249-1277). His father, Yahya, had ruled Tunis
as governor for the Almohad of Morocco, but had
made himself independent. Ambitious as he was,
he had shrunk from taking the supreme title,
Amir ul-Mu'minin, which belonged to his master
the Almohad Khallfah. His son was bolder and
not only styled himself Amir ul-Mu'minm, but also
Khalifah and Imam. Whether he did so shortly
before, or just after the fall of Baghdad in 1258,
is uncertain ; the historians are not agreed as to
the exact date, but he appears to have been
influenced in his decision by a prompting given
him by the Sharif of Mecca. His successors of
116 THE CALIPHATE
the Hafsid dynasty continued to bear the same
titles.
After an end had been put to the dynasty of the
Almohads by the capture of their capital in 1269,
Abu 'Inan Faris (1348-1358), of the Marmid
dynasty which ruled in Morocco from 1269 to 1470,
called himself Amir ul-Mu'minm, and Ibn Battuta,
who dedicated his travels to this prince, calls his
patron Khallfah and Amir ul-Mu'minln and Imam
and Shadow of God upon earth. 20 But few of the
other Amirs of the Marmid dynasty exhibited
similar pretensions.
In Asia Minor, one of the later Saljuqs of Rum,
Ghiyath ud-Dln Kay Khusrau III, built a Madrasa
at Siwas in the year 1271, and put up an inscrip-
tion on it, with the prayer : 6 God help Thy
servant, Thy Khallfah, the great Sultan, the
exalted Khaqan, the lord of the kings of the Arabs
and the non-Arabs, the Shadow of God upon
earth. 5 21
In India, Sultan 'Ala ud-Din Khaljl (1296-1316)
of Delhi was styled by his biographer, the great
poet Amir Khusrau, * the Caliph of his age ' and
4 the shadow of the Merciful on the heads of man-
kind \ 22 His son, Qutb ud-Dln Mubarak Shah
(1316-1320), had inscribed on some of his coins
4 The most exalted Imam, the Khallfah of the Lord
of the worlds, the pole-star of the earth and of the
faith, Abu '1-Muzaffar Mubarak Shah ', and on
others, ' The most exalted Imam, the pole-star of
the earth and of the faith. Ahii '
INDEPENDENT MUSLIM PRINCES 117
Khallfah of God.' 23 About 1382 Ahmad ibn
Uways, one of the last of the Jala'ir dynasty
which had made Baghdad its capital, is described
by Dawlatshah 24 as succeeding his father * on the
seat of the Caliphate ' in the ancient capital of the
Abbasids. Even Tlmur (1369-1404), though he
appears to have had little regard for the institution
of the Caliphate, is described by Nizam ud-Dm
Sham!, the historian, whom he commissioned to
write the history of his reign and his conquests,
as c the refuge of the Khilaf at ' and 4 the Shadow of
the Merciful \ 25
In Asia Minor, the initiator of a semi-social,
semi-religious movement, Badr ud-Dm ibn Qadi
Simaw, who advocated friendship with Christians
and proposed to establish a community of goods,
when he found his influence growing, assumed the
title ' Khallfah upon earth ' ; but his power was
short-lived, for he came in conflict with the Turkish
troops near Smyrna and was put to death in 1417. 26
Ozun Hasan, the Sultan of the Turkomans of
the White Sheep, who ruled over Diyar Bakr,
'Iraq, Adharbayjan and Armenia (1453-1477), in
a letter he wrote to the Ottoman Sultan Muham-
mad II, about the year 1471, describes his capital,
Shiraz, which he had recently gained by conquest,
as * the mansion of the seat of the Sultanate and
the throne of the Caliphate \ 27 In the introduction
to the Akhlaq-i-Jalali, which was dedicated about
the same date to t)zun Hasan by Jalal ud-Dm
Dawanl, the author prays for the blessing of God
118 THE CALIPHATE
upon his patron, and adds c May Allah make the
shadow of his Khilafat abide for ever '. 28
It was doubtless more flattering to his son
Ya'qfib, who was chief of the Turkomans of the
White Sheep from 1479 to 1490, to be addressed
by the young Ottoman Prince Salim as * Your
highness, the seat of the Caliphate 5 . 29
In another part of the Muslim world, Muhammad
Shaybam (1500-1510), the founder of the Uzbeg
kingdom of Transoxiana, styled himself on his
coins ' the Imam of the age, the Khallfah of the
Merciful '. 30 His contemporary, Sultan Husayn,
of Khurasan (who died in 1505), was addressed by
so powerful a sovereign as the Ottoman Sultan,
Muhammad II, as ' Your exalted majesty . . .
seated by right on the throne of the Khilafat V 1
and the historian Dawlatshah, who wrote during
his reign, speaks of him as c adorning the throne
of the Khilafat \ 32 Even some of the later Mamluk
Sultans, though they upheld the institution of the
Caliphate in their midst in the person of the
Abbasid living under their protection, did not
shrink from robbing him of one of his most sacred
titles. Thus Sultan Jaqmaq (1438-1453), Qa'it
Bay (1468-1495), and Qansuh Ghurl (1500-1516),
all put up inscriptions describing themselves as
' the most exalted Imam % thus assuming to
themselves the headship of the Muslim world, by
the use of a title that had not become so trite as
that of Khallfah. 33
From the examples given above it is clear that
INDEPENDENT MUSLIM PRINCES 119
such assumptions of the titles belonging to the
Caliphate were not made in accordance with any
regular system ; in some cases, it is a sovereign
who arrogates to himself a designation that implies
he is greater than his contemporaries ; in others,
one Muslim monarch wishes to pay a compliment
to another ; in many instances a man of letters
wishes to flatter his patron ; in others, the language
used seems to depend upon the individual caprice
of the court scribe. But in every case it is a
usurpation, and implies a break with the original
theory of the position of the Caliph, according to
which he alone was the fountain of honour and
alone could bestow titles on lesser monarchs.
How haphazard this ascription of the title of
Caliph often was, being left to the whim of the
particular scribe or man of letters who is describing
his patron, may be judged from the variants to be
found sometimes in manuscripts, e. g. in two
biographies of Timur, one of which obviously
plagiarizes the other, in describing the same event,
the one historian refers simply to His Majesty,
the other adds to these words ' Protector of
the Caliphate \ 34 Again, in a copy of the Is-
kandarnamah, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, 35
written in 1390 for a son of Sultan Bayazld I,
by a Turkish poet Ahmadi, the scribe has put
headings to the sections in which various Muslim
princes are described, e. g. ' the Khilaf at of
Ghazan' (fol 254), c the Khilafat of 'Uthman '
(fol. 265), &c., but he goes still farther and ascribes
120 THE CALIPHATE
a similar dignity to the ancestors of Ghazan, e. g.
* the Khilafat of Abagha,' and ' the Khilafat of
Gaykhatu ' (fol. 252), though these personages were
heathens and not Muslims at all. The manuscripts
of the same work in the British Museum 36 have in
each instance Padshah! instead of Khilafat.
Examples enough have been given to show how
widespread had become the practice for any inde-
pendent sovereign to seek to enhance his dignity
by taking on himself the title Khallfah. To the
uncompromising theologian, mindful of the Tradi-
tions, such a practice could only appear repre-
hensible ; but more open minds could find for it
a justification, and Ibn Khaldun, taking the view
that the office was a vicegerency for the Prophet
and that the function of the Caliph was to protect
the religion and administer the affairs of the
world, recognized that such a vicegerency could
be assumed by the Sultans of countries widely
separated from one another, when no single person
was to be found possessing all the qualities
requisite in a Caliph, in the original application
of this word. 37
X
THE EXPOSITION OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND
ETHICAL WRITERS
AMONG the influences that contributed towards
the adoption in the Muhammadan world of this
more widely applicable use of the title Khalifah,
may probably be included the study of Greek
political thought. Since the early part of the
ninth century when the zeal for the translation of
Greek works of philosophy and science burst out
in full vigour, the knowledge of this literature had
rapidly spread in learned Muhammadan circles.
Their interest was primarily in works of meta-
physics, logic, mathematics and the physical
sciences, but political philosophy and ethics were
not neglected. Many of the Muhammadan thinkers
attempted to form a synthesis between what they
learned from Plato and Aristotle, and the intellec-
tual concepts of Islam ; and in the realm of
political science they assimilated Aristotle's doc-
trine of the Tra/nySacrtXevs and the crTrovScuos avrfp
to the Muslim theory of the Khalifah.
One of the Muslim philosophers who watched
the decline of the power of the Abbasids and saw
the Caliph become a mere puppet in the hands of
his Turkish guards, was al-Farabl, who died in 950,
at the age of about eighty, after living for some
time under the protection of one of the princes who
had contributed to the break-up of the Arab
2882 Q
122 THE CALIPHATE
empire, the Hamdanid Sayf ud-Dawlah. Under
the influence of Pj^tftnic- doctrine, he worked out
a theory of an ideal state, governed by philosophers
who, comprehending the nature of the first
Existence, God, and of the emanations of this first
Existence, and of the origin and the course of
nature, could guide the soul of man in its effort to
return to the source from which it came. Just
as the universe is a harmonious whole, under
the supreme authority of God, with an orderly
sequence of graded existences, and just as the human
spirit is made up of successive degrees of intelli-
gence and the human body is an organized whole
over which the heart presides, so in like manner
the state is an organism or graded system. The
ideal state would be under the guidance of a leader
who knows what true happiness is, since without
the guidance of such a leader man cannot attain
his proper goal ; this head of the state must possess
such virtues as intelligence, loftiness of soul, love
of justice, temperance, &C. 1 Al-Farabf s specula-
tive outlook probably concerned itself little with
the actual political condition of the world in which
he lived, but it is obvious how such speculations
could be applied to the theory of the Caliphate, as
soon as it ceased to be regarded merely from a
theological point of view.
A group of thinkers, known as the Ikhwan us-
Safa, about the latter part of the tenth century,
produced an encyclopaedic work dealing with
every branch of philosophy, practical as well as
PHILOSOPHICAL AND ETHICAL WRITERS 123
theoretical. They more definitely laid down a
doctrine of the Caliphate, in harmony with that
wider use of the title of Khallf ah, which recognition
of the impotency of the Caliph in Baghdad sug-
gested to thoughtful minds, and in this respect the
writings of the Ikhwan us-Safa were not possibly
without influence on the thought of their co-
religionists. They declared that kings are the
Caliphs (or vicegerents) of God upon His earth,
for He has given them authority over His servants
and His territories, in order that they may adjudi-
cate between His creatures with justice and equity,
succour the weak, and show mercy to the afflicted ;
keep in subjection the oppressors, and make men
submit to the ordinances of the Law. On the
other hand, the judges (the qadls) are the Caliphs
(or vicegerents) of the prophets, while the king is
the guardian of religion. 2
The philosophic doctrine was put forward in
a more speculative form by Shihab ud-Dln Suhra-
wardi, who was put to death for heresy in Aleppo
in 1191, before he had reached the age of 38. In
his Hikmat ul-Ishraq, the philosophy of illumina-
tion, he approaches the problem of government
from a point of view in many respects Platonic.
The world (he says) has never been wholly without
philosophy, or without a man who practices it and
is indicated as such by manifest proofs and signs ;
he is then the Khallfah and will remain so as long
as Heaven and Earth endure. There are various
degrees of philosophic and theosophic knowledge ;
124 THE CALIPHATE
if complete mastery in both these forms of wisdom
is bound in one person, then he is Khalifah of God
upon earth. If no such person exists, then this
exalted designation belongs to the complete
theosophist, for the speculative philosopher who
is not at the same time a theosophist has no right-
ful claim to it. Writing as a Sufi, Suhrawardi is
careful to explain that by this Khilaf at is not to be
understood worldly power, for the authority that
goes along with this high dignity may belong to a
man, even though he lives in the deepest poverty,
and may be exercised by him secretly ; if, how-
ever, power comes to him and he assumes this
authority openly, then is the world filled with light ;
otherwise it is full of darkness. 3
These philosophic representations of the Khali-
fah, as being the enlightened and just ruler, were
popularized in the numerous manuals, written
especially in Persian and embellished by illustra-
tive anecdotes, for the guidance of princes, and
compiled in a simple form, fitted to the limited
intelligences of the various barbarous princes
who broke up the Arab empire into separate
kingdoms. One of the earliest of these, written in
Arabic in the tenth or eleventh century, though
commonly said to have been translated from the
Greek by Yuhanna ibn Bitrlq in the early part
of the ninth century, claimed to contain the advice
which Aristotle gave to his pupil Alexander on
justice and the various duties of a king, political
organization, the waging of war, &c. The great
PHILOSOPHICAL AND ETHICAL WRITERS 125
minister of the Saljuqs, Nizam ul-Mulk, compiled
such a treatise on the art of government about the
year 1092, which he dedicated to Sultan Malikshah.
This is not a philosophical treatise expounding
a political theory, but is made up mainly of
practical advice as to methods of administration,
the giving of audience, the execution of justiQ^> and
the watchful superintendence of various function-
aries, military, judicial, and financial, whose
conduct was to be constantly reported to the king
by his Spies. But in it he enunciates the doctrine
of kingship that was gaming wide acceptance in
this period, and writes, * In every age God selects
a man whom He adorns with kingly qualities and
to whom He entrusts the well-being and the peace
of His servants.' 4
There is more philosophic depth and more
systematic treatment of political problems in the
Akhlaq-i-Nasirl, so styled after the name of its
compiler, Nasir ud-Dln Tus! (ob. 1274), one of the
most active writers of religious and philosophical
books in the thirteenth century. As he was in the
service of Hulagu, and on account of his knowledge
of astronomy was consulted by this Mongol
sovereign as to whether the stars were favourable
for the undertaking of any enterprise, and as he
accompanied Hulagu at the siege of Baghdad
and persuaded him that no divine vengeance
was likely to follow the death of the Caliph, he
naturally lays no particular emphasis on a political
institution which he was willing to see so ruthlessly
126 THE CALIPHATE
destroyed. Moreover, Naslr ud-Dm was a Shiah,
and therefore had little interest in giving an
exposition of the Sunni doctrine of the Caliphate ;
but he identified the Imam with thB ideal ruler as
described by Plato and Aristotle.
This work served as the basis of what later on
became one of the most popular manuals of ethics
wherever the Persian language was read, the
Akhlaq-i-Jalali of Jalal ud-Dln Dawam, compiled
about 1470 and dedicated to Czun Hasan, the
chief of the Turkomans of the White Sheep, to
whom reference has already frequently been made.
He was strongly influenced by Aristotelian philo-
sophy in the form in which it had by this time been
made widely known in the Muhammadan world
by Muhammadan thinkers themselves, but Jalal
ud-Dln presents this political speculation in a more
distinctively Muhammadan form than is found
in the writings of some of his predecessors. He
quotes the well-known verses of the Quran
(vi. 165 and xxxviii. 25) which occur so frequently
in the literature of this period, and lays it down
that it is the first duty of the administrator of the
world to uphold the authority of the Muslim law,
and then he is indeed the Shadow of God and the
Khallf ah of God and the Lieutenant of the Prophet.
It would therefore appear that since the supreme
power had passed out of the hands of the Abbasids,
Arabs of the tribe of the Quraysh, and had b^en
assumed by various princes of barbarous origin,
for whom no such exalted genealogy could be
PHILOSOPHICAL AND ETHICAL WRITERS 127
adduced, it was necessary for the salving of tender
consciences to find some other justification of the
obedience which the pious Muslim was called upon
to show to his new rulers ; this had been done by
^attention on the words of the
Qur'an, which gave to the title Khallfah a more
general reference ; and now philosophy was
brought in to uphold the same position. This
assistance had been rendered more easily possible
from the fact that from the twelfth century on-
wards, after a long struggle between the theologians
and the unorthodox philosophers, philosophy had
been taken into the curriculum of Muslim theolo-
gical studies, being presented in modified forms held
to be in harmony with the fundamental doctrines
of Islam. Even those who were not professed
students of philosophy felt the influence of such
an appeal to a reasoned exposition of political
theory, and combined it with the more popular
method of appeal to the Word of God. Thus the
historian, Hafiz Abru, writing the praises of his
patron Shah Rukh, says, ' It has been established
by decisive proofs and by clear arguments that
after the great law (that is, the exalted Shari'ah)
there is no order or rank more dignified than
dominion and sultanate, and what rank or status
could be higher, since God (glorious is His majesty
and sublime is His Word) has in His eternal Word
appointed just kings to be Caliphs and Lieutenants
of Himself, and has placed in the hand of their
choice and the grasp of their will the reins of work
128 THE CALIPHATE
and action, in that he says that it is He who makes
you Caliphs upon earth and lifts up some above
others in rank, and the Prophet (the blessing of
the Merciful be upon him) has borne witness to the
truth of this doctrine and the soundness of this
claim, and some have interpreted power (sultan)
as being the Shadow of God upon earth, and all
those who are oppressed take refuge with him.' 5
XI
THE OTTOMANS AND THE CALIPHATE
THE title of Khallfah seems during this period
to have assumed a new significance ; it certainly
no longer implied descent from the house of 'Abbas
or any claim to belong to the tribe of the Quraysh.
The Muslim monarch now claimed to derive his
authority directly from God, to be the vicegerent
of Allah, not a mere successor of the Prophet ; and
the other designations, such as Imam and Amir
ul-Mu'minin, that had hitherto been associated
with the Caliphate, generally dropped into abey-
ance, and were rarely assumed by those who called
themselves Caliphs. The frequent quotation of
the verses (Qur'an, xxxviii. 25) * And we have
made thee a Khallfah (vicegerent) on the earth ',
and (Qur'an, vi. 165) * He hath made you Caliphs
on the earth ' in the official documents of this
period, 1 to the virtual exclusion of any other
Qur'anic verse or any Tradition that had been
commonly adduced by theologians of an earlier age
when dealing with the Khilafat, points to the same
conclusion ; it was from God and God alone that
these rulers derived their authority and in such
verses He Himself announced their appointment
as His vicegerents. Thus the title of Caliph passed
from the supreme authority who used to' nominate
Sultans, to any Sultan who cared to assume a de-
signation once held to be unique. When so many
130 THE CALIPHATE
lesser princes in the Muhammadan world were
arrogating to themselves this exalted title, it is
hardly surprising to find that it was not refused
to the rising power of the Ottoman Sultans, and
since many of their correspondents attributed to
them this dignity in various forms of address, the
flattery was presumably not unwelcome to them.
Murad I was frequently so styled ; when he had
conquered Adrianople, Philippopolis and other
cities (about 1362), the Amir of Karamania in Asia
Minor wrote to congratulate him on his victories
and described him as c the chosen Khalifah of the
Creator ' and c the shadow of God upon earth \ 2
In his reply Murad gives utterance to the pious
sentiment that there is no difference in nature or
substance between ruler and subject, but that God
has bestowed upon some of his chosen servants the
dignity of the Caliphate, in order that taking upon
themselves this heavy responsibility, they may
relieve the misery of the helpless ; and he calls
upon God to witness that from the date of his
coming to the throne he had not taken a moment's
rest, but had devoted himself day and night to
waging war and jihad, and always had his armour
on to serve the Muslim weal ; so that any one who
prayed that he (Murad) might be victorious, would
thereby serve his own advantage. 3 It is clear from
this letter that Murad regarded himself as a Caliph,
of course in the sense of this word as understood by
his contemporaries.
A similar letter of congratulation, sent by
THE OTTOMANS 131
another Amir of Asia Minor, Isfandiyar Beg, of
Qastamunl, in 1374, addresses Murad as c Your
Highness who has attained the pre-eminent rank
of the Caliphate, . . . Sultan of the Sultans of Islam,
and Khaqan of the Khaqans of mankind \ 4 In
the following year a letter from the governor of
Erzerum describes him as c the lord of the world,
whose under-garment is the Caliphate '. 5
The capture of Nish, one of the furthest points
of Murad' s victorious campaigns on the high road
to Hungary, after a siege of twenty-five days in
1375, was the occasion of another letter of con-
gratulation this time from 'All Beg of Karamania,
who expresses his delight at this victory of c the
ornament of the throne of the Caliphate ' and prays
that ' God Almighty may stablish the pillars of his
Caliphate until the judgement day \ 6
The aggressive attitude of his son and successor,
Bayazld I (1389-1402), towards the Amirs of Asia
Minor was not calculated to induce them to bestow
on him titles implying the headship of the Muham-
madan world, and his more powerful rivals such
as the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and (for a time)
Sultan Ahmad Jala'ir of 'Iraq appear to have
regarded his military successes and the extension
of his territories as constituting a grave menace to
their own safety. Least of all, was his most
serious rival, Timur, who later achieved his ruin
and took him prisoner after the disastrous battle
of Angora (1402), ready to pay him compliments,
and the bitter tone of their correspondence left no
182 THE CALIPHATE
room for the mellifluous elegancies of diplomatic
phraseology ; indeed, the acrimony of it reached
such a point that, instead of a long enumeration of
titles and invocations of divine blessing, Tlmur
bluntly addresses (probably about 1401) his rival
with the words, 4 O King in Rum, Yildirim
Bayazld.' 7 But Bayazld when, about the end of
November 1395, he published the news of his
victories to the qadis and other officials of his king-
dom did not hesitate to write to them : c God has
fitted me whose nature bears the marks of the
Caliphate, to be a sultan and a world-conqueror, and
has set (His words) " We have made thee a Khallf ah
on the earth " in my royal cipher and device.' 8
When Bayazid died as a prisoner in the hands of
Tlmur, the Ottoman state seemed on the verge of
ruin ; his sons fought with one another for his
inheritance, and the kingdom was for a time
divided into three parts, each governed by an
independent Sultan, claiming to be the sole heir
of his father. It was not until ten years after his
father's death that Muhammad I in 1413 defeated
the last of his rivals and was able to take up the
task of restoring order in the distracted Ottoman
dominions. In his letters bearing the intelligence of
his success in 1415 to contemporary Muhammadan
potentates, such as Shainsuddin Muhammad, the
Amir of Karamania, Hamzah Beg (son of the
governor of Smyrna), who had come to his aid
opportunely with a troop of horsemen a few years
before, on the eve of his final conflict with his
THE OTTOMANS 133
brother Musa,* and to the qadl of Brusa, 10
Muhammad I makes no claim to the title of
Khalifah, but he soon adopted the fashion of his
fathers and in 1416 in a letter to Shah Rukh speaks
of 4 affairs of his Sultanate and Caliphate ' ; u and
in a letter to Qara Yusuf, the Turkoman Sultan of
the Black Sheep (the Qara-Qoyunlu), about 1418,
he describes his capital as c the abode of the
Khilafat V 2 Nor did he lack those who would
flatter him with such exalted terms of address ;
about 1417 Qara Iskandar, the son (and after-
wards successor) of the above-mentioned Qara
Yusuf, who at that time ruled over the greater
part of Persia and 'Iraq, addressed him as 4 the sun
in the sign of the Khilafat'. 13 About the same
period, the governor of the province of Shlrwan,
Sultan Khalil, invented for him the strange appel-
lation of ' the index of the book of the Sultanate
and the preface of the (divine) message of the
Caliphate ', by which he implied that Muhammad I
was both Sultan and Khalifah. 14
The recognition which his son Murad II received
on his accession in 1421 was immediate ; Jahan
Shah Mlrza, brother of the Qara Qoyfinlu prince,
Iskandar, who had acknowledged the Caliphate of
Muhammad I, exhausted the resources of the
Persian language in his letter of- congratulation to
Murad on his ascending the throne of his father ;
after declaring that God bestows the robe of
honour of the Caliphate and the cloak of the
Sultanate on one of the chosen of the sons of Adam,
134 THE CALIPHATE
some incomparable being out of the select among
exalted nations, he goes on to address Murad as
4 his majesty who has attained to the pre-eminent
rank of the Caliphate, the refuge of the Sultanate ',
and so on, with line after line in praise of his great-
ness and his prowess on behalf of Islam, ending with
the prayer, * May God Almighty multiply the days
of his Sultanate and increase the years of his life
and his Caliphate until the day of judgement.' 15
In acknowledging the receipt of this letter Murad
refers to it as having been written from the c throne
of glory and the Caliphate ' thus returning the
compliment to Jahan Shah Mirza, by recognizing
that he too could claim this title. 16
But a much more exalted potentate, son of the
ruthless conqueror who had inflicted such humilia-
tion on Murad' s grandfather Shah Rukh was
ready to address the new Sultan in equally flatter-
ing terms as 4 Your majesty, the seat of the
Sultanate and the refuge of the Caliphate (may
God Almighty make your Caliphate and your
power (sultan) endure for ever, (God) the Writer
of the decree " He hath made you Caliphs on the
earth ", Who hath proclaimed in your illustrious
name the Caliphate of the whole world). 9 17
Not so impressive is the tribute of respect from
Hamzah Beg, chief of the Turkomans of the
White Sheep, but as he ruled over Adharbayjan
and Diyar Bakr, it is noteworthy that he too
prays God may perpetuate for ever the dominion
and the power (sultan) and the Caliphate of Murad
THE OTTOMANS 135
and exalt his dignity above the heavens. 18 Simi-
larly the governor of Mardin, Nasir ud-Din, when
about 1439 he submits a report of his military
successes, addresses Murad II as ' the Sultan of the
Sultans of the Turks and the Arabs and the
Persians, the star of the Khilafat . . . the shadow
of the mercy of God 5 . 19
If any Sultan of the Ottoman house might
fittingly have received the highest title that the
Muhammadan world could bestow, it was surely
Muhammad II, the Conqueror, after he had
established the capital of the Turkish empire in
Constantinople (that great Christian city which had
foiled all Muslim attempts to take it by storm for
nearly eight centuries). One of the most formid-
able of contemporary Muhammadan sovereigns, who
was soon to become a troublesome rival of the
Ottoman power and was consequently courted by
the Christian states of Venice and Trebizond in
their fear of increasing aggression on the part of the
Turks tjzun Hasan, the greatest monarch of the
dynasty of the Turkomans of the White Sheep
writing an account of his conquest of Adharbayjan
and 'Iraq to Muhammad II in 1467, prayed that
God might make Muhammad's dominion and
Caliphate and power (sultan) abide for ever
throughout the whole earth and cause his justice
and mercy and kindness to be poured forth over
the world. 20 Another letter from the same prince,
written a little later to report further military
successes, addresses Muhammad II as 6 the light
136 THE CALIPHATE
of the pupil of the eye of the Caliphate '. 21 As their
rivalry became more pronounced, t}zun Hasan
dropped these complimentary phrases and adopted
an insolent tone in his correspondence.
Muhammad does not appear to have used the
title of Khallfah in his own correspondence either
with contemporary sovereigns or with his own
subjects with the strange exception of his sons ;
Mustafa, in 1482, he styles c light of the pupil of
the eye of the Sultanate and light of the garden of
the Caliphate V 2 and uses a variant of the same
phrase for his ill-fated son Jem, at the time when
he was governor of Qastamuni, c light of the garden
of the Sultanate and light of the pupil of the eye
of the Caliphate.' 23
Friendly relations existed between his successor,
Bayazld II (1481-1512) and Ya'qub, son of that
Czun Hasan whose hostilities to the Ottoman
house have already been referred to ; he obviously
wished to stand well with Bayazld and among the
terms of eulogy he lavishes upon him, he includes
4 his majesty who has attained the pre-eminent
rank of the Caliphate, . . . the glory of the Sultans
of the world, seated by right on the throne of the
Caliphate '. 24 A nephew of this same prince,
named Eustam, addressed Bayazld II in similar
terms as ' his majesty who has attained the pre-
eminent rank of the Caliphate, . . . seated by right
on the throne of the Sultanate and exalting the
seat of the Caliphate \ 25
So the claim to the title of Khallfah descended
THE OTTOMANS 137
from father to son in the Ottoman ruling family
until the reign of Salim I (1512-1520). Before he
came to the throne and while he was still a prince,
the same chief of the Turkomans of the White
Sheep, Sultan Ya'qub, who had recognized the
Caliphate of his father Bayazid II, styled Salim
c the manifestation of the lights of the Caliphate '
and 4 the right hand of the realm and the justice
and the Caliphate,' 26 and in another letter 4 the
spreading tree of the garden of the Caliphate, . . .
Sultan Salim Shah (may God lengthen the days of
his power and the years of his felicity in the shadow
of the Caliphate of his august father) \ 27 Similarly,
while Salim was still a prince, he received from
Abu'l-Muzaffar, Shah of Alwand, a letter describing
him as ' the choicest of Sultans, whose under-
garment is the Caliphate, . . . the greatest of the
most eminent holders of the Caliphate, . . . who
lifteth up the flags of Islam to the sky of glory, the
stay of the Sultanate and of justice, the right hand
of the Caliphate, Sultan Salim (may God cause the
pillars of his prosperity to abide ... in the shadow
of his majesty, his august father, the Caliph of the
Merciful among the faithful, may God make the
shadow of his imperial Caliphate abide for ever) \ 28
Salim must therefore, long before he himself came
to the throne, have been accustomed to regard
the Caliphate as aji apanage of the royal Ottoman
family, and to have been well aware that his father
was saluted as Caliph, even as his grandfather and
many another ancestor had been so styled before
138 THE CALIPHATE
him. When in November 1512, his brother
Qurqud made his submission to the new Sultan,
he describes Salim as * laying the foundations of the
columns of empire and firmly building up the pillars
of the Caliphate . . . the Shadow of God upon earth'. 29
It is commonly stated that Sultan Salim assumed
the title of Caliph after his conquest of Egypt,
when in Cairo the last Abbasid Caliph, Mutawakkil,
solemnly transferred it to him, but as early as 1514
Salim had already styled himself ' the Khallfah
of God throughout the length and breadth of the
earth V and he had been saluted (along with other
high-sounding titles) as c he who attained the
exalted rank of the Caliphate ' by contemporary
princes before the Egyptian campaign had been
planned, e.g. by Sultan 'Ubayd Allah Khan, the
Uzbeg ruler of Samarqand, who in August 1514
(apparently before he had heard of the victory at
Chaldiran) answered a letter that Sultan Salim had
sent him in the previous January, 31 and by Shah
Ismft'll, in a letter written after the battle of
Chaldiran^ (August 1514), in which he was so
completely defeated ; 32 and in two congratulatory
poems on the victory of Chaldiran, Khwajah
Isfahan! lauds him as ' Caliph of God and of
Muhammad ' 33 and as ' king of the throne of the
Caliphate \ 34 Further, Salim refers in a similar
manner to himself, when, informing his son Sulay-
man of the victory at Chaldiran, he begins * Beloved
son . . . light of the pupil of the eye of the Sultanate
and victorious light of the garden of theCaliphate'. 35
XII
SULTAN SALIM IN EGYPT
BY his crushing defeat of the Persians at Chal-
diran in 1514 and his subsequent annexation of
Kurdistan and Diyar-Bakr, Salim had effectually
checked the growing power of Shah Isma'il and
was for a time safe from the aggressive policy of
his ambitious rival on the eastern borders of the
Ottoman dominions. He was now free to turn his
arms against the Mamluks of Egypt, with whom
he had a long outstanding quarrel. Egyptian
troops had on more than one occasion during his
father's reign invaded Asia Minor and celebrated
their victories with long lines of captives led in
triumph through Cairo. Rival claimants to the
Ottoman throne found a welcome in Egypt, and
there was little doubt that the sympathies of the
Mainluk Sultan had been with Shah Isma'il in
the conflict between Persia and Turkey, but the
favourable opportunity for active assistance had
been allowed to slip by, and now that Salim had
come out victorious, the Mamluk prince became
not unnaturally alarmed, and spent the winter of
1515 and the spring of 1516 in equipping an army
for the great struggle.
In May 1516 the Egyptian army under the
command of the Sultan Qansuh Ghurl left Egypt,
accompanied by the Abbasid Caliph and the four
chief Qadis. In August he was defeated by Salim
140 THE CALIPHATE
at Marj Dabiq near Aleppo ; Qansuh was killed ;
Sallm occupied Aleppo and pitched his camp
outside the city ; here he received the Caliph,
who had been taken prisoner after the battle of
Dabiq> and the account of the interview seems
to suggest that Sallm made him recognize his
inferior status ; * he asked him what was his
place of origin ; when the Caliph answered,
* Baghdad ', Salmi said, ' Then we will send you
back again to Baghdad '. He gave the Caliph
a robe of honour and a present of money, and let
him return to Aleppo. At the end of September
Sallm entered Damascus and the Caliph followed
him there two days later. Sallm stayed in Damas-
cus for over two months.
Meanwhile, a new Sultan, Tuman Bay, had to
be appointed in Cairo, and for this ceremony the
presence of the Caliph was necessary. The father
of Mutawakkil, Mustamsik (who had resigned the
office of Caliph in 1509 on account of old age),
came forward and performed the ceremony as
representative of his son in October 1516.
In December Sallm set out on his march to
Egypt ; the outposts of the Egyptian army were
beaten at Gaza on the 19th December, and the
main army of Tuman Bay defeated at Ridania,
in the neighbourhood of Cairo, on 22nd January
1517, and on the following day the Khutbah was
read in the name of Sallm in the mosques of Cairo.
4 God, give victory to the Sultan, son of the
Sultan, the king of the two continents and the
SULTAN SALIM IN EGYPT 141
two seas, the destroyer of the two armies, the
Sultan of the two 'Iraqs, the servant of the two
Holy Sanctuaries, the victorious King, Sultan
Salim Shah.' 2
On the following Tuesday, Tuman Bay forced
his way into the city ; for three days there was
fighting in the streets, and on the Friday the
Khutbah was read in the name of Tuman Bay. But
on the very same day, Salim succeeded in driving
the Mamluks out of the city, and Tuman Bay fled
into Upper Egypt. Negotiations passed between
the two monarchs, and the Caliph was the recipient
of Tuman Bay's letter to Salim, and Salim wanted
the Caliph and the four Qadis to be the bearers of
his reply ; but the Caliph declined and sent
a deputy instead. Tuman Bay collected another
army, but at the end of March was defeated near
the Pyramids by the Ottomans, and treacherously
given up to Salim a few days later, and put to
death in April.
For a few months Salim appears to have allowed
the Caliph to exercise a certain amount of authority
in the administration, and his palace was conse-
quently crowded with petitioners who sought his
intercession on their behalf, Salim doubtless
found it politic to make use of his prisoner in this
manner, in order to reconcile the populace of Cairo
to the new government. During this brief period
Mutawakkil is said to have received more presents
than ever his ancestors received before him and
this accession of fortune quite turned his head ; 3
142 THE CALIPHATE
but the unfortunate Caliph was soon undeceived,
for in June Sallm banished him to Constantinople.
They did not meet again until a year later, when
Sallm himself returned to Constantinople in July
1518. At first the Sultan appears to have shown
him some consideration, but his attitude towards
him soon changed ; the Caliph quarrelled with his
relatives over the division of their allowance, and
appears to have been shamefully extravagant,
especially in buying dancing girls for his amuse-
ment. 4 Sallm became so annoyed that he im-
prisoned him in a castle, where he probably
remained until after Sallm' s death in September
1520. In the reign of Sulayman, according to the
historian Qutb ud-Din, who made his acquaintance
in Cairo in 1536, Mutawakkil returned to Cairo
and 4 became Khallfah there ', 5 and in the year
1523 once more exercised his old function of
investing a Sultan of Egypt, as his ancestors had
done before him, when the governor Ahmad Pasha
revolted against Sultan Sulayman and for a brief
period ma^de himself independent. 6 This is the
last recorded act of Mutawakkil, but he continued
to live on in Cairo until his death in 1543.
The popular Account at the present day of the
relations between Sultan Sallm and the Khallfah
Mutawakkil is that the Caliph made a formal
transfer of his office to the conqueror, and as
a symbol of this transference handed over to him
the sacred relics, which were believed to have
come down from the days of the Prophet the
SULTAN SALlM IN EGYPT 143
robe, of which mention has already been made
as being worn by the Abbasids of Baghdad on
solemn state occasions some hairs from his
beard, and the sword of the Caliph 'Urnar. There
is no doubt that Salim carried off these reputed
relics to Constantinople (where they are still
preserved in the mosque of Ayyub), as part of the
loot which he acquired by the conquest of Egypt ;
but of the alleged transfer of the dignity of the
Khilafat there is no contemporary evidence at all.
There are two contemporary accounts of the
campaign which terminated in the conquest of
Egypt, giving in the form of a diary a record of
what happened day by day apparently the
official reports drawn up by the court chronicler ; 7
two Turkish and one Persian historian were eye-
witnesses of this triumph of Sultan Salim and
wrote a narrative of it from personal knowledge ; 8
but none of these contemporary sources make
any reference whatsoever to any such transfer,
indeed they appear to have regarded the unfor-
tunate relic of the Abbasid dynasty as unworthy
of their notice. For such information as we have
of MutawakkiPs position during this period we
are indebted to an Egyptian scholar, Ibn lyas,
who appears to have been well-informed and to
have been interested in the fate of the Abbasid
Caliph ; though he gives many details, there is
not the slightest indication of such a transfer of
his high office, and even after Mutawakkil had
been banished to Constantinople, Ibn lyas refers
144 THE CALIPHATE
to this city merely as * the seat of the throne of
the Ottoman kingdom '.*
It is noteworthy also that in the letter 10 which
Sultan Sallm wrote to his son Prince Sulayman,
giving in detail the various triumphs of his cam-
paign, culminating in the conquest of Egypt, he
makes no mention whatsoever of the Khalifah.
If such a transference of an office, once believed to
be the most exalted in the Muslim world, had
actually taken place, and if Sultan Sallm had cared
at all for the title of c Khalifah ', it seems incredible
that he should not have made mention of it in
such an enumeration of his successes. For it is
clear from this letter to Sulayman, giving a detailed
account of the campaign from the battle of Marj
Dabiq to the conquest of Egypt, that what he
prided himself on was the immense extension of
territory that his victory had brought him.
* Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds, now
the whole length and breadth of the territories of
Egypt Malatiyah and Aleppo and holy Damascus
and Cairo itself and Upper Egypt and Abyssinia
and the Yaman to the frontier of Qayrawan in
the west and the Hijaz and Mecca and Yathrib
and Medina and Jerusalem have all been com-
prised within the Ottoman territories, and Sayyid
Abu'l-Hasan, the young son of the Sharif Abu'l-
Barakat ibn Sharif Muhammad, is going to come
to the foot of my world-embracing throne.' u
There is definite historical evidence that he was
overjoyed at having acquired the right to style
SULTAN SALlM IN EGYPT 145
himself * Servant of the two Holy Sanctuaries '
a title that had been held by the Mamluk Sultan,
and not by the Abbasid Caliph for when, after
the death of his rival in the battle of Marj Dabiq,
he could assume this coveted title, and in January
1517 he heard himself described in the Khutbah
in the great mosque of Aleppo as c Servant of the
two Holy Sanctuaries ', he bowed himself down in
thanksgiving to God and gave vent to the joy and
satisfaction he felt, and bestowed robes of honour
on the preacher in the pulpit. 12 But by this
period the title of Khallfah had been assumed by
so many insignificant princes that it had ceased
to carry with it the same impressive associations
as it had borne in earlier centuries, and Salim was
probably not unaware of the fact that when his
hated rival, the Shah of Persia, had a few years
before, in 1508, taken Baghdad from the Turko-
mans, he put in a eunuch as governor of the old
imperial city, with the title of ' Caliph of the
Caliphs V 3
Moreover, as has been pointed out above, Salim
and his ancestors had already long been accus-
tomed to enjoy such prestige as went along with
the use of the title Khallfah, and when Salim cared
to adopt it, he would do so, as his fathers had
done before him, in virtue of divine appointment,
and he would certainly not look upon himself as
having taken it over from so insignificant and so
negligible a personage as the Abbasid Caliph of
Cairo, in whose family the historic Caliphate had
146 THE CALIPHATE
lost all the dignity that it had once possessed, in
consequence of the degraded position to which
its representatives had been reduced during the
two centuries and a half of subserviency to
Mamluk caprice. If reference had to be made
to any family that had enjoyed this high honour,
it was his own, that of the Ottoman Sultans, and
he does so refer to it as * this family that has been
the abode of the Caliphate ' in a letter written to
the governor of Mazandaran, in December 1517
months after the last Abbasid Caliph had been
sent into exile to Constantinople. 14
The fiction that the last Abbasid Caliph of
Egypt handed over his dignity, by a formal act
of transfer, to Sultan Sallm, was first enunciated
in 1787 by Constantine Mouradgea d'Ohsson in
his monumental work, Tableau general de V Empire
Othoman.* He supported this statement by refer-
* After quoting the principle that the Imam must be of
the Quraysh, he goes on : 'La maison Othomane n'a pas
1'avantage d'etre du meme sang, comme Fexige la loi canonique,
pour avoir droit a Flmameth. Cependant, selon 1'opinion
unanime des juristes modernes, ce droit est acquis aux Sultans
Othomans, par la renonciation formelle qu'en fit, Tan 923
(1517), en faveur de cette maison souveraine, dans la personne
de Seiim I, Mohammed XII Ebu-Djeafer, dit Mutewwekil ai'
allah. C'est Ic dernier des Khaliphes Abassides, dont le
sacerdoce fut detruit du mme coup qui renversa la puissance
des Memlouks Circasses en figypte. Selim I regut encore
dans la meme annee les hommages du Scherif de la Mccque,
Mohammed Eb'ul-Berekeath, qui lui fit presenter dans un
plat d'argent les clefs du Keabe par Ebu-Noumy son fils.
Cette cession pleine et entiere des droits de I'lmameth, faite
d'un cote par un Khaliphe Abasside, et de 1'autre par un
SULTAN SALlM IN EGYPT 147
ence to no historical source, nor apparently did
any of the historians who have since accepted his
authority, make any attempt to test the validity
of this assertion, 15 and so it has passed unchallenged
from one historical work to another Oriental as
well as European and has become a common-
place in the modern propagandist literature of
the Muhammadan world in support of the Ottoman
claims to the Caliphate.
We may judge of the description of himself that
Salim himself preferred, from the language of the
Khutbah that was read in the mosques of Cairo,
on the day of his great triumph, 23rd January
1517 (see above, p. 140). Sultan is the title re-
peated again and again in this Khutbah ; by this
title the Ottoman historians are accustomed to
describe their sovereigns when they refer to them
simply, without a string of grandiloquent appella-
tions ; and on his coins Salim put no other title,
as had been the general usage of his forefathers
before him ; his father, Bayazld II (1481-1512),
had introduced the formula, ' Lord of might and
victory by land and sea ' ; his great-grandson,
Murad III (1574-1595), replaced this by the
formula, * Sultan of the two continents, Khaqan
of the two seas', and Mahmud II (1808-1839)
Scherif de la Mecque, tous deux descendans des Coureyschs,
Tun par la branche de Haschim, Tautre par celle d'Aly, supplee,
dans les Sultans Othomans, au defaut de la naissance ou de
1'extraction qu'exige la loi pour exercer d'une mani&re lgitime
les fonctions du sacerdoce ' (i. 269-70, ed. 8vo, Paris, 1788-
1824).
148 THE CALIPHATE
introduced the variant, * Sultan of the sultans of
the age \ But none of the Ottomans described
themselves on their coins as Khalifah, or Imam,
or Amir al-Mu'minln, as they would have done,
had they followed the usage of the Abbasid
Caliphs or had looked upon themselves as con-
tinuing the line of this august dynasty.
It was by the sword, or rather by his cannon,
that Salim had achieved greatness, and his
conquests had made him more powerful than
any contemporary Muhammadan sovereign, and
his empire included territories over which no
Khalifah before him had ever exercised authority.
It could hardly have enhanced his reputation
in the eyes of the Muslim world for him to
have represented himself as the successor of
the Abbasid Caliphs of Cairo, whom most of
his co-religionists had ignored for generations ;
on the other hand, by the incorporation of the
holy cities of Mecca and Medina within his
dominions, he attained a pre-eminence that ap-
pealed to every Muhammadan throughout the
world. The appearance of the Portuguese in
eastern waters was a menace to more than one
Muhammadan state, and their raids upon the
coast-towns of the Ked Sea threatened the safety
of the pilgrims to Mecca, and there was reason to
fear that the King of Portugal's ambition was the
destruction of the Holy City. 16 But now the most
powerful and most wealthy monarch in the Muslim
world came forward as the Servant of the holy
SULTAN SALlM IN EGYPT 149
Sanctuaries and gained thereby the admiration
and the grateful prayers of every true believer,
even as he excited alarm in the Christian world.
For some centuries past when there had been
so many Muslim sovereigns who had not considered
it necessary to apply to the Caliph for authorization
of their position, their relationship to the holy
cities of Mecca and Medina had acquired a new
significance. It appears as if such sovereigns,
aware of the weakness of their position in respect
of the requirements of Muslim law, desired to
strengthen their status in the eyes of their Muslim
subjects by ostentatious piety and by lavishing
rich gifts upon these two holy sanctuaries. From
the very outset of the Muhammadan era there
had been a connexion between Mecca and Medina
and the Caliphate ; but, whereas in later times it
had come to be believed that one justification for
claiming the title ' Khalifah * was based on the
protection of these two holy cities, no such im-
portance appears, in some of the earlier periods
of Muslim history, to have been attached to such
a protectorate. That the Caliphate could be held
by a sovereign who did not include Mecca within
the circle of his rule, may be judged by the fact
that during the reigns of the Umayyad Caliphs,
Yazid and 'Abd ul-Malik, that is from 681 to 692,
there was a rival Khalifah in Mecca in the person
of 'Abdallah ibn Zubayr. Further, from 930 tc
950, Mecca was occupied by the heretic Carma-
thians, and from 1238 to 1250 it was under the
150 THE CALIPHATE
rule of the Rasulid dynasty of the Yaman. The
sack of Mecca in 930 by the Carmathians, who
carried off the Black Stone and did not restore it
until 950, made the Muslim world realize how help-
less the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad was when
protection was needed for the Holy City. A
rivalry made itself apparent from this period, as
to who should be the protector of the Holy City.
From 918 the Fatimid Khilafat (founded in
Mahdiyyah in 909) tried to enhance its status by
such a protectorate ; but it was not until 969 (the
year in which Egypt was added to the Fatimid
empire) that the Fatimid Caliph was mentioned
in the Friday prayer in Mecca to the exclusion of
the Abbasid ; and when (e. g. in 976) Mecca
was recalcitrant, threats were made of starving it
into submission, for it was dependent on Egypt
for its supplies of corn. Saladin retained this
privilege for the Ayyubid dynasty he founded in
Egypt (1169), and the Mamluk Sultans con-
tinued it (from 1260), though Yaman at times
disputed it.
But when the newly established Mongol power
accepted Islam, the Mongol Khans also tried to
obtain recognition for themselves in Mecca. Abu
Sa'id, the Ilkhan of Persia (1316-1335), success-
fully intrigued with one of the rival sons of Abii
Namayy, the Grand Sharif of Mecca, who had died
in 1301, and in 1318 succeeded in getting his own
name inserted in the Khutbah in place of that of
Nasit, the Sultan of Egypt, but Egyptian troops
SULTAN SALlM IN EGYPT 151
soon succeeded in putting a stop to this intrusion
on the part of the Mongol prince. 17
About a century later, it is quite possible that
Tlmur's ambition included the desire to exercise
s
control over Mecca, for in 1400 he fell out with the
Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Faraj, led his armies into
Syria, which was at that time under Egyptian
rule, and captured one city after another, ending
with Damascus. To this period probably belongs
the undated letter which Timur wrote to Bayazld I,
protesting against the assumption of the title of
4 Sultan of the two Holy Sanctuaries ' by the ruler
of Egypt, on the ground that Mecca was the
Sanctuary of God, and Medina was the Sanctuary
of the grave of Muhammad and what prouder
glory or higher felicity was possible than to be
named the custodian and servant of these two
Sanctuaries ? 18 It was in accordance with the
ambitious schemes of his son, Shah Rukh, for
recognition in the Muhammadan world, that in
1444 he applied to the Mamluk Sultan, Jaqmaq,
for a permission that his predecessor Barsbay had
already once refused, viz. to send through Egypt
a covering for the Ka'bah. 19
It was probably due to the special fact that the
chief of the Turkomans of the Black Sheep (to
whom reference has so often been made), Qara
Yusuf, was in occupation of the ancient capital
of the Caliphate, Baghdad, and could thereby
facilitate the journey of the pilgrims from 'Iraq,
that during the pilgrimage of the year 1414
152 THE CALIPHATE
prayers were offered for him in Mecca, but the
historian expressly states that these prayers were
offered in the evening in the course of the prayers
that customarily follow the completion of a reading
of the Qur'an. So Qara Yusuf did not have the
satisfaction of having his name mentioned in the
Khutbah, delivered in the morning service of the
same day, for that would have implied a recogni-
tion of sovereignty or at least of nominal headship
of the Muslim world. 20
Devotion to the Holy City had thus become
a symbol of distinction in the Muslim world, at
a period when the dignity of the Caliph had sunk
into insignificance. Whoever was ruler of Egypt
could control the fate of Mecca, because he could
starve the city out by cutting off the supplies
of grain. It was therefore only natural that the
Amir (or Sharif) of Mecca should tender his sub-
mission to Sultan Sallm after he had made his
victorious entry into Cairo in 1517, and no religious
significance is to be attached to his having sent
his son a boy of twelve 4 to tread on the carpet
of the Sultan in Egypt '. 21 The boy had visited
Cairo four years earlier when Qansuh Ghurl had
invited the Sharif of Mecca to visit him ; but
having been once before enticed away from Mecca
and imprisoned in Egypt, the Sharif was too astute
to run this risk a second time, and so sent his heir,
this child of eight, in his place, and apparently
the substitution gave no offence, for it so happened
that Qansuh Ghurl interpreted a chance word
SULTAN SALlM IN EGYPT 153
that the boy let drop as a sign of good omen for
victory over the Ottomans. 22 So it was to Salim,
as ruler of Egypt, not as any religious or spiritual
functionary, that the Sharif of Mecca made his
submission. The Ottoman Sultans had, for several
generations past, shown great liberality towards
the Holy City, and it was doubtless in anticipation
of such gifts in the future a hope that was not
disappointed that their accession to power was
now welcomed, and prayers were offered during
the solemn rites of the pilgrimage for c Sultan
Salim Khan V 3 f r having, since the tragedy of
1258, discontinued the mention of the name of
any Khallfah in the Khutbah (with the exception
above referred to),* the authorities in Mecca
apparently did not consider that any new circum-
stance had arisen to justify a change in their
practice.
As explained above, Salim had been accustomed
to be regarded as Caliph from his youth upwards,
and must have been aware of the fact that the
title had been applied to his father and his ances-
tors for a century and a half ; it was therefore
natural that such an appellation should continue
to be employed throughout his reign, but it is
noticeable that even after the conquest of Egypt
no fresh claim to this dignity is brought forward,
in any way connected with the Abbasid Caliph,
and if any authorization is suggested, it is made
by means of the same verse in the Qur'an (xxxviii.
* pp. 100-101.
154 THE CALIPHATE
25), that had been quoted by Ottoman Sultans for
generations. Thus it occurs in the preamble of
the longer account of the Egyptian campaign of
1516-1517, where Sallm is described as ' king of
the kingdoms of the earth throughout the length
and breadth of it, worthy of the allocution " We
have made thee a Khallfah on the earth ",
auspicious Padshah, refuge of the Caliphate,
Shadow of God, Sultan Sallm Khan'. 24 After the
same fashion, the Mufti and Qadi of Brusa, acknow-
ledging their master's report of his conquest of
Egypt, exhaust all the resources of rhetoric in
their letters of congratulation ; the first addresses
Sallm as 4 Your majesty, the Shadow of God,
Padshah, protector of the world (may his Caliphate
last for ever and his empire abide unceasingly
by the shield of the help of the Lord !) 5 , 25 and
the second, as 4 Your majesty whose under-
garment is the Khilafat and whose upper-garment
is justice . . . (may God firmly establish the pillars
of his Sultanate !) V 6 and the end of his epistle
prays that c ~the building of this family that bears
the stamp of the Khilafat may be firm as the
dome of heaven \ 27 What is particularly notice-
able in the language of these ecclesiastics is that
they do not make use of the traditional designations
of the Abbasid Caliphs, e. g. Amir al-Mu'minln or
Imam, nor do they directly address Sallm as
Khallfah ; had they regarded him as the successor
of the last Abbasid Caliph they would hardly have
refrained from using these titles sanctified by
SULTAN SALlM IN EGYPT 155
centuries of usage, but the language they use is
such as had for generations been applied to
Ottoman Sultans before him. Similarly, Sallm
himself in his own dispatches quotes, as had been
the custom of his fathers before him, the verse
' We have made you Caliphs on the earth '
(Qur'an, vi. 165), when he reports his conquest
of Egypt 28 (in a letter to the governor of Gllan),
just as he had done after his defeat of Shah Isma'il
in 1514; 29 and in his account of the origin of the
Caliphate he ignores the great historic line of the
Abbasids and declares that c the Caliphate was
first bestowed upon Prophets and then upon
exalted Sultans V Sultan being a title that any
Abbasid Caliph would have scorned to assume.
Strangest of all are the omissions. His son and
heir, Sulayman, in his correspondence with his
father uses no title that has any connexion at all
with the Caliphate, 31 nor do Shaykh Ibrahim, the
Shah of Shlrwan, 32 nor Muzaffar Shah II, King of
Gujarat, include it among the many titles they
bestow upon Sallm. 33 Similarly, when Sulayman
in 1520 sent letters to the high officials of the
empire and to contemporary sovereigns, he (even
as his correspondents in their replies) never refers
to Sallm as having been a Khallfah, but only as
Sultan, though he might add a string of titles, such
as * my father, the illustrious Sultan, the honoured
and esteemed Khaqan, servant of the house of
Allah and of the sanctuary, conqueror of the
kingdoms of the Arabs and the non- Arabs ' 34 (in
156 THE CALIPHATE
a letter to the Amir of Mecca). Such references
in these official documents to the Caliphate are
after the same model as those employed by Otto-
man Sultans, long before the disappearance of
the Abbasid Caliph from Cairo. We miss the earlier
titles associated with the reverence of the whole
Muslim world, such as Imam or Amir ul-Mu'minln ;
when Sulayman does use the latter, he applies it
to the Amir of Mecca, whom he addresses as being
4 of the lineage of the Amir ul-Mu'minm ' (meaning,
of course, 'All ibn Abl Talib), 35 but never so
describes himself, as the great Caliphs of the
Abbasid line would have done. A remarkable
piece of evidence is provided by an inscription set
up in a Madrasa in Cairo, founded in 1543 by
Sulayman' s Grand Wazlr, who bore the same name
as his master Sulayman Pasha. The Sultan is
described as ' the most high Sultan, the exalted
Khaqan, lord of the kings of the Arabs and the
non- Arabs, breaker of the heads of the Khusraus,-
subduer of the necks of the Pharaohs, the warrior
on the path- of God, the fighter for the exaltation
of the Word of God, the boast of the Sultans of
the Ottoman house, Sultan Sulayman Khan, son
of Sultan Sallm Khan (may God perpetuate his
empire and give strength to his power until the
rising of the hour and the hour of the uprising ! '). 86
A Turkish Sultan in those days was not to be
trifled with. Sulayman pitilessly put to death his
two eldest sons and his most intimate friend, his
Grand Wazlr, Ibrahim ; his father is said to have
SULTAN SALlM IN EGYPT 157
had seven Wazlrs executed. A Prime Minister
would never have dared to so describe his master
on a public monument, set up in his honour, unless
he had been aware of the fact that Sultan Sulay-
man attached little importance to the possession
of the title of Caliph. Had this title been assumed
in Cairo twenty-five years before by means of
a transference of it from the last Abbasid Caliph
to the Turkish conqueror, here would have been
just the occasion for emphasizing the fact of such
a succession in the form of a permanent monument,
set up in the old seat of the Caliphate.
Little as the Sultan might care for a title that
had become so cheap, his flatterers, especially
when they were men of letters, were ready to make
use of it in their fulsome and long drawn-out
panegyrics. One of Sallm's officials, Ibn Zunbul,
who accompanied him during his campaign in
Egypt and wrote a history of the conquest, gives
him the title of * Khalifah of God upon Earth 5 . 87
The historian, Qutb ud-Dm, already referred to,
who died in 1582 as Mufti of Mecca, described Sallm
as ' the most exalted Sultan, the most noble and
magnificent Khaqan, the best of the successors of
the Caliphs, the most merciful and the most
honoured of the descendants of the Sultans of the
family of 'Uthman \ 38
A similar use of this title was made by the
flatterers of later Sultans, e.g. when the Sharif
of Mecca, Barakat ibn Muhammad ibn Barakat,
wrote to congratulate Sultan Sulayman on his
168 THE CALIPHATE
succession in 1520, he speaks of * the throne of
the most illustrious Sultanate and the seat of the
most exalted Khilafat % 39 and prays for c the
continuance of the reign of the Khalifah of God '. 40
Such appellations are, however, rare in prose, and
occur more frequently in poetry, and just as the
first appearance of the phrase c Khalifah of Allah '
is found in Hassan ibn Thabit's poem on the
Khalifah 'Uthman, so the Mufti Abu's-Su'ud, who
led the prayers at the funeral of Sultan Sulayman,
wrote an elegy on him, describing him as ' axis of
the Sultanate of the world and centre thereof, styled
Khalifah of Allah in the far ends of the earth'. 41
His successor, Sallm II (1566-1574), is described
by the same Qutb ud-Din in a poem written in
this Sultan's honour, as c Khalifah of this age by
land and sea ', 42 an d in the account he gives of
the re-building of the mosque of the Haram in
Mecca, ' Khalifah of God upon His earth \ 43
XIII
THE MUGHAL EMPERORS IN INDIA
DURING the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
the only Sunni monarchs who could rival the
Ottoman Sultans in wealth and extent of territory
were the Mughal emperors in India. After the
manner of their ancestors in Transoxiana, they
commonly assumed the title of Khalifah, and from
the reign of Akbar onwards they called their
capital ddr ul-khilafat (the abode of the Caliphate).
Akbar' s famous gold coin bore the inscription
* The great Sultan, the exalted Khalifah V It
certainly never formed any part of the policy of
the Mughals to acknowledge the overlordship of
the Ottoman Sultan ; their own wealth and power
made them independent of outside assistance, even
if any could have been rendered by an empire so
far removed from their own, nor did the current
theory of the Caliphate suggest submission to
some central Muslim authority. But this attitude
of independence did not stand in the way of
such complimentary interchange of titles, as has
already been noted in the correspondence between
Muhammad I and Shah Rukh (p. 133), and
between Muhammad II and t^zun Hasan (p. 135),
or Sultan Husayn of Khurasan (p. 118). Corre-
spondence was opened in the name of Akbar in
1557 with Sultan Sulayman, when Akbar was only
a boy of fourteen years of age ; advantage was
160 THE CALIPHATE
taken of the presence in India of the Turkish
admiral, Sid! 'All Katibi, to establish relations
with the Ottoman court, and * string the kingly
pearls of confidence on the thread of affection '
and ' bind together the chains of union and love '.
Accordingly, Sulayman is addressed as c he who
has attained the exalted rank of the Caliphate',
the familiar verse (Qur'an, xxxv. 37) is quoted,
and prayers are offered that his Caliphate may
abide for ever. At the same time the Ottoman
Sultan is reminded that there is now installed on
6 the seat of the Sultanate and the throne of the
Khilafat of the realms of Hind and Sind', a
monarch whose magnificence is equal to that of
Solomon. 2
The same claim was repeated in the reign of
Shah Jahan, when a Turkish ambassador, Arslan
Agha, was dismissed in a rather ungracious
manner, after news had reached India of the
accession of Sultan Ibrahim I in 1640. He was
furnished with a letter from Shah Jahan' s minister
addressed t<x the Turkish Grand Wazlr, Mustafa
Pasha; this letter complains that the Mughal
emperor, * his exalted majesty, who occupies the
dignity of the Caliphate, the Khaqan of the world,
the Shahinshah of the Sultans of the whole earth,
the Shadow of God ', had not been addressed in
language suitable to his high position, and it would
appear that at the Turkish court there was no
secretary properly acquainted with the etiquette
of f reat Padshahs, and especially of the illustrious
MUGHAL EMPERORS IN INDIA 161
house that ruled over India and had ' thrown the
collar of obedience on the necks of all the Sultans
on the surface of the earth '. The writer then goes
on to enumerate the various territories under
Mughal rule, so vast that travellers marching on
every day could not reach to the end of them in
the course of a year or even more. Before the
letter closes, a word of praise and congratulation
is added for the victories of the c Khalifah of the
(four) rightly directed Khalifahs ' (by which un-
usual appellation was apparently meant the late
Sultan Murad IV), who had uplifted the banners
of Islam and strengthened the religion of the
Prophet. 3 This elicited a courteous reply from the
Grand Wazlr, expressing regret for the misunder-
standing and a wish for the establishment of
friendly relations. But opportunity is taken to
emphasize the greatness of the Sultan, on the basis
of the very claim that fired the imagination of
Sallm I, namely, that in his dominions are com-
prised the House of God (in Mecca), the grave of
the Prophet (in Medina), the holy house (in
Jerusalem), and the resting-places of illustrious
Apostles and Prophets ; and many of the same
phrases are employed by the Wazir to extol his
master as were in use two centuries before in the
reign of Salim's grandfather (p. 136), such as 6 the
light of the pupil of the eye of the Caliphate, the
light of the garden of the Sultanate, . . . the Shadow
of God upon earth, the Sultan of the two con-
tinents, the Khaqan of the two seas, the servant
2882
1G2 THE CALIPHATE
of the two holy sanctuaries Sultan Ibrahim
Khan'. 4
As the title Khalifah had been adopted officially
by the imperial house, of course historians and
men of letters had no hesitation in making use of
it, and numerous examples might be given, down
to the reign of Shah 'Alam II (1759-1806), whose
authority for a considerable part of his life was not
even effective within the walls of his own palace,
yet his biographer lauds him as Khalifah and
Shadow of God. 5
Nevertheless, in a country like India in which
the study of the Traditions was prosecuted with
so much zeal, there was always a considerable
body of learned men who remained faithful to
the earlier doctrine that the Caliphate could belong
only to the Quraysh.
XIV
THE LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS AND THE
CALIPHATE
THE avoidance of the ancient titles of ' Khall-
fah ' and ' Amir ul-Mu'minln ' and ' Imam ' in
official descriptions of the Ottoman Sultan was
possibly due to the fact that the Hanafi legists
belonging to that school of law which the Ottoman
Sultans had taken under their protection, had
come to adopt the view (to which reference has
already been made) that the Khilafat had only
lasted thirty years, i. e. up to the death of 'All, and
that afterwards there was only a government by
kings. Such was the view of Nasafl (1068-1 141 ),*
one of the greatest legists of the Hanafi school, whose
exposition of Muslim doctrine was an accepted
text-book in Turkey, and was commented upon
by many scholars there. From him this opinion
had been adopted by the great Turkish jurist,
Ibrahim Halabi (ob. 1549), whose Multaqa'l-Abhur
became the authoritative Ottoman code of law. 2
It was quite in harmony with such a doctrine that
the Turkish 'Ulama should hesitate to style their
ruler 4 Khallfah ' or c Amir ul-Mu'minln ' in official
documents.
Even in the Imperial Chancellery the title
Khalifah seems to have received little con-
sideration, as may be judged from the great
collection of diplomatic correspondence, compiled
164 THE CALIPHATE
by Ahmad Firidun Bey, secretary to the Grand
Wazlr, Muhammad Sokolli, and presented by him
to Sultan Murad III on the feast of Bairam,
1575. To this volume there is prefixed 3 a long
list of protocols, setting forth the proper form of
address to be employed in documents presented to
the sovereign. They are couched in elaborate
formulae, made up of a strange mixture of Arabic,
Persian, and Turkish, some specimens of which
are given in Appendix E. It does not appear that
official usage prescribed one single and invariable
formula, it being probably left to the epistolary
ingenuity of each secretary to elaborate such
high-flown eulogies as the occasion inspired. Out
of the sixteen alternatives that Ahmad Firidun
gives as modes of address to the c Padshah of
Islam % there is not a single one that contains
the title Khallfah, and the only reference to the
Caliphate is in such phrases as * janab-i-khilafat '
(threshold of the Caliphate), 'khilafat martabat'
(who has attained the eminent rank of the Cali-
phate) , c rauzat-i-khilaf at ' (garden of the Caliphate),
&c., and these occur only in four out of the sixteen
examples given. It would appear that the great-
grandson of Sultan Sallm I cared as little for the
title that was held to imply the headship of the
Muhammadan world as his victorious ancestor
had done.
But in the eighteenth century we find this claim
beginning to be used for foreign consumption.
Turkish diplomats found it convenient to put it
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 165
forward when dealing with Christian powers, since
it implied a relationship between the Ottoman
Sultan and Muslims dwelling outside his dominions,
that seemed to be analogous to the relationship
between Christian powers and members of the
same Church living under another government.
The first occasion on which such a claim was put
forward in a diplomatic document is in the Treaty
of Kuchuk Kainarji in 1774. This was a treaty
between Sultan Abdul Hamld I and the Empress
Catherine II of Russia, in which the Sultan had
to recognize the complete independence of the
Tartars of the Crimea and of Kuban, countries
that had hitherto formed part of the Ottoman
empire. The Ottoman plenipotentiaries took
advantage of the fact that the Empress of Russia
claimed to be the patroness of the Christians of
the Orthodox Church dwelling in Ottoman terri-
tory, to make a similar claim for the Ottoman
Sultan. The Treaty exists in three separate
versions Turkish, Italian, and French and the
language used is not exactly the same in each case.
The Turkish version describes the Sultan as :
4 The Imam of the believers, and the Khalifah of
those professing the Unity of God.' The Italian
version uses the words : c Supreme Maomettan
Caliph.' The French translations give, in one
case : ' Grand Caliph of Mahometism,' and in the
other : * Sovereign Caliph of the Mahometan
religion.' 4
The claim to possess religious authority was
166 THE CALIPHATE
made use of, in this treaty, in order to keep
a control over the Tartars, who, from that date,
were to pass under Russian rule ; and the treaty
laid it down that in their religious usages these
Tartars ' being of the same faith as the Musalmans,
must, in regard to his Sultanic Majesty, as Supreme
Caliph of the Mahometan law, conform to the
regulations which their law prescribes to them,
without however in the slightest degree compromis-
ing the political and civil liberty which has been
guaranteed to them '. 5
The Turks interpreted this clause as implying
that the Sultan would invest the Khan of Tartary,
just as in former times the Khallfah used to send
a diploma of investiture to a Muslim prince, and
would nominate the officers of the law, Qadis and
Muftis ; but the Russians rightly recognized that
under this pretended claim of religious authority
was concealed an assumption of a political char-
acter, and consequently they insisted a few years
later (1783) upon having this article struck out
of the Treaty.
It is noticeable that the claim made in this
Treaty was for the exercise of authority in respect
of the organization of what might, from the
Muslim point of view, be termed religious organiza-
tion. The Sultan claimed for himself much the
same position as could be claimed in the Orthodox
Church by the Empress of Russia, though she
possessed no .ecclesiastical function. But Western
Christendom, ignorant of the relations that sub-
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 167
sisted between the head of the Russian State and
the Orthodox Eastern Church, invented a com-
parison which it could much more easily under-
stand, and described the Caliph as holding in the
Muslim world much the same position as Catholic
Christendom assigns to the Pope.
Such a comparison, indeed, goes back to
medieval times. Robertus Monachus, who went
on the first Crusade, makes Kerbogha, the Amir
of Mosil, while he was besieging the Crusaders in
Antioch in 1098, instruct his secretary as follows :
' Scribe religioso Papae nostro Caliphae.' 6 But
the greater name of Jacques de Vitry, who was
bishop of Acre from 1216 to 1226, is probably
responsible for the widest extension of this mis-
leading comparison and how little understanding
he had of the Muslim system may be judged from
his account of the behaviour of the Caliph. Pope
Innocent III had asked for information as to the
leading personages among the Saracens, and in
the report sent to him, among them were included
the sons of Sayf ud-Din, brother of Saladin,
together with an account of the territories they
controlled : the sixth son was stated to be reigning
in 6 Baudas,* where is the Pope of the Saracens,
who is called Kabatus, or Caliphas ; who is
honoured and revered and according to their law is
regarded just as the Bishop of Rome with us ;
* i.e. Baghdad, where at that period Nasir (1180-1225)
was Caliph with more independence than any of his predecessors
had enjoyed for several generations.
168 THE CALIPHATE
he can only be seen twice a month when he goes
with his people to Machomet, the God of the
Saracens. And having bowed the head and prayed
according to their law, they eat and drink a
sumptuous meal, before they leave the temple,
and thus the Caliphas returns crowned to his
palace. This God Machomet is visited and
revered every day, just as our lord the Pope is
visited and revered. In that city of Baudas
Machomet is God and the Calyphas is Pope, and
}his city is head of all the race and law of the
Saracens, as Rome is among Christian people'. 7
jFrom Jacques de Vitry, Matthew Paris probably
derived his statement that in Baldach (i. e.
Baghdad) * lives the Pope of the Saracens, who is
called Caliphus and is feared and venerated
according to their law, just as the Roman Pontiff
is with us '. 8 Marco Polo, writing about fifty
years later, is rather more careful in his language,
but he, too, suggests a misleading comparison,
when he speaks of Baudas as being a great city,
which used to be the seat of the Calif of all the
Saracens in the world, just as Rome is the seat
of the Pope of all the Christians. 9
These examples have reference to the historic
Caliphate ; one more may be given here, drawn
from the period when the Abbasid Caliphate in
Cairo was drawing to a close ; it occurs in an
account written by Peter Martyr Anghiera, of an
embassy sent to the Mamluk Sultan, Qansuh
Ghurl, by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 169
1501 ; the author had been at the taking of
Granada by these redoubtable champions of
Christendom, and might have been expected to
know something of Muslim political theory ; but
he speaks of the Caliph as follows : * A summo
eorum pontifice Mammetes * confirmatur. Habent
enim et ipsi summum pontificem. ... Is califfas
dicitur.' 10
A similarly erroneous identification was also
occasionally made by Muhammadan writers,
though with rare exceptions they are singularly
incurious as to the details of Christian theory.
One of the earliest of these is the great geographer
Yaqut (1179-1229), who speaks of Rome as the
city * in which the Pope lives, who is obeyed by
the Franks and occupies with them the position
of an Imam ; if any opposes him, he is considered
by them to be an apostate and a sinner, and must
be expelled and banished or put to death V 1
Another was the historian Sibt ibn al-Jawzi
(1186-1257), who calls the Pope 'the Khalifah
of the Franks V 2 A greater name than either of
these is that of Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) ; he is
more careful in his language, and probably uses
the word * Khalifah ' in its literal meaning as
* successor ' without suggesting any analogy be-
tween the Christian and the Muslim institution ;
he explains that each of the Christian sects has
its own patriarch, and that of the Melkites is called
Pope ; the patriarch is considered to be the head
* i. e. the Mamluk Sultan.
170 THE CALIPHATE
of the church and 'the Khalifah of the Messiah'.* 13
But his contemporary, Qalqashandl, without hesi-
tation describes the Pope as * the Khalifah of the
Melkite Christians, to whom they resort for
decisions as to what is allowed or forbidden \ 15
By means of such comparisons, an entirely new
characteristic was suggested as being included
among the functions of the Caliph, namely, that
of spiritual authority, which has a definite meaning
in the Christian system, but was altogether in-
applicable to the Caliph according to Muslim
doctrine. The comparison was popularized in
Europe through the influence of M. d'Ohsson's
monumental work, Tableau General de V Empire
Othoman, the first volume of which was published
in Paris in 1787 ; in this work he speaks of the
* sacerdotal authority ' of the Sultan, 16 and styles
him the * Pontiff of the Musulmans 9 . 17
How entirely misleading and incorrect such a
comparison is as false as the account of Islamic
doctrine that Jacques de Vitry associates with it
in the passage quoted above may easily be judged
by consideration of the fundamental differences
between the two faiths, Christianity and Islam.
The Pope is a priest, who, like any other priest,
performs the daily miracle of the mass ; he can
forgive sins, indeed there are certain sins that are
reserved for his consideration and he alone can
* This term is also used in modern times to denote the
Katholikos of the Armenian Church, or, as an alternative,
* Khalifah of the Armenians 5 . 14
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 171
give absolution for them ; he can promulgate a
new dogma and lay down what is to be believed
by the faithful, in virtue of his office as their
supreme teacher ; he is the final judge in all
matters of dispute in reference to religious dogma,
and he alone can prescribe the liturgical services
employed in the Church ; he can canonize saints
and grant plenary indulgences ; in virtue of
his supreme judicial authority certain cases are
reserved to him, and he can alter or abrogate the
laws made by his predecessors. 18
Of all these powers there has never been the
slightest trace in the Muslim history of the Cali-
phate, for the Caliph has never at any time been
held to be the depository of divine truth. He can
promulgate no new religious dogma nor even issue
a definition of one. He cannot forgive sins nor
exercise any sacerdotal function, nor indeed is
there any such thing as a priesthood in Islam.
His relation to the Muslim religion is merely that
of a protector ; as protector of religion he wages
war against unbelievers and punishes and sup-
presses heretics. As leading the prayers during
public worship and as pronouncing the Khutbah,
he can indeed perform definite religious functions,
but none of these functions can rightly be described
as spiritual. Such spiritual powers as have ever
been claimed to exist in the Muslim world have
been attributed either to the prophets or to a few
of the greatest saints, for some of the prophets and
the saints are believed to have performed miracles,
172 THE CALIPHATE
and the founders of religious orders could in a
mysterious manner communicate spiritual power
and confer spiritual blessing ; but none of these
high privileges have ever been claimed for a
Caliph.
In the technical vocabulary of the chief literary
languages of the Muhammadan world Arabic,
Persian, Turkish, Urdu the same distinctions
between secular' (dunyawl, dunyawi), religious
(dim), and spiritual (ruhl, ruham) are current as in
European languages. As in Christian literature,
so in Islamic literature, the word spirit (ruh) is
used in two distinct references : (i) psychological,
for the soul of man, and (ii) religious, as in such
phrases as ruh ul-qudus ( c the Holy Spirit'), and
it is only in the second sense that the word could
have any application when the spiritual authority
of the Caliph is spoken of; but the word ruhl,
or ruhani, could not be employed in such a con-
nexion by any Muhammadan writer without
incurring the imputation of blasphemy. In Euro-
pean languages the word spiritual and its equiva-
lents, especially the French word 'spirituel', is
used in a much greater variety of applications,
and has not the same narrowed reference as ruhl
or ruhani ; further, in Christian literature the
word has distinctive associations, and has grown
up in connexion with an outlook upon theology
and the world, entirely different from those
belonging to the main currents of Muslim thought.
Nevertheless, from the end of the eighteenth
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 173
century onwards, it has become a common error in
Europe that the Caliph is the spiritual head of all
Muslims, just as the Pope is the spiritual head of
all Catholics ; that as Sultan he is temporal ruler
over the Ottoman dominions, but as Caliph he is
supreme spiritual authority over all Muslims, under
whatever temporal government they may dwell ;
consequently, to interfere with the exercise of his
spiritual authority, or to fail to respect his claim
in this regard, argues an attitude of religious
intolerance. There is reason to believe that this
widespread error in Christian Europe has reacted
upon opinion in Turkey itself. However this
may be, it is certain that during the nineteenth
century emphasis was laid on the claim of the
Ottoman Sultan to be Khallfah, such as is without
parallel in the preceding centuries of Ottoman
rule. Sultan Abdul Hamid II, at the very
beginning of his reign, had this claim inserted in
the Constitution which he promulgated on the
24th December, 1876: 'Art. 3. The Sublime
Ottoman Sultanate, which possesses the Supreme
Islamic Caliphate, will appertain to the eldest of
the descendants of the house. Art. 4. H.M. the
Sultan, as Caliph, is the protector of the Muslim
religion.'
Abdul Hamid came to the throne at a period of
trouble and disaster for the Turkish empire ;
insurrection had broken out in the Herzegovina
and was soon followed by war with Serbia and
Montenegro. In the following year, 1877, Russia
174 THE CALIPHATE
also declared war, and despite the vigorous resis-
tance offered by the Turkish armies, the result of
the campaign was in every way disastrous to
Turkey, and finally Russian troops in 1878
encamped outside the walls of Constantinople.
The Treaty of Berlin handed over Bosnia and the
Herzegovina to Austria ; Roumania, Serbia, and
Montenegro obtained complete independence, and
Bulgaria became an independent state under
Turkish suzerainty. Thus deprived of so large a
part of his European dominions, the new Sultan
appears to have turned his eyes to Asia in the
hope that he might there obtain moral support at
least. The whole Muslim world had been pro-
foundly stirred by the encroachment of European
powers upon dominions that had at one time
belonged to Islam ; and the disasters that followed
the Russian victory through the Treaty of Berlin
were all the more impressive in their effect as
coming at a time when education and a wider
intellectual outlook were changing the Muham-
madan world.
The Sultan endeavoured to turn this wave
of sympathy to his own advantage by laying
emphasis upon his position as Khalifah, and
sought to obtain recognition for himself outside
Turkish borders by 'sending emissaries to Egypt,
Tunis, India, Afghanistan, Java, and China, to
impress upon the Muslims of those countries that
there was still a Khallfah in Islam. Had he
received active sympathy from his co-religionists
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 175
dwelling under other governments, his position
might have gained a considerable accession of
strength, and there is no doubt that realization of
the dependent state of a great part of the Muham-
madan world, as contrasted with its past glories
and independence, stimulated in the minds of
many Muslim thinkers a desire for unity among
the scattered Muhammadan populations. Turkish
journalists tried to persuade others that in response
to the summons of the Sultan of Turkey, millions
of Muhammadans from all parts of the world would
rally to his standard. 19 But the emissaries of
Sultan Abdul Hamid were ill-chosen. They were
not infrequently ignorant of the language of the
country to which they were sent and the success
of such efforts as they made appears to have been
slight. On the other hand, this propaganda came
up against the doctrine accepted as orthodox by
the majority of Sunni theologians, that the
Khallfah must be of the tribe of the Quraysh.
Even among the Turkish Sultan's own subjects
this opposition to his claim made itself felt, and
when about 1890 Abdul Hamid ordered the
removal from the chief mosques in Constantinople
of the tablets containing extracts from authoritative
writings setting forth the qualifications required
in the Khallfah, 20 this proceeding did not prove to
be a very persuasive argument, and the large body
of the Sunni 'Ulama stood aloof. On the other
hand, some theologians from other countries were
persuaded to visit Constantinople, and there
176 THE CALIPHATE
received decorations and pensions in recognition,
of their subserviency. 21 His efforts received more
sympathy in those circles that were ignorant of
systematic theology, and felt that the political
subordination of any Muslim community to non-
Muslim rule was an outrage against their faith.
But the greatest opposition came from the liberal
political thinkers who in consequence of their study
of Western literature, or their residence in Europe,
were unwilling to lend their support to an irrespon-
sible and cruel despot such as Sultan Abdul
Hamld had shown himself to be. His abolition
of the Constitution promulgated at the beginning
of his reign in December 1876, had shown that no
support could be expected from him for any
liberal movement in politics, and the number of
persons who had been obliged to go into exile in
order to escape the persecution of his innumerable
spies or even death at the hands of the autocrat,
was so great that it is alleged that when the
Constitution was re-established in July 1908 as
many as 80,000 of such exiles returned to Con-
stantinople. 22 One of the most active workers in
the movement, Sayyid Jamal ud-Dm (1839-1896),
whose ideal was the unity of all Muslims in all
parts of the world into one Islamic empire under
the protection of one supreme Caliph, recognized
clearly enough how unfit Abdul Hamld was to
serve as the rallying point for such an ideal, and
he used to say : ' Alas ! that this man is mad,
otherwise I would secure for him the allegiance of
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 177
all the nations of Islam ; but since his name is
great in men's minds, this thing must be done in
his name.' 23
So the attempt to revive the earlier associations
connected with the Caliphate were doomed to
failure : the tyrannies of Abdul Hamld were so
notorious, were associated with so much recent
suffering, and had created so much distrust in the
minds of liberal politicians, that they recognized
that the Sultan himself constituted the most
serious hindrance to the establishment of constitu-
tional methods of government. Hence the revolu-
tion of 1908 and the deposition of Abdul Hamld in
the following year.
But the claim made on behalf of the Caliph that
he could exercise spiritual authority over the
Muhammadan subjects of other governments, was
considered too valuable in dealing with Euro-
pean powers, to be readily abandoned by the
new constitutional government. After Austria, in
October 1908, annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina,
the agreement with the Turkish Government
stated that the name of the Sultan should continue
to be mentioned as Caliph in the public prayers,
and that the Ra'ls ul-'Ulama, the president of the
Muslim Curia that controlled ecclesiastical affairs
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, should continue as
before to be subordinate to the department of the
Shaykh ul-Islam in Constantinople, and should
have to receive a diploma of investiture from
him. 24 A few years later, the treaty of Lausanne
2882
178 THE CALIPHATE
(1912) which declared the sovereignty of the King
of Italy over Libya, also recognized the Caliphate
of the Sultan of Turkey, and laid it* down that
his name should be included in the Khutbah, and
that the head Qadi of Libya should be nominated
by the Shaykh ul-Islamat in Constantinople and
his stipend should be paid by the Turkish Govern-
ment, as being a ' spiritual chief % deriving his
authority from the spiritual head of the Muslim
faith. 25 The Bulgarian Government, in the treaty
of Constantinople (1913), did not concede quite so
much, but agreed that the chief Mufti should
receive from the Shaykh ul-Islamat authorization
for the performance of his functions, but that he
should be elected by the Muftis of Bulgaria from
among their own number, just as the other
Muftis were elected by the Muhammadan electors
of Bulgaria ; but when such an election had taken
place, a diploma must be obtained from the
Shaykh ul-Islamat, before any of these new
Muftis could issue decisions on matters of Muslim
law, and such judgements should be submitted to
the scrutiny of the Shaykh ul-Islamat, if the
parties interested so demanded. The Caliph thus
would continue to exercise his spiritual authority
in the autonomous kingdom of Bulgaria, through
his department controlling the administration of
the Sharl'ah. A similar control was conceded in
Greece also, by the treaty of Constantinople (1913),
but with certain restrictions, in that the King of
Greece would nominate the chief Mufti out of three
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 179
candidates elected by an electoral body made up
of all the Muftis of Greece, and the subordinate
Muftis would receive from him their authorization
under a general license granted him by the Shaykh
ul-Islamat.
But the conviction gradually gained strength
that the historical associations of the Caliphate
were incompatible with a constitutional govern-
ment responsible to a National Assembly ; the
very atmosphere of awe and reverence that sur-
rounded the personage bearing the august name
of Khalifah, to whom unquestioning obedience
was due, exposed his ministers to the risk of
dismissal at any moment, just as in the preceding
reigns of Turkish despots. The history of the
Abbasid Caliphate in Egypt had shown that it
was possible for a Caliph to exist without a single
particle of temporal power, though it is unlikely
that Turkish statesmen were influenced by any
such historical considerations, for they were more
concerned with meeting the immediate needs of
the political situation in their own country and
were most strongly influenced by constitutional
theories which might at any time be wrecked
by the will of an autocrat. Accordingly, on
1st November, 1922, the Grand National Assembly
declared that the office of the Sultan of Turkey
had ceased to exist and that its government had
become a republic. Sultan Wahid ud-Dln was
deposed, and the National Assembly elected his
cousin Abdul Majld as Khalifah of all the Muslims.
180 THE CALIPHATE
The new dignitary was shorn of all real authority
or concern in the political and administrative
affairs of the country ; he was invested with the
mantle of the Prophet, just as his ancestors had
been, but he was deprived of the power of the
sword, and unlike them, did not proceed to the
mosque of Ayyub to be girt with the sword of the
founder of the Ottoman house. His functions
appear to have been mainly ornamental ; he was
present at the weekly Selamlik and was treated
with outward formalities of respect ; but it had
not become clear what place he was to fill in the
life of the Muhammadan world, or even in his
own country, before this shadowy dignity too was
taken away from him, the Caliphate was abolished
altogether, and the last Ottoman holder of this
ancient title was sent into exile in March 1924.
Speculation as to the future of this institution
is out of place in a book concerned only with its
historical development in the past. As a political
reality, or as embodying the theories that had lent
importance to it in the past, the Caliphate had long
been dead, and the Turkish National Assembly
had faced the realities of the situation in decreeing
its abolition.
The theory implied that there was only one
supreme ruler in the Muhammadan world, to
whoto all the faithful owed obedience. But
already in the eleventh century there were eight
Muslim potentates who called themselves Caliph :
the Abbasid in Baghdad, the Fatimid in Cairo,
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 181
and six princes of less importance in Spain.
As to the number of personages who were
styled Khallfah in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, some account has already been given in
Chapters IX and XL Even at the present time
there is more than one Sunn! Caliph in existence. In
the first place, in the opinion of a large number of
Muslims the Ottoman Caliph has not been deprived
of his dignity by the vote of the National Assembly.
The Sharif of Morocco is still reverenced by his
subjects as the possessor of this dignity, which has
belonged to his family since the sixteenth century,
In assuming the title of Khallfah, the King of the
Hijaz can put forward a claim which no member
of the Ottoman house was ever able to make,
namely, that he belongs to the tribe of the
Quraysh, and thus satisfies one of the earliest
requirements as laid down by SunnI theologians.
But in the Malay Archipelago, too, there are
several Muhammadan princes who hold this title,
such as the Sultan of Jokyakarta in Java, who is
styled Khallfah of Allah, as is also the insignificant
prince of Sambiliung in the island of Borneo ; on
the east coast of the same island two petty chiefs
in Kutei and Pasir'call themselves Khallfatu'l-
Mu' minln, and the Sultan of Tidore in the Malucca
Islands, who used to call himself Khallfatu-1-
Mu'azzam (the vicegerent of the Exalted One), is
now known as Khalifatu-1-Mahftiz (the vicegerent
of the Remembered One) both of these being
designations of Allah. 26 Lastly, in Benkulen, one
182 THE CALIPHATE
of the districts of the island of Sumatra, Khallfah
is a common designation for native chiefs. 27
Under present conditions there seems no imme-
diate prospect of a political community being
established in the Muhammadan world under the
headship of one Khallfah, such as Muslim doctrine
requires. Nevertheless, the ideal is still cherished,
and is likely to survive as a hope in the hearts of
Muslim peoples for many generations to come,
for every Muslim regards himself as the citizen of
an ideal state, in which the earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof ; this state knits together
all his brethren in the faith, under obedience to
the Imam-Khalifah, the successor of the Prophet
and the vicegerent of God. The aspiration of
Islam is to dominate the world, and make the
precepts of the Shari'ah or sacred law effective
in every department of administration and the
social life ; to this end the missionaries of the faith
labour unceasingly, and the Khallfah ought year
by year to wage Jihad against unbelievers until
there is no-government on the earth, save that of
Allah. Among the ignorant there are many
Muhammadans who are under the delusion that
this ideal has already attained fruition, and that
all the Christian powers are but vassals of the
Caliph and only govern by his permission. The
learned are better acquainted with the actual
facts of the modern world ; but immersed in the
study of the sacred law and the traditional
ordinances of their faith, they continue to discuss
LATER OTTOMAN SULTANS 183
the application of them under ideal conditions
that have no connexion whatsoever with realities,
and they long for the day when they may become
authoritative exponents of this law in a purely
Muslim state. A growing number of Muhamma-
dans, more fully acquainted with modern con-
ditions and more in touch with the aims and ideals
of the present day, still cling to the faith of their
childhood and the associations that have become
dear to them from the Muslim atmosphere in which
they grew up. These men likewise cherish an
ideal of some form of political and social organiza-
tion in which self-realization may become possible
for them in some system of civilization that is
Muslim in character and expression. They resent
the predominance of European rule and the
intransigeance of European ideas. Even when the
dogmas of their faith have little hold upon them,
they are still attracted by the glamour of a dis-
tinctively Muslim culture and long to break the
chains of an alien civilization. To these men,
as much as to the others, this hope remains
enshrined in the doctrine of the Caliphate.
APPENDIX A
SHIAH AND KHAWARIJ DOCTRINES OF THE
CALIPHATE
IN the preceding account attention has been
almost entirely confined to the Sunn! Caliphate
because this has played the most important part
in the history of the Muhammadan world and for
a longer period and over a much larger extent of
territory than is the case with any other branch of
the Muslim church, but there have been current
in the Muhammadan world many more theories
than that of the Sunnls. Liberty of theological
speculation may almost be said to have been
sanctified by the Tradition ascribed to the Prophet :
c Difference of opinion in my community is a
(manifestation of Divine) mercy ', and the abun-
dant sectarian development in the Muhammadan
world is further recognized by the Tradition :
' My community will become divided into seventy-
three sects.' As with other subjects of interest to
the theologian and the legist, this of the Caliphate
has been abundantly discussed, and some account
may well be given here of such speculations as
have found embodiment in any actual system of
political organization.
Among these, the Shiah first demands con-
sideration, as there have been a number of
independent Shiah states, the rulers of which have
claimed descent from one or other of the sons of
'All : from Hasan, the Banu Ukhaydir in Mecca
and the Yaman (866-960), the Idrlsids of Morocco
DOCTRINES OF THE CALIPHATE 185
(788-922), and the Amirs of Mecca at least during
the Middle Ages : from Husayn, the 'Alids of
Tabaristan (863-928), the Fatimids (909-1171) in
North Africa, Egypt, and Syria, the Zaydl Imams
in the Yaman (860-1281), and the Safavids of
Persia (1502-1736). Besides these, there have
been other Shiah dynasties that have made no
claim to descent from 'All, such as the Ham-
danids in Mosil and Aleppo during the tenth
century and the present Qajar dynasty in Persia
from 1779, and the kingdoms of Bijapur, Golkonda,
and Oudh in India.
The Shiah theologians have always laid especial
stress on the doctrine of legitimacy, and have
confined the Caliphate not merely to the Quraysh
but still further to the family of 'All. They (with
the exception of the Zaydls) reject the principle of
election and maintain that 'All was directly
nominated by the Prophet as his successor, and
that 'All's qualifications were inherited by his
descendants, who were pre-ordained by God to
bear this high office. Shiah theory has been
developed in forms still further divorced from
actual facts than has been the case with the
Sunni theory, for when there was no living Imam
(a title which has received more favour among the
Shiahs than that of Khallfah) on earth, the Imam
became credited with supernatural characteristics,
and it is correct to say that spiritual powers were
claimed for the Shiah Imam such as he entirely
lacks in the rival Sunni theory. The Prophet
is said to have directly communicated to 'All
certain secret knowledge, which was in turn
186 SHI AH AND KHAWlRIJ
handed on to his son, and thus it passed from
generation to generation. AccjocduogJbo theJShiah
doctrine, therefore, each Imam possesses super-
human qualities which raise him above the level
of the rest of mankind, and he guides the faithful
with infallible wisdom, and his decisions are
absolute and final. According to some of the
Shiahs, he owes this superiority to a difference in
his substance, for from the creation of Adam
a divine light has passed into the substance of
one chosen descendant in each generation and has
been present in 'All and each one of the Imams
among his descendants.
The Shiahs broke up into a large number of
sects, into the details of which it is not possible to
enter here, but according to the sect of the
Twelvers, to which the modern Persians belong,
the Imam has been hidden from about the year
873j and from his seclusion, invisible to the eyes of
men, he guides the life of the community, and
until God is pleased to restore the Imam to the
eyes of men, legal authority rests with the Muj-
tahids, the enlightened exponents of the Sharfah.
In accordance with this theory, the Shah of
Persia is regarded as being only the guardian of
public order 1 and makes no claim to be a Caliph.
Thus, in th$ Supplementary Fundamental Laws,
promulgated by the Shah Muhammad 'All in
1907, article 2 ran as follows : ' At* no time
must any legal enactment of the Sacred National
Consultative Assembly, established by the favour
and assistance of His Holiness the Imam of the
Age (may God hasten his glad advent), the
DOCTRINES OF THE CALIPHATE 187
favour of His Majesty the Shahinshah of Islam
(may God make his reign abide for ever), the
care of the Proofs of Islam (L e. the mujtahids)
(may God multiply the like of them), and the
whole people of the Persian nation, be at variance
with the sacred principles of Islam.' l
The Zaydls, who at the present time are found
chiefly in the Yaman, maintain that the Imam
should not only be a descendant of Fatimah, the
daughter of the Prophet, but that he must be
elected, and they accordingly refuse to an Imam
the right of appointing his successor. They also
admit of the possibility of there being two Imams
at the same time, and hold that circumstances
may even justify the passing over for a time of
the legitimate Imam and the election of some one
who has not legally so good a claim.
Further, there are extremists among the Shiahs
who have pushed the doctrine of the spiritual
authority of the Imam to such an extent as to
look upon 'All and his descendants as more or
less incarnations of the divinity ; but in the
political history of the Muslim world such doctrines
have rarely found embodiment in any organized
political system.
The antithesis of Shiah doctrine is taught by
the Khawarij. The Khawarij put forward the
very contrary of the Shiah doctrine, and represent
the extreme left of Muslim political theory.
Instead of confining the office of Caliph or Imam
to any one particular family or tribe, they hold
that any believer is eligible for this exalted office,
even though he be a slave or a non-Arab. They
188 SHI AH AND KHAWARIJ
further separate themselves from the majority of
Muslim thinkers in holding that the existence of
the Imam is not a matter of religious obligation,
and that at any particular time the community
can fulfil all the obligations imposed upon them by
their religion and have an entirely legitimate
form of civil administration without any Imam
being in existence at all : when, under peculiar
circumstances it may be found convenient or
necessary to have an Imam, then one may be
elected, and if he is found in any way unsatisfactory,
or if he does not fulfil the precepts of their stern
religious creed, he may be deposed or put to
death.
The history of the Khawarij is largely made up
of a number of revolutionary movements which
caused the Muhammadan government much annoy-
ance and anxiety, and they achieved little success
in their attempt to make themselves independent.
The most important of their political establish-
ments was in Oman. The first recorded election
by them of an Imam in this territory is in the year
751, but he was put to death in 753 when the first
Abbasid Caliph sent troops to invade Oman.
They elected their second Imam in 791, and rose
in revolt against the Abbasids and were practically
independent for a century ; but in 893 Oman was
occupied by Abbasid troops, the Imam was killed,
and his head sent to the Caliph. No Imams were
elected between 1154 and 1406. The present
dynasty that has its capital in Masqat was founded
in 1741 by Ahmad ibn Sa'ld, who was elected
Imam after driving out the Persian invaders ;
DOCTRINES OF THE CALIPHATE 189
but after the death of his son, no further Imam
was elected, and from that period to the present
day the Sultans of Masqat have been called
Sayyids. From Oman came a colony of Khawarij
who settled in Zanzibar. A small group of
Khawarij is also found in North Africa, known as
the Abadls.
In addition to these sects, which have succeeded
in playing some part in the political life of the
Muhammadan world, there have been various
speculative doctrines which have never succeeded
in gaining for themselves embodiment in any
form of political organization.
APPENDIX B
THE ALLEGED SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE
CALIPH
SOME of the greatest authorities on Islam have,
from time to time, protested against the use of the
phrase ' spiritual powers of the Caliph % and some
examples of such protests are given below, in
order to show how unjustifiable this vulgar error is.
4 A cot6 du vezir et sur la meme ligne, mais
suivant un autre ordre d'idees, se place le che'ikh-
ul-isldm, " Fancien de Fislam ". On a pretendu
a tort qu'il 6tait dans P ordre spirituel ce qu'est le
vezir dans P ordre politique, le delegue du sultan,
en tant que pontife et d'imam, successeur des
khalifas. II n'y a point, a vrai dire, de pouvoir
spirituel, de memo qu'il n'existe pas de sacerdoce
190 SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH
dans Fislam. L' attribution propre, essentielle,
unique du mufti, c'est P interpretation de la loi :
attribution considerable la ou la loi est tout. Chef
de Pulema, de ce corps a la fois judiciaire et
religieux, mais n'etant lui-meme ni pretre ni
magistrat, sauf dans quelques cas partieuliers, il
y a dans sa fonction du garde des sceaux, de
1'avocat consultant et du doyen de faculte.' *
4 1 have on several occasions pointed out how
incorrect it is to represent the Caliph as a " spiritual
ruler ", like a kind of Pope ; people still do not
yet sufficiently realize that originally " sultan "
means merely " power, authority " (it already
occurs in this sense in a Tradition of the time of
Omar and in the Kitab al-umm of Shafi'l) ; if
he who exercises power, the Sultan, in the end
leaves the Caliph out in the cold and makes the
dignity of the Sultan hereditary in his own house,
in a word, establishes a Sultan-dynasty side by
side with the Caliph-dynasty, then the funda-
mental position of the Caliph as leader of the
community is not thereby shaken or altered, his
functions only are restricted ; a comparison may
possibly be made with the Mayor of the Palace of
the Merovingians ; there is perhaps also a parallel
in the limitation for a whole century of the power
of the Japanese Emperor by the Shoguns ; it
was possible for the Caliph to be rendered power-
less just for the very reason that his power was
a temporal (mundane) power ; this is not possible
in the case of the Pope, because his functions are
not temporal (are super-mundane) : for he has
SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH 191
the power of the keys and the power of dogma.
The Caliph has nothing that can be in any way
compared with this, and it is difficult to under-
stand how the fable of the spiritual power of the
Caliphs can have arisen, and how it could have
been constantly extended further by scholars who
are otherwise intelligent, though no one is able to
say what these spiritual functions actually consist
of ; for the appointment of judges and the con-
ferring of high-sounding titles can certainly not
be considered as such.' 2
* So we see the mediaeval conception of the
State slowly accommodate itself to the altered
conditions of the times. This is especially the case
in the sphere of the particular internal Islam-
policy which finds expression in the antithesis
State-control and non-interference in religion. At
first sight this problem seems to be actually no
problem at all ; indeed, if the Caliph were a Pope,
this problem would of course not occur ; for then
we should have before us a complete hierarchy.
But the Caliph is no Pope, rather he is the secular
ruler of the ideal community. Beside him stands
the Holy Law (sheria or sheriat), as the embodi-
ment of the religious factor which is authoritatively
interpreted by the chief Mufti of the Hanafi
rite, the Shaikh-ul-Islarn. As is well known,
besides the executive law of the Kadis there is in
Islam the consultative law of the Muftis, which
may be compared with the legal opinions given
by European jurists, and this has just as little
binding force on the judges. Since the fifteenth
192 SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH
century the Shaikh-ul-Islamat has grown to be
the highest religious government office in Turkey.
The Shaikh-ul-Islam takes equal rank with the
Grand Vizier and is his deputy. Though inde-
pendent as interpreter of the law, he is in his
position himself an official who may be dismissed.
So in this way, so far as individual persons are
concerned, the problem of State-control and non-
interference in religion is settled.' 3
4 The most difficult point of colonial Islam-policy
is obviously the relation of the European state to
the international claims of Islam. This claim
confronts us most conspicuously in the custom of
extolling the Caliph of the time in a special bidding-
prayer during the Friday service. Throughout
the whole history of Islam, the mention of the
name of the Caliph at the end of the sermon was
an act of special importance. Whoever was
mentioned on this occasion, was considered by the
community in the particular country to be the
real sovereign, who could only incidentally be
prevented by external circumstances from exer-
cising the actual power of government. So long
as the sultans received their investiture from a
Caliph (who might indeed happen to be entirely
dependent upon them), this usage was quite in
order. But it is quite another question, what
should be the relation of a Christian authority to
this problem. Properly speaking, the Christian
domination shuts out the mention of the name of
a Caliph ; for, as already stated, the Caliph is
indeed no Pope, no spiritual head, but the real
SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH 193
sovereign. Nevertheless many European States
for various reasons have tolerated and recognized
in their territories a bidding-prayer for a foreign
ruler.' 4
* When in 1258 Baghdad was destroyed by the
Mongols and the Abasside Caliphate, dating more
than five centuries back, was wiped out, the
Mohammedan world was not lifted from its hinges,
as would have happened if the Caliphate still had
had anything to do with the central government
of the Mohammedans. In fact this princely house
had already been living three centuries and a half
on the faint afterglow of its ephemeral splendour ;
and if during that time it was not crowded out by
one of the very powerful sultans, its very practical
insignificance was the main reason for that. So
insignificant had these Caliphs in name become
that certain European writers sometimes have felt
induced to represent them as a kind of religious
princes of Islam, who voluntarily or not had trans-
ferred their secular power to the many territorial
princes in the wide dominion of Islam. To them
the total lack of secular authority, coupled with the
often-manifested reverence of the Moslim for the
Caliphate, appeared unintelligible except on the
assumption of a spiritual authority, a sort of
Mohammedan papacy. Still, such a thing there
never was, and Islam, which knows neither priests
nor sacraments, could not have had occasion for it.
Here, as elsewhere, the multitude preferred legend
to fact ; they imagined the successor of the Pro-
phet as still watching over the whole of the Moslim
194 SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH
community ; as, according to historical tradition,
he really did during the first two centuries following
the Hijrah, and this long after the institution of
the Caliphate had disappeared in the political
degeneration of Islam. However, they did not
imagine him as a Pope, but as a supreme ruler ;
above all, as the amir-al-mu'minin, commander of
the legions of Islam, which some time would make
the whole world bend to its power.' 5
' Probably without intention, some European
statesmen and writers have given a certain
support to the Panislamic idea by their considera-
tion, based on an absolute misunderstanding, of
the Caliphate as a kind of Mohammedan papacy.
Most of all did this conception find adherents in
England at the time when that country was still
considered to be the protector of the Turk against
danger threatened by Russia. It was thought
useful to make the British-Indian Moslim believe
that the British Government was on terms of
intimate friendship with the head of their church.
Turkish statesmen made clever use of this error.
Of course they could not admit before their
European friends the real theory of the Caliphate
with its mission of uniting all the faithful under
its banner in order to make war on all kafirs. They
rejoiced all the more to see that these had formed
about that institution a conception which to be
sure was false, but for that very reason plausible
to non-Mohammedans. They took good care not
to correct it, for they were satisfied with being
able, before their co-religionists, to point to the
SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH 195
fact that even among the great non-Mohammedan
powers the claim of the Ottomans to the Caliphate
was recognized.' 6
' In the beginning the Caliphs (as their name
indicates) were the 6 successors 5 of Mohammed,
namely in the guidance and the government of the
community. In proportion as the conquests of
Islam were extended and firmly established, the
Caliphate developed into a princely dynasty,
which ruled over an empire and theoretically made
claim to the governance of the whole world. We
have already drawn attention to the deep roots
this theory has struck in the system of Islam and
in the popular notions of its adherents. Even
after the political dismemberment, which quickly
set in, had reached its furthest point, they still
continued to cling to the fiction of the unity, and
the Caliphs deprived of all real power remained the
symbol of this unity, and at least set themselves
with their diplomas to put the seal on whatever
had come into existence outside their influence.
c ln this fiction, however, the Caliphs kept the
name of whatever their predecessors had been
in reality ; they were called rulers of all the lands
occupied by Islam, and never spiritual chiefs,
whose interference was confined to specifically
religious matters. The system had indeed been
complete from about the tenth century, and its
further application took place, just as before its
first development, under the guidance of the
learned ; no one expected it of the central
authority, whether real or fictitious. Neither
196 SPIRITUAL POJVERS OP THE CALIPH
Muslim statesmen, scholars, or laymen have ever
seen in the Caliph anything else but the lawful
leader and ruler of all believers.
* When for centuries the obvious impotency of
the later Abbasid Caliphs seemed to have put the
arrogant doctrine of the Caliphate to shame, the
Turks in the sixteenth century were able to restore
to this dignity the unity of name and reality.
Strong by the might of their weapons, they com-
pelled the majority of the orthodox Mohammedans
to recognize them as Caliphs, and they made men
forget the conditions which did not suit them,
which the law and public opinion had formerly
imposed on the Caliph, such as descent from the
Quraish, to mention nothing else. The Muslim
world always accustomed to bow before the force
of facts in politics still more than in any other
sphere, accepted the change without much pro-
test, even in countries that had never come into
touch with the Turkish Government. Even in the
Far East, to which our Indian Archipelago
belongs, the Turkish Sultan, under the name of
Rajah Rum or of Sultan Istambul, became the
revered hero of the popular legend of the Caliphate,
and the idea spread among the Mohammedan
learned that the princes of Constantinople were
the legal rulers of the world, while the other kings
and emperors of the earth must be either his
vassals or his enemies. 9 7
' The only central organization that Islam has
ever possessed, or still possesses, is of a political
kind ; it has never known anything that can be
SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH 197
compared with the papacy or with general
councils. The purely spiritual affairs of Islam have
for the last thirteen centuries been dealt with by
the learned in the various countries, and they
could avail themselves of any part that they chose
of the light kindled by their fellows in other lands,
but were not bound to anything by any oecumeni-
cal representation of all Muslims.' 8
* Even amongst the Moslem peoples placed
under the direct government of European States
a tendency prevails to be considered in some way
or another subjects of the Sultan-Khalif. Some
scholars explain this phenomenon by the spiritual
character which the dignity of Khalif is supposed
to have acquired during the later Abbasids, and
retained since that time, until the Ottoman princes
combined it again with the temporal dignity of
sultan. According to this view the later Abbasids
were a sort of Popes of Islam ; while the temporal
authority, in the central districts as well as in the
subordinate kingdoms, was in the hands of various
sultans. The Sultans of Constantinople govern,
then, under this name, as much territory as the
political vicissitudes allow them to govern, i. e. the
Turkish Empire ; as Khalif s they are the spiritual
heads of the whole Sunnite Islam.
c Though this view, through the ignorance of
European statesmen and diplomatists, may have
found acceptance even by some of the great
Powers, it is nevertheless entirely untrue ; unless
by " spiritual authority " we are to understand
the empty appearance of worldly authority. This
198 SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH
appearance was all that the later Abbasids re-
tained after the loss of their temporal power ;
spiritual authority of any kind they never
possessed.
' The spiritual authority in Catholic Islam
reposes in the legists, who in this respect are called
in a tradition the " heirs of the prophets ". Since
they could no longer regard the Khallfs as their
leaders, because they walked in worldly ways,
they have constituted themselves independently
beside and even above them ; and the rulers have
been obliged to conclude a silent contract with
them, each party binding itself to remain within
its own limits.' 9 *
c Muhammad had established at once a religion
and a State ; as long as he lived, both of them had
exactly the same territorial extension. Religious
authority was always exercised by himself alone,
in his quality of prophet and apostle of God ; a
quality that in his idea and that of his companions
did not admit of delegation of spiritual powers
to others, jior of transmission of such powers by
inheritance after his death. The series of divine
* That the Khalifato is in no way to be compared with the
Papacy, that Islam has never regarded the Khalif as its
spiritual head, I have repeatedly explained since 1882 (in
' Nieuwe Bijdragen tot de kermis van den Islam ', in Bijdr.
tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederland Indie,
Volgr. 4, Deel vi, in an article, f De Islam ', in De Gids,
May 1886, in Questions Diplomatiques et Goloniales, 5me anne'e,
No. 106, &c.). I am pleased to find the same views expressed
by Professor M. Hartmann in Die Welt des Islams, Bd. i,
pp. 147-8.
SPIRITUAL POWERS OF THE CALIPH 199
revelations, namely, the ,Qur'an, was definitely
closed with Muhammad ; after whom the believers
had only to faithfully follow his teachings. Hence
in Islam there is no trace of any ecclesiastical
hierarchy or of sacerdotal holy orders ; there is an
entire absence of the idea of Christian sacraments,
and of an intermediary between God and the
individual believer. To find anything that at all
approximates to the spiritual powers of the
Catholic, Greek, or Protestant clergy we must go
to those late manifestations of Islam, about six
centuries after Muhammad, namely, the religious
confraternities, in which only there is a true cure of
souls, a true spiritual power, which, however, only
concerns the relations between the master and the
adept who has voluntarily joined the confraternity
after the novitiate, and in no way touches either
dogma or ritual.' 10
' Historically the Caliphs are the successors of
Muhammad in the rule of the whole Muhammadan
state, i. e. the entire body of the Muhammadans ;
it being presupposed that there were no Muham-
madan populations under non-Muslim rule as
was, in fact, the case for several centuries. But
(an inexplicable fact at first sight for a Euro-
pean) these universal monarchs of Islam, just like
all other Muslim sovereigns, while they possessed
to an unlimited degree executive power and some
judicial power, are entirely lacking in legislative
power ; because legislation properly so called can
only be the divine law itself, the Sharlah, of which
the 'ulama, or doctors, are alone the interpreters.
200 SPIRITUAL POWERS OP THE CALIPH
In the religious sphere the only attribute of the
Caliph, as of any other Muslim sovereign, is to put
forth the power of his secular arm in order to
protect the faith against internal and external
foes, and to take care that public worship, con-
sisting of common prayer on Fridays, is regularly
celebrated/ u
6 The Caliph is the " prince of the faithful ", is
the universal monarch of the Musalmans, not the
head of the Muhammadan religion ; in respect of
dogma and ritual he is a simple believer, obliged
to observe the traditional doctrine as preserved by
the 'ulama. He is a defender of the Muslim faith,
an enemy of heresy, just as European emperors,
kings, and princes were defenders of the faith and
extirpators of heresy in past ages.' 12
APPENDIX C
POPULAR USES OF THE TERM KHALlFAH
IT is a characteristic outgrowth from the Muslim
doctrine of the equality of all believers and of the
absolute subjection of man to the Will of God and
his nothingness as a mere creature, that even the
exalted titles enjoyed by the most powerful
Muhammadan potentates are applied to persons
of a mean and quite insignificant status in society.
As a technical term in the administrative language
of Egypt, Khalifah occurs as early as the first
century of the Hijrah, to denote the representative
of a Pagarchos, or local official of the finance
POPULAR USES OF THE TERM KHALlFAH 201
department, each one of whom had his Khalif ah or
aTTOKpiaruipios at the capital, through whom pay-
ments of the taxes were made. 1 In more modern
times the term Khallfah was commonly applied in
Turkish official organization to any junior clerk in
a public office ; 2 and it was also used in Turkey
to designate an assistant teacher in a school, or
even an apprentice in the building trade. The
historian of the reign of Muhammad IV (1648-
1687), who was a coffee-maker, bore the name of
Muhammad Khallfah. 3 In the household of the
Emperor Babur, Khallfah could be used of a
woman an upper maid-servant. 4 In India the
word Khallfah may even be applied to so insignifi-
cant a person as a working tailor, a barber, or the
foreman of a firm ; sometimes even to a fencing
master or a Muhammadan cook. In a more
dignified reference it is a technical term in the
language of the Sufis, and the authorized exponent
of some of the Muslim religious orders may be
styled Khalifah as being a successor of the founder
of the order, though the title is often assumed by
unauthorized persons who give themselves out as
religious guides. 5
Similarly, as was pointed out on pages 15, 34, the
designation Imam may be applied to any one who
stands in front of his co-religionists during the act
of public worship, and it is no bar to the perform-
ance of this function that the person concerned
occupies the meanest station in the social order.
202 THE TITLE SULTAN
APPENDIX D
THE TITLE SULTAN
THE history of the title c Sultan ' in the Muham-
madan world has not yet been fully worked out.
The word itself occurs in the Qur'an merely in the
abstract sense of c power, authority ', but as early
as the end of the first century of the Hijrah it was
used in the Egyptian Papyri as the common
expression for the Governor of the province. 1 So it
came to be applied to an official to whom power
had been delegated, e.g. in the case of Ja'far b.
Yahya (ob. 803), the favourite of Harun ur-Rashld,
the title ' Sultan ' being bestowed upon him
(according to Ibn Khaldun) 2 to indicate that he
had been entrusted with the general administration
of the empire. In much the same way it was used
of Muwaffaq, 3 the brother of the Caliph Mu'tamid
(870-892), who had the practical control of affairs
of state, both civil and military, the Caliph being
wholly given up to his pleasures. As independent
rulers set themselves up in the provinces of the
empire, it became common among them to adopt
the title Sultan, and in this respect the Saljuqs
appear to have , set the example, though it is
commonly asserted that Mahmud of Ghazna
(998-1030) was the first Muhammadan potentate
of importance to so style himself. 4 Like many
other titles, it gained in dignity, by being assumed
by great and powerful monarchs, while petty
princes contented themselves with the name Malik,
Khan, &c. The Egyptians during the Mamluk
THE TITLE SULTAN 203
period liked to flatter themselves that theirs was
the only ruler who had a right to call himself
Sultan, 5 and the Mamluks often styled themselves
Sultan of Islam and the Muslims. 6
APPENDIX E
THE TITLES OF THE OTTOMAN SULTAN
THE following are some specimens of the proto-
cols given by Firidun Bey as c Titles of the Padshahs
of Islam '.
(i) c His Majesty, the victorious and successful
Sultan, the Khaqan aided (by God), whose under-
garment is victory, the Padshah whose glory is
high as heaven, King of Kings who are like stars,
crown of the royal head, the shadow of the Provider,
culmination of kingship, quintessence of the book
of fortune, equinoctial line of justice, perfection of
the spring- tide of majesty, sea of benevolence and
humanity, mine of the jewels of generosity, source
of the memorials of valour, manifestation of the
lights of felicity, setter-up of the standards of
Islam, writer of justice on the pages of time,
Sultan of the two continents and of the two seas,
Khaqan of the two easts and of the two wests,
servant of the two holy sanctuaries, namesake of
the Apostle of men and of jinns, Sultan Muhammad
Khan (may his exalted threshold for ever be
a halting-place for the journeys of the saints, and
may his exalted court be free from the impurities
of diminution and defect).'
204 TITLES OF THE OTTOMAN SULTAN
(ii) c Seated on the throne of the exalted sulta-
nate, clothed in the garments of justice and
righteousness, guardian of the frontiers of Islam,
horseman of the war of vengeance, nay ! the
mightiest Sultan, and most just and noble Khaqan,
opener of the gates of benevolence unto mankind,
giver of all kinds of bounty in the west and the
east, most pious of Sultans in word and deed, most
perfect of Khaqans in knowledge and virtue (may
God Almighty make his governance and kingdom
endure, and give glory to his helpers and assistants,
even as He has exalted his dignity for ever and
always, until God inherit the earth and those that
are on it, praised and glorious is He !>, his majesty,
the abode of the Caliphate,' &c.
(iii) c Star of the imperial fortune, linked with
felicity, majesty high as heaven, having its
dwelling in the sky, star of the zenith of highness,
exalted, full-moon of excellence, the first line of
the book of kingship, ringlet of the forehead of the
asylum of glory, like Faridun in imperial pomp,
with a portico like Khusrau's, with a council like
Alexander's, moon of the heaven of mightiness,
sun of the place where governance arises, exalted
in ruling, wise as Darius, containing the high
qualities of Kai Khusrau, repeater of memorials
like those of Jamshid, laying the foundation of
government, engineer of the ways of equity.'
REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES
CHAPTER I
1 (p. 9) Henry Osborn Taylor, The Mediaeval Mind, vol. ii,
p. 303. (London, 1914.)
2 (p. 12) I. Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, vol. ii,
p. 19 sqq.
3 (p. 12) Traditionis nomen accommodatum est a Theologis
ad significandam tantum doctrinam non scriptam. Cardinal
R. Bellarmin, Disputationes de controversiis christianae fidei,
t. i, p. 147. (Romae, 1832.)
4 (p. 15) Bukhari, ed. Krehl, vol. i, p. 181, 11. 4-5 ; Kanz
ul-'Ummal, vol. iV, nr. 2700.
5 (p. 16) Goldziher, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 277-8.
CHAPTER II
1 (p. 19) Memoirs of Edmund Lucllow, ed. C. H. Firth,
vol. ii, p. 44. (Oxford, 1894.)
2 (p. 19) Lammens, Le ' triumvirat ' Abou Bakr, 'Omar et
Abou 'Obaida. Melanges de la Faculte Orientale, Beyrouth,
t. iv, pp. 113 sqq.
3 (p. 21) The circumstances connected with these two
appointments have been fully investigated by Caetani, Annali
dell' Islam, 11 A.H., 55 sqq., and 13 A.H., 75 sqq., 133 sqq.
4 (p. 21) Annali dell' Islam, vol. v, p. 48.
5 (p. 24) Caetani, Studi di Storia Orientale, t. i, pp. 281-2.
6 (p. 27) Kanz, vol. iii, nr. 2570.
7 (p. 32) Mas'udi, Kitab at-Tanbih, p. 236, 11. 15-16.
8 (p. 32) Ibn Khaldun, Prolegomenes, trad. De Slane,
i, p. 462.
9 (p. 35) Caetani, Annali dell' Islam, 11 A.H., 16.
10 (p. 39) Mufadcjal ibn Abi 'l-Fa<Ja'il, Histoire des Sultans
Mamlouks, ed. E. Bloohet, p. [506].
11 (p. 41) Ibn Khaldun, op. cit., i, p. 463.
206 REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES
CHAPTER III
1 (p, 47) Kanz, vol. vi, nr. 3452.
2 (p. 47) id. vi, nr. 3469.
3 (p. 47) id. vi, nr. 3429.
4 (p. 47) id. iii, nr. 2983.
5 (p. 48) id. iii, nr. 2999.
6 (p. 48) id. iii, nr. 2580.
7 (p. 49) id. iii, nr. 3008.
8 (p. 49) id. iii, nr. 3005.
9 (p. 49) id. iii, nr. 3003.
10 (p. 50) id. iii, nr. 2786.
11 (p. 51) Goldziher, Du sens propre des expressions
Ombre de Dieu, Khalife de Dieu, pour designer les chefs dans
rislam. Revue de 1'Histoire des Religions, tome xxxv (1897).
12 (p. 51) Tabari, iii, p. 1387, 11. 13-14.
13 (p. 51) Kanz, iii, nr. 2237.
14 (p. 51) ed. H. Hirschfeld, xx, 1. 9. The application of
the phrase to the Prophet himself would appear to he of
a much later date, e.g. Ibn Zafar, Sulwan al-muta c , p. 24,
1. 3 a.f. (Tunis, 1279 A.H.)
15 (p. 51) Goldziher, op. cit., p. 6.
16 (p. 51) Mawardi, ed. Enger, p. 22 fin.
17 (p. 51) Tabari, iii, p. 426, 1. 16.
' 18 (p. 52) Suyufl, Ta'rikh ul-Khulafa (ed. Cairo, 1305 A.H.),
pp. 6-7.
19 (p. 53) id., p. 3.
20 (p. 53) Id., p. 7.
21 (p. 53) Of Mansur (754-775) it was said : ' The majesty
of the Khilafat did not prevent him from humbling himself
before the law.' Fragmenta historicorum arabicorum, ed.
De Goeje, p. 269, 11. 5-6.
CHAPTER IV
1 (p. 62) Ibn ul-Athlr, viii, p, 222. (ed. Cairo, 1290 A.H.)
2 (p. 67) Qutb ud-Dm. Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, ed. F.
Wiistenfeld, vol. iii, pp. 168-9.
3 (p. 69) C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, vol. i, p. 59.
CHAPTERS V-VII 207
CHAPTER V
1 (p. 71) Mawardi, al-Ahkam us-sultaniyyah (ed. Enger),
pp. 5-7.
2 (p. 72) id., p. 23.
3 (p. 73) Chronologic orientalischer Volker, p. 132.
4 (p. 74) Chahar Maqala, ed. Mirza Muhammad, p. 10 ;
Revised Translation by Edward G. Browne, p. 11. (Gibb
Memorial Series.)
5 (p. 76) Ibn Khaldun, Prolegomenes, i, pp. 386-8, 394-9,
423-4.
CHAPTER VI
1 (p. 78) Bryce, Holy Roman Empire (ed. 1918), pp. 229,
272-3.
2 (p. 79) H. M. Elliot, History of India, vol. ii, p. 24.
3 (p. 80) v. Appendix D.
4 (p. 80) Barthold, Mip^ IIcjiaMa, i, p. 221 .
5 (p. 80) Houtsma, Recueil de textes relatifs a Thistoire des
Reljoucides, ii, pp. 241-2.
6 (p. 81) Fragmenta historicorum arabicorum, p. 101, 1. 11.
7 (p. 82) C. d'Ohsson, Histoire des Mongols, t. iii, pp. 251-4.
8 (p. 82) Suyut/i, Husn ul-Muhadarah, vol. ii, pp. 53 sqq.,
57.
9 (p. 86) Al-Khazraji, The Pearl-strings, Text i, p. 55 ;
Translation i, pp. 98-9. (Gibb Memorial Series iii.)
10 (p. 87) Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, trans. Raverty, p. 1259. In
a similar manner the Samanids had continued to recite the
Khutbah in the name of TaT for eight years after his deposi-
tion. (Abu Shuja', ed. Amedroz and Margoliouth, p. 332.)
11 (p. 87) H. N. Wright, Catalogue of the Coins in th*
Indian Museum, Calcutta, vol. ii, p. 36.
12 (p. 88) id., p. 38.
CHAPTER VII
1 (p. 94) Suyut>i, Husn ul-Maha<jarah, vol. ii, p. 59 sqq.
2 (p. 98) id., pp. 62-3.
3 (p. 98) Max van Berchem, Inschriften aus Syrien, Meso-
potaniien und Kleinasien, p. 5.
208 REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES
CHAPTER VIII
1 (p. 99) Khalil ibn Shahin az-Zahiri, Zubdat kashf al-
mamalik, ed. P. Ravaisse, p. 89.
2 (p. 100) Suyuti, Ta'rikh ul-Khulafa, p. 197.
3 (p. 100) Weil, Geschichte des Abbasidenchalifats in Egyp-
ten, i, p. 406, n. 2.
4 (p. 100) Al-Fasi, sub anno 815. Chroniken der Stadt
Mekka, vol. ii, pp. 294-5.
5 (p. 101) Weil, op. cit., ii, pp. 126-8.
6 (p. 101) Suyuti, Ta'rikh ul-Khulafa, p. 164.
7 (p. 102) Khalil ibn Shahin, op. cit., p. 89.
8 (p. 102) Suyuti, op. cit., p. 164.
9 (p. 102) Maqrizi, Histoire d'lSgypte, ed. E. Blochet, p. 76.
10 (p. 103) Barthold, op. cit., i, p. 359.
11 (p. 104) Ziya ud-Dm Baram, Ta'rikh-i-Firuz Shahl,
p. 491 sqq. ; Ibn Battuta, i, p. 364.
12 (p. 105) H. N. Wright, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 52 fin.
13 (p. 105) Futuhat-i-Firuz Shahi. H. M. Elliot, History
of India, vol. iii, p. 387.
14 (p. 106) 'Abd ur-Razzaq as-Samarqandi, Matla* us-
sa'dayn wa majma* ul-bahrayn, fol. 9 b. (British Museum
MS. Or. 1291.)
15 (p. 106) J. von Hammer, Geschichte des Osmanischen
Reiches 2 , vol. i, p. 195 ; M. d'Ohsson, Tableau de 1'Empire
Othoman, i, pp. 233-4.
16 (p. 106) Barthold, op. cit., i, p. 360.
17 (p. 106) Ahmad Firidun Bey, Munsha'at us-Salatin.
(Constantinople, 1264-5 A.H.) vol. i, p. 130, 1. 25.
CHAPTER IX
1 (p. 107) Kanz ul-'Ummal, vol. iii, nr. 3152.
2 (p. 108) Prolegomenes, i, p. 424 init.
3 (p. 108) Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, vol. iii, p. 182, 1. 11.
4 (p. 108) id. iii, p. 184, 11. 5-6.
5 (p. 108) Ibn Khaldun, Prolegomenes, i, p. 396.
6 (p. 109) L. Cahun, Introduction a Thistoire de TAsie,
p. 244 (fee.
CHAPTER IX 209
7 (p. Ill) Raslrid ud-DIn, Jami' ut-tawarikh, fol. 327 b.
(India Office Library MS. Ethe 17.)
8 (p. Ill) Mufaddal ibn Abi '1-Fada'il, Histoire des Sultans
Mamlouks, ed. E. Blochet, p. [483].
9 (p. Ill) 'Abd ur-Razzaq, Matla' us-Sa'dayn, fol. 19 b.
(British Museum MS. Or. 1291.)
10 (p. 112) Firidun, op. cit., i, p. 144, 1. 7 a.f.
11 (p. 112) id. i, p. 184, 1. 11.
12 (p. 112) id. i, p. 143, 1. 4 a.f.
13 (p. 113) Weil, Geschichte des Abbasidenchalifats in
Egypten, ii, pp. 201-2.
14 (p. 113) Partially translated by Quatrem^re, in Notices
et Extraits, xiv, 1.
15 (p. 113) E. Thomas, Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of
Delhi, pp. 326-9.
16 (p. 114) Barthold, op. cit., i, pp. 362-3.
17 (p. 114) Haftz Abru, Ta'rlkh-i-Shah Rukh, fol. 2b.
(India Office Library MS. Ethe 171.)
18 (p. 114) Zubdat ut-tawarikh, fol. 5 b. (British Museum
Or. 2774.)
19 (p. 114) Ta'rikh-i-Shah Rukh, fol. 3 b. (I.O. Ethe 171.)
20 (p. 116) Ibn Battuta, i, p. 4 ; ii, p. 382.
21 (p. 116) C. Huart, fipigraphie arabe d'Asie Mineure.
Revue Semitique, t. iii, p. 369.
22 (p. 116) Khaza'm ul-Futuh, fol. 2. (British Museum MS.
Add. 16838.)
23 (p. 117) H. N. Wright, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 43-4.
24 (p. 117) Tadhkiratu 'sh-Shu'ara, ed. Edward G. Browne,
p. 306, 1. 5.
25 (p. 117) Zafar-namah, fol. 5, 1. 3. (British Museum MS.
Add. 23980.)
26 (p. 117) Franz Babinger, Schejch Bedr ed-Din. Der
Islam, vol. xi, p. 41.
27 (p. 117) Firidun, op. cit., i, p. 271, 1. 11 a.f.
28 (p. 118) Akhlaq-i-Jalall (ed. Lucknow, 1868), p. 9,
11. 4-5.
29 (p. 118) Firidun, op. cit., i, p. 341, 1. 10.
30 (p. 118) Barthold, op. cit., i, p. 363.
31 (p. 118) Firidun, op. cit., i, p. 277, 1. 1.
2882
210 REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES
32 (p. 118) Tadhkiratu 'sh-Shu'ara, p. 458, 11. 11-12.
33 (p. 118) Max van Berehem, Corpus Inscriptionum
Arabicarum, i, pp. 46, 91, &e.
34 (p. 119) Barthold, 3anncKH BOCT. OT. Apx. 06m.,
t. xv, p. 223.
35 (p. 119) Supplement ture 635.
36 (p. 120) Harl. 3273, Or. 1376, and Add. 7918.
37 (p. 120) Prolegomenes, i, p. 387.
CHAPTER X
1 (p. 122) Alfarabis Abhandlung iiber den Musterstaat, ed.
Fr. Dieterici. Leiden, 1895.
2 (p. 123) Thier und Mensch, ed. Dieterici, p. 27, 11. 14-19.
3 (p. 124) A, von Kremer, Geschichte dor herrschenden
Idecn des Islam, pp. 92-4.
4 (p. 125) Siyasat-namah, cd. Schefer, p. ?, 11. 7-8 a.f.
5 (p. 128) Zubdat ut-tawarlkh, fol. 5 b. (British Museum
MS. Or. 2774.)
CHAPTER XI
1 (p. 129) Firldun, op. cit., i, pp. 120, 1. 12 a.f. ; 170,
1. 4 a.f. &c.
2 (p. 130) id. i, p. 93, 11. 22, 23.
3 (p. 130) id. i, p. 94, 11. 10-16.
4 (p. 131) id. i, p. 95 fin.-96, 1. 1.
5 (p. 131) id. i, p. 97, 1. 1.
6 (p. 131) id. i, p. 100, 11. 10, 8 a.f.
7 (p. 132) id. i, p. 118, 11. 3-2 a.f.
8 (p. 132) id. i, p. 120, 11. 13-12 a.f.
9 (p. 133) J. von Hammer, Geschichte des Osmanischen
Beichos 8 , vol. i, p. 280.
10 (p. 133) Firldun, op. cit., i, pp. 139-43.
11 (p. 133) id. i, p. 144, 1. 15.
12 (p. 133) id. i, p. 161, 1. 12.
13 (p. 133) id. i, p. 145, 1. 13 a.f.
14 (p. 133) id. i, p. 148, 11. 9-10, fihrist-i-kitab-i-sultanat
wa dibacha-i-risala-i-khilafat.
15 (p. 134) id. i, p. 159 fin.-160.
16 (p. 134) id. i, p. 160, 1. 3 a.f.
CHAPTERS XI-X1I 211
17 (p. 134) id. i, p. 170, 11. 5-4 a.f .
18 (p. 135) id. i, p. 183, 1. 14.
19 (p. 135) id. i, p. 209, 11. 11-12.
20 (p. 135) id. i, p. 267, 1. 12.
21 (p. 136) id. i, p. 268, 1. 11.
22 (p. 136) id. i, p. 272, 11. 17-18.
23 (p. 136) id. i, p. 276, 1. 5.
24 (p. 136) id. i, p. 308, 11. 14-16.
25 (p. 136) id. i, p. 322, 11. 3-1 a.f.
26 (p. 137) id. i, p. 340, 11. 12-11 a.f.
27 (p. 137) id. i, p. 341, 11. 8, 5 a.f.
28 (p. 137) id. i, p. 343, 11. 21-28.
29 (p. 138) id. i, p. 345,11. 9, 11.
30 (p. 138) id. i, p. 354,1. 21.
31 (p. 138) id. i, p. 349, 1. 22.
32 (p. 138) id. i, p. 365, 1. 4.
33 (p. 138) id*, i, p. 368, 1. 2.
34 (p. 138) id. i, p. 368, 1. 16 a.f.
35 (p. 138) id. i, p. 358, 1. 11.
CHAPTER XII
1 (p. 140) Ibn lyas, Ta'rikh Misr, vol. iii, p. 49, wa ajlasahu
wa jalasa bayna yadayhi.
2 (p. 141) id. iii, p. 98 fin.
3 (p. 141) id. iii, p. 105.
4 (p. 142) id. iii, p. 229.
5 (p. 142) Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, vol. iii, p. 185, 1. 3.
6 (p. 142) Weil, Geschichte des Abbasidenchalifats in
Egypten, vol. ii, p. 435.
7 (p. 143) Firidun, op. cit., i, pp. 398-406 and 406-48,
In the longer of these two reports, the ' Abbasid Caliph of
Egypt ' is merely mentioned in connexion with the embassy
to Tuman Bay in March 1517. (id. p. 435, 11. 19-20.)
8 (p. 143) Barthold, Mipt HcjiaMa, i, pp. 372, 381.
9 (p. 144) Ta'rikh Misr, iii, p. 176, 1. 12.
10 (p. 144) Firidun, op. cit., i, pp. 376-9, dated Muharram
923 (Jan.-Feb. 1517).
11 (p. 144) id. i, p. 379 init.
212 REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES
12 (p. 145) Qutb ud-Dm. Chroniken dor Stadt Mekka, iii,
pp. 278-9.
13 (p. 145) J. von Hammer, Geschichte 2 , vol. i, p. 702, n. 5.
14 (p. 146) Firidun, op. cit., i, p. 383, 1. 8.
15 (p. 147) e.g. A. von Kremer, Geschichte der herrschenden
Ideen des Islams, p. 423 ; G. Weil, Geschichte des Abbasiden-
chalifats in Egypten, ii, p. 435 ; A. Miiller, Der Islam im
Morgen- und Abendland, i, p. 641.
16 (p. 148) Weil, op. cit., ii, p. 395.
17 (p. 151) id. i, p. 314.
18 (p. 151) Firidun, op. cit., i, p. 128, 11. 20-24.
19 (p. 151) Yusuf ibn Taghribirdi, Hawadith ud-Duhur,
fol. 13 b. (British Museum MS. Add. 23294.)
20 (p. 152) Al-Fasi. Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, ii, p. 295,
11. 6-3 a.f.
21 (p. 152) Qu^b ud-Dm. Chroniken, iii, p. 247 fin.
22 (p. 153) C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka, vol. i, p. 102.
23 (p. 153) Qutb ud-Dlri, op. cit., iii, p. 286, 1. 2 a.f.
24 (p. 154) Firidun, i, p, 406, 11. 15-17.
25 (p. 154) id. i, p. 380, 11. 15-16.
26 (p. 154) id. i, p. 381, 1. 4 a.f.
27 (p. 154) id. i, p. 382, 1. 19.
28 (p. 155) id. i, p. 383, 1. 5 a.f.
29 (p. 155) id. i, p. 351 fin.
30 (p. 155) id. i, p. 348 fin.-349, 1. 1.
31 (p. 155) id. i, pp. 363, 379.
32 (p. 155) id. i, pp. 392, 394.
33 (p. 155) 4d. i, p. 395.
34 (p. 155) id. i, p. 448, 11. 16-17.
35 (p. 156) id. i, p. 448, 1. 14.
36 (p. 156) Max van Berchem, Corpus Inscriptionum Arabi-
carum, i, p. 606.
37 (p, 157) Barthold, op. cit., i, p. 392.
38 (p. 157) Chroniken, iii, p. 249.
39 (p. 158) Firidun, i, p. 449, 1. 19.
40 (p. 158) id., 11. 14-15.
41 (p. 158) Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, iii, p. 329, 1. 9.
42 (p. 158) id., p. 367, 1. 9.
43 (p. 158) id., p. 390, 1. 9.
CHAPTERS XIII-XIV 213
CHAPTER XIII
1 (p. 159) S. Lane-Poole, Catalogue of Indian Coins in the
British Museum. The Mogul Emperors, p. Ixxiii.
2 (p. 160) Munsha'at wa ba'd waqa'i'-i-Sultan Sulayman
Khan, foil. 257-8. (National-Bibliothek, Vienna. MS.
H. O. 50.)
3 (p. 161) 'Abdi Sari Efendi, Dastur ul-Insha, fol. 28.
(National-Bibliothek,* Vienna. MS. H. 0. 167.)
4 (p. 162) id., foil. 128-9;
5 (p. 162) Shah 'Alam Namah, p. 16, 11. 5-6. (Calcutta,
1912.)
CHAPTER XIV
1 (p. 163) 'Aqa'id, ed. Cureton, p. 4, 1. 4 a.f.
2 (p. 163) M. d'Ohsson, Tableau general de 1'Empire
Othoman (8vo eft.), t. i, p. 212.
3 (p. 164) ed. Constantinople, 1264-5 A.H., vol. i, pp. 2-4.
4 (p. 165) C t A. Nallino, Appunti sulla natura del ' Califfato '
in genere e sul presunto Califfato Ottomano ', p. 16.
5 (p. 166) Barthold, op. cit., i, p. 395.
6 (p. 167) Historia Hierosolymitana. Gesta Dei per
Franeos, t. i, p. 57. (Hanoviae, 1611.)
7 (p. 168) Sextus films est nomine Machomet, qui tenet
regnum de Baudas, ubi est Papa Saracenorum, qui vocatur
Kabatus, sive Caliphas ; qui colitur, adoratur, et tenetur in
lege eorum tanquam Romanus Episcopus apud nos, qui non
potest videri nisi bis in mense, quando hie cum suis vadit ad
Machomet Deum Saracenorum. Et inclinato capite et facta
oratione in lege eorum antequam exeant de templo, splendide
comedunt et bibunt, et sic revertitur Caliphas coronatus ad
palatium suum. Iste Deus Machomet visitatur quotidie et
adoratur, sicut visitatur et adoratur dominus Papa. In ista
civitate de Baudas iste Machomet est Deus, et Calyphas est
Papa, quae civitas est caput totius gentis et legis Saracenorum,
ut Roma est in populo Christiano. (Jacobi de Vitriaco
Historia Hierosolimitana. Gesta Dei per Francos, t. i, p.
1125.)
8 (p. 168) Chronica Maiora, vol. ii, p. 400.
214 REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES
9 (p. 168) The Book of Ser Marco Polo, translated by
Sir Henry Yule, 3rd ed., vol. i, p. 63.
10 (p. 169) Petrus Martyr Anglerius, De re-bus oceanicis ct
novo orbe decades, p. 412. (Coloniae, 1574.)
11 (p. 169) Geographisehes Worterbuch, ed. Wiistenfeld,
vol. ii, p. 867, 11. 7-9.
12 (p. 169) Mir'at uz-zaman. Recueil des Historians des
Croisades, t. iii, p. 560.
13 (p. 170) Prolegomenes, i, pp. 474, 476.
14 (p. 170) R. Hartmann, Arabien im Weltkrieg. Peter-
manns Mitteilungen, 63, p. 55.
15 (p. 170) Subb ul-A^ha, vol. v, p. 408 fin.
16 (p. 170) t. i (8vo ed.), pp. 252, 263.
17 (p. 170) id., pp. 215, 237.
18 (p. 171) C. Mirbt, Quellen zur Geschichte des Papsttums 3 ,
pp. 127, 156-7, 365-7, 424.
19 (p. 175) A. de la Jonquiere, Histoire'de Tempire otto-
man 2 , ii, pp. 70, 179.
20 (p. 175) Sir Edwin Pears, Life of Abdul Hamid, p. 149.
21 (p. 176) C. Snouck Hurgronje, Verspreide Geschriften,
vol. iii, p. 193.
22 (p. 176) A. de la Jonquiere, op. cit., ii, p. 183.
23 (p. 177) Edward G, Browne, The Persian Revolution,
p. 84.
24 (p. 177) A. de la Jonquiere, op. cit., ii, p. 221.
25 (p. 178) Nallino, op. cit., pp. 20-21.
26 (p. 181) L. W. C. van den Berg, De Mohammedaansche
Vorsten in "JSTederlandsch-Indie*. (Bijdragen tot de Taal-,
Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie, liii (1901),
pp. 23, 28.)
27 (p. 182) Encyclopedic van Nederlandsch-Indie, 2nd ed.,
vol. iv, p. 364.
APPENDIX A
1 (p. 187) Edward G. Browne, The Persian Revolution,
pp. 372-3.
APPENDIX B
1 (p. 190) A. Ubicini et Pavet de Courteille, fitat present
de 1' Empire Ottoman, pp. 77-8, (Paris, 1876.)
APPENDICES B-D 215
2 (p. 191) Martin Harimann, in Die Welt des Islams, i,
p. 148. (Berlin, 1913.)
3 (p. 192) C. H. Becker, Islampolitik. Die Welt des Islams,
iii, p. 103. (Berlin, 1915.)
4 (p. 193) id., p. 113.
5 (p. 194) C. Snouck Hurgronje, The Holy War c made in
Germany ', pp. 16-18. (New York, 1915.)
6 (p. 195) id., pp. 27-9.
7 (p. 196) C. Snouek Hurgronje, Nederland en de Islam,
2nd ed., pp. 67-8. (Leiden, 1915.)
8 (p. 197) id., p. 70.
9 (p. 198) C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mohammedanism, pp.
128-30. (New York, 1916.)
10 (p. 199) C. A. Nallino, op. cit., pp. 5, 6.
11 (p. 200) id., p. 7.
12 (p. 200) id., p. 10.
APPENDIX C
1 (p. 201) Greek Papyri of the British Museum, vol. iv.
The Aphrodito Papyri ed. H. G. Bell, pp. xxv, 35 ; C. H.
Becker, Islamstudien, i, p. 257.
2 (p. 201) M. d'Ohsson, op. cit., vol. vii, p. 271.
3 (p. 201) J. von Hammer, op. cit., iii, p. 474.
4 (p. 201) Gul-badan Begam, Humayun-nama, ed. Annette
S. Beveridge, p. 136.
5 (p. 201) C. Snouck Hurgronje, The Achehnese, pp. 18,
251-2. (Leiden, 1906.)
APPENDIX D
1 (p. 202) C. H. Becker, Beitrage zur Geschichte Agyptens
unter dem Islam, p. 90, n. 6.
2 (p. 202) Prolegom&nes, ii, p. 9.
3 (p. 202) Tabari, iii, p. 1894, 1. 11.
4 (p. 202) S. Lane-Poole, Mohammadan Dynasties, p. 286.
5 (p. 203) Khalil ibn Shahm, op. cit., p. 89, 1. 6 a.f.
6 (p. 203) Max van Berchem, Inschrif ten aus Syrien, Meso-
potamien und Kleinasien, pp. 4, 5, 83, &c. ; Corpus Inecrip-
tionum Arabicarum, v. Index sub voc.
INDEX
Abadis, 189.
Abbasid Caliphs in Cairo, estab-
lishment of, 90-8 ; humiliating
position of, 99-102, 108, 118;
recognition of, 1036 ; in rela-
tion to Sallm I, 145-6, 148,
154.
Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad,
27-9, 55-68, 77-87, 150.
'Abd ul-Malik, 149.
'Abd ur-Rahman III, 58.
'Abd ur-Razzaq, 113.
'Abdallah ibn Jahsh, 32.
'Abdallah ibn Zubayr, 149.
Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan,
165-6.
Abdul Hamid II, Ottoman Sultan,
173-7.
Abdul Majid II, Ottoman Sultan,
179.
Abu ' Abdallah Muhammad, 115.
Abu Bakr, elected" Khalifah, 19-
20, 71.
Abu 'Inan Faris, 116.
Abu' 1- Barakat, Amir of Mecca,
144, 146, 152.
Abu '1-Futuh, Amir of Mecca,
68-9.
Abu Namayy, Amir of Mecca, 150.
Abu Sa'Id, Ilkhan, 150.
Abu' s-Su'ud, Mufti, 158.
Adam, 44, 45.
'Adud ud-Dawlah, 62-7.
Ahmad Firidun Bey, see, Firldun.
Ahmad ibn Uways, 117.
Ahmad, Jala'ir Sultan, 131.
Ahmad Pasha, 142.
AhmadI, Turkish poet, 119.
Akbar, 159-60.
Akhlaq-i-Jalali, 117, 126.
Akhlaq-i-Nairi, 126.
'Ala ud-Din Khalji, 116.
'Ala ud-DIn Mas'ud Shah, 87.
'Ala ud-Din Muhammad Shah I,
88.
Aleppo, 140.
'All, 163, 1S5.
2882
'AH Beg, Amir of Karamania, 131.
Almohad dynasty, 84, 115.
Almoravid dynasty, 83-4.
Amir Khusrau, 116.
Amir ul-Mu'minln, title, 31-2, 40,
194 ; assumed by Fatimids, 41 ;
by Hafsids, 115 ; by Abu 'Inan
Faris, il6; relinquished, 129;
not used of Ottoman Sultans,
148, 154, 156, 163.
Amir ul-Muslimm, title, 83.
Amirs of Mecca, 68-9, 144, 150,
152-3, 156, 157, 181, 185.
Anghiera, Peter Martyr, 168.
Angora, battle of, 131.
Aristotle, 121, 124, 126.
Arslan Agha, 160.
Aybak, Mamluk Sultan, 89.
Ayyubid dynasty, 89, 150.
Badr ud-Din ibn Qadi Simaw, 117.
Baghdad, capital of Abbasid Cali-
phate, 27, 58, 167-8; and
Mutawakkil, 140 ; taken by
Huiagu, 81-2, 96, 125, 193;
by Persians, 145 ; by Turko-
mans, 151,
Bakhtiyar, 63.
Balban, see, Ghiyath ud-Dm Bal-
ban.
Baldach (i. e. Baghdad), 168.
Baqilam, 108.
Barakat ibn Muhammad ibn
Barakat, 157.
Barsbay, Mamluk Sultan, 102,
112-13, 151.
Baudas (i. e. Baghdad), 167, 168.
Bayazld I, Ottoman Sultan, 106,
131-2, 151.
Bayazld II, Ottoman Sultan, 136,
147.
Baybars, Mamluk Sultan, 90,
94-6, 98.
Becker, Prof. C. H., on the
Khalifah and the Pope, 191-3.
Benkulen, 181.
Berbers, 83-4.
Be
218
INDEX
Beruni, on the Abbasid Caliph,
72-3.
Bosnia, 174, 177.
Brusa, 133, 154.
Bulgaria, Ottoman Khilafat recog-
nized in, 178.
Buwayhids, 60-8, 78, 79.
Cairo, see Abbasid Caliphs in
Cairo.
Caliph, see Khalifah.
Caliph of the Caliphs, 145.
Caliphas (i. e. Khalifah), 167.
Caliphate, see Khilafat.
Carmathians, 149, 150.
Catherine II, Empress of Russia,
165-6.
Chaldiran, 138, 139, 155.
Coinage, titles of Khalifah on,
28, 40 ; of Ottoman Sultans,
147-8 ; of Indian princes, 87-8,
116, 159.
Constantinople, treaty of, 178.
Crimea, 165-6.
Damascus, 24, 110-11, 140, 144,
151.
Dar ul-Khilafat, 159.
David, 44, 45.
Dawlatshah, 117, 118.
Divine right, government by,
111-12, 129.
Egypt, 84-5, 89 sqq., 99, 139, 150,
152-3, 155.
Election, among pre- Islamic
Arabs, 20.
Election of Khalifah, 19-22.
Farabi, 121.
Faraj, Mamluk Sultan, 151.
Fatimid Caliphate, 84, 150, 180,
185.
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain,
168.
Firldun, 164, 203.
Firuz Shah, Tughlaq, 105.
Frederick III, 78.
Ghazan Khan, 39, 110-11, 119.
Ghiyath ud-Din Balban, 87.
Ghiyath ud-Din Kay Khusrau III,
116.
Greek political thought, 121-3.
Hadlth, importance of, 12 sq. ;
origin of, 45-6 ; concerning
Khalifah, 47-9 ; concerning
Abbasids, 52.
Hafiz Abru, 114, 127.
Hafsid dynasty, 115-16.
Hakim, Abbasid Caliph in Cairo,
* 95.
Hamdanids, 59.
Hamzah Beg, Turkoman prince,
112, 134.
Hartmann, Martin, on the spiri-
tual powers of the Khalifah,
190.
Harun ur-Rashid, 76, 107.
Hassan ibn Thabit, 158.
Hijaz, King of, 181.
Hikmat ul-Ishraq, 123.
Holy Roman Empire, compared
with the Caliphate, 10, 14, 17.
Horns, 98.
Hulagu, 81, 110, 125.
Husayn, Sultan of Khurasan, 118.
Ibn Battuta, 116.
Ibn lyas, 143.
Ibn Khaldun, on the Khilafat,
74-6, 107-8, 120; on the
Khalifah of the Messiah, 169-
70 ; on the title of Sultan, 202.
Ibn Zunbul, 157.
Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan, 160-2.
Ibrahim Halabi, jurist, 163.
Ibrahim, Shaykh, of Shirwan,
155.
Idrisid dynasty, 184-5.
Ikhwan us-Safa, 122-3.
Ilkhan dynasty, 110-11, 150.
Iltutmish, 86-7.
'Imad ud-Dawlah, 61.
Imam, as used in the Qur'ftn,
33-4 ; leader of public worship,
14-16, 30, 34-5, 201; pro-
nounces the Khutbah, 39 ;
title of Khalifah, 14, 40 ; on
coins of Ma'mun, 28 ; title
assumed by Abu 'Abdall&h
Muhammad, 115 ; by Abu
'InSn Faris, 116 ; by Mubarak
Shah, 116; by Muhammad
Shaybani, 118; by Mamluk
Sultans, 118; title relinquished,
129 ; not generally used of
Ottoman Sultans, 148, 154, 156,
INDEX
219
163 ; used of Sultan Abdul
Hamid I, 165 ; Khawarij doc-
trine, 187-8 ; Shiah doctrine,
14, 40, 1 85-7. See also Khalif ah.
Innocent III, 167.
Isfandiyar Beg, Amir of Qasta-
mum, 131.
Jacques de , Vitry, Bishop of
Acre, 167-8.
Ja'far ibn Yahya, 202.
Jahan Shah Mirza, Turkoman
prince, 133.
Jala'ir dynasty, 117.
Jalal ud-Din Dawani, 117-18,
126.
Jalal ud-Din Firuz Shah II, 87.
Jaqmaq, Mamluk Sultan, 118,
151.
Java, 181.
Jem, son of Muhammad II, 136.
Jihad, 72, 93, 96-7, 194.
Jokyakarta, 181.
Kabatus (i.e. Khalifah), 167.
Karamania, 130, 131, 132.
Kerbogha, Amir of Mosil, 167.
Khadiin ul-Haramayn, see Servant
of the two Holy Sanctuaries.
Khalid ibn al-Walid, grave of, 98.
Khalifah, as used in the Qur'an,
43-5 ; origin of title, 29-31 ;
source of its dignity, 26 ;
Khalifah, as Imam, 14 ; must
be of the Quraysh, 47, 71, 75-6,
162, 175, 185; according to
some, need not be of the
Quraysh, 108, 187 ; a political
functionary, 17 ; as supreme
Muslim ruler, 94, 101-2 ; quali-
fications of, 71-2 ; his relations
to the Shari'ah, 53, 73, 75 ; as
a Mujtahid, 53 ; appoints
qadls, 72, 102, 166, 178, 191 ;
bestows titles, 77, 79, 80, 83,
85 ; name mentioned in the
Khutbah, 192; name of Ab-
basid Khalifah in Cairo not
mentioned in Khutbah in
Mecca, 100; believed to be
immune from plague, 81 ; pos-
sesses no spiritual powers, 14,
17, 171-3, 189-200; variants
of the title, 112, 117-18, 131,
133, 1^6-8, 154, 161, 164;
title assumed by independent
princes, 112-18; title applied
to kings, 123, 127 ; to Sultans,
120, 126, 129 ; used of Sultans
in India, 116 ; in Malay Archi-
pelago, 181-2 ; of Mughal em-
perors in India, 159-62 ; of
Ottoman Sultans, 130, 134, 137,
138, 146, 160, 161, 165; of
Saljuq Sultan of Rum, 116;
of Sultans in Transoxiana, 118 ;
of Umayyads in Spain, 58 ;
title, not applied to Salim I
by his son, 155 ; nor to Otto-
man Sultans by the 'Ulama,
154, 163; riot used on Otto-
man coins, 148 ; concurrent
Khalifahs, in eleventh century,
180 ; in thirteenth century,
115, 116; in fourteenth cen-
tury, 116, 117, 130 ; in fifteenth
century, 117, 134, 135 ; in six-
teenth century, 118, 137-8, 159,
160 ; in seventeenth century,
160-1 ; in twentieth century,
181 ; Abbasid Khalifah in
Cairo, elected Sultan of Egypt,
101 ; popular uses of the term
Khalifah, 200-1 ; Khalifah
erroneously compared with the
Pope, 167-73, 190-4, 197 ; title
used of Christian ecclesiastics,
169-70.
Khalifah, see also Imam.
Khalifah of God, title, 51, 117,
157, 158.
Khilafat, not foreseen by Muham-
mad, 10-11, 19; said to have
lasted only thirty years, 107,
163 ; despotic character, 29,
47-50, 53 ; elective, 22, 70-1 ;
becomes hereditary, 22-3 ; ex-
positions of Sunni theory, by
Mawardi, 70-2; by NasafI,
163; by Nizami-i-'Arudl, 73;
by Ibn Khaldun, 74-6, 107-8,
120 ; by Maqrlzi, 107 ; Shiah
theory, 184-7 ; Khawarij
theory, 187-8 ; philosophical
expositions, 122-8 ; current
ideals, 182-3 ; history, Umay-
yad dynasty, in Damascus,
220
INDEX
22-7, 66-7; in Spain, 58;
Abbasid, in Baghdad, 27-9;
65-68, 79-81 ; in Cairo, 90-
102, 139-42; Morocco, 115-
16 ; attributed to heathen
Mongols, 120 ; claimed by 4
Shah Kukh, 112 ; under Otto-
mans, 130-58, 164-6, 173-80,
196 ; Ottoman Caliphate, abol-
ished, 180 ; claimed by King
of the Hijaz, 181 ; European
misunderstandings of theory,
165, 167-73, 177-9, 189-99.
Khalil ibn Shahin, 101.
Khalll Sultan, 106.
Khaljl dynasty, 87.
Khawarij doctrine of Khilafat,
187-8.
KhizrKhan, 113.
Khutbah, origin of, 37-9 ; signifi-
cance of, 192 ; indicates change
of sovereignty, 85, 140, 141 ; in
Baghdad, last pronounced by
a Khalifah, 59 ; name of
Buwayhid inserted, 61, 65 ;
Khallfah's name omitted, 62,
100 ; in Bosnia and Libya, name
of Ottoman Sultan mentioned,
177-8; in Cairo, pronounced
by Khalifah, 90-4, 95-7 ; name
of Salirn I mentioned, 140, 147 ;
in Delhi, insertion of name of
Abbasid Khalifah in Cairo, 104-
5; of Shah Rukh, 113; of
Timur, 113; in Egypt, Shah
Rukh's demand for insertion
of his name, 113 ; in Mecca,
100, 150, 152 ; -name of Abbasid
Khalifah in Cairo not men-
tioned, 100, 153 ; in S. Persia,
name of Abbasid Khalifah in
Cairo inserted by Muzaffarids,
103.
Khwajah Isfahani, 138.
Kings, declared to be Caliphs, 123,
127. See also Sultan.
Kuchuk Kainarji, treaty, 165-6.
Kutei, 181.
Lausanne, treaty of, 177-8.
Law, Muslim, see Sharfah.
Libya, Ottoman Khilafat recog-
nized in, 178.
Mahimld of Ghazna, 78-9, 82, 202.
Mahmud Shah Nasir ud-Din, 87.
Mahmud II, Ottoman Sultan,
147.
Malay Archipelago, 181, 196.
Malikshah, Saljuq Sultan, 125.
Malik uz-Zahir Rukn ud-Din, see
Baybars.
Mamluk Sultans, 89-90, 94-5, 98,
99-102, 113, 118,139, 145, 150,
203.
Ma'muD, Abbasid Caliph, 28, 40.
Mansur, Abbasid Caliph, 51.
Mantle of the Prophet, 27, 80,
142-3, 180.
MaqrizI, on Abbasid Caliphs in
Cairo, 102 ; on Khilafat, 107.
Marinid dynasty, 116.
Marj Dabiq, battle, 140, 144, 145.
Masqat, 188-^
Mawardi, account of the Khilafat,
70-2.
Mecca, Amirs of , 144, 156, 185;
acquired by Ottomans, 144,
148, 161 ; importance of, 148-
53 ; Khutbah in, 100, 150.
Medina, 144, 148-9, 151, 161.
Melkites, 169-70.
Minbar, 36-7.
Mongols, 109-11, 150.
Mu'awiyah, 22, 24-5.
Mubarak Shah Khaljl, 116.
Mubariz ud-Din Muhammad ibn
Muzaffar, 102.
Muftis, function of, 191 ; ap-
pointed by Khalifah, 166, 178.
Muhammad, functions of, 27, 30,
198 ; nominated no successor,
19 ; as God of the Saracens,
168.
Muhammad, mantle of, 27, 80,
142-3, 180.
Muhammad I, Ottoman Sultan,
and the Caliphate, 132-3;
recognizes Khilafat of Shah
Kukh, 112.
Muhammad II, Ottoman Sultan,
117, 135-6.
Muhammad ibn Tughlaq, 103-5.
Muhammad Shaybani, 118.
Muhammad Sokolli, 164,
Mu'izz ud-Dawlah, 61-2.
Mu'izz ud-Din Kayqubad, 87.
Mujtahid, 53.
INDEX
221
Multaqa'l-Abhur, 163.
Muqtadl, Abbasid Caliph, 83, 85.
Muqtadir, Abbasid Caliph, 57-8.
Murad I, Ottoman Sultan, 130-1.
Murad II, Ottoman Sultan, 112,
113, 133-6.
Murad III, Ottoman Sultan, 147,
164.
Murad IV, Ottoman Sultan, 161.
Mustafa, son of Muhammad II,
136.
Mustafa Pasha, 160-1.
Musta'm, Abbasid Caliph in
Cairo, 100-1.
Mustakfi, Abbasid Caliph in
Baghdad, 60-2,
Mustakfi, Abbasid Caliph in
Cairo, 104-5.
Mustamsik, Abbasid Caliph in
Cairo, 140.
Mustanair, Abbasid Caliph in
Baghdad, 85, 86.
Mustansir, Abbas*d Caliph in
Cairo', 90, 94-5.
Musta'sim, last Abbasid Caliph in
Baghdad, 81, 87, 88, 100.
Mustarshid, Abbasid Caliph, 80.
Mu'tadid bi'llahi, Abbasid Caliph
in Cairo, 103.
Mutawakkil, last Abbasid Caliph
in Cairo, 138, 139, 141-3, 146.
Mutawakkil, seventh Abbasid
Caliph in Cairo, 103.
Mutr, Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad,
62.
MuttaqI, Abbasid Caliph in Bagh-
dad, 59.
Muwaffaq, 202.
Muzaffar Shah II, King of
Gujarat, 155.
Muzaffarid dynasty, 102-3.
Nallino, Prof. C. A., on the
spiritual powers of the Khall-
fah, 199.
Nasafl, 163.
Nasir, Abbasid Khalifah in Bagh-
dad, 81, 167.
Nasir Muhammad, Mamluk Sul-
tan, 99, 110, 150.
Nasir ud-Dln, governor of Mardin,
135
Nasir ud-Dln TusI, 125.
Nizam ud-Dm ShamI, 117.
Nizam ul-Mulk, 125.
Nizami-i-'Arudl, on the Kkilafat,
73.
Nur ud-Dm 'Umar, 85.
Ohsson, C. Mouradgea d', 146, 170.
Oman, 188.
Ottoman Sultans, and Mecca,
152-3, 157-8; and Mughal
Emperors, 159-61 ; titles, 130-
8, 147-8, 153-8, 164-6, 173,
203-4.
Padshah of Islam, title, 111, 164.
Paris, Matthew, 168.
Pasir, 181.
Persia, Shiahs in, 185, 186.
Piccolomini, Aeneas, on power of
the Emperor, 78.
Plr Muhammad, 105-6.
Pius II, see Piccolomini, Aeneas.
Plato, 121, 122, 123, 126.
Polo, Marco, 168.
Pope, erroneously compared with
Khalifah, 14, 167-73, 190-4,
197.
Portuguese, in Bed Sea, 148.
Priesthood, none in Islam, 15-16.
Qadir, Abbasid Caliph, 79, 108.
Qadis, appointed by Khalifah, 72,
102, 166,178,191.
Qadis, Khallfahs of the Prophets,
123.
Qahir, Abbasid Caliph, 58-9.
Qa'im, Abbasid Caliph, 68, 70, 72.
Qa'it Bay, Mamluk Sultan, 118.
Qala'un, 99.
Qalqashandl, 170.
Qansuh Ghuri, 118, 139-40, 152,
168.
Qara Iskandar, Turkoman Sultan,
133.
Qara-Qoyunlu, see Turkomans of
the Black Sheep.
Qara Yusuf, Turkoman prince,
112, 133, 151-2.
Qastamuni, 131, 136.
Qur'an, verses quoted, ii. 28, 45 ;
ii. 118, 33 ; iii. 26, 112 ; vi. 165,
43, 126, 129, 134, 155 ; vii. 67,
43 ; vii. 72, 43, 44 ; ix. 12, 34 ;
xi. 2Q> 34 ; xv. 70, 34 ; xvii. 73,
33 ; xxi. 73, 33 ; xxiv. 54, 43 ;
222
INDEX
xxv. 74, 33; xxxv. 37, 160;
xxxviii. 25, 44, 126, 129, 132,
153-4 ; xlvi. 11, 34.
Quraysh, Khallfah must be of the,
47, 71, 75-6, 162, 175, 185;
Khalffah need not be of the
108, 187.
Qurqud, Ottoman prince, 138.
Qutb ud-DIn, Mufti of Mecca,
108, 142, 157, 158.
Qutuz, Mamluk Sultan, 89.
Bad!, Abbasid Caliph, 59.
Basulid dynasty, 85, 150.
Bidania, battle, 140.
Robertus Monachus, 167.
Bukn ud-Dawlah, 61.
Rust am, Turkoman prince, 136.
Saladin, 84-5, 150, 167.
Salim I, Ottoman Sultan, 137-55,
157 ; as Prince, 118, 137.
Saljuqs, 79-81, 116, 202.
Samarqand, 111, 115, 138.
Sayf ud-Dawlah, 122.
Sayf ud-DIn, 167.
Sayyid Abu'l-Hasan, 144, 152.
Sayyid Jamal ud-Dm, 176.
Sayyid us-Salatm, title, 105.
Servant of the two Holy Sanc-
tuaries, title, 141, 145, 148-9,
151, J55, 161-2.
Shadow of God, title, 50 ; applied
to Abu 'Inan Faris, 116; to
'Ala ud-DIn Khaljl, 116; to
Mughal emperor, 160 ; to Otto-
man Sultans, 135, 161 ; to
Saljuqs, 80, 116; to Shah
Bukh, 112, 114 ; toTlmur, 117 ;
to any Sultan, 126, 128.
Shah 'Alain II, Mughal emperor,
162.
ShSh Isma'il, 138, 139, 145, 155.
Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor,
160.
Shah Bukh, 111-15, 127, 133, 134,
151.
Shah Shuja', 103.
Shamsuddin Muhammad, Amir of
Karamania, 132.
Shari'ah, origin of, 46 ; must be
maintained by the Khallfah,
72, 73, 75 ; subordination of
Khallfah to, 53, 191, 199-200;
among the Mongols, 106, 109 ;
in Bulgaria, Greece, and Libya,
178.
Sharifs of Mecca, see Amirs of
Mecca.
Shaykh ul-Islarn, 177-8, 191-2.
Shiah doctrine of Imamate and
Caliphate, 14, 40, 55-6, 126,
184-7 ; dynasties, 184-5.
Shihab ud-DIn Suhrawardi, 123.
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, 169.
Sldi* 'All Katibi, 160.
Si was, inscription at, 116.
Slave dynasty of Delhi, 86-7.
Snouck Hurgronje, Prof. C., on
the Khallfah and the Pope,
193-9.
Spiritual powers, wrongly attri-
buted to the Khallfah, 17, 171-
3, 189-200.
Sulayman I, Ottoman Sultan,
138, 142, 144, 155, 157-8, 159-
60. ./
Sulayman Pasha, 156.
Sultan, lit. 'power', 135, 190,
202 ; interpreted to mean
Shadow of God, 128 ; origin of
title, 202; title conferred by
Khallfah, 99, 101-2 ; on Iltut-
mish, 86; on Nur ud-DIn
'Umar, 85; on Tughril, 80;
application for title from Baya-
zld 1, 106.
Sultan Khalil, governor of Shir-
wan, 133.
Sultan of Egypt, Abbasid Caliph
elected, 101.
Sultan of Islam, title of Mamluk
Sultans, 203 ; assumed by
Ghazan Khan, 111.
Sultans style themselves Khallfah,
120, 129, 155 ; see also Khall-
fah.
Suyutl, on position of Abbasid
Caliphs in Cairo, 101.
Ta'i', Abbasid Caliph, 62-8.
tartars of the Crimea, 165-6.
Tidore, 181.
Tlmur and the Caliphate, 117,
119; correspondence with
Bayazld I, 106, 131-2, 161;
name inserted in Khutbah in
Delhi, 113.
INDEX
223
Traditions, see Hadlth.
Transoxiana, 105, 118.
Tughril, 79-80.
Tuman Bay, Mamluk Sultan,
140-1.
Turkomans of the Black Sheep,
112, 133, 151.
Turkomans of the White Sheep,
112, 117, 126, 134, 135, 137.
Tuziin, 59, 60.
*Ubayd Allah Khan, of Samar-
qand, 138.
'Ulama, the learned, position in
Muslim world, 14-15, 197, 198,
200; heirs of the prophets,
198 ; interpreters of the law,
54, 198, 199; relations with
Muslim governments, 17 ; with
the Abbasids in Baghdad, 27-8 ;
with the Ottoman Sultans, 163,
175.
'Umar appointee* Khallfah, 201.
Umayyad dynasty, 22-7, 56-7;
in Spain, 57, 58.
'Uthman,*158.
Uzbeg dynasty, 118, 138.
Uzun Hasan, letters to Muham-
mad II, 117, 135-6.
Wahid ud-DIn, Ottoman Sultan,
179.
Wathiq bi'llahi Ibrahim, 99-100.
Yaman, and Khutbah in Mecca,
150 ; Shiab states in, 184, 185 ;
Rasulid dynasty, 86-6 ; as-
signed to Mamluk Sultan, 92 ;
claimed by Sallm I, 144.
Ya*qub, Turkoman prince, 118,
136, 137.
Yaqut, 169.
Yasaq, Mongol code, 106, 109,
111.
Yazld, 149.
Yuhanna ibn Bitrlq, 124.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin, 83.
Zallaka, battle, 84.
Zanzibar, 189.
Zaydls, 185, 187.
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