California

Gulf of, an arm of the Pacific extending between the peninsula of Lower California and the mainland of Mexico. Length, 700 miles; breadth at the entrance, 130 miles. See Colorado River; Salton Sea

Caliph or Calif, ka’lif, a name given to the successor of Mohammed in the government of the faithful and in the high priesthood. The name is Arabic and means successor or deputy. The power of the caliph was absolute in both civil and of the caliph was absolute in both civil and religions matters, a long as he ruled in conformity with the Koran and traditions. The caliph must be a male adult, a free-man, and sane. It was expected that he be a learned divine, a powerful ruler, a just person, and that he belong to the Koreish, or tribe to which Mohammed himself belonged. Some authorities claim that he must belong to the family of Mohammed, and consequently maintain that since the first five caliphs none have been entitled to the name, but are merely governors.

The caliph in his office of high priest began the public prayers every Friday in the chief mosque, and delivered the sermon. He was obliged to lead the pilgrims to Mecca in person and to march at the head of the armies of his empire. He rode to the mosque mounted on a mule, and the Seljukian sultan held his stirrup and led the mule until notified by a sign from the caliph that he might himself mount on horseback. From a window of the caliph’s palace hung always a piece of black velvet thirty feet or more in length called the “caliph’s sleeve.” This was kissed daily with great respect by the grandees of the court.

The succession to the caliphate often occasioned much excitement. There were various insurrections and dissatisfaction among individuals. Many caliphate passed over to the ninth of the Ottoman dynasty of Turkish sultans, and the title is still vested in the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The Mohammedan princes appoint a particular officer in their respective dominions to sustain the sacred authority of the caliph. In Turkey he is called a mufti; in Persia, a sadne.

Soon after the battle of Tours, little more than a hundred years after the death of Mohammed, the world of the Moslems was rent. Islam extended form Persia and the far East, along the southern coast of the Mediterranean, and across the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain. Geographical conditions and personal ambition split this extended empire into two divisions, an eastern and a western, just as similar factors split Christendom into an eastern and a western empire. In the day of Charlemagne, we find two caliphates. Harounal-Rashid, the friend of Charlemagne, built his luxurious capital, Bagdad, on the Tigris; the caliph of the West built up Cordova in Spain. Historians have not failed to point out the loss of momentum that followed the Mohammedan division and the corresponding degree of safety that came to Christendom.