The last Caliph, Abdülmecid II.

The term caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfa) refers to the first form of government inspired by Islam. It was initially led by Muhammad's disciples as a continuation of the political authority the prophet established, known as the 'rashidun caliphates'. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah, and was the world's first major welfare state on such a large scale.^[1] The term is also used to refer to a state which implements such a government.

Sunni Islam dictates that the head of state, the caliph, should be selected by Shura, elected by Muslims or their representatives.^[2] Followers of Shia Islam believe the caliph should be an imam descended in a line from the Ahl al-Bayt. From the time of Muhammad until 1924, after the Rashidun period; caliphates, sometimes two at a single time real and illusory, were ruled by dynasties; firstly the Umayyads, then the Abbasids, the Fatimids, and finally the Ottomans.

The caliphate was "the core political concept of Sunni Islam, by the consensus of the Muslim majority in the early centuries.".^[3]

History

Part of a series on the Islamic Jurisprudence – a discipline of Islamic studies
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Economic Political Political Aspects Caliphate Imamah Wilayat al-faqih Bay'ah Dhimmi Marital Criminal Etiquette Theological Hygiene Military Abu Bakr - First Rashidun (Four Righteously Guided Caliphs) of the Sunnis. Subdued rebel tribes in the Ridda wars. Umar (Umar ibn al-Khattab) - Second Rashidun. During his reign, the Islamic empire expanded to include Egypt, Jerusalem, and Persia. Uthman Ibn Affan - Third Rashidun. The Qur'an was compiled under his direction. Killed by rebels. Ali (Ali ibn Abu Talib) - Fourth and last Rashidun, and considered the first imam by Shi'a Muslims. His reign was fraught with internal conflict. Hasan ibn Ali - Fifth Caliph (considered as "rightly guided" by many Sunnis as well as Shias). He ruled for six months only and handed the powers to Muawiyah I in order to unite the Muslims again. Muawiyah I - First caliph of the Umayyad dynasty. Muawiyah instituted dynastic rule by appointing his son Yazid I as his successor, a trend that would continue through subsequent caliphates. Umar ibn AbdulAziz - Umayyad caliph considered by some (mainly Sunnis) to be a sixth true and legitimate caliph under Islamic Laws of electing Caliph. Harun al-Rashid - An Abbasid caliph during whose reign Baghdad became the world's prominent centre of trade, learning, and culture. Harun is the subject of many stories in the famous work One Thousand and One Nights. Suleiman the Magnificent - Early Ottoman Sultan during whose reign the Ottoman Empire reached its zenith. Abdul Hamid II - The last Ottoman Sultan to rule with absolute power. Abdülmecid II - The last Caliph of the Ottoman Dynasty, the 101st Caliph in line from Caliph Abu Bakr and nominally the 37th Head of the Ottoman Imperial House. Further reading The theory of government in Islam, by The Internet Islamic University The History of Al-Khilafah Ar-Rashidah (The Rightly Guided Caliphates) School Textbook, By Dr. 'Abdullah al-Ahsan, `Abdullah Ahsan The Crisis of the Early Caliphate By Richard Stephen Humphreys, Stephen (EDT) Humphreys from The History of al-Tabari Reunification of the Abbasid Caliphate By Clifford Edmund (TRN) Bosworth, from The History of al-Tabari Return of the Caliphate to Baghdad By Franz Rosenthal from The History of al-Tabari The Caliphate, Its Rise, Decline, and Fall. From Original Sources By William Muir Pan-Islamism: Indian Muslims, the Ottomans and Britain (1877-1924) By Azmi Özcan Ottomanism, Pan-Islamism, and the Caliphate Discourse at the Turn of the 20th Century American University in Cairo Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate from Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources By Guy Le Strange The Fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba: Berbers and Andalusis in conflict By Peter C. Scales Khilafat and Caliphate, By Mubasher Ahmad The abolition of the Caliphate, From The Economist Mar 8th 1924 See also Hizb ut-Tahrir Caliph Islamic Golden Age Islamic state List of countries spanning more than one continent Muslim Agricultural Revolution Shah Sheikh ul-Islam Twelver Shi`ism Notes ^ Crone, Patricia (2005), Medieval Islamic Political Thought, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 308–9, ISBN 0748621946  ^ a b c d e Gharm Allah Al-Ghamdy ^ John O. Voll: Professor of Islamic history at Georgetown University Revivalism, Shi‘a Style ^ Lexic Orient.com ^ New world hegemony in the Malay world, By Geoffrey C. Gunn, pg. 96 ^ http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FaRNoAEoflIC&pg=PA316&lpg=PA316&dq=Wali+or+governor&source=web&ots=6R7pzSBUf-&sig=JB877bB5DoWDdYBs5M6RGqUNZCE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result ^ John Esposito (1992) p.36 ^ The Khilafat Movement ^ The Statesman ^ Masnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Mishkat, Chapter Al-Anzar Wal Tahzir ^ "As-Sirah" of Ibn Kathir ^ "Tarikh ut-Tabari" by at-Tabari ^ "Siratu Ibn Hisham" by Ibn Hisham ^ "As-Sunan ul-Kubra" of Bayhaqi ^ "Al-fasil-fil Milal" by ^ "Al-A’kd Al-Farid" of Al-Waqidi ^ "as-Sirah" of Ibnu Ishaq ^ Nahj-ul-Balagha (part 1 page 91) ^ Al-ahkam Al-Sultaniyah page 9 ^ Mughni Al-Muhtaj, volume 4, page 132 ^ Subul Al-Asha, volume 9, page 277 ^ Al-Muhalla, volume 9, page 360 ^ Al-Mizan, volume 2, page 157 ^ Al-Mughni fi abwab Al-Tawheed, volume 20, page 243 ^ Al-Fiqh Alal-Mathahib Al- Arba’a (the fiqh of the four schools of thought), volume 5, page 416 ^ Al-Fasl Fil-Milal, volume 4, page 62 ^ Matalib Ulil-Amr ^ Maqalat Al-Islamyin, volume 2,page 134 ^ Al-Moghni Fi Abuab Al-Tawhid, volume 20, pages 58-145 ^ Tafseer ul-Qurtubi 264/1 ^ [Qur'an 002:030] ^ Sharhu Sahih Muslim page 205 vol 12 ^ al Iqtisaad fil Itiqaad page 240 ^ Siyaasah Shariyyah - chapter: 'The obligation of adherence to the leadership' ^ a b Washington Post, Reunified Islam: Unlikely but Not Entirely Radical, Restoration of Caliphate resonates With Mainstream Muslims. ^ Andrew Hammond, Middle East Online. ^ Reunified Islam ^ Abul A'al Mawdudi, Human Rights in Islam, The Islamic Foundation, 1976, p.9 ^ Robert S. Leiken & Steven Brooke, "The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood", Foreign Affairs Magazine. ^ Roy, Olivier, Failure of Islamism, Harvard University Press, (1994) p.42 ^ www.fas.org ^ Interview Oct 21, 2001, from bin Laden Message to the World, Verso, 2005, p.121 ^ Washington Post ^ Wright, 46 ^ William Lane Craig, Professor Mackie and the Kalam Cosmological Argument. ^ Search Results for " harunyaya.com " ^ http://www.harunyaya.biz/Quran_translation/Quran_translation_index.php ^ Roy, Olivier, Failure of Islamism, Harvard University Press, (1994) p.42-3 ^ The Muslim Brotherhood And Copts, Historical Perspective ^ Campus Radicals - Hizb-ut Tahrir ^ Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 681 ^ (Weeramantry 1997, pp. 132 & 135) ^ Noah Feldman (March 16, 2008). "Why Shariah?". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/magazine/16Shariah-t.html?ei=5070&em=&en=5c1b8de536ce606f&ex=1205812800&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-10-05.  ^ a b Zohor Idrisi (2005), The Muslim Agricultural Revolution and its influence on Europe, FSTC. ^ Maya Shatzmiller, p. 263. ^ The Cambridge economic history of Europe, p. 437. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521087090. ^ Subhi Y. Labib (1969), "Capitalism in Medieval Islam", The Journal of Economic History 29 (1), p. 79-96 [81, 83, 85, 90, 93, 96]. ^ a b Jairus Banaji (2007), "Islam, the Mediterranean and the rise of capitalism", Historical Materialism 15 (1), p. 47-74, Brill Publishers. ^ Robert Sabatino Lopez, Irving Woodworth Raymond, Olivia Remie Constable (2001), Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World: Illustrative Documents, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231123574. ^ Timur Kuran (2005), "The Absence of the Corporation in Islamic Law: Origins and Persistence", American Journal of Comparative Law 53, p. 785-834 [798-799]. ^ Subhi Y. Labib (1969), "Capitalism in Medieval Islam", The Journal of Economic History 29 (1), p. 79-96 [92-93]. ^ Ray Spier (2002), "The history of the peer-review process", Trends in Biotechnology 20 (8), p. 357-358 [357]. ^ Said Amir Arjomand (1999), "The Law, Agency, and Policy in Medieval Islamic Society: Development of the Institutions of Learning from the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century", Comparative Studies in Society and History 41, p. 263-293. Cambridge University Press. ^ Samir Amin (1978), "The Arab Nation: Some Conclusions and Problems", MERIP Reports 68, p. 3-14 [8, 13]. ^ Crone, Patricia (2005), Medieval Islamic Political Thought, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 308–9, ISBN 0748621946  ^ Andrew J. Coulson, Delivering Education, Hoover Institution, p. 117, http://media.hoover.org/documents/0817928928_105.pdf, retrieved 2008-11-22  ^ Life expectancy (sociology) ^ University of Wyoming ^ Conrad, Lawrence I. (2006), The Western Medical Tradition, Cambridge University Press, p. 137, ISBN 0521475643  ^ Bulliet, Richard W. (1983), "The Age Structure of Medieval Islamic Education", Studia Islamica 57: 105–117 [111]  ^ Shatzmiller, Maya (1994), Labour in the Medieval Islamic World, Brill Publishers, p. 66, ISBN 9004098968  ^ Bulliet, Richard W. (April 1970), "A Quantitative Approach to Medieval Muslim Biographical Dictionaries", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (Brill Publishers) 13 (2): 195–211 [200]  ^ Ahmad, Ahmad Atif (2007), "Authority, Conflict, and the Transmission of Diversity in Medieval Islamic Law by R. Kevin Jaques", Journal of Islamic Studies 18=issue=2: 246–248 [246], doi:10.1093/jis/etm005  References Donner, Fred: The Early Islamic Conquests, Princeton University Press, 1981. Crone, Patricia and Hinds, Martin: God's Caliph, Cambridge University Press, 1986. Wright, Lawrence (2007). The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. London: Vintage. ISBN 9781400030842.  External links This article's external links may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links. (December 2008) Khilafat.com website The return of the caliphate The Guardian Newspaper Islamists urge caliphate revival BBC News v • d • e Timeline of the Caliphate v • d • e Authoritarian forms of government Autocratic Absolute monarchy · Despotism · Dictatorship · Enlightened absolutism · Tyranny Totalitarian Fascism · Nazism · Communist state · Theocracy · Totalitarian democracy Other Illiberal democracy · Military dictatorship · Military junta · Oligarchy · Single-party state Sorry: result not found.   Latest Comment:   Add Your Comment: We welcome your Comment on this story.Comments are submitted for possible publication on the conditiin that they may be edited.Please provide your full name.We also require a working email address-not for publication,but for verification.The location field is optional. Read our Publication guidelines. Full name:   Email address:   Location:(optional) Your Comment:: (max 1200 characters) Remember my details  (So you don't have to retype your details each time send feedback.)   Email me if my Comment is published Security Code :		Contents Contents 1 History 1.1 Rashidun, 632–661 1.2 Umayyads, 7th–8th centuries 1.2.1 The Caliphate in Hispania 1.3 Abbasids, 8th–13th centuries 1.4 Shadow Caliphate, 13th–16th centuries 1.5 Ottomans, 16th-20th century 1.6 Khilafat Movement, 1920 1.7 End of the Caliphate, 1924 2 Religious basis 2.1 Quran 2.2 Hadith 2.3 The Sahaba of Muhammad 2.4 The sayings of Islamic scholars 3 Reestablishment of the Caliphate 3.1 Islamist call 3.2 Opposition 4 Political system 4.1 Electing or appointing a Caliph 4.2 Sunni belief 4.3 Shi'a belief 4.4 Majlis al-Shura: Parliament 4.5 Accountability of rulers 4.6 Rule of Law 4.7 Economy 5 Famous caliphs 6 Further reading 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links ADVERTISEMENT Search Tools Bookmark RSS Feed E-mail a Friend Leave a Comment Search Toolbar Tag Cloud Recent Searches On a Mobile/PDA? 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