Caliph (Arab. khalif or khalife, successor), the title of the spiritual and temporal successors of Mohammed. The prophet seems to have made no provision for the future administration of the affairs of state, and died without naming his successor. Immediately after his death (632) three rival parties appeared. At the head of the first was Omar, who demanded the election of Abu Bekr, Mohammed's father-in-law, foreseeing that he himself would succeed. The second party was headed by Ali, son-in-law and general of the prophet, who declared for himself. The third party consisted of the Medinites, who demanded the election of one of themselves. Abu Bekr, then a very old man, was chosen. Under him the scattered portions of the Koran were collected into one volume. Before his death he appointed several electors who he knew would declare for Omar. On Omar's assassination, Othman succeeded to the caliphate. Under his weak rule dissensions and factions were instigated by Ali and his friend, who declared that the prophet would return to earth, and that Ali, having been his vizier, had been left as his regent. Ali's supporters are known as Sliiahs or Shiites. Othman was finally murdered, and Ali was chosen caliph.

After suppressing the rebellion caused by Talha and Zobair, Ali found himself confronted by Moawiyah, governor of Syria, one of Othman's relations, and a division of the Moslems was the consequence. Ali was assassinated, and was succeeded by Hassan, his son, who resigned in favor of Moawiyah, and soon after died, as supposed by poison administered by his wife, at the instance of Moawiyah. Moawiyah founded the dynasty of the Ommiyades (from Ommiyah, his ancestor), the caliphs of Damascus (661). He obtained the allegiance of the countries conquered by Omar, and the acquiescence of Mecca and' Medina to the nomination of his son Yezid as his successor. He also made the caliphate hereditary in his own family. Hossein, brother of Hassan, was invited to assume the caliphate by the Moslems of Irak. While proceeding thither he was intercepted by a detachment sent by the governor of Cufah and killed, together with all his attendants. The hereditary line of the Ommiyades was broken by Merwan I., who transferred the caliphate to his own son, instead of the brother of Moawiyah II., to whom he had been appointed guardian.

The reign of Abdel-Malek was signalized by the establishment of a regular coinage throughout the empire, and Walid I. discontinued the Greek language and characters in keeping the accounts of the revenue, and substituted the Arabic figures. Meantime the Shiahs or partisans of Ali became numerous, especially in the countries bordering on Hindostan, where belief in the transmigration of souls was prevalent. They maintained that Ali, like Mohammed, would return to earth, and until then the right of succession was vested in the imams, his descendants. With these and other like doctrines, and by representing the Ommiyades as tyrants and usurpers, the Shiah emissaries gradually undermined the power of the Ommiyades. The descendants of Abbas, one of the uncles of Mohammed, joined the Shiahs for the overthrow of the Ommiyades. On the accession of Merwan II. to the throne the empire became distracted with insurrections. Cufah deposed its Syrian governor, and proclaimed a caliph of its own. At Bassorah another rival was elevated, but was routed with great loss near Damascus. At length a descendant of Abbas marched into Syria and routed the army of Merwan, who fled to Egypt, where he was slain. Thus ended the dynasty of the eastern Ommiyades in 750, after a reign of 89 years.

The Aliides were again dispossessed, and the Abbassides founded the dynasty of that name, whose caliphs transferred their seat to Bagdad. The accession of the Abbassides was characterized by so much cruelty and bloodshed as to gain for the first of them the appellation of Es-Saffah, the bloody. A younger son of Merwan II., Abderrahman, escaped to Spain, where he founded the dynasty of the Spanish Ommiyades. Though the Shiah missionaries preached the divine inspiration of the descendants of Ali, yet neither the latter nor the Abbassides brought forward any other claims to the caliphate than the right of descent, the former from Fatima, the prophet's daughter, and from Ali, and the latter from Abbas, the uncle of the prophet and the last survivor of his companions, rejecting the claims of the Aliides in consequence of their descent from a woman, who had no right of succession. The Aliides in spite of their defeats were not discouraged, and with the aid of the Berbers they succeeded in establishing a caliphate in N. W. Africa. They afterward transferred their seat to Egypt (909). One of them, Hakem, assumed the title Biamri, "in my own right," instead of Billah, "by divine right," and declared himself an incarnation of the Deity. Under the auspices of the Fatimites, and for the purpose of undermining the power of the Abbassides, the famous lodge at Cairo was instituted from which emanated the sect of the Assassins. (See Assassins.) In 1171 the last of the Fatimite dynasty died.

Abderrahman, the younger son of Merwan II., the Ommiyade, who had escaped to Spain, succeeded in raising himself to the caliphate in that country, and his dynasty lasted for three, centuries. In wealth and display they fully equalled the Abbassides. They finally grew feeble and tyrannical, and their last caliph, Ha-shem III., was in 1031 deposed by the army, and with him terminated the dynasty of the Spanish Ommiyades. The Abbassides, enfeebled by long subjection to a foreign body guard, originally composed of African, Circassian, and other slaves, who had made themselves absolute masters of the caliphate, were overthrown by Hulaku on the capture of Bagdad in 1258, and Mustasem, the last of the dynasty, was put to death. In 1264 Sultan Bi-bars, to give his claim to the throne some show of legitimacy, appointed one of the Abbassides as caliph, but with spiritual authority only. The latter in return invested him with temporal dominion over all Moslem countries. But afterward, fearing that he might ascribe to himself temporal power as well, Bibars withdrew a part of his guard from the caliph, who succumbed before the Tartar governor of Bagdad and fled to Egypt; Bibars appointed another in his place, whom he however treated as a prisoner. (See Abbassides.) - Although the caliph was the supreme temporal and spiritual head, he could not decree any new dogmas, and where the Koran did not reach the question at issue, it was to be decided from precedent, analogy, and tradition, and to be determined by the judges and ulemas rather than by the caliphs.

The first successors of Mohammed are called the perfect caliphs. By the Sunnite Mohammedans the Turkish sultan is in some measure regarded as a successor of the caliphs, especially as possessing dominion over the four holy cities, Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Damascus. - The following table gives the members of the different lines of caliphs, with the dates of their accession:

Perfect Caliphs (of Arabia).

Abu Bekr......

632

OmarI....

634

Othman.....

644

Ali....................

655

Hassan........

661

Ommiyades (of Damascus).

MoawiyahI.........

661

Yezid I................

680

Moawiyah II........

683

Merwan I........

664

Abdelmalek........

685

Walid I................

705

Solyman.........

715

Omar II......

717

Yezidll...............

720

Hashem...............

724

Walid 11...............

743

Yezid III..............

744

Ibrahim........

744

Merwan II.........

744-750

Abbassides (of Bagdad).

Abul Abbas (Es-Saffah).

750

Abu Jaffar Almansour

(the victorious)...

754

Mahdi...........

775

Hadi..................

785

Haroun al-Rashid......

786

Amin.....

809

Al-Mamoun.........

818

Mutasem........

833

Vathek................

842

Mutawackel......

847

Muntasir..............

861

Mustain......

862

Mutaz..........

866

Muhtai.....

869

Mutamed..............

870

Mutadhed......

892

Muktafi I..............

902

Muktader.............

908

Kaher......

932

Rahdi.................

934

Muttaki.....

940

Mustakfi......

944

Muthi.................

946

Tai......

974

Kader......

991

Kaim.............

1031

Muktadi.............

.. 1075

Mustader.........

.. 1094

Mustarshid......

.. 1118

Rashid..............

.. 1134

Muktafill...........

.. 1136

Mustadhid......

.. 1160

Mustadhi......

.. 1170

Nasir.........

.. 1180

Daher.....

.. 1225

Mustanser......

.. 1226

Mustasem........

1248-1258

Fatimites (of Africa).

Abu Obeidallah......

.. 909

Kaim Abul Kasim...

.. 936

Almansour.........

.. 946

Moez........

.. 953

Aziz......

.. 975

Hakeem......

.. 996

Daher.........

.. 1021

Abu Tamin Mustanser

.. 1036

Abul Kasim Mustali..

.. 1094

Abul Mansur Amer ..

.. 1101

Hafed...............

.. 1130

Dafer........

.. 1149

Fayez ben Nasrillah ..

.. 1155

Adhed...........

1660-1171

Ommiyades (of Cordova).

Abderrahman I........

.. 756

Hashem I......

.. 787

Al Hakem I.........

.. 796

Abderrahman II........

822

Almondir.........

.. 852

Abdallah.........

.. 886

Abderrahman III......

.. 888

Al Hakem II.........

.. 912

Al Hakem II.........

.. 961

Hashem II..........

.. 976

Mobammed al-Mabdi.

.. 1009

Solyman........

.. 1009

Mohammed (reelected)

. 1010

Hashem (reelected) ..

.. 1012

Hamud......

.. 1016

Abderrahman IV.....

.. 1017

Kasim...........

.. 1021

Yahya..........

.. 1021

Abderrahman V......

.. 1023

Mohammed III......

.. 1024

Yahya (reelected) ...

.. 1025

Hashem III.......

1025-1031