Word Finder - caliph

definition

The political leader of the Muslim world, successor of Muhammad's political authority, not religious or spiritual.

example

The Abbasid caliphs patronized art and science beside religious developments ushering in the Islamic Golden Age when their capital Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade.

The caliph, Al Mansur, lived nearly twelve hundred years ago.

The caliph at once gave orders for the gardener to be brought before him the next day.

The caliph laughed outright, and so did every one that heard him.

About the year 646 `Amr was deprived of his government by the caliph Othman.

The next morning the caliph called ten of his officers before him.

Hadrian's policy in this respect was matched later on by the edict of the caliph Omar (c. 638), who, like his Roman prototype, prevented the Jews from settling in the capital of their ancient country.

Moawiya, the first Omayyad caliph, chose Damascus for his residence; but in 750 the capital of the empire was removed by the Abbasids to Bagdad.

It was under the name of al-mandi that Mokhtar proclaimed `Ali's son Mahommed as the opponent of the caliph Abdalmalik, and, according to Shahrastani, the doctrine of the mandi, the hidden deliverer who is one day to appear and fill the oppressed world with righteousness, first arose in connexion with a belief that this Mahommed had not died but lived concealed at Mount Radwa, near Mecca, guarded by a lion and a panther.

Of the many pretenders to this dignity known in all periods of Moslem history the most famous was the first caliph of the Fatimite dynasty in North Africa, `Obaidallah al-Mandi, who reigned 909-933.

The vizier gave Firdousi an apartment near himself, and related to the caliph the manner in which he had been treated at Ghazni.

Notwithstanding the losses that the city had sustained, `Amr was able to write to his master, the caliph Omar, that he had taken a city containing "4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 12,000 dealers in fresh oil, 12,000 gardeners, 40,000 Jews who pay tribute, 400 theatres or places of amusement."

The fanaticism of the caliph Hakim destroyed the church of the Sepulchre and ended the Frankish protectorate (Ioio); and the patronage of the Holy Places, a source of strife between the Greek and the Latin Churches as late as the beginning of the Crimean War, passed to the Byzantine empire in 1021.

There was once a caliph of Cordova whose name was Al Mansour.

At this period the religion of Mahomet was spreading over the east, and in 637 the caliph Omar marched on Jerusalem, which capitulated after a siege of four months.

The caliph Omar initiated in the 7th century a code which required Christians and Jews to wear peculiar dress, denied them the right to hold state offices or to possess land, inflicted a poll-tax on them, and while forbidding them to enter mosques, refused them the permission to build new places of worship for themselves.

But Mahmud had by this time heard of his asylum at the court of the caliph, and wrote a letter menacing his liege lord, and demanding the surrender of the poet.

The Latin power thus established and organized in the East had to face in the north a number of Mahommedan amirs, in the south the caliph of Egypt.

The mosque of the Omayyads in Damascus was built by the Caliph Walid in A.D.

He next turned against the Mameluke rulers of Egypt, crushed them, and entering Cairo as conqueror (1517), obtained from the last of the Abbasid caliphs,' Motawakkil, the title of caliph (q.v.) ' After the fall of the caliphs of Bagdad (1258), descendants of the Abbasids took refuge in Cairo and enjoyed a purely titular authority under the protection of the Egyptian rulers.

The caliph has the style of Amir ul Omara, " lord of lords."

AlMansur, however, pardoned him on the intercession of his fellowtribesman Musayyab ibn Zuhair of Dabba, and appointed him the instructor in literature of his son, afterwards the caliph al-Mandi.

After the marriage of his daughter to the caliph, which was celebrated at enormous expense, an arrangement was made giving the Tulunid sovereign the viceroyalty of a region extending from Barca on the west to Hit on the east; but tribute, ordinarily to the amount of 300,000 dinars, was to be sent to the metropolis.

In the middle of the year 914 Egypt was invaded for the first time by a Fatimite force sent by the caliph al-Mahdi Obaidallah, now established at Kairawan.

This fleet was destroyed by a far smaller one sent by the Bagdad caliph to Rosetta; but Egypt was not freed from the invaders till the year 921, when reinforcements had been repeatedly sent from Bagdad to deal with them.

He is even said to have given orders to substitute the name of the Fatimite caliph for that of the Abbasid in public prayer, but to have been warned of the unwisdom of this course.

The Egyptian rebels managed to gain most influence, and, in accordance with their desire, 'Ali was appointed caliph by the citizens of Medina.

The final blow to any political pretensions of Medina was dealt by the caliph when he had his son Yazid declared as his successor, thus taking away any claim on the part of the citizens of Medina to elect to the caliphate.

The Kharijites who had opposed 'Ali on the ground that he had no right to allow the appeal to arbitration, were defeated at Nahrawan or Nahrwan (658), but those who escaped became fierce propagandists against the Koreish, some claiming that the caliph should be chosen by the Faithful from any tribe of the Arabs, some that there should be no caliph at all, that God alone was their ruler and that the government should be carried on by a council.

In 762 there was a rebellion in favour of a descendant of 'Ali, but it was put down with great severity by the army of the caliph Mansur.

In 845-846 the lawless raids of Bedouin tribes compelled the caliph Wathiq to send his Turkish general Bogha, who was more successful in the north than in the centre and south of Arabia in restoring peace.

The two cities were governed by Arabian nobles (sherifs), often at feud with one another, recognizing formally the overlordship of the caliph at Bagdad or the caliph of Egypt.

Thus in 966 the name of the caliph Moti was banished from the prayers at Mecca, and an `Alyite took possession of the government of the city and recognized the Egyptian caliph as his master.

About a century later (1075-1094) the 'Abbasid caliph was again recognized as spiritual head owing to the success in arms of his protector the Seljuk Malik-Shah.

Poetry depended on patronage, and that was to be had now chiefly in the court of the caliph and the residences of his governors.

Protected by the caliph he employed the old weapons of satire to support them against the " Helpers " and to exalt his own tribe against the Qaisites.

Qais ur-Rugayyat was the poet of `Abdallah ibn uz-Zubair (Abdallah ibn Zobair) and helped him until circumstances went against him, when he made his peace with the caliph.

On the other hand Ibn ul-Mo`tazz (son of the caliph) was the writer of brilliant occasional verse, free of all imitation.

The patriarch was able to secure from the caliph permission for the Christians to practice their religion in return for tribute money and this was afterwards remitted.

In the centre of the town stands Meshed (strictly Meshhed) `Ali, the shrine of `Ali, containing the reputed tomb of that caliph, which is regarded by the Shi`ite Moslems as being no less holy than the Ka`ba itself, although it should be said that it is at least very doubtful whether `Ali was actually buried there.

Even Moslem historians speak favourably of the Norman rule in Africa; but it was brought to an early end by the Almohade caliph Abd ul-Mumin, who took Mandia in 1160.

He has also the privilege of corresponding direct with the caliph; but otherwise is regarded as rather opposed to the Osmanli administration, and has no real power.

When Omar became caliph he made Khalid chief commander of the Syrian armies, `Amr remaining in Palestine to complete the submission of that province.

It is stated by D'Herbelot that the era of the Hegira was instituted by Omar, the second caliph, in imitation of the Christian era of the martyrs.

In 777 the king was visited at Paderborn by three Saracen chiefs who implored his aid against Abdar-Rahman, the caliph of Cordova, and promised some Spanish cities in return for help. Seizing this opportunity to extend his influence Charles marched into Spain in 778 and took Pampeluna, but meeting with some checks decided to return.

Before his coronation as emperor, Charles had entered into communications with the caliph of Bagdad, Harun-al-Rashid, probably in order to protect the eastern Christians, and in 801 he had received an embassy and presents from Harun.

Though certainly Irish by birth, it has been conjectured (from his references to Sedulius and the caliph's elephant) that he was in later life in an Irish monastery in the Frankish empire.

The name is probably derived from the Kurdish and Persian Yazdan, God; though some have connected it with the city of Yezd, or with Yezid, the second Omayyad caliph (720-24).

Kerbela owes its existence to the fact that IJosain, a son of `Ali, the fourth caliph, was slain here by the soldiers of Yazid, the rival aspirant to the caliphate, on the 10th of October A.D.

Khalid was the vizier of the caliph Mandi and tutor of Harlan al-Rashid.

The caliph `Ali made it his residence and the capital of his caliphate.